Viasat vs. Hughesnet: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?

Viasat offers four plan options, though speed and pricing vary by region. The Viasat Unleashed plan comes with truly unlimited data, which means you don’t have to worry about overage charges, throttling, or having your connection deprioritized in favor of other users who pay for a premium experience.

Data as of 11/12/2024. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

*Prices and speeds vary upon location. Offer available to new qualifying customers. One-time standard installation fee may be due at checkout. Minimum 24-month service term required. Equipment lease fee is $14.99/mo. Taxes apply. Speeds are “up to,” will vary and are not guaranteed. Service is not available in all areas. Offer may be changed or withdrawn at any time.

**Prices, speeds and availability vary by location. Prices are subject to change. No annual contract or installation fees are required. Monthly equipment lease fees and taxes may apply.

Viasat Unleashed varies in price slightly and varies in speed considerably depending on where in the US you’re located. In general, you get a slightly faster and slightly more expensive plan than Hughesnet, with the added perk of unlimited data.

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Data as of 4/5/2024 Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

^†Offer for 12 months. Service plans require a 24-month commitment. Equipment Lease or Purchase fees extra. Service plans require a 24-month commitment. Equipment Lease or Purchase fees extra.

Hughesnet offers two types of plans: traditional, satellite-only plans and its hybrid Hughesnet Fusion plan. Hughesnet Fusion combines satellite and terrestrial wireless connections to deliver internet. Using some additional equipment, Fusion correctly routes your connection over satellite or wireless, resulting in lower latency when it matters, such as with online games or video chat.

Hughesnet plans range in speeds of 50-100Mbps (including Fusion plans), which is the minimum speed at which a connection can be considered broadband. This is technically enough to do most things online, including streaming video in 4K resolution. During hands-on testing, however, we found that our connection’s average speed came in way below this threshold.

Hughesnet satellite-only plans differ only in the data cap. That makes it easy to compare plans to determine their value. With cheaper plans, you end up paying over twice as much per gigabyte of data, so although you don’t want to pay for more data than you’re going to use, you also get a better deal with higher-data plans.

In contrast to Viasat, Hughesnet plans have relatively small amounts of data compared to fiber and cable plans. Hughesnet’s slower speeds mean it’s easier to not burn through data as fast as you would on a wired connection, but it’s still important to get a plan with enough data to meet your needs—you don’t want to have to buy additional data on a regular basis.

All Hughesnet plans come with 50 GB of Bonus Zone data, which you can use between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. It’s not an ideal time for most people’s daily schedules, but it does give you a time to schedule things like system updates, which could otherwise eat up your entire data cap for the month in one go. You can also use this time to download media like games or video, which you can then play back during daylight hours.