My Review Of Starlink After 4 Years: The Good, The Bad, Is It Worth It?

I just hit my four year anniversary of using Starlink satellite internet. Although I’ve posted over a hundred times about Starlink on this blog, I’ve never done a review of the service itself. In this post I’m going to fix that, giving you my long term review of the good, the bad, and whether or not Starlink is still worth all these years later.

If you’re interested in Starlink and want to hear from a long-time customer, this post is for you. I’ve broken down this review into good things and bad things, with a summary at the end.

Coverage

The best thing about Starlink, by far, is the coverage. It’s available virtually anywhere in the world, as long as you have a clear view of the sky. At the time of this post, Starlink operates in over 130 countries. Their constellation of over 7,000 satellites provides global coverage, allowing people in rural and remote areas to finally have access to high-speed internet.

I moved into my current home in 2018. There was no cable or fiber internet available on my street. The small town I live in has around 10,000 people, and I’m technically in city limits. But according to all the local internet provides, there were no plans to expand services to my address anytime soon. I was stuck with DSL which maxed out at 5 Mbps down, and 1 Mbps up.

I signed up for Starlink in early 2021, right after they started their public beta program. It was a complete game changer. I finally got access to high-speed internet, allowing me to do things like stream on multiple devices and download large files. I could finally experience modern internet, without being held back by my slow DSL connection.

These days, with Starlink, no property is too remote, no area too rural. You can now get high-speed, low latency internet just about anywhere.

Contracts and Commitments

Another great thing about Starlink is that they don’t have any contracts or commitments. Before getting Starlink I was looking into Viasat and HughesNet. I read the horror stories about trying to cancel and get out of the two year contracts without paying hundreds of dollars.

Starlink is completely different than most ISP’s. They are very upfront and transparent about their pricing. You pay for the equipment, which you then own outright. You also pay each month for the service, which you are free to cancel without fees at any time.

I pay $120/month for the “Residential” plan, which is their home internet service. $120 is the exact amount that I get charged every month. There are no hidden taxes, fees, or extra charges on my bill. If I want to cancel my service, I can do so anytime I want, with no fees. I can even sell my equipment to someone else to recoup some of the cost.

Speeds

Performance is another area where Starlink shines, especially compared to legacy satellite internet providers like HughesNet and Viasat. Specifically, download speeds and latency are impressive. I ran a speed test before I started typing this review, see the performance for yourself:

I routinely get over 300 Mbps download speeds, and usually between 20-30 Mbps for upload speeds. Latency is the biggest advantage over other satellite internet providers, though. Starlink satellites are in low Earth orbit (LEO), allowing for latency that is more like fiber rather than satellite internet. With latency, lower is better, and I typically get between 20-30 ms. With other satellite providers, latency is between 600-700 ms, which can cause issues with online gaming and video calls.

The high speeds and low latency of Starlink allows me to do things like online gaming, video conferencing, and of course, uploading content to the DISHYtech YouTube channel!

Speeds are one thing that I’ve noticed change over time. As the satellite constellation grows and technology improves, so does performance. When I first got Starlink I was lucky to get 100 Mbps down. But in the last couple years I regularly see 300 Mbps or more. Starlink continues to focus on performance, so it’s basically guaranteed that your speeds will just keep going up as time goes on.

Reliability

Surprisingly, reliability is another advantage of Starlink. When most people think of satellite services, they think of Dish Network or DirecTV, where storms, rain, and snow would cause a lot of signal interruptions. Starlink is completely different. The active phased array antenna isn’t affected by wind, clouds, or most kinds of weather.

Heavy rain and snow can cause short interruptions, but I’ve only had issues a handful of times in my four years of using Starlink. It handles most storms with ease. The Starlink antenna can even melt snow and ice to prevent it from accumulating.

The equipment has been rock solid for me. I’ve never had a failure or technical issue with my Starlink dish or any of the associated hardware. My original round Starlink dish from the beta program still works great, although I don’t use it for home internet anymore. I upgrade with every new model so I can create content for the blog and YouTube channel, but all of the 7+ Starlink’s I’ve purchased continue to work great without any issues.

Data Caps and Throttling

Another good thing about Starlink, especially compared to other satellite internet providers, is that there are no data caps or speed throttling. The $120/month Residential plan that I have comes with unlimited data, and I don’t worry about my speeds being throttled. I typically use around 1TB of data each month, and have never seen my speeds reduced as a result of my fairly normal monthly data usage.

Even the travel internet plan, Starlink Roam, has unlimited data. Starlink does offer plans with data caps, like Roam 50GB or their business internet plans, but everything is very transparent. In the case of Roam 50GB, the data cap is right in the name!

For the average home internet customer, Starlink’s Residential service plan has no data limit, you are free to enjoy truly unlimited data. This is a stark difference between other rural internet options, which typically have restrictive data caps that limit the amount of things you can do online.

Gaming

Online gaming is the final item on my list of good things to say about Starlink. Again, like reliability, this one might surprise you. Satellite internet, historically, hasn’t been very friendly with online gaming. But Starlink is different, with its low latency and high speeds.

I play games like Rocket League and iRacing, which are fast-paced. Any lag or high ping is noticeable, and creates a significant disadvantage in the game. My average ping time to game servers is usually below 50 ms. In general, any connection below 100 ms will be fine, so Starlink is well within the requirements of most online games.

