The vast majority of providers mentioned on the first two pages, with the exception of Virgin Media, tend to be predominantly reliant upon Openreach’s national telecoms network in order to deliver their service. Despite this there is now a rapidly growing community of Alternative Network (AltNet) ISPs that are serving consumers by building their own infrastructure.

Related providers tend to be comparatively small because they’re often only available to a limited number of areas dotted across the United Kingdom, which also means that they don’t generate a lot of consumer feedback and this makes them much harder to judge.

Nevertheless, we do still manage to identify exceptions that are worthy of consideration, even if they don’t always meet our usual requirements for inclusion (national coverage, unlimited usage etc.). Providers like this will often turn up in our General Commendations list below and it helps if they’ve been building for at least a couple of years.

General Commendations

Remember, providers listed below may only be available to very specific parts of the United Kingdom and due to this we don’t include ‘coverage’ as a negative mark because this is an issue for all of them.

toob

Package Examples

Cheapest: 900Mbps+ DL (900Mbps+ UL) – £33 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£29)

Originally started by a group of former Vodafone execs, toob has spent the past few years deploying their full fibre network across the South of England, starting in the city of Southampton before spreading out to other parts of Hampshire and Surrey. So far they’ve already covered 150,000 premises, but in 2023 they switched their focus from build to growing consumer take-up instead (here).

The provider currently aims to cover 300,000 premies and is somewhat of a rarity in that they only have a single package, which offers symmetric broadband speeds of 900Mbps for the aggressively low price of just £29 per month on an 18-month term (i.e. both extremely fast and extremely cheap).

So far we’ve mostly only heard positive things about toob’s support and service quality. On top of that the operator has also signed a deal to expand their availability by offering packages over part of CityFibre’s national network in the South West of England (Cityfibre also gains access to toob’s network).

Pros:
• Price
• Quality
• Speed
• Support

Cons:
• No Social Tariff for broadband
• No packages faster than 1Gbps (yet)
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

Zzoomm

Package Examples

Cheapest: 200Mbps DL (200Mbps UL) – £32.95 PM

Fastest: 2,000Mbps DL (2,000Mbps UL) – £64.95 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£55)

Started by the former CEO of rural full fibre ISP Gigaclear, Matthew Hare, Zzoomm is somewhat a child of prior experience – one that aspires to deploy across 85 smaller towns in parts Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, North Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, West Yorkshire and Cheshire.

The operator has already covered 202,000 premises (Jun 2024) and, after a slow start, the provider seems to be making some headway. Consumer feedback has been generally very positive, albeit with some uncommon gripes about the quality of their customer service / support. But the ISP did suffer some job losses in 2023 and have since paused their build in order to focus on growing take-up by consumers (here).

You also get a decent router and their fastest package is a dizzying 2Gbps.

Pros:
• Price
• Quality
• Speed

Cons:
• Support quality not perfect, but still better than most.
• No Social Tariff for broadband
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

B4RN

Package Examples

Cheapest: 900Mbps+ DL (900Mbps+ UL) – £33 PM

Fastest: 10,000Mbps DL (10,000Mbps UL) – £150 PM

Broadband for the Rural North, which follows the Community Benefit Society (CBS) model with a full fibre network that has been both predominantly built and funded by those in the communities they serve (often in exchange for shares), remains a consistently excellent provider. By using this approach they’ve been able to cover 27,000 homes with their network across remote rural parts of Cheshire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Yorkshire.

The model also relies on local landowners (e.g. farmers) being generous and agreeing to waive their right to payment as part of a wayleave agreement, which enables the fibre to be dug through their land at a lower cost. B4RN were one of the UK’s first true alternative full fibre providers in 2011/12 and they’ve proven the doubters wrong many times.

Pros:
• Price
• Quality
• Support
• Speed
• Social Tariff option

Cons:
• None that we can see, yet
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

Hyperoptic

Package Examples

Cheapest: 33Mbps DL (1Mbps UL) – £22 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£17.99)

Fastest: 900Mbps+ DL (900Mbps+ UL) – £63 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£40)

As one of the very first alternative full fibre ISPs to enter the UK market (2011), Hyperoptic made gigabit speeds possible at a time when many people could only get up to around 20Mbps. Since then they’ve grown to cover 1.73 million premises (residential apartment blocks / MDUs and housing) and have attracted a lot of investment. The provider now aims to reach 2 million homes by the end of 2024.

Hyperoptic has generally built a strong reputation for delivering good customer support, affordable ultrafast broadband packages and strong service quality. On top of that they offer the flexibility of a 30 day (monthly) contract term, as well as the usual 12 and 24 month terms, a decent router, and you can add a phone (voice) service for an extra £2 per month.

