Business Internet Buyers Guide

What is business internet?

Business internet is a high-performance broadband service designed to meet the greater needs of companies and organizations.

The best business internet service providers offer a range of beneficial services, such as high-speed connections with low latency, high uptime rates, excellent customer service, and other features, like website creation tools, email management and cybersecurity support. [Related article: Best Website Builder and Design Services]

What to look for in a business internet plan

Although it costs more, business broadband is a better choice for most companies. One reason is that customer support is often superior. So, if you run into a problem with your website, your email or the connection itself, the company can help you faster.

Let’s look at some of the features and considerations to help you select the right plan.

Speed

How fast you can perform a given task online sometimes makes a huge difference, so it’s important to ensure your business has the right internet speed. 

Residential lines tend to offer plans with download speeds of around 240 Mbps and median upload speeds of around 30 Mbps. This kind of asymmetrical performance ratio is fairly consistent across most residential internet plans, so you make some sacrifices in service along the line.

Business internet connections can be up to 10 times faster than residential ones in both directions. That still means a big gap between upload and download speeds, but some providers now offer plans with matching (or near-matching) speeds in both directions.

However, it’s important to choose the right speeds for your business’s needs.

“Be realistic: While ‘gig speeds’ are all the latest hype, that kind of plan can often be a bit overkill for a typical small office or retail setting,” said Jake Turner, co-founder and chief financial officer of managed IT provider Cosmistack. “At the same time, don’t opt for the slowest speeds just to save a buck — the frustration of watching loading spinners all day isn’t worth it.”

Turner recommended the following speeds:

• One to five users: 150 to 300 Mbps
• Five to 10 users: 300 to 500 Mbps
• 10 to 15 users: 500 to 700 Mbps
• 15 or more users: 700 Mbps or higher

If your team relies heavily on VoIP phone services or video conferencing, aim for the higher end of these ranges to maintain quality.

Joe Warnimont, a writer for HostingAdvice.com, shared his approach to determining speed and bandwidth needs. “My favorite, and perhaps most accurate, way to determine the best bandwidth and internet speed for a business is to conduct what I call a ‘day in the life’ log,” he said.

“Monitor your employees for their internet activities for a few weeks (with the consent of your employees) to see exactly how much bandwidth and speed you’ll need,” Warnimont explained. “This helps identify peak usage times and which activities — like video calls and file transfers — your workers use most.” [Related: Best Employee Monitoring Software]

The different types of internet connections

When you’re choosing the right internet plan for your business, it is important to understand the types of internet connections available.

Digital subscriber line (DSL)

A DSL internet connection can provide internet service over an average copper telephone line, which gives you an easy entry point for your business internet service. Perfect for light usage like cloud storage, DSL allows you to create a local area network (LAN) that can be tailored to your business’s needs. Because of DSL’s limited bandwidth and modest speeds, it’s best for smaller businesses with only a few simultaneous connections.

Turner cautioned that “DSL typically has much lower maximum speeds available and can be hard-pressed to support the needs of a modern business.”

Cable internet

Cable broadband internet service uses a coaxial cable to connect you to the internet at speeds appropriate for moderate to heavy activities. Online backups are faster, and file management is seamless, even with multiple simultaneous users. If your organization has upgraded to high-definition streaming audio or uses VoIP services for teleconferencing, cable internet is a great option.

Fiber internet

With a fiber-optic internet line, you get the best bandwidth and the fastest solution for a business internet connection. However, because fiber-optic lines still require a lot of infrastructure to be built, there’s only 51 percent fiber coverage nationwide. If a fiber-optic business internet line is available in your area, most providers offer reliable, always-on service with blazing-fast speeds of up to 100 Gbps, although the average connection actually clocks in at around 1 Gbps. At 10 Gbps, you could transfer 1TB of data in 15 minutes or less.

“Customers should also be aware that the vast majority of ‘fiber service’ from ISPs is fiber to the node (FTTN) or fiber to the curb (FTTC), and not fiber to the home (FTTH),” Turner said. “This means that fiber-optic cabling ends at a nearby distribution point (typically ISP equipment on your street), and the ‘final mile’ of connection from this equipment to your home or business will still run on coaxial cable.” 

Sometimes, it’s hard to spot this in the small print, so Turner recommended contacting individual providers for clarity.

Satellite internet

If you’re in a remote area that doesn’t have access to a landline for an internet connection, you may need to use satellite internet service. Just like with satellite TV, your ISP will install a receiver dish at your worksite to establish an internet connection. Because the connection quality of a satellite line depends on many factors — such as trees, the weather or even sunspots — it offers unstable service and slower transfer speeds than land-based options do.

Turner said satellite is “an excellent option for rural customers whose local ISP can’t offer higher speeds or who don’t offer a physical connection at all. It’s also handy for businesses as a backup connection.” He noted that satellite can be expensive and often incurs data-usage charges, which is an important consideration if you do a lot of video streaming.

