Home Broadband Survey 2020
Choosing a new broadband provider is not always easy. Even after digging through the small print, deciphering jargon and balancing the cost of all those great deals you might be left wondering if you made the right decision.
The Broadband Genie Broadband Awards can help you make the best choice and find a service that ticks all the boxes. Our Home Broadband Survey gathers the opinions of thousands of UK broadband users, so as well as judging price and features you can find an ISP which offers a service that's right for you.
Broadband Awards
For our 2020 home broadband survey, we queried thousands of people from around the country about their experiences with home broadband providers. We asked respondents to rate their provider for customer service, value for money, and speed. They were also asked whether they would recommend their provider and how much they trusted their ISP. The results were combined to give an overall rating for each category.
For the speed awards, we partnered with BroadbandUK and used the results of 91,000 tests carried out in 2019. Speed test results were categorised into standard broadband (up to 24Mbps download and 1Mbps upload), superfast broadband (up to 80Mbps download and 20Mbps upload), and ultrafast broadband (more than 80Mbps download and 20Mbps upload).
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Best Broadband
Provider
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Most Recommended
Provider
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Best Value
Provider
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Best Customer
Care
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Most Trusted
Provider
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Fastest Ultrafast
Broadband Provider(Downloading)
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Fastest Ultrafast
Broadband Provider(Uploading)
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Fastest Superfast
Broadband Provider(Downloading)
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Fastest Superfast
Broadband Provider(Uploading)
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Fastest Standard
Broadband Provider(Downloading)
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Fastest Standard
Broadband Provider(Uploading)
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Zen Internet is the winner of our overall award for best broadband provider. It had impressive survey results which show that customers are very happy with Zen’s performance in all categories, and also performed exceptionally well in the speed awards.
- Zen
- 87.4%
- Direct Save
- 87.2%
- Origin
- 84.5%
- John Lewis
- 79.7%
- Three
- 79.2%
- Vodafone
- 78.3%
- EE
- 77.5%
- SSE
- 77.5%
- Hyperoptic
- 76.4%
- Sky
- 75.3%
- Plusnet
- 75.0%
- NOW Broadband
- 73.9%
- Shell
- 73.1%
- BT
- 71.1%
- Post Office
- 71.0%
- TalkTalk
- 70.2%
- Virgin Media
- 68.8%
- KCOM
- 65.3%
It says a lot about a provider if you’d recommend it to your friends and family, and for the second year in a row, Zen Internet was our most recommended ISP.
- Zen
- 88.9%
- Origin
- 81.9%
- Direct Save
- 81.8%
- Hyperoptic
- 80.0%
- EE
- 75.1%
- John Lewis
- 74.9%
- Vodafone
- 74.8%
- Sky
- 74.4%
- SSE
- 74.1%
- Plusnet
- 73.9%
- Three
- 73.7%
- KCOM
- 72.3%
- Virgin Media
- 71.3%
- BT
- 70.7%
- NOW Broadband
- 69.7%
- TalkTalk
- 69.5%
- Post Office
- 64.5%
- Shell
- 64.4%
Budget broadband specialist Direct Save Telecom was voted the best value for money by its customers, with an impressive 85% approval rating.
- Direct Save
- 85.3%
- Origin
- 82.6%
- Zen Internet
- 81.7%
- Vodafone
- 75.3%
- Three
- 74.5%
- John Lewis
- 71.5%
- Shell
- 70.9%
- EE
- 70.9%
- NOW Broadband
- 70.8%
- SSE
- 69.0%
- Post Office
- 68.3%
- Plusnet
- 67.1%
- Sky
- 66.9%
- TalkTalk
- 66.2%
- Hyperoptic
- 65.0%
- BT
- 63.2%
- Virgin Media
- 58.7%
- KCOM
- 44.7%
Customer service and technical support are a crucial aspect of any broadband provider, and Direct Save is doing something right because 90% of its subscribers had positive opinions of its performance. Zen Internet was a very close second.
- Direct Save
- 90.7%
- Zen Internet
- 89.5%
- Origin
- 86.1%
- SSE
- 85.3%
- John Lewis
- 85.2%
- EE
- 83.5%
- Three
- 83.0%
- Vodafone
- 82.4%
- Plusnet
- 81.0%
- Sky
- 81.0%
- Hyperoptic
- 80.6%
- Shell
- 78.9%
- NOW Broadband
- 77.6%
- BT
- 75.4%
- Post Office
- 74.9%
- KCOM
- 74.3%
- Virgin Media
- 73.6%
- TalkTalk
- 71.7%
Zen Internet wins our most trusted award with an impressive 89.6% rating, though Direct Save had another strong showing here too with a very close second to Zen.
