How much do Starlink plans cost, and are they worth it?

Starlink’s Internet Constellation is one of the biggest breakthroughs in commercial satellite history. It brings nearly broadband-capable speeds and performance using a novel configuration of small satellites that work as a constellation while orbiting the Earth much lower than traditional satellites. It’s also available in many places you simply can’t get fiber, cable, or even DSL high-speed internet access.

How much do Starlink plans cost, and how do they compare with other rural/remote alternatives? Let’s jump right in.

How much do Starlink plans cost? Starlink plans and pricing at a glance

As you can see in the chart, Starlink offers a variety of plans though most have very specific use cases. Regardless of the plan, you should see around 25-50ms latency typically. This is dramatically better than traditional satellite service, which has latency as high as 750ms.

Starlink Residential

This is the plan most home users will want For the first few years of Starlink’s life, it was really hard to get on the list. These days, availability is much greater globally but if you are in an area in the US with congestion, you could be hit with a $100 congestion fee. The good news is that while you still have to buy the dish, it’s no longer $599. You’ll now pay $349.99 upfront, as well as $120 a month for service.

Based on my own past experience with Starlink Residential, I’ve seen speeds between 50-220Mbps typically, but more recently Starlink’s official marketing has dropped that down to 25-100Mbps. Sometimes you’ll see better than this, it really depends on how packed your cell is. Of course, in times of greater congestion, this can drop down to the 20-25Mbps range. On rare occasions, it can go above 220Mbps, but that’s mostly at times like 2 am in the morning. Be sure to check out Starlink’s availability map to see if you can currently get it in your area.

Starlink Business

Starlink Business is designed for business owners and therefore has slightly more priority than Residential. As a result, you can expect more consistent speeds, typically in the 100-220Mbps range. On rare occasions, you might even hit speeds a bit higher, say 300Mbps or so.

Starlink Business doesn’t come cheap.  You’ll pay at least $140 a month, though it’s 2TB a month plan will cost a staggering $500. You’ll also pay more for equipment. While the higher-powered dish used to cost $2,500, these days you’ll just pay $699.99.

This plan is subject to similar availability constraints as the Residential so there could be a waitlist depending on your region.  Note that you actually can get this plan without paying the high equipment fee by signing up for Starlink Roam and then swapping over to Business within the app’s settings. You’ll get essentially the same performance right now as well.

Starlink Roam

While this service is designed for campers and others who only need online access sporadically, it can be used at home or really anywhere. Don’t need it anymore? It’s easy to pause and resume service.

Starlink Roam is subject to the highest level of deprioritization on Starlink’s network. Reportedly you’ll see speeds ranging from 5-50Mbps. That’s a far cry lower than the 60 to 100Mbps speeds I used to see, but Starlink has become much more congested over the last few years. Be aware, speeds can dramatically range depending on where you live or are traveling. While speeds might not be the most consistent, the reality is that even its deprioritized speeds are often better than what many of us have access to in extremely remote parts of the US. Hughesnet and others advertise higher speeds, but horrible latency makes the service perform much worse.

With all that out of the way, you’ll pay $150 a month for the service as well as a $349.99 equipment charge. Don’t need unlimited data? For $50 a month you can get a 50GB plan instead, though you’ll still need to buy the dish of course.

Starlink vs other satellite internet providers

If you can’t get traditional wired internet service, satellite internet is one of the best alternatives, as it works just about anywhere. There are certainly other satellite providers out there, but Starlink offers better speeds and latency than traditional satellite providers that use bigger satellites in a further orbit out in space. These services also have data caps, something Starlink originally planned to introduce, but for now, the service remains unlimited.

Here’s a brief rundown of the different plans from Viasat, and Hughesnet, just to give you an idea.

Although the competition can’t beat Starlink on speeds or data, some of Hughesnet and Viasat’s plans are cheaper. They also don’t require you to buy the equipment outright, opting for rental fees instead. Still, in most cases we’d recommend Starlink. The performance difference is just night and day.

Starlink vs 5G/LTE providers

For those close enough to cell towers, there’s another option, fixed wireless internet or a mobile hotspot that uses 4G or 5G technology. If you’re considering Starlink or satellite, odds are you aren’t in a market with 5G internet access. Typically these services are limited to cities and major metro areas. That leaves us with LTE. Unless you live in a very remote part of the country, there’s a solid chance you will get LTE access. Just be aware you’ll likely see less than typical speeds if you live in an area far from satellites or with a lot of obstructions.

For example, I live in the woods in central Missouri, not far from St Louis. I can’t get fixed internet access due to too many obstructions. However, I can use a hotspot with limited success. My Verizon hotspot tends to range 2-15Mbps here, while it can get 15-30Mbps in the nearest town. While that’s not great speed, it was still better for stuff that required decent latency, like streaming Netflix.

There are a ton of different regional LTE fixed internet options as well as tons of hotspot plans, so we can’t break it all down. We recommend checking out our guide to the best hotspot plans for mobile LTE. For fixed wireless, you’ll want to head over to Google and type something like “Fixed wireless near me”. Still, to help you understand what prices you might encounter, we’ve broken down T-Mobile and Verizon’s LTE fixed wireless below:

As you can see, speeds and pricing are pretty similar between T-Mobile and Verizon. While Starlink has faster speeds and better latency in most situations, it’s also a lot less consistent. Even more importantly, you can get fixed LTE wireless for a fraction of what Starlink plans cost. Looking at a few regional carriers across the US, I found similar pricing and speeds, with the average cost around $40-$50. Head to T-Mobile to see if their fixed wireless is available in your area, or to Verizon to check for Big Red availability in your area.

Ultimately, Starlink plans are going to cost more but also be faster than all of these other options. LTE will certainly come the closest, but it depends on how close you live to a city or a larger town. It’s also going to cost you much more. As always, you’ll want to weigh your options before picking out a new internet service provider.