EarthLink vs. WOW Internet Providers Compared

Earthlink will charge you more initially, but prices may be similar to other ISPs by the second or third year

Many internet service providers will offer you a great promotional price for a year or two, but then raise prices much higher. Earthlink will not offer you initial promotional prices, so their plans may initially give you sticker shock. For initial prices, Earthlink will charge you more for every type of internet service: fiber, fixed wireless, satellite, or DSL. But in some cases, over the course of a few years, you may even end up saving a little money with Earthlink. Only a head-to-head comparison of specific providers in your area will tell you, so check out our price plan comparisons using your zip code. It's inevitable that Earthlink’s prices will be different from region to region and service to service. They are selling a variety of internet offerings from other ISPs. As the “middle man,” they must change their prices for consumers based on whatever they’re paying their many partners. Here’s an example of the kind of price difference you may encounter. Many fiber internet providers will offer you an initial first-tier promo price of about $50/month. With Earthlink, you may pay $60-70/month for the same fiber internet speed. You will also have a one-year contract and an early termination fee if you cancel your contract early. But you won’t have a big increase in fee after the first year, whereas most other ISPs will raise their prices after a year or two.

Pricing will also vary significantly based on your internet connection type

The biggest difference between Earthlink plans is whether your chosen plan has a data cap. Earthlink Fiber internet and DSL won’t have data caps. Earthlink satellite internet and fixed wireless (4G LTE or 5G) will have data caps. If you have a plan with data caps, you may end up having to buy extra data at the end of the month. Because of these unpredictable charges, satellite pricing and fixed wireless pricing for Earthlink are less stable than for their other plans. This pricing is standard for the industry, as satellite and fixed wireless plans typically have data caps. But here’s an unusual benefit of Earthlink Wireless Home Internet. Most Earthlink plans require a one-year contract at minimum, but Earthlink’s Wireless Home Internet plans do not require a contract [2].

WOW’s prices are so low they’ll WOW you

If there’s any way that WOW! can claim to have truly earned its name, it’s with low pricing. The first-tier plan will give you 100 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speed for only $20 a month, and that price lasts a full year. Sure, it’s not superfast speed, but 100/10 is as good as most first-tier cable internet plans. And $20/month is almost unheard of. After one year, your cost will jump to $40/month, but that’s still on the very low end of cable ISP pricing. Price hikes get lower as your plan gets faster. For example, you can get the mid-range plan at 500 Mbps download/50 Mbps upload speed for only $55/month. The shocker? There is no price hike at all. That is rock-bottom pricing for a half-Gig plan with pretty good upload speed by cable standards. It’s certainly enough speed to allow most households to do gaming and streaming simultaneously on multiple devices. A full 1000 Mbps or 1 Gig download from WOW! will run you $65 for the promotional period and $75 after the first year. That’s considerably cheaper than several other major cable providers’ 1 Gig plans, and offers the 50 Mbps upload speed that tends to be the max for cable internet. In July 2022, WOW! launched a 1.2 Gig plan as their fastest option [3]. This is an unusual speed tier given that the company already had a 1 Gig plan, and that the upload speeds for both plans are the same at 50 Mbps. But there are some advantages for the extra $20/month. The 1.2 Gig plan is the only WOW! Plan that doesn’t charge an equipment fee and doesn’t have data caps. Those are pretty good perks that probably justify the extra $20. But you did hear that correctly: WOW!’s lower-speed plans do have a couple of drawbacks that may increase their otherwise excellent prices. Those drawbacks are data caps and a $14/month modem rental fee. Fortunately, the equipment rental fee is optional, meaning that you can skip it if you provide your own modem/router instead. And the data caps are fairly high for the lowest-tier plans (1.5 TB/month) and very high for the 500 Mbps (2.5 TB) and 1 Gig (3 TB) plans. The high caps for the fastest plans make it very unlikely that you will exceed your data caps. If you do exceed them, you will get a maximum overage charge of $50/month. So, just don’t go crazy and have 40 gamers play at your house for a month. The vast majority of households will not ever approach the limits of a 2.5 TB data cap.