Contracts and bundles

Business ISPs usually provide a service level agreement (SLA) that states exactly which services will be provided. These contracts can cover everything from low latency and always-on connections to transfer speeds and technical support, all to help ensure your business gets exactly what it needs.

An SLA can also include how you’ll be compensated if the baseline service level isn’t met, so it’s important to choose a bundle that meets all of your needs. Although you can get a business internet plan that doesn’t require a contract, you can often get cheaper monthly rates with a multiyear package offered by most major ISPs.

Downtime and customer service

A reliable connection is arguably the most important part of any business internet plan. After all, what good is fast internet if you can’t actually connect to it? Most major ISPs offer “near-perfect” uptime.

On the other hand, an unreliable internet connection can affect your transfer speeds, the number of lines it can support and more. More importantly, an unreliable line could bring your business to a complete stop, which would halt productivity, prevent sales and potentially damage customer loyalty. 

Besides looking at factors such as cost, security and customer support, you should choose an ISP with proactive network monitoring, Warnimont advised. “Every business wants rapid responses to outages, so it’s essential to have a monitoring system that catches issues long before they take down your entire network,” he said.

How much does business internet cost?

The cost of a business internet plan can range from just under $20 to hundreds of dollars a month, depending on your needs. If your business has fewer than 20 employees who need to run low-bandwidth applications, like checking email and running a point-of-sale (POS) system, you could probably find a plan with speeds of up to 200 Mbps for $55 to $135 per month. [See our picks for the best POS systems.]

Businesses that engage in e-commerce or that use cloud-based software as a service should expect to pay at least $95 per month for 600 Mbps speeds. If your business handles large amounts of data via activities such as video file transfer, VoIP meetings or teleconferencing, you’ll want faster plans closer to the 1,000 Mbps range, which start at around $149 per month but may be much pricier.

Complex organizations with specific needs or companies with 20 or more people should contact a sales representative at any major ISP to create a customized bundle tailored to their needs.

How to choose a business internet plan

Take these steps when you’re choosing an internet service plan for your business.

1. Decide how fast your internet needs to be.

Although it’s unfortunate to overpay for a service with too much speed and bandwidth, it’s arguably much worse to pick one that’s too slow and lacks the bandwidth you need.

Make sure to consider two factors when you’re determining how fast your internet connection needs to be. First, count the maximum number of devices likely to access it at any given time. 

Second, determine what the people using those devices will be doing. If you and your team use cloud storage a lot, transfer large files to clients or engage in lots of video calls, you’ll need higher speeds and more bandwidth.

2. Figure out how stable your connection needs to be.

Determine how important it is for your business to have reliable internet. If you and your staff use the internet to take customer payments, run email marketing campaigns, sell to prospects, help customers, order stock and more, a few hours of downtime will be very disruptive.

If you need the most dependable internet connection, choose an ISP with the highest guaranteed uptime and the most watertight SLAs. This will likely cost you more, but it will be much less than the business losses that would result from prolonged downtime.

If speed, reliability and control of your internet connection are paramount, consider a leased line. You might see it called a “dedicated line” or “private internet access.” A leased line costs a lot more but minimizes the risk of outages, major faults and the associated costs.

3. Find out which ISPs serve your area. 

You will likely have a wide choice of ISPs in urban areas, but the selection in rural areas will be much more restricted. Many ISPs include ZIP-code-based search tools on their websites so you can see whether they serve your area.

4. Compare available plans and pricing.

When you find the ISPs that serve your area, compare their plans. Short-list the best providers, and evaluate their internet speeds, data caps, prices and contract terms. Some charge fees for equipment and setup, so try to factor those costs into your budget.

5. Check out online reviews and ratings.

Before you register with an ISP, read reviews and testimonials from customers to find out how they rate their experience with the company, and see our picks for the best providers below. You can also check several speed-test sites to see if a potential provider matches the promises on its website.

If possible, speak with neighboring businesses or your local chamber of commerce. Real-world experiences from other nearby firms can tell you how reliable the connection really is in your area.

Business internet vs. residential internet

You could choose a residential broadband connection instead of a business one. Here’s a side-by-side look at how business and residential internet compare:

You’ll pay less with a residential broadband connection. If a handful of you are in the office streaming music, editing documents and running a few other low-bandwidth apps, you’ll probably get by just fine.

However, there might be times when your connection seems a bit slow. That’s because residential broadband providers often choke connections to normalize speed across their user base. Although business broadband providers also do this, they do it much less. Therefore, your download speed will be much more reliable and your upload speed may be much faster with business broadband than with residential broadband.

These are not the only benefits of business broadband. Business ISPs offer extra features and add-ons, such as domain name registration, website creation tools, multiple email addresses with the domain name for your growing staff, security services and more.

Eduardo Vasconcellos contributed to this article.