Best Internet Providers in Boston, Massachusetts

What is the best internet provider in Boston?

CNET experts have done the research to help you find the top Internet provider in Boston, Massachusetts. According to our experts, Verizon Fios is the best internet provider in Bostonthanks to its 100% fiber-optic coverage and fast download speeds, equal to upload speeds. It also offers long price guarantees on competitively priced plans, simple service terms and unique sign-up bonuses. Also, Verizon Fios has good coverage throughout the city, with about eight in 10 households eligible for service, according to the latest data from the Federal Communications Commission.

Xfinity It has the most extensive coverage in Bostonwith service available to 99.5% of households. The cable provider offers the fastest download speeds in Boston, up to 2,000 megabits per second in select areas. It’s surprising offers the cheapest internet in Bostonwith plans starting at $20 per month up to 300Mbps. Like finding the best seat at Fenway, the answer depends on what’s available at your address and what you want to use it for.

Comparing all Boston residential internet providers

The ISPs featured above are not the only internet options in Boston, but they are the ones I would highly recommend and consider if I were to move South to Beantown. Here’s a quick comparison of all Boston internet providers, followed by a look at some of the cheapest and fastest plans available in the area.

What other internet options are there in Boston?

There aren’t many other options other than our selection of the best ISPs in Boston. Here’s a brief look at what you can expect from some online services in the area.

T-Mobile Home Internet: T-Mobile’s 5G rollout has been great, covering about 50 million homes across the country, including many in Boston. The price is about the same as Verizon’s 5G home Internet service in Boston, but the speed may be slower.

The terms of service are the same (no data caps, device fees or contracts), so if you want 5G home internet, you might as well go with Verizon’s high-speed capabilities. That said, T-Mobile offers a $10 or $20 discount to qualifying mobile customers, so if you fall into that category, T-Mobile Home Internet may be worth considering.

Satellite Internet: Hughesnet and Viasat are available almost everywhere, so they are technically home internet options in the Boston area. High-priced, low-data services are best in rural areas, so I’d recommend considering other providers unless you’re planning to stay in a remote cabin in Walden Pond. If so, you’ll want to hang around as long as Thoreau did — satellite Internet from Hughesnet and Viasat comes with a two-year contract.

Boston Broadband at a glance

Almost every home in the Boston area has access to download speeds of 250Mbps or higher and upload speeds of 25Mbps or higher.

High-speed coverage comes from a variety of sources, including cable Internet from Xfinity and Astound and fiber service from Verizon Fios, which is available in approximately 86% of Boston addresses. Because of this, Boston residents likely have at least two or three but possibly more broadband options to choose from.

Boston internet prices

With introductory prices of about $20 to $35 per month, depending on your chosen provider and the discounts you qualify for, Boston has some of the lowest prices for high-speed Internet anywhere.

Prices are always competitive as you enter the fastest speed categories. Astound, for example, offers a 300Mbps plan starting at just $20, while Xfinity’s Gigabit plan advertises speeds of up to 1,000Mbps from $60 per month.

Internet for low-income families in Boston

Xfinity’s Internet Essentials and Internet Essentials Plus plans have maximum download speeds of 50 and 100Mbps, starting at $10 and $30 per month, respectively. Plans come with no activation or hardware costs, access to Xfinity Wi-Fi Hotspots and the option to purchase a computer for $150. They are only available in certain areas, however.

How fast is Boston Broadband?

You won’t find faster speeds in Boston. The latest Ookla speed test data ranks Boston 66th out of 100 US cities for its average download speed, about 222Mbps. (Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) Many things can affect speed test data, such as Wi-Fi connection usage and distance from the router, not to mention the program’s advertised maximum speed, so the data shouldn’t be too much of an indication of whether what speeds you can get from your provider.

Internet in Boston recap

Two or three Internet options, and maybe one or two more in select areas, may not sound like much, but Boston residents have more options than most when it comes to home Internet service.

While there are no providers offering multi-gigabit speeds, single gig service is available from up to five providers. Pricing is competitive, with most plans starting at or under $35 per month. Terms of service are fair regardless of the provider and plan you choose, as most come with unlimited data and no contract requirements, while others, like Verizon Fios and Starry, go above and beyond with free features as well.

How CNET chose the best Internet providers in Boston

Internet service providers are many and varied. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen appliance, it is not possible to manually check every ISP in a particular city. What is our approach? We start by researching rates, availability and quick information on our ISP historical data, provider sites and map information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

That’s not all: We go to the FCC website to check our data and make sure we consider every ISP that provides service in the area. We also include local addresses on provider websites to provide residents with specific options. To assess how happy customers are with an ISP’s service, we look to sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and JD Power. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; All information provided is accurate as of the time of publication.

Once we have this location information, we ask three main questions:

• Does the provider offer access to fast internet speeds?
• Are customers getting a decent value for what they are paying for?
• Are customers happy with their service?

While the answer to those questions is often buried and complicated, the providers who come closest to saying “yes” to all three are the ones we recommend.

To explore our process in more depth, visit our page on how we evaluate ISPs.

Boston internet FAQs