Earthlink’s performance depends completely on the networks of major partners

One of Earthlink’s claims to fame is having “the largest network,” because Earthlink serves 90% of the United States [1]. The reality is that Earthlink does have a very large coverage area, but Earthlink does not own the networks in those areas. Differences between Earthlink’s partner networks will mean that your internet speed and performance will vary if you sign up with Earthlink. Just like Earthlink’s pricing, the quality of the service they can deliver depends on other providers. Most of the time, this works out fine because Earthlink partners with reputable ISPs. But Earthlink does not have control over your service, and that can be a disadvantage if something goes wrong. Earthlink Wireless Home Internet (WHI) and satellite internet service will have data caps ranging from 100 to 300 GB/month depending on your plan selection. Earthlink’s site describes this cap fairly accurately as follows: 300 GB/month is good for a household of two people who are occasional gamers. 300 GB will also allow regular movie nights, but not Ultra HD streaming. Standard definition would work better. Binge gamers or daily binge TV streamers will not be happy with the data caps, nor will large families [2]. If you get Earthlink Fiber, you are probably going to be happy with your speed and reliability. Fiber is known for these advantages. Earthlink DSL will be unaffected by weather but will often be too slow for data-intensive activities such as real-time gaming or videoconferencing. Reliability issues are going to be more likely with Earthlink’s satellite internet or Wireless Home Internet. Both satellite and wireless internet can be affected by weather. Fixed wireless can also slow down at peak times when thenetwork is congested with more traffic. Satellite internet tends to have high latency, which means a slight lag in the transmission of a signal. Latency is not noticeable for many internet activities but may affect real-time data transfer for gaming and videoconferencing.

WOW! cable is a fast, strong choice with gigabit download speeds but slower upload speeds

Internet performance from WOW! matches the stats of the largest cable providers in the nation such as Spectrum and Infinity. You will get fast speeds from WOW!’s high-end plans that will support streaming and gaming with multiple devices. The chief disadvantage of cable internet is that upload speeds are so slow compared to the symmetrical speeds of fiber internet. If you want to do large uploads or real-time gaming on 10 devices at once in your home, there’s no question that you’ll be better off with fiber’s lightning-fast uploads. But for most households with average internet usage, a fast cable plan like WOW! internet will be good enough.

Earthlink’s installation fees and equipment fees vary with internet connection type

As usual with Earthlink, it’s hard to discuss any kind of consistent pricing or equipment fees because of their 3rd party seller business model. Earthlink’s lower rating from us in this category results from the lack of simple, freely available information on pricing and fees on their website, as well as their higher prices for equipment and installation. You will find that it is almost impossible to uncover where Earthlink provides satellite internet service and how much they charge for equipment unless you enter exactly the right address and zip code. Trying to find general info about coverage is looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. And Earthlink phone operators will not give you any information without a specific residential address. This lack of transparency is one of the weaknesses of the telecom industry. We recommend that Earthlink, along with other internet providers, begin to be much more straightforward about which services are available across the United States and how much they cost in each area. Earthlink installation will usually cost you $40-80. Modem/router monthly rental fees tend to run around $10-13/month. Satellite equipment will cost you considerably more if you buy it upfront, which is typical of satellite. Earthlink will offer you the option to rent the equipment if that is more feasible. Satellite equipment will come from Viasat, Earthlink’s satellite internet partner. Because Viasat’s equipment fees are $12.99/month or $299.99 prepaid, consumers should estimate that Earthlink’s fees for Viasat equipment will be similar or slightly higher [3]. Earthlink’s bonus services include Easy Tech for unlimited tech support at $9.95 a month. Earthlink Guardian provides parental monitoring, Earthlink Protect gives security protection, and Earthlink Online Backup will protect you from data loss.

Equipment rental fees are optional, self-installation is free for WOW!

All WOW! plans come with a free self-installation kit. If for any reason you’re not comfortable with self-installation, you can get pro installation for $50. Though most plans will allow you to rent a modem/router from WOW! for $14/month, you also have the option to supply your own equipment. This choice may be better for your budget if you plan to have service for more than a year. Just make sure you check with WOW! to be sure your router has compatible specs.

Earthlink is known above all for superior customer service

When you research Earthlink online, you will see that Earthlink survives on its customer service. The company gets good, solid ratings for customer service, where many ISPs fall far short. That means that if you call Earthlink, odds are that you will be satisfied with what they do for you. We give Earthlink a 4.75 rating for customer service for two reasons. First, some customers report that their customer service has been routed to Earthlink’s partner providers, which removes the whole point of having Earthlink service if you’re seeking their brand of better customer service. Second, Earthlink acknowledged beginning to “reshore” its service in September 2021, which implicitly reveals that the company had offshored its customer service [4]. Offshoring customer service to foreign countries is not only potentially frustrating for the customer, but worse for U.S. workers. Many internet providers now base their customer service in the United States, and we hope Earthlink will be sure to provide its own customer support from within the country.

WOW! offers the same customer support amenities as the largest national ISPs [4]. You will get an online portal to allow you to manage your account. Telephone help is available 24/7. Online chat is available every day between 7:00 AM and 11:45 PM EST. In the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study, WOW! outperformed much larger ISPs such as Cox [5]. That strong performance indicates WOW! customers are pretty happy with their service.