In addition, they’re the only alternative network ISP to support Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme and have a decent social tariff for those on state benefits. On the flip side, they did have to cut some jobs and slow their pace of build during 2023 (here).

Pros:
• Speed / Quality
• Support
• Monthly contract options
• Social Tariff option

Cons:
• A few rare gripes about installation delays
• No packages faster than 1Gbps (yet)
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

Trooli

Package Examples

Cheapest: 150Mbps DL (50Mbps UL) – £29.99 PM

Fastest: 2000Mbps DL (2000Mbps UL) – £49.99 PM

Trooli is a new incarnation of Call Flow Solutions, which for the past few years has been focused on deploying a new full fibre broadband network across the South East of England (mostly in semi-rural parts of Kent and Hampshire). The operator has already covered 370,000 premises (Jul 2024) and, despite going through a period of build uncertainty due to funding issues (here), they’ve managed to persevere and even acquired Axione UK’s network in Scotland.

Feedback from customers has so far been positive and the recent price reductions, as well as the addition of a cheaper entry-level 150Mbps tier, have certainly helped to make them seem quite attractive to potential customers. Otherwise, customers can expect a 24-month contract term and a very capable Wi-Fi v6 router. On top of that they’ve recently launched a 2Gbps plan for a very low price (relatively speaking).

Pros:
• Speeds
• Support
• Quality
• Router
• Price

Cons:
• No Social Tariff for broadband
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

CommunityFibre

Package Examples

Cheapest: 35Mbps DL (35Mbps UL) – £12.50 PM (£16.50 after 12-months)

Fastest: 3,000Mbps DL (3,000Mbps+ UL) – £60 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£56)

Community Fibre predominantly tends to focus on building FTTP networks across and around London (although they are expanding out through the acquisition of Box Broadband) have managed to raise over £1bn. The provider’s network currently reaches c. 1.3 million premises. Going forward they had promised to cover 2.2 million premises by the end of 2024, but this is now in doubt after they cut jobs and paused their build (here).

The ISP is able to deliver a very high level of service quality and we’ve heard nothing but good things about their performance (speeds up to 3Gbps!). On top of that they’re one of the cheapest ISPs around and installation is usually free, but you do have to tolerate a 24-month term for the best deals. So far as we can tell the router they bundle is still a Linksys based Mesh WiFi device that can deliver impressive wireless speeds.

Finally, they have one of the cheapest entry-level fixed broadband packages available, which will give you a decent 35Mbps (symmetric) connection for just £12.50 per month (£16.50 after 12-months). This is technically a social tariff, but you don’t have to be on state benefits to take it.

Pros:
• Price
• Support
• Quality
• Speed

Cons:
• Nothing of particular note
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

KCOM

Package Examples

Cheapest: 30Mbps DL (5Mbps UL) – £30.99 PM

Fastest: 900Mbps+ DL (50Mbps+ UL) – £39.99 to £69.99 PM

Until recently KCOM was the dominant network operator for Hull and East Riding in Yorkshire, which they’ve already covered with a gigabit-capable FTTP broadband network. The operator has since invested another £100m to cover tens of thousands of additional premises across more of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire (here) – reaching a total of 300,000 so far – and they’re now investing tens of millions more to add a further 50,000 premises to that (here).

The service has also become more affordable as they’ve expanded, although they’re still not the cheapest of providers, particularly inside the Hull area (new areas covered by their network expansion tend to be more competitive and a bit cheaper). Customer service quality is also reasonably good for an incumbent provider, albeit not as good as others on this page and support can be a mixed bag. Otherwise the ISP also supplies some reasonably capable routers to their FTTP customers.

Pros:
• Speed
• Router is fairly good
• Lower prices in newer network expansion areas
• Social Tariff option

Cons:
• Support quality could be better
• Higher prices inside the original Hull area
• No packages faster than 1Gbps (yet)

Gigaclear

Package Examples

Cheapest: 200Mbps DL (200Mbps+ UL) – £41.50 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£17)

Fastest: 820Mbps DL (820Mbps UL) – £82 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£49)

This provider has been deploying a 1Gbps FTTP broadband network into the remote rural areas of England for years, often reaching into locations where others would struggle to make the economics work. In total they’ve now covered around 560,000 UK premises and are aiming to reach 1 million premises by the end of 2027.

Customers of the service seem to be generally happy, with only a few gripes being spotted and most of those relate to installation delays. Otherwise, what Gigaclear delivers tends to be significantly better than anything else in the vast majority of areas where they operate, which is partly because very few rivals would invest to deploy across such challenging areas.

