Best Usenet Providers

Get the rankings for the best Usenet providers.

Our Picks Have Been Featured On:

Best Usenet Providers for September 2023

Editor's Choice

★★★★★ 5/5

Best Usenet Provider

Unlimited high-speed downloads with the most binary and text retention in the industry.

Editor’s Choice

Dedicated European servers, unlimited downloads, and the best binary and text retention.

Premium Usenet Provider that easily integrates with any newsreader.

Access Usenet anywhere with Easynews Web Search or configure on your newsreader.

European Usenet provider with a strong reputation for privacy and fast download speeds.

What is Usenet?

Usenet is a globally distributed archive of user-generated posts (called “articles” on Usenet) that pre-dates the World Wide Wide. It was the first social media platform, facilitating conversations in 8 major categories and countless subcategories. It’s where concepts like “spam” were invented, and acronyms like “LOL.” The difference between Usenet and current social media is that Usenet is decentralized: not controlled; not censored.

A Usenet provider is a service that stores the posts for a specific time period (also called “retention”) and delivers them to subscribers upon request.

Learn more about Usenet in our What is Usenet article. If you want to learn more about the best Usenet providers, read on!

How we Determine the Best Usenet Providers

At Top10Usenet, we use a rigorous and objective testing process to determine the best Usenet provider based on the following key performance indicators:

Retention – Retention is the most important metric for Usenet. It measures how much is available for search and download. The higher the Usenet provider’s retention rate (expressed in number of days), the greater the number of successful searches and completed downloads there will be.
Servers – For fastest speeds and service reliability, we highlight providers who have Usenet servers in North America and Europe.
Speeds – The best providers do not slow Usenet connections for any reason.
Connections – For secure and anonymous Usenet browsing.
Usenet Search – Available from most of our recommended providers.
Customer Support – Rapid, available, and helpful service can make a huge difference.
Features – Many providers have add-on features like a free VPN that save money and make Usenet and all online activity private and anonymous.
Pricing – We compare the price that you pay to the value you get from every provider. Most global payment types are accepted by at least one of our recommended choices.

Our Best Usenet Provider Picks

Newshosting - Best Overall Usenet

What makes Newshosting our top choice for a full service Usenet access provider?

+ Highest retention rate

+ Strong, reliable network

+ Fastest download speeds

– Slightly more expensive than some other providers

Newshosting has the longest retention rate of any Usenet provider, currently 5524+ days and increasing by one day every day. This makes Newshosting the most complete Usenet archive on Earth with more than 14 years of posts to search and download.

Without question, Newshosting had the fastest speeds of any Usenet provider we tested, probably because they have been investing in their network infrastructure for more than a decade. They own and operate their own server platforms in Europe and North America so they control the user experience end-to-end.

Newshosting also provides free, pre-configured newsreader software with a fast, intuitive search and download tool. It’s reason enough to subscribe to Newshosting.

Sign up to Newshosting’s Special 12+3 Deal today through Top10Usenet for only $5.99 per month. That’s for a year of service plus 3 months more for free and includes:

Unlimited speeds
Unlimited downloads
100 SSL encrypted connections
5524+ of binary and text retention
Free newsreader software with Usenet search
Free premium VPN

Newshosting is, without a doubt, the best Usenet provider.

Eweka - Premiere EU Usenet Provider

The best European Usenet provider, Eweka has faster speeds and more retention than any other EU-based Usenet providers we tested.

Completion rates are excellent on Eweka. Compared to other European providers, we had more successfully completed downloads on Eweka and it wasn’t even close. There are simply more posts retained on their Usenet servers than other European Usenet server platforms due to spooling retention currently at 5524+ days.

Top10 Usenet readers get a special €5.99 per month deal that includes

Unlimited speeds
Unlimited downloads
50 SSL encrypted connections
5524+ of binary and text retention
Free newsreader software with Usenet search

Overall, Eweka is the best European provider. It has great completion, fast data transfer speeds, useful add-ons, and excellent pricing.

Easynews - Best Usenet for Newbies

Easynews is incredibly simple to use.

What makes Easynews unique is that it’s the only Usenet provider that includes a web-based interface with built-in Usenet search. Any device with a web browser, including mobile devices and game consoles, now has a Usenet search engine and downloader built in. Usenet search results from the Easynews web interface display previews: helpful for sifting through results before downloading.

Of course, you’re not limited to web-based searches. Easynews works just as easily with most other newsreader software.

All Easynews plans come with the following features:

Unlimited speeds
Up to 60 SSL encrypted connections
Free web-based access with Usenet search
5524+ day of retention

With this special deal from Top10Usenet, you get unlimited downloads and a free VPN for only $7.50 per month, a 75% discount.

