Best Internet Service Providers in Santa Ana, California

What is the best internet provider in Santa Ana, California?

There aren’t many choices of Internet providers in Santa Ana, surprisingly. After reviewing the available options, AT&T Fiber they are at the top of our list as the best internet providers in Santa Ana for many homes. Although it doesn’t have the best coverage, it has the fastest speeds in the city by a mile, and it’s the only fiber provider in the area, meaning you’ll get the same upload and download speeds, perfect for working at home or playing online. It also offers the most direct and reasonable pricing you will find from an internet service provider.

If you want low prices, The Spectrum has cheap internet plans in Santa Ana for $50 a month. That’s not cheap, only $5 a month more than AT&T Fiber, but Spectrum is available almost everywhere in town, and it’s a solid choice to have as your default. The main disadvantage is that Spectrum increases the prices significantly after a year or two.

If you don’t want to worry about this built-in price increase, Verizon 5G Home Internet is the leading wireless internet provider in Santa Ana. There’s no guarantee it won’t raise your prices, but unlike Spectrum, they don’t arrive on time and won’t be as good.

The best internet in Santa Ana, California

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find online deals and promotions in Santa Ana, California

The best online deals and top promotions in Santa Ana depend on what discounts are available at a given time. Most deals are temporary, but we often check for the latest offers.

Santa Ana Internet providers, such as Verizon 5G Home Internet and AT&T Fiber, may offer lower prices or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Others, including Spectrum, use standard pricing throughout the year.

For the most comprehensive list of promos, check out our guide to the best online deals.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

What is the best internet speed?

Most Internet connection systems can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you’re looking for an Internet plan that can accommodate video conferencing, video streaming or gaming, you’ll have a better experience with a stronger connection. Here’s an overview of the minimum recommended download speeds for various apps, according to the FCC. Note that these are guidelines only and that internet speed, service and performance vary by connection type, provider and address.

For more information, see our guide on how much internet speed you really need.

• 0 to 5Mbps lets you handle the basics: browsing the internet, sending and receiving email and streaming low-quality video.
• 5 to 40Mbps gives you high quality video streaming and video conferencing.
• 40 to 100Mbps should provide a single user with enough bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telephony, video streaming and Internet gaming.
• 100 to 500Mbps allows one to two users to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities such as video conferencing, streaming and online gaming.
• 500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more users to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.

How CNET chose the best Internet providers in Santa Ana

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 pricing, availability and speed information, drawing on our historical ISP data, provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission on 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. We look to sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and JD Power, to assess how happy customers are with an ISP’s service. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as published.

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

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

The answers to those questions are often buried and complicated, but the providers who come closest to saying “yes” to all three are the ones we recommend. When choosing the cheapest Internet service, we look for the plans with the lowest monthly fees, although we also take into account factors such as price increases, equipment costs and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is straightforward. We look at advertised upload and download speeds and consider real-world speed data from sources such as Ookla and FCC reports.

To explore our process in more depth, visit the How We Test ISPs page.

Internet providers in Santa Ana FAQs