Pros:
• Speed

Cons:
• A few gripes about slow installations
• Expensive post contract prices
• No Social Tariff for broadband
• No packages faster than 1Gbps (yet)
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

TrueSpeed

Package Examples

Cheapest: 150Mbps – £45 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£25)

Fastest: 900Mbps – £75 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£39)

Truespeed has focused heavily on delivering their FTTP network across rural parts of South West England (mostly around the Chew Valley area of Somerset). The provider has also attracted £175m of investment and originally aimed to cover 500,000 premises by the end of 2026 (this is a demand-led deployment where 30% of a community needs to sign-up first), but so far they’ve only covered over 100,000 premises and have had to slow their build (here).

The provider is generally well rated and fairly affordable given their focus on rural areas, although the router they bundle is notorious for being heavily restricted. Customers also enjoy a shorter 12-month contract term and have the option of a fairly good social tariff, which is available to those on state benefits.

Pros:
• Performance
• Social Tariff option
• Price

Cons:
• Restricted router
• No packages faster than 1Gbps (yet)
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

YouFibre (Netomnia) / Brsk

Package Examples

Cheapest: 150Mbps – £33.99 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£23.99)

Fastest: 7,000Mbps – £129.99 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£99.99)

This is the partner ISP for Netomnia’s rollout of a new full fibre network, which has already covered over 1 million premises across many different parts of the UK and, after merging with Brsk, is aiming to reach 3 million homes and businesses by the end of 2025 – backed by an investment of over £1.3bn from various sources (primarily Advencap, DigitalBridge, and Soho Square Capital). The combined network currently covers 1.82 million premises and is home to 190,000 customers.

As an ISP, YouFibre is not only extremely cheap, but it also delivers excellent speeds and good UK based support. The promise of “no in-contract price rises” and a contract buy-out option for those tied into an existing ISP are also extremely attractive, as is the ridiculously fast top speed of 7-8Gbps!

Pros:
• Performance
• Price
• Support
• Social Tariff option

Cons:
• Some gripes about delays to orders and rollout, but overall progress is still exceptional
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans

Ogi

Package Examples

Cheapest: 150Mbps – £41.25 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£15)

Fastest: 900Mbps – £72.50 PM (discounts may cut this to c.£30)

Ogi is a provider that has actually been around for quite a few years, albeit under their prior name of Spectrum Internet. But over the last few years they’ve re-branded and embarked on a £200m project – supported by Infracapital – to deploy their 10Gbps capable full fibre broadband network across 150,000 premises in South Wales. So far they’ve covered 100,000, but their rate of build did slow down a fair bit during 2024.

Customers of the service (20,000 at May 2024) rate the provider’s support and network performance as being generally excellent.

Pros:
• Performance
• Support

Cons:
• No Pay TV or Mobile plans
• No Social Tariff for broadband
• No packages faster than 1Gbps (yet)

General Disclaimer

Generally, we aim to pick ISPs that have been listed on ISPreview.co.uk for several years and shown fairly consistent performance, as well as reliability, over the past 12 months (Page 1 is an exception because that’s focused on saving money). However here is no such thing as perfection and experiences do vary, especially with broadband being a shared “best efforts” style of service. We also favour fully independent providers over vISPs and resellers.

Crucially, and unlike the other big comparison sites, we do not charge ISPs a fee to be listed (ISPreview.co.uk is free) and nor do we restrict our coverage to only the largest providers. Our impartial policy is to list and cover all legal ISPs in the same way, regardless of advertising (note: we may exclude some providers that have caused harm in the market). On this point our 21 year history of balanced coverage should speak for itself.

Nevertheless, there are hundreds of ISPs in this market and thus it’s simply not possible for us to give a full appraisal of every provider. As such we recommend that this article should only be used as a very rough introductory guide.

Always remember, if you’re happy with your current ISP but the price keeps rising, then the best course of action may be to try renegotiating the price (see our Retention Tips article) before you consider leaving. Similarly if you’ve been hit by a mid-contract price hike then remember that Ofcom has a rule against this, which enables you to exit your contract penalty free and switch ISP (i.e. if the price hike is above the level of annual inflation).

NOTE 1: Like many sites ISPreview.co.uk’s continued existence as a free source of information is only possible due to the advertising that can be found displayed around our pages (e.g. banners and affiliate links), which is predominantly automatic and usually not managed directly by us (e.g. Google’s automated banners).

NOTE 2: The pricing and recommendations of this article may not always be 100% accurate because prices change all the time and sometimes, we may miss a change. Instead we recommend getting the latest costings from our ISP Listings system.

NOTE 3: You should expect most of the biggest ISPs to raise their broadband prices by around +£1-£2 (per month) every year, which is often necessary in order to accommodate new demands from regulators, new features and rising data usage by consumers. Smaller providers tend to raise their prices at a much slower pace and many haven’t done so in years.