Overall, Easynews has unique features and benefits that set it apart from any other Usenet provider. We can’t recommend Easynews enough, especially for people who want the simplest on-ramp to the world of Usenet.

UsenetServer - Best Usenet Provider for Power Users

UsenetServer has been the Usenet Power Users’ choice since 2001. It is a no-frills Usenet provider with incredible speeds.

UsenetServer subscriptions include:

5524+ day of retention
Unlimited downloads
SSL encrypted connections
UNS Global Search

UNS Global Search is a unique feature which lets users search Usenet, compile NZB files, and import them into the newsreader software of their choice. It makes browsing Usenet very easy and flexible.

UsenetServer has fast and stable connections, so no worries about slow downloads and dropped data packets.

There’s a reason why Usenet veterans subscribe to UsenetServer as their main provider. It’s the best value, full access Usenet provider for a pure Usenet experience.

Tweaknews - Most Reliable Usenet Provider

If Eweka is Europe’s best Usenet service, Tweaknews is a close second. As the oldest continually running EU Usenet provider, they have one of the most stable Usenet server networks in the world.

Tweaknews retention is not as high as our top choices, but it is still quite good at 4,200 days. Speed, high connection quality, and a 99.5% completion rate make Tweaknews an excellent option, especially for the European Usenet fan.

Use the Top10Usenet link to score Tweaknews’ ‘Ultimate + VPN” for just: € 6,67/mo including:

Unlimited speeds
Unlimited downloads
50 SSL encrypted connections
4,200 days of binary and text retention
Access to newsreader software with Usenet search
Zero log VPN for added privacy and security

Sunny Usenet - Best EU Budget Usenet Provider

The European budget Usenet provider has over a decade of retention and a 99.99% completion rate, putting them in line with many of the best Usenet providers.

Sunny offers the best everyday cost for a basic, but full access, Usenet service plan: as low as €3.03 per month for a yearly subscription. The Sunny UNL plan is only €6,23 per month and includes the following features:

Unlimited data
Up to 60 connections (if you sign up for auto pay)
4,100 days of retention
Free SSL protection for all your Usenet data

While maybe not the choice for Usenet power-users like UsenetServer, or for those who want feature-rich options like Newshosting, Eweka, or Easynews, Sunny Usenet is an attractive budget Usenet server with surprisingly good service levels for the cost.

Astraweb- Best US Budget Usenet Provider

Pioneering consumer Usenet access in 1997 with the first independent Usenet server platform, Astraweb still offers a competitive service, if not quite as high quality or feature-rich as our top choices.

Their subscription pricing is an excellent value, with unlimited downloads, and is competitive with the other high-quality Usenet access providers. The biggest drawback is that it only offers 4,000 days of retention.

While Astraweb is trustworthy and solid, the lack of features like a newsreader client, Usenet search engine, or VPN makes their offering less attractive than some other providers.

Pure Usenet - Best Middle-of-the-Road Usenet Provider

Pure Usenet is another popular Netherlands-based provider with more than 2 decades of experience. Unlike other European Usenet providers, Pure Usenet does not require a Dutch IP address to sign-up for service, so anyone can access their servers. Pure Usenet also offers a 7-day free trial to test their services.

Pure Usenet made our list because it has been in business for years, offering a stable Usenet service which meets the basic standards of high retention, fast speeds, SSL secure downloads, and very good pricing. It is, however, a barebones service without any add-on features like VPN.

Pure Usenet does accept Bitcoin for payment so it may be a good option for those looking to pay with Crypto.

Bottom Line: Pure Usenet is a good choice, but not as good as our top providers.

XLned - Best Usenet Provider for the Lowest Price

XLned is another Dutch-based provider offering basic service that meets our standards for a full access Usenet Provider, but not much else. XLNed does offer the absolute lowest pricing of any of the providers on our list, but with a small number of connections and 2.5 Mbps speed limits, which is slow. Obviously, XLNed is trying to entice you with a low initial offer and then sell you a better service plan at competitive prices, but we are highlighting XLNed because you can get quality Usenet service for the lowest monthly price.

While XLned is not nearly the best provider, it can be a great European Usenet backup server. It’s also good for those with slow broadband speeds, or for the light Usenet downloader. The price makes maintaining an account relatively easy, but you get what you pay for, and XLned is transparent about the low price / service level tradeoffs.

If you’re looking for the best price, we recommend one of the providers on our Best Usenet Deals list.

Bottom Line from Top10Usenet - Best Usenet Service

Our team in the US and Europe did extensive testing of all the Usenet providers on the planet and these are the providers we think are the best by our objective method. They were chosen because they all have full Usenet access with high retention, sufficient connections, and fast speeds. Some have more features than others. Some are a better overall value. But you should be able to find the exact right combination of price and features to meet your demands from a Usenet provider.