An Honest Starlink Internet Review, According to Customers

Starlink’s customers are enthusiastic about the service, especially when they compare it to other rural internet options.

“There aren't that many options for remote locations, and what is there is low speed and expensive,” says Lauren Morley, who has used a Starlink Mobile plan to live a nomadic lifestyle in an RV with her husband. “It was very cool when we were traveling to set up the Starlink in the middle of a secluded forest and be connected!”

“We had started out with Viasat—but it was awful. With their plan, you had so much data that was fast speed, but once you reach that point it throttles down and you can’t even watch a Netflix movie,” says Debra Blumenthal, who lives with her husband, LJ, on a friend’s farm in rural Montesano, Washington. “With Starlink, it is the same data straight across the board. No throttling down.”

However, even otherwise happy customers don’t care for the price or the periodic gaps in service.

Jonas Zook Jr. of Pennsylvania says he doesn’t love “the initial setup cost and the occasional service interruptions during severe weather. These interruptions, although infrequent, can be a drawback in the hospitality sector, where continuous internet access is often a given expectation.”

Morley also mentions service interruptions. “Not a huge deal in most cases, but when you're in a video meeting or playing an online game, that is incredibly frustrating. It also takes a while to set up in a new spot, so if you move it, it will sometimes take up to a day to stabilize.”

“And, of course, I could do without its association with Elon Musk!” she adds semi-jokingly.

So why does Starlink cost so much, especially compared to other satellite providers?

Part of the cost is infrastructure—launching satellites into orbit isn’t cheap. While Starlink has previously reported operating at a loss, Elon boasted that the company reached a break-even point in late 2023, even with high costs and a growing customer base.

Andrea Lamari, managing partner at Cuatro Capital and a transitioning general partner at Manhattan Venture Partners (a venture firm that has invested in SpaceX) provided further comments on Starlink’s dubious profitability. “That profitability margin can increase, but the money that they spend on manufacturing the satellites and spending money on ground terminals has to continue decreasing,” says Andrea in an interview with Bloomberg Technology.

Starlink has a lot of satellites as part of its goal to offer service across the globe. It has 1,585 times more satellites than Viasat and 2,116 times more than Hughesnet. Just like shooting stars, those satellites drop and fall out of the sky and need to be replaced. In fact, about 1,000 Starlink satellites fall every year. With that in mind, it’s kind of miraculous that Starlink service is only about twice as expensive as the competitors. While that explains the cost of the service itself, it doesn’t fully justify why the user’s equipment costs $600—a mind-boggling price that no other internet provider comes close to charging.

Here’s one idea, though: There’s a theory on Reddit that the service and equipment are more expensive in first-world countries so SpaceX can charge less in developing nations. We wanted to run this by a Starlink spokesperson, but there is no Starlink spokesperson, at least not at this time.

If you’re of the thriftier sort, you do have the option to purchase Starlink’s refurbished hardware kit for $399 plus taxes and shipping, which, over the course of the first year of service, would cost only $101 more than Viasat Unleashed ($252 more every year after that). This is in the scenario where you include the costs of purchasing Viasat’s hardware upfront, professional installation, and monthly service.

This Starlink map shows availability throughout the United States except in small portions of New Mexico and West Virginia.

If you sign up for Starlink and decide to go abroad, you may be able to transfer your service to the ever-expanding list of countries within SpaceX satellites’ reach.

Also, Mars. There’s a clause in the terms of agreement dictating how Starlink service will be handled on Mars.

Starlink doesn’t look great next to our top internet providers. It’s more expensive, slower, and less reliable than fiber, cable, and 5G internet options (like T-Mobile). Google Fiber, for instance, starts out ten times faster than Starlink at about 60% of the cost.

Even when Starlink is available in cities, Reviews.org doesn’t recommend it over faster and cheaper competitors. It provides the most value in rural areas.

But in instances when it’s up against Viasat and Hughesnet, Starlink really shines. It costs significantly more but is also significantly faster, and it doesn’t have any data caps, so users shouldn’t see major throttling.

If Starlink sounds perfect, all you need to do is ensure you’re geographically eligible.