- Zen
- 89.6%
- Direct Save
- 89.3%
- John Lewis
- 86.7%
- Origin
- 86.5%
- Three
- 83.9%
- Hyperoptic
- 81.8%
- SSE
- 81.0%
- EE
- 80.2%
- Vodafone
- 80.1%
- Sky
- 78.7%
- Plusnet
- 78.2%
- Shell
- 77.4%
- NOW Broadband
- 76.4%
- BT
- 75.1%
- Post Office
- 74.5%
- TalkTalk
- 73.2%
- Virgin Media
- 72.9%
- KCOM
- 72.9%
Fibre optic provider Hyperoptic took the lead in the ultrafast category with a rapid 211Mbps average download speed. Hyperoptic is an FTTP provider and can deliver speeds up to 1Gbps, significantly outpacing most other ISPs.
However, coverage for FTTP is currently very limited, so many people will not be able to get Hyperoptic or most of the other providers in the ultrafast category. Runner-up Virgin Media is the best option for most people looking for ultrafast broadband due to its extensive coverage.
- Hyperoptic
- 211.0 Mb/s
- Vodafone
- 168.4 Mb/s
- Virgin Media
- 156.1 Mb/s
- Gigaclear
- 142.5 Mb/s
- TalkTalk
- 140.3 Mb/s
- Zen Internet
- 138.1 Mb/s
- BT
- 102.7 Mb/s
- Sky
- 96.1 Mb/s
- EE
- 76.5 Mb/s
Hyperoptic also came top of the charts for uploading. Most Hyperoptic packages are symmetrical - which means that download and upload speeds are the same - and as such Hyperoptic can offer an extremely quick 1Gbps maximum upload rate.
If you cannot get FTTP broadband, then Virgin Media provides the best upload speed to the most premises, though it is not symmetrical and its upstream rate is far slower than the download speed.
- Hyperoptic
- 165.6 Mb/s
- Gigaclear
- 139.5 Mb/s
- Vodafone
- 136.1 Mb/s
- Zen Internet
- 105.1 Mb/s
- TalkTalk
- 95.7 Mb/s
- BT
- 37.9 Mb/s
- EE
- 31.4 Mb/s
- Sky
- 27.6 Mb/s
- Virgin Media
- 22.7 Mb/s
Zen Internet takes the crown for fastest download speed in the superfast category, with an impressive average download rate of 38.5Mbps. This well-regarded provider has an excellent reputation; in last year's survey, it won the Most Recommended award and was second overall with great results in all areas.
- Zen
- 38.5 Mb/s
- BT
- 34.7 Mb/s
- Virgin Media
- 34.2 Mb/s
- Hyperoptic
- 33.6 Mb/s
- Sky
- 33.4 Mb/s
- Plusnet
- 30.6 Mb/s
- TalkTalk
- 30.2 Mb/s
- EE
- 30.2 Mb/s
- Post Office
- 28.8 Mb/s
- Origin
- 26.9 Mb/s
- Vodafone
- 26.0 Mb/s
- Gigaclear
- 15.3 Mb/s
Sky Broadband had the best upload speed among superfast broadband providers, achieving an average 11.9Mbps. Superfast download winner Zen was a close second with 11.5Mbps.
- Sky
- 11.9 Mb/s
- Zen Internet
- 11.5 Mb/s
- Gigaclear
- 11.2 Mb/s
- BT
- 10.9 Mb/s
- TalkTalk
- 10.0 Mb/s
- Plusnet
- 9.9 Mb/s
- EE
- 9.7 Mb/s
- Vodafone
- 9.1 Mb/s
- Post Office
- 8.8 Mb/s
- Origin
- 8.4 Mb/s
- Virgin Media
- 7.7 Mb/s
- Hyperoptic
- 5.6 Mb/s
Zen Internet proves to be a reliable option for both fibre optic and ADSL home broadband, as it also had the best download speeds in the standard broadband category with an average of 8.3Mbps.
- Zen
- 8.3 Mb/s
- Sky
- 7.7 Mb/s
- EE
- 7.4 Mb/s
- Plusnet
- 7.1 Mb/s
- BT
- 6.7 Mb/s
- Post Office
- 6.6 Mb/s
- TalkTalk
- 6.6 Mb/s
- Origin
- 3.9 Mb/s
Post Office broadband had the fastest upload speed for standard broadband at 0.55Mbps. But there's not much difference in the upload results in this speed tier; they're all relatively slow by today's standards. If you need a quick upload rate, then an upgrade to fibre is a must.
- Post Office
- 0.55 Mb/s
- Zen Internet
- 0.53 Mb/s
- Plusnet
- 0.53 Mb/s
- Sky
- 0.52 Mb/s
- EE
- 0.52 Mb/s
- TalkTalk
- 0.50 Mb/s
- BT
- 0.47 Mb/s
- Origin
- 0.39 Mb/s