Best Broadband for Families

What type of broadband does my family need?

Choosing the right broadband deal for your family depends on your specific needs. This means how big your family is, and what your family members use the internet for.

How big is your family?

The bigger your family and the more gadgets there are in your home connected to the internet, the faster your broadband will need to be. When you’re all online together, you are sharing the bandwidth, meaning you’ll each get much lower speeds than the maximum speed advertised for your broadband package. 

If you live in a household with five members or more, you could be defined as a heavy user and should aim for a package that offers 67Mbps or more.

What does your family do online?

If your children are grown up but still live at home, chances are they are online pretty frequently. If they only use the internet to scroll through Instagram, they may be classed as a light user, but if they like to stream movies, TV shows or music, or they play online games, they would be a medium or heavy user. All internet users can be divided into three categories:

• Light Users: Use the internet mostly to check emails, do online banking or shopping.
• Medium Users: Use the internet regularly to check social media, or occasionally stream videos or music.
• Heavy Users: Regularly stream online content, play video games, download/upload large files, have video conferences etc.

If you have a small family of light users, you may get away with a package with lower bandwidth.

However, if you have a family of medium or heavy users, you might find it more suitable to go for a package with higher bandwidth and speeds.

Compare broadband packages for your family

If you are looking for the best broadband package to suit all your family’s needs, you have come to the right place. Simply enter your postcode into our broadband comparison tool to compare packages where you live.

When you compare broadband for your family, consider the following:

• What speed do I need? The bigger your family, the higher speed you will need. We recommend 67Mbps or more, if you are in an area where this is available! With more bandwidth, you can do your work, your partner can watch their show, and your children can play their games, all at once!
• Do I need fibre optic broadband? To get the speeds required to support a large family, you will need a fibre optic broadband connection. ADSL would suffice for only the smallest families.
• Do I need TV? Many providers offer broadband, phone, and TV bundles, but they’re often expensive. Do your family watch traditional TV and sports or is it mostly all on Netflix? Make sure it’s worth it.
• Do I need unlimited broadband? With all your family’s devices connected at once, you’ll eat up a lot of data. Luckily, almost all broadband packages these days are unlimited, meaning you can stream and play to your heart’s content.

Last reviewed: 01 September 2021

Next review: 01 October 2021