(Credit: PCMag)
A new survey shows SpaceX’s Starlink continues to outperform rival satellite providers Hughesnet and Viasat by a wide margin on latency.
The findings come from Ookla’s Speedtest.net, a popular tool that users can tap to measure their broadband quality. On Tuesday, the company published a survey comparing the user speed tests for Starlink, Hughesnet, and Viasat.
The results found that neither Hughesnet nor Viasat “are remotely close to matching Starlink” in latency, or the time it takes for the user’s data to travel through the network. A graph from Ookla shows Hughesnet and Viasat have been delivering latency rates at 683 milliseconds in Q1 — far slower than the 45ms median latency for Starlink.
(Credit: Ookla)Ookla posted the findings when both Hughesnet and Viasat have been losing customers to Starlink. A key difference is that Hughesnet and Viasat use higher-orbiting “geostationary satellites” at about 22,000 miles away to beam the internet to users. In contrast, SpaceX has been harnessing low-Earth orbiting satellites at over 300 miles away to deliver the internet, cutting down on the distance for the data to travel.
Both Hughesnet and Viasat have been trying to respond to Starlink by offering new service plans. In late 2023, Hughesnet also began delivering better speeds and latency through its Jupiter 3 satellite.
Ooka did spot the better broadband quality in the user speed tests. This includes both providers doubling their median download speeds from around 20Mbps to nearly 50Mbps.
Still, Ookla concluded: “Despite performance improvements over the past three years, GEO satellite providers HughesNet and Viasat can’t compete with Starlink when it comes to latency and download speeds.” That’s because Starlink has long been faster, delivering median download rates to now over 100Mbps across the US, according to Ookla’s data.
(Credit: Ookla)That said, the same survey found that many HughesNet and Viasat customers can often experience download speeds closer to 80 and 90Mbps “when looking at the 75th percentile of users” — or the value at which 75% of the data falls.
“For example, HughesNet subscribers in the 75th percentile saw their download speeds increase from 34.02 Mbps in Q1 2022 to 95.97 Mbps in Q1 2025,” Ookla said. “Likewise, Viasat users in the 75th percentile saw their download speeds increase from 55.06 Mbps in Q1 2022 to 78.55 Mbps in Q1 2025.”
In addition, both Hughesnet and Viasat have been offering cheaper internet plans than Starlink, which usually costs $120 per month for the residential plan. In February, Hughesnet’s parent Echostar also signaled that it’s been marketing the satellite internet service for users interested in video streaming, which doesn’t require a low latency.
Hughesnet and Viasat didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the meantime, SpaceX has been trying to close the gap on costs by offering a cheaper “residential lite” plan for $80 per month in certain parts of the US that both new and existing users can subscribe to.
Disclosure: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company.