Reviews for HughesNet are in and they are… mixed. You can find plenty of four and five star reviews for HughesNet, and you can find plenty of one and two star reviews as well. It seems the biggest factor is the user's expectations.
There are many good things to say about HughesNet. The biggest positive is that HughesNet, as a satellite internet provider, can bring internet to you in pretty much any location. Do you wanna get away from every person on earth and live in a log cabin by yourself in the woods? No problem. As long as you’re willing to divulge your secret location, just give HughesNet a call and they’ll show up at your secret cabin with a satellite dish in tow.
The other reason people like HughesNet is that they like the internet. People wanna check email, browse social media, and keep up with the latest news. Throw a satellite dish on your roof, connect it to a modem, and bam, you can connect to the world. And if you chose HughesNet to get this connection, then you will see HughesNet as the source of that joy. Thanks, HughesNet. Five stars for you.
If you compare HughesNet reviews with reviews from other internet providers, you’ll notice a bit more negativity than is average. Some of this is because of the natural limitations of satellite internet. Many of the negative reviews are from people who had just come from a location where they had access to cable and fiber internet, which is usually going to provide greater performance.
Satellite internet is in general going to be slower than cable and fiber. Cable offers multiple hundreds of Mbps, and fiber offers Gigabit speeds. Even the most state-of-the-art satellite internet services can only reach around 100 Mbps. Many of the negative reviews complained of HughesNet’s speeds.
The other common issue with satellite internet is latency. Signals must travel tens of thousands of miles extra to reach their destination, and this translates to lots of lag. “Lots”, as in less than a second, but still much more than other internet types. This doesn’t have a noticeable effect on most users, but gamers are gonna give HughesNet, or any satellite internet provider, and measly one or two stars.
But not all low reviews can be explained by HughesNet being a satellite internet provider. When it comes to download speeds and data allowance, HughesNet is at the bottom of the list of satellite internet performance.
HughesNet’s slowest and fastest plans both give you 25 Mbps. That’s right, no variation. 25 Mbps isn’t horrible, if you only have one device connected at a time and you just want to browse web pages and check email. However, as soon as you want to use multiple devices, especially if you want to stream videos or play games online, you’re going to notice the slow performance. Compare this speed with HughesNet’s biggest competitor, Viasat, which offers up to 100 Mbps download speeds.
As for data, most satellite internet providers give unlimited data, but then throttle speeds after you pass a certain amount. These throttled speeds can drastically affect your internet experience, so it’s important to have as much data allowance as possible. HughesNet’s best plan only offers 50 GB per month (plus an extra 50 GB that can be used before 8 am). Again, HughesNet’s competitor, Viasat, has them outmatched. Viasat’s top plan offers 300 GB of data allowance per month.
HughesNet has its strengths and its weaknesses. You may be incredibly pleased with HughesNet internet, or you may be severely disappointed.
If you live in a remote area, you may just be ecstatic that you have internet at all. You just want to check email, browse social media, and look out a window and see mountains instead of skyscrapers. If so, you’ll probably find HughesNet to be a 5-star experience (though we’d suggest looking into other satellite internet providers for comparison).
On the other hand, if you are expecting something akin to the cable internet plan you had back in the city, you’ll likely be disappointed. You want to play computer games online, you want to stream in HD, and you want your internet speed to last all month without getting throttled. If so, you’ll probably find HughesNet to be a 2-star experience.
HughesNet is great at providing what it provides. As long as you know what to expect, you’ll be a happy customer.
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