Readers’ Choice 2026: The Best and Worst ISPs, Ranked by You

Readers’ Choice 2026: The Best and Worst ISPs, Ranked by You | PCMag

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If you're looking for a new ISP, the chances are better than ever that you could get a super-high-speed fiber-optic connection. According to the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections have reached a tipping point, with more than 84.6 million homes now connected. That’s 60.5% of US homes, and it’s even higher in Canada, at 75%. The US figure could reach 90% by 2030, the FBA reports, though Canada's potential expansion has more geographic roadblocks.In other good news for US broadband consumers, there is now more ISP competition than ever for fiber. In fact, the FBA says, last year was a record-setter for fiber expansion. Even big-name telecom companies like T-Mobile—which has acquired or is acquiring several fiber providers, including GoNetSpeed, GreenLight, Lumos, and Metronet—are pivoting to fiber. Meanwhile, smaller players like Ezee and Ziply are expanding to compete with existing fiber ISPs, in what’s called “overbuilding”—when a provider deploys fiber lines where the tech already exists.ISPs have traditionally avoided overbuilding because securing deployment rights is difficult, let alone gaining equal footing with incumbents. But doing so now appears to be worth it: The FBA finds that when a second fiber provider enters a new market, the rate of customers switching to the new option is 61% if it's faster or cheaper. That said, overbuilding is a gamble, since an incumbent could just lower prices. Plus, a survey of fiber operators indicates that they still don’t like to overbuild any more than they used to, and are more likely to buy out a competitor (or get bought) in 2026. "If you have fiber to the home, there’s really nothing better for connection quality that I’ve seen." Unfortunately, plenty of people still can’t get decent wired broadband, a situation that's been mitigated by the continued growth of satellite services. (Starlink remains the top name in both the US and Canada, with Amazon Leo on the way.) The gap is also filled by fixed wireless over 5G connections from the big US and Canadian mobile carriers. In the US, it's another cable-killer (people are more than happy to leave their cable providers after years of price increases), while in Canada, the big three providers use 5G as a last resort for those who can’t get wired connections.“Fixed wireless access does really well because they’re getting customers who didn’t have very many good choices,” says Carl Lepper, senior director of technology, media, and telecom intelligence at consumer insights firm JD Power. “But if you have fiber to the home, there’s really nothing better [for connection quality] that I’ve seen. Not yet, at least.” The bottom line is that you have more options than ever before. Which ISP should you pick if you're able? PCMag readers in the US and Canada told us which ISPs they prefer and why. Their insights, which follow, will help you pick the right provider for your next internet upgrade. The Top ISPs in the United States for 2026

In last year's survey, only 34.1% of US respondents reported a home broadband connection speed of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) or higher. This year, that number shoots up to 51.9%. Respondents with sub-broadband speeds (100 Mbps or less, as defined by the FCC) dropped from 11.9% to 8.7%, another positive sign. Because of their high-quality service and speed, fiber providers tend to dominate our surveys. We don’t get a lot of local-level ISPs in the results, but this year, Nextlight in Longmont, Colo., comes out ahead in satisfaction, winning our overall Readers’ Choice for ISPs for 2026. It beats out GFiber, last year's highest-rated ISP overall. Nextlight naturally also wins as our top municipal/local ISP, just as it did last year. Pulse, a local ISP in nearby Loveland, Colo., comes in at fourth place in our overall list. Nextlight's scores are incredible, never dipping below 9.6 out of 10 in any category. Its closest rival in the standings, GFiber, matches it only in connection speed. In addition, we're recognizing Nextlight for value (9.7) and likelihood to recommend (an unprecedented 9.9). “Absolutely the best experience I've had with an ISP in all my years (going back to 1200 baud dialup modem connecting to the University of Colorado in the mid-1980s)," says one pleased Nextlight user. "Never a lag, interruption, or a drop. I cannot speak to their customer service because I've never had to use it. I cannot recommend enough.”Several Nextlight users tell us they have the 1 Gig service, for which they pay $50 a month for life because they were original customers. “All cities should cut and paste Nextlight’s business model for starting their own internet provider service,” says another reader. “Longmont voting to fund our own internet provider service is one of the smartest things that I have ever seen a city vote for. Way to go, Longmont!”“I think that's great that someone small like this can be an expert from a CX [customer experience] point of view,” says JD Power's Lepper. “A good utility company, like a good co-op, if they really are a part of the community, people love them.” (Note: Click the arrows in our interactive charts to view various elements of our survey results.)

Meanwhile, GFiber is the Readers’ Choice for major ISP for the first time, notably scoring well for speed (as noted above), satisfaction (9.6), and likelihood to recommend (also 9.6). In addition, it's readers' top pick for fiber ISP of the year. While it doesn’t outperform Nextlight on any measure this year, GFiber is more widely accessible; it's now available in close to 40 municipalities, with more to come in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, and Kansas. “I have never had an issue with the service,” says one GFiber user. “It is now offering 8 Gig to my location. 2 Gig has been an option for over two years." “GFiber’s focus, their product, their simplicity, their ease of doing business is unmatched in the country right now for ISPs,” Lepper says. “They’re beating every competitor in every way as a fiber provider."GFiber's excellence is likely why it's being snapped up by Stonepeak, the parent company of Astound Broadband, in a deal that will close later this year. Alphabet, the owner of Google, will still own a stake. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Astound and their merger,” Lepper says. “But from a CX point of view and from how they’ve performed in JD Power studies over the last few years, there isn’t any [major] provider better in the country.”Cable-First ISPsFiber isn’t available to everyone, of course. The majority of wired internet in the US still comes from cable (61% as of 2023) or a mix of technologies. Cable giants like Spectrum and Xfinity are now really “cable-first” ISPs, a term we’re adopting to signify that these providers are hybrids. The companies' networks were originally built on coaxial cable, but they're now aggressively deepening them with fiber lines.The Readers’ Choice for cable-first ISP is a unique amalgamation of cable and fiber, the result of the merger of several ISPs under one umbrella. Astound Broadband—the company that will soon include GFiber—earns the award in this category for the fifth year in a row. (It also won four times between 2013 and 2017 as cable provider RCN.) Astound's highest ratings are for its ease of use and setup (both 8.9). “I switched from Xfinity as soon as Astound became available in my area,” says one reader. “Years of dealing with high prices, substandard service, and zero customer loyalty perks made me switch. Astound's prices are very fair for the reliability of the services. I am extremely satisfied with this service so far, and hope to continue to be a loyal customer of Astound for years to come.” Wireless ISPsFiber and cable can't go everywhere. The only technologies that can are satellite and fixed wireless over 5G.The satellite conversation is dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink, which earns a 9.2 for both overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend. It is the Readers’ Choice winner for satellite service for the fifth consecutive year.“The people who have Starlink love it,” Lepper says. “It’s probably getting the customers that were the most dissatisfied in the country and had no options, and now you give them a real option that’s pretty darn good.” That gratitude leads to high ratings.There are no other satellite-based ISPs in our survey results. The other main players today (HughesNet and Viasat) are in the doldrums, bleeding customers because their tech can’t keep up. In fact, HughesNet, having lost half its subscribers since 2020, now refers potential new consumer customers directly to Starlink to earn a commission. (But Starlink has to stay nimble, as Amazon Leo is coming for its customers eventually.