Like I mentioned earlier with speeds, online gaming is something that Starlink has dramatically improved over time. In the early beta days of Starlink, online gaming was a challenge. They didn’t have as many satellites or ground stations as they do now. Latency was still fairly good, but there were lots of short interruptions that caused some lag. These days, however, gaming is great on Starlink. The only time I have issues is during heavy precipitation, where the signal can drop out for a few moments, causing a bit of lag.

Customer Service

Nothing is perfect, and that includes Starlink. I’ve listed my top good things, but now it’s time for some of the bad things I’ve noticed over the last several years.

Customer service definitely has to be the biggest downside of Starlink. If you’ve read other reviews, or hung out in any of the online Starlink communities, you’ve seen the horror stories. Starlink doesn’t have a phone number or email. You can’t just contact them to ask simple questions. All communication goes through an online ticket system.

When you do submit a ticket, it can take days, even a week or more in some cases, for someone from Starlink to get back to you. As you can imagine, this is a huge problem if your internet goes down and you are stuck without service.

Have questions for Starlink about the plans or equipment before buying? Too bad, they don’t have a sales team, call center, or even email support for non-customers. Although they do provide good documentation on their website, I wouldn’t consider that a replacement for good customer service.

To be fair, once you finally get a response from Starlink, they tend to go out of their way to make things right. If your service is down for several days, for example, Starlink has been known to issue service credits to compensate you for your trouble. A free month of service doesn’t get you back online faster, but it at least shows that Starlink wants to make their customers happy.

Personally, I’ve had pretty good experiences with Starlink customer support. Like I mentioned earlier, I haven’t had any hardware or technical issues. But I have sent in tickets to ask questions about billing and some other general topics. On average, I wait 2-3 days for a response, which isn’t a big deal for routine questions.

Cost

Another bad thing about Starlink is the high cost, at least compared to most other types of internet like fiber, cable, or 5G wireless. The tradeoff, of course, is the incredible coverage that Starlink has versus those other internet options. If you compare Starlink to other satellite internet providers, it’s much more competitive.

With Starlink you have two costs to think about. First is the equipment cost, which you must pay for upfront when you order. The Standard hardware kit that I currently have was $349. That’s a big chunk of money for most people. The second cost is the monthly service fee. The Residential plan costs $120/month.

Starlink has increased my monthly price two times in four years. When I first signed up for Starlink the monthly price was $99. A year or so later it was increased to $110. Another year after that it was bumped up to the current $120/month. Starlink is different from traditional ISP’s in a number of ways, but regular price hikes are one exception that you should be aware of.

On the flip side, the equipment costs have gone down dramatically. My first Starlink kit cost me $500. These days you can pick up the current generation dish for $349, even less in some areas that qualify for a hardware discount. Starlink is offering more and more discounts and promotions as they increase the efficiency of their antenna production. You can expect kit prices to continue to decrease as time goes on.

DIY Installation

Another downside to Starlink is that almost everything, from installation to troubleshooting, is do it yourself (DIY). When you order Starlink, it’s 100% on you to figure out how to get it installed properly. They won’t help you get in touch with an independent installer or anything like that. They do provide pretty good documentation and installation tutorials for their own mounting accessories, but it’s up to the customer to climb on the roof and actually do the work.

Not everyone has the physical ability to install Starlink, and not everyone who possesses the physical ability has the technical knowledge to complete the installation. Most Starlink’s will have to be installed on a roof, and it can be dangerous to climb up and get the job done.

Thankfully, 3rd party companies have stepped in lately. Many local businesses have popped up all across the country to provide Starlink installation services. You should be able to find someone by searching Google for a Starlink installer in your area. Hiring someone to install Starlink for you does increase the upfront cost significantly, but at least you have options if you can’t do it yourself.

If you do plan on installing Starlink yourself, be sure to check out my Tutorials. I’ve posted reviews and installation tutorials for all the common Starlink roof mounts.

Is Starlink Still Worth It In 2025?

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed using Starlink satellite internet for the past four years. And it looks like I will continue to be a Starlink customer for the foreseeable future. There are still no plans to install fiber down my road, so my internet options will continue to be limited.

The most important thing to me is performance. As I’ve covered in this review, Starlink is capable of incredible speeds and latency. It just keeps getting better and better. Although I wish it was more affordable, Starlink gives me all the performance I need right now, so I’m completely satisfied as a customer.

Most people considering Starlink simply don’t have the luxury of alternatives. Starlink might be the only high-speed internet option in many rural parts of the country. So if that’s your situation, where you don’t have fiber or cable internet to consider, Starlink is 100% worth it.

If you do have cable or fiber access, but maybe it’s not as fast or reliable as you hoped, Starlink is still worth looking into. Although the upfront and monthly cost will typically be higher, Starlink has proven to be very fast and reliable, at least in my case.

And if you currently have another satellite internet provider like HughesNet or Viasat, I definitely recommend trying Starlink. You’ll get better speeds, lower latency, and you won’t be locked into a commitment. Starlink offers a 30 day money back guarantee, so if it doesn’t work out for you, return it for a full refund.

Final Thoughts

Starlink has pros and cons just like any other internet service. The bottom line is that Starlink provides coverage where most other types of internet don’t. For me, it’s been worth dealing with the high cost and lack of customer service because Starlink is the fastest internet option I can get at my house. The advantages on this list far outweigh the downsides.

Now I’d love to hear from you. What questions do you have about Starlink? If you are a current Starlink customer, what do you agree or disagree with on this list? Anything else, good or bad, that you would add?