The simplest question you can ask a broadband customer is also the most telling: would you recommend your provider to a friend? It cuts through the marketing and the spec sheets. If people are happy enough to put their own name behind a recommendation, the provider is probably doing something right.
Every reviewer on this site answers that exact question, yes or no, on top of their star ratings. This ranking is the percentage who said yes, which is the same idea behind a Net Promoter Score. It’s the closest thing we have to a single happiness number for each provider.
As always, this is the NBN era (reviews from November 2018), and a provider needs at least 10 yes or no responses to appear. The method is on our how we rank Australia’s broadband providers page.
Australia’s most recommended NBN providers
Here is the share of reviewers who said they would recommend each provider, highest first. “Responses” is how many reviewers answered the recommend question. “Partner” means the provider runs an affiliate program with us.
| Rank | Provider | Would recommend | Responses | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aussie Broadband | 99% | 94 | Yes |
| 2 | Superloop | 93% | 42 | Yes |
| 3 | Exetel | 81% | 21 | Yes |
| 4 | Tangerine | 81% | 16 | Yes |
| 5 | iiNet | 80% | 40 | No |
| 6 | SpinTel | 80% | 10 | No |
| 7 | TPG | 77% | 60 | No |
| 8 | Optus | 74% | 42 | No |
| 9 | Dodo | 74% | 19 | No |
| 10 | Telstra | 73% | 64 | No |
| 11 | Mate | 71% | 17 | No |
| 12 | Vodafone | 70% | 10 | No |
| 13 | Belong | 68% | 34 | No |
| 14 | Internode | 67% | 18 | No |
Aussie Broadband and Superloop lead
Aussie Broadband tops this ranking too, and the number is remarkable: 99% of its reviewers, 93 out of 94, would recommend it. That’s about as close to unanimous as real data gets. One New South Wales reviewer this year captured why: “a good experience talking to a help desk that I could actually understand when they spoke. Whenever I’ve phoned them with a problem they seem genuinely invested in finding a solution.”
Superloop is second on 93%. “Pay a fair bit, but customer service has been spot on and barely any outages. Good stuff, would recommend,” wrote one Victorian reviewer, which sums up the trade-off people are happy to make with Superloop.
The Exetel surprise
The interesting result is Exetel in third on 81%. Exetel sits mid-table on our reliability and support rankings, so why do so many of its customers recommend it? Value. One Queensland reviewer this year: “I switched from Optus to Exetel’s One Plan 500/50 and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve made. The entire setup process took less than two hours from sign-up.” When the price is right and the plan does what people need, they recommend it even if the support desk isn’t the best in the country.
Why this list looks different to the others
You’ll notice the order here isn’t the same as our most reliable or best support rankings. That’s the point. Reliability measures whether the connection stays up. Support measures what happens when it doesn’t. Recommendation rolls in everything, including price and value, into one yes or no. SpinTel, for example, scores poorly on reliability but still gets an 80% recommend rate from its (smaller) review base, because the people who chose it for the price are happy with what they paid for. Read the three rankings together and you get a fuller picture than any single number.
A note on sample sizes: providers like SpinTel and Vodafone are right on the 10-response minimum, so their percentages can move more on a few new reviews. The ones with 40 or more responses (Aussie Broadband, TPG, Telstra, Optus, iiNet) are the most settled.
Thinking of switching?
If your provider is near the bottom and you’re not the type to recommend it, you’re not stuck. Switching NBN providers is straightforward and you keep the same connection. It’s worth checking the reliability and support rankings for your shortlist before you move.
Frequently asked questions
Which NBN provider are customers most likely to recommend?
Aussie Broadband, by a wide margin. 99% of its reviewers in the NBN era (93 of 94) said they would recommend it to a friend. Superloop is second on 93%, then Exetel and Tangerine on 81%.
How is ‘would recommend’ measured?
Every reviewer answers a simple yes or no: would you recommend this provider to a friend? The figure here is the percentage who said yes, for NBN-era reviews from November 2018 onwards. It’s the same idea as a Net Promoter Score. A provider needs at least 10 yes/no responses to appear.
Why do some providers rank differently here than on reliability?
Recommendation reflects the whole experience, not just whether the connection stays up. Price and value matter too. A provider can be recommended because it’s good value even if its reliability is mid-table, and a technically solid provider can score lower if people feel they pay too much. It’s worth reading this alongside our reliability and support rankings.
Are the rankings affected by affiliate partnerships?
No. Reviewers don’t know which providers we earn commission from, and we don’t adjust the scores. We partner with providers that already review well. Full detail is on our methodology page.
How often is this updated?
The percentages update as new reviews come in, and we refresh the published ranking periodically.
