Sonic Internet Review: Plans, Pricing and Speed Compared

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Sonic is a rarity among internet service providers. Unlike your typical ISP, Sonic doesn't offer a slew of speeds or price tiers. Instead, it offers a flat rate of $50 a month, a price that doesn't increase year over year. The speed you get for $50? Up to 10,000Mbps.

Compared with the prices and speeds offered by the top providers in the country, it's kind of hard to pass that up.

For context, the highest tier offered by top fiber providers like AT&T Fiber and Google Fiber is 5,000Mbps at $245 a month and 8,000Mbps at $150 a month, respectively. Xfinity, one of the top cable providers in the state of California, tops out at 1,200Mbps for $75 monthly.

There is a bit of a catch to that attractive $50 price tag, though. To get 10Gbps of speed, you will need a router with the bandwidth capacity. Sonic doesn't supply that router. For an extra $20 a month, you can lease a router from Sonic, making your monthly bill around $70, which is, admittedly, still a pretty decent price for speeds that fast and still beats the cost-efficiency of plans offered by AT&T Fiber and Google Fiber.

Founded in 1998, Sonic originally operated as a DSL provider in Santa Rosa, California, before investing in a full fiber-optic network and making the switch to fiber internet. In 2016, Sonic launched its Gigabit tier priced at just $50 a month, and in 2021 launched its 10 Gigabit tier for the same price -- making it one of the most affordable fiber internet providers in the country despite its small footprint.

If you live in California and you have access to fiber from Sonic, you won't find a better deal, even for an overall cost of $70 per month. Let's get into some of the fine print of Sonic's internet plan, so you know what to expect.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

There is currently only one speed you can get with Sonic, as an ISP that “doesn’t believe in tiered internet services,” according to its website. For $50 per month, you can sign up for Sonic’s Standard Fiber 10 Gigabit plan, which actually comes out to an average of 8,700Mbps symmetrical download and upload speeds. 

There isn’t a “cheap” tier with Sonic, but $50 a month stands on par with a lot of entry-level internet offerings, regardless of connection type. Spectrum, for example, advertises speeds of 300Mbps download and 10Mbps upload per month for $50; that price increases by around $30 a year. While Sonic reserves the right to increase prices, its broadband nutrition labels advertise that its monthly fee isn't introductory, meaning Sonic won't raise its prices year after year.

Sonic offers straightforward service terms compared to many other ISPs

The terms of service from Sonic are pretty straightforward: there are no data caps and no contracts, but you do need to pay for a router rental or supply your own. Additionally, there are no fees for installation for new customers and Sonic will pay up to $200 to buy out your contract with another internet provider, a nice addition for customers trapped in contracts to get the best price from other ISPs

Add a landline replacement for just $10 a month

Sonic offers just one bundling opportunity: for $10 extra a month, you can sign up for Sonic’s Fusion Fiber 10 Gigabit plan, which gets you the same speeds as the Standard 10Gbps plan, but with a Voice over Internet Protocol phone service tacked on as a replacement for landline service. 

VoIP can be a cost-efficient alternative to a landline in many cases, and Sonic doesn't charge for international calling and allows for unlimited calls. Sonic rolled out an app that lets you manage this calling feature if you decide to tack it onto your monthly bill.

Make sure you budget for a router

Sonic doesn't include a router in that monthly fee of $50, so note that if you don’t already have one with the capabilities of 10Gbps, you’ll need to purchase or rent one from Sonic. Sonic uses routers from Eero that start at $5 monthly and go up to $20 monthly with varying bandwidth potential. 

Note that the routers Sonic offers have different bandwidth potentials depending on whether they're wired with an ethernet cable or used without one. You'll always get faster speeds with ethernet, but it's worth noting that if you want to take advantage of that 10Gbps speed, you'll need the right setup.

Sonic routers compared

• Sonic WiFi 6: capabilities up to 1Gbps (wired) and 500Mbps (wireless), bandwidth for 75+ devices; $5/mo.
• Sonic WiFi Pro 6E: capabilities up to 1Gbps (wired) and 1.6Gbps (wireless), bandwidth for 100+ devices; $10/mo. 
• Sonic WiFi 7 Max: capabilities up to 9.4Gbps (wired) and 4.3Gbps (wireless), bandwidth for 200+ devices; $20/mo. 

You’ll need to shell out an extra $20 per month for a router with a 10Gbps capability -- bringing your monthly bill to $70 a month. Plus, you’ll need to use an Ethernet cable to consistently get those speeds: a wireless connection to the WiFi 7 Max gets you only around 4.3Gbps.

Where can you get Sonic Internet?

Sonic is, unfortunately, limited to just the state of California in a few metropolitan areas like Santa Rosa, San Francisco and South San Francisco, Oakland, San Mateo and in pockets around Berkeley, Brentwood, Concord and Walnut Creek.

Fiber expansion is pretty expensive and Sonic used its existing DSL network to lay the groundwork for their fiber, though at a cost upward of $10 million. Still, according to the website, Sonic surpassed 100,000 customers in 2019, and we can only assume it has been steadily growing since then.

Customer satisfaction: ard to gauge without the data

It’s a little trickier to see how Sonic’s customer service ranks against much bigger ISPs, as Sonic isn’t quite large enough to be included in data collection from organizations like J.D. Power or the American Customer Satisfaction Index. There are a few sources you can check to see what the general feeling from customers is toward Sonic’s services, like Reddit, Better Business Bureau and ISP Reports, though you should always view customer reviews warily. 

According to the Better Business Bureau, Sonic holds a scant 1 out of 5ating, though only according to a handful of customer reviews about service cancellation and installation issues. Keep in mind that ratings from the BBB hold AT&T Internet at 1.1 out of 5 and Google Fiber at 1.2 out of 5, so the bar isn't very high. 

Oakland and Bay Area Reddit threads generally tout Sonic as one of the best internet service providers in the area, with some users urging customers of Xfinity or AT&T Fiber to switch over. Reviews from ISP Reports were also generally positive, giving the provider a 4.33 out of 5. Across all websites, there were mixed reviews on tech support, general quality of customer service, pricing and speeds.

The bottom line on Sonic: It's worth the money

Sonic is worth the try, especially if you’ve been paying high prices for gigabit speeds with Xfinity or looking into investing in a fiber connection. Our only caveat with Sonic is that that monthly price of $50 doesn't include a router renter, unlike many other fiber providers. You can’t go wrong with a fiber connection, and if you have the right router, you can get blazing-fast speeds for a little extra per month. 

As Sonic expands its fiber network, we hope it expands its pricing and speed tiers for customers too. But if you live in west California and you’re on the hunt for affordable fiber internet, you can’t really go wrong with Sonic.

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