Best internet providers in Raleigh, North Carolina
We rated AT&T’s fiber service as the best internet provider nationwide, and it’s available almost everywhere in Raleigh. If you live in an area without AT&T fiber, Spectrum offers fast cable internet with even more coverage, and Google Fiber is highly rated by locals, but only if you can get it.
- Plans starting at $55.00 - $180.00
- Download speeds up to 5000Mbps
- Upload speeds up to 5000Mbps
Disclaimer: Availability and pricing are subject to location. Conditions apply. For offer details, view disclaimers
- Plans starting at $29.99 - $169.97
- Download speeds up to 1 Gbps
- Upload speeds up to 35 Mbps
Disclaimer: Availability and pricing are subject to location. Conditions apply. For offer details, view disclaimers
- Plans starting at $70.00 - $100.00
- Download speeds up to 2000 Mbps
- Upload speeds up to 1000 Mbps
Disclaimer: Availability and pricing are subject to location. Conditions apply.
Our top 3 ISP choices in Raleigh, NC
The best choices for internet in Raleigh are AT&T fiber internet, Spectrum, and Google Fiber.
#1: AT&T internet
AT&T has high ratings from both our in-house expert reviewers and customer reviews on Switchful. It offers excellent value for reliable fiber service, and you can get it in most Raleigh neighborhoods. The fiber speeds and prices are much better than AT&T’s old DSL internet service, which the company no longer offers to new customers.
Read our full AT&T internet review.
#2: Spectrum internet
Spectrum is a cable provider, meaning it might suffer from some network congestion, which you won’t get with fiber options like AT&T or Google Fiber. But Spectrum’s 1 gig speeds compete with fiber, and you can find Spectrum service in some pockets of Raleigh that the fiber providers don’t cover.
Read our full Spectrum internet review.
#3: Google Fiber internet
Google Fiber is a fantastic option for customers who want fast internet with simple billing and easy customer service. Unfortunately, Google Fiber covered only about 30% of Raleigh in 2022, so you may have to wait or look elsewhere while coverage expands.
Read our full Google Fiber review.
All internet providers in Raleigh
Outside of our top three picks, most internet options in Raleigh will be either fixed wireless or satellite. Fixed wireless uses radio waves to provide a signal to your home. It’s usually not as fast or reliable as wired internet types like cable or satellite, but since a lot of fixed wireless options come from cell phone providers like T-Mobile Home Internet, Verizon Home Internet, and US Cellular, you can sometimes get discounts by bundling with your cell phone plan. These could be good options for households that want to cut costs and don’t need the absolute fastest speeds.
Satellite providers Stalink, Viasat, and HughesNet are going to be slower, less reliable, and more expensive than other internet options. Because Raleigh has widespread coverage from other internet types, we don’t recommend choosing satellite unless you have no other options.
Fastest internet providers in Raleigh
In 2022, AT&T announced that it would start offering symmetrical download and upload speeds up to 5 Gbps. (1) This makes AT&T the fastest provider in Raleigh by far, though the top speed isn’t available everywhere yet. Google Fiber also offers extremely fast speeds, with a max speed of 2 Gbps. That being said, these speeds are excessive for almost all households, and you will have more than enough to cover multiple people gaming, streaming, and working from home with the 1 Gbps options from AT&T, Google Fiber, and Spectrum.
How much speed do you need?
Cheapest internet providers in Raleigh
The cheapest internet options in Raleigh are fixed wireless providers T-Mobile 5G Home, Verizon Home Internet, and US Cellular. All three offer discounts for combining internet service with specific wireless plans, so you can save quite a bit in the long run if you bundle with your existing provider.
Depending on your income level, you may also qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Program or other options for free or low-cost internet.
Internet options in nearby cities
Many of the internet providers in Raleigh also cover nearby cities, but you may also see access to Frontier internet, Brightspeed, and some local providers as you move to other areas. See the best options in these cities.
What Raleigh residents are saying on Reddit
Across recent social media threads in the Raleigh area, residents seem happiest with Google Fiber service, but where it’s not available, many recommend AT&T above Spectrum. Read what locals have to say about their internet service.
Mentioned to a few neighbors the other night what I pay for my regular (200mbps) internet and they looked at me like I had three heads. Curious what other folks are paying for non-fiber (it’s unavailable to me) internet.
Also if anyone has a success story from calling up a company and getting their bill lowered, I’m all ears.
