Usenet Providers
Get the most in-depth reviews on Usenet Providers.
- Learn about retention and how it impacts your completion rates.
- Discover the best value providers to maximize savings.
- Explore Usenet with the best search providers.
Compare Usenet by category
Our Picks Have Been Featured On:
Editor's Usenet Picks for September 2025
Editor's Choice
Best Usenet Provider
Unlimited high-speed downloads with the most binary and text retention in the industry.
- Fastest download speeds & the most reliable network
- Most successful downloads with the highest retention
- Comes with a pre-configured, easy-to-use newsreader
Best
European Servers
Best
Speed
Best
Usenet Search
Best
Value
How We Choose The Best Usenet Providers
Retention
Retention is the length of time providers store articles on their servers. If a provider does not retain an article long enough, you won't be able to download it. Retention ranges between 1 day to up to 15 years depending on the provider, making this the most important factor to consider before making a purchase.
Completion
Completion is how many articles providers actually keep during their retention period. Providers that remove articles do not have a full retention period, and thus may cause your download to fail. Providers that include "up to" when referring to retention most likely actively delete articles.
Network Performance
Usenet providers have different ways to manage and route download traffic, which impacts your network performance and speed. High-end providers will directly access Internet Service Provider Networks and offer automatic routing through their news servers.
Unlimited Downloads
One of the most frustrating experiences for Usenet users is to have downloads throttled or run out of data on a block account. Unlimited Download plans offer superior download performance without any restrictions and are often priced very reasonably.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best Usenet provider is going to depend entirely on what you’re looking for in Usenet service. In most cases, you want to make sure that you have access to high speeds, easy Usenet search, and as much retention as possible. Read our extensive reviews for details to make the best decision for you.
Usenet search is a difficult thing to quantify because it’s so far outside of the experience of the average Internet user. The majority of the time, you want to make sure that the search option in a Usenet client (newsreader) is intuitive and connects to a reputable database that will be able to find the articles you want. We include information about Usenet search in all of our detailed reviews.
There are many Usenet clients, called “newsreaders” available, and they all come with different options and interfaces. Finding the best Usenet browser for you involves thinking about what you need to be able to access. The best Usenet browser is one that is easy for you to navigate, gives you newsgroup access, and is supported by the creators.
That depends entirely on what you mean by “best Usenet server”. That can reference the provider, the search, or the physical infrastructure. Regardless of your specific meaning, the best Usenet server will allow you to have ready access to all available newsgroups and includes as much retention as possible.
There are no longer viable Usenet options that are entirely free. In the past, many Internet Service Providers included limited Usenet access to text newsgroups as part of their service packages. Most ISPs no longer include Usenet in their service, and thus access is needed from a dedicated Usenet Provider. Learn more in our “Best Free Usenet” article.