About $70 for 400mbps through Spectrum but where i live in Clayton ,Spectrum and CenturyLink 10mbps were the only options
Moving here and don’t want crappy internet. Can someone help a brother out?
Spectrum is the waffle house of providers. They are almost always an option no matter what but experience can vary greatly based on location.
I am grateful for their coverage but wish they would make an effort to replace last mile coax with fiber where the coax loops clearly have persistent issues. I would be happy to pay 2x what TWC charged if they did more proactive upgrades on the last mile.
AT&T on the other hand is the gas station bodega of providers. Sometimes you get a gleaming Sheetz palace at 3am with full food service. If you are out in the middle of nowhere you get a Stop-n-Sip with day old tuna fish and egg sandwiches in a lukewarm cooler if you are lucky.
Looking to hear about your experience In the north Raleigh area, which of the two would be better? I see they are close in rates but which would suck less?
I work from home for the time being so a consistent and strong connection is important.
Thanks !
Southwest Raleigh here but I hate Spectrum with a passion they suck, customer service is a joke if anything goes wrong
Hi Raleigh Reddit,
How has the experience been with AT&T fiber internet? My neighborhood is now fiber friendly, but I still have Spectrum and I'm currious how AT&T fiber service and hardware compares to other providers? I currently own my cable modem and like not paying a equipment fee every month. How does AT&T's hardware compare? I read on AT&T's site I would have to have a seperate wifi antenna that cost extra every month, does anyone use their own wifi antenna/router?
Thanks in advance.
I've had it for years and the best thing about it is I never have to think about it. It just always works. That is crucial for me because I work from home and have for years. I also have their equipment and can get wi-fi inside and outside. I pay $60 month total. I think I payed $50 the first year. I will add that I'm a one-person household, so I can't speak to how it would be for a family with many devices.
Just wondering if anybody else is using any of the 5G home internet providers in the area and what they think about it.
I've got tmobile at the moment and when it first started I was getting some pretty nice speeds (almost up to 200Mbps down), but now it's slowed to a crawl for the past few months (~5mbps down!) and it doesn't have a reliable 5G signal anymore. The rep offered a replacement modem, but that didn't seem to help.
Wondering if I should give verzion home internet a try or just go back to getting gouged by spectrum.
Spectrum is our main but we added Verizon two years ago. I work at home FT and we have a ton of issues with Spectrum. It's out at least once a week and they claim it's because of old cabling, which is probably accurate but we rarely had an issue before Spectrum took over from Time Warner. My husband and i connect all of our wifi devices (including smart tvs and Roku) only to Verizon wifi and have never lost service. When we lose Spectrum, i disconnect my laptop's hardwire & connect to Verizon wifi, again no issues. Also when the power goes out, we still have internet. We use our generator to power our devices and that's been awesome. I'm not ready to totally give up a traditional connection yet, but we do actually like the Verizon service a lot. It's been reliable for us. For reference, we're west Raleigh near Cary and we rarely have any issues with Verizon wireless in our area.
Internet news and infrastructure in Raleigh, NC
Raleigh has strong internet infrastructure that continues to grow. Between AT&T and Spectrum, most Raleigh residents have access to gig speeds already. According to Google Fiber, it also expanded fiber service to tens of thousands of addresses in the Triangle in 2022, so the options will only become more competitive in the coming years. (2)
Frequently asked internet questions in Raleigh
No, Xfinity is not available in Raleigh, and it has extremely minimal coverage in any part of North Carolina. Spectrum offers cable internet in Raleigh that is comparable to Xfinity in terms of technology and speeds. AT&T and Google Fiber also offer fiber options in the area.
Yes, Raleigh has multiple options for fiber internet. AT&T has widespread fiber coverage across Raleigh, with speeds as high as 5 Gbps. Google Fiber has a growing fiber footprint as well, with speeds as high as 2 Gbps.
Google Fiber’s coverage in Raleigh varies neighborhood by neighborhood, and even street by street. You can check our map for general coverage zones, but because Google Fiber is expanding rapidly in the Raleigh-Durham area, the best way to find out if your address is covered is through Google’s address check. You can also sign up for availability alerts for a specific address, but in our firsthand experience with Google Fiber, “coming soon” could mean anything from weeks to years.
- “AT&T expands hyper-gig fiber offering; now delivering up to 5-gigs of speed across parts of entire footprint,” AT&T. Accessed 3 March 2023.
- “The Triangle,” Google Fiber. Accessed 3 March 2023.