Fibre ISP ratings, scored
Twelve South African fibre ISPs ranked on Ookla speed scores, Netflix bitrate, TrustPilot, Hello Peter and MyBroadband satisfaction - with head-to-head verdicts, pricing and coverage.
Scores first, or price first?
Twelve ISPs are scored below on independent speed, streaming and satisfaction data. If you already have a shortlist, the more useful question is what each one charges on your line - and on the 100 Mbps band the cheapest line to own over 24 months is Accelerit, not the one with the lowest advertised price. Promotional rates and once-off fees reorder the table: every one of the 6 ISPs we price there changes position.
Top fibre ISPs in South Africa
Independent metrics from Ookla, Netflix, TrustPilot, Hello Peter and MyBroadband Insights, drawn from H2 2025 and the most recent April 2026 data snapshot.
| # | ISP | Speed Score | Netflix (Mbps) | TrustPilot | Satisfaction | Hello Peter | Share (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cool Ideas | 45.76 | 3.6 | – | 85% | 3.5 | ~6% |
| 2 | Webafrica | 34.21 | 3.6 | 4.4 | 76% | 1.8 | ~9% |
| 3 | Afrihost | 35.79 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 80% | 2.1 | ~22% |
| 4 | RSAWEB | 29.10 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 74% | 2.4 | ~4% |
| 5 | Vox | 27.40 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 70% | 1.9 | ~5% |
| 6 | Axxess | 30.02 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 78% | 2.1 | ~5% |
| 7 | Supersonic | 28.35 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 66% | 1.6 | ~3% |
| 8 | MWEB | 26.95 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 68% | 1.7 | ~6% |
| 9 | Vodacom | 26.10 | 3.2 | 1.4 | 62% | 1.4 | ~14% |
| 10 | Telkom | 24.80 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 55% | 1.2 | ~12% |
| 11 | MTN | 25.50 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 60% | 1.5 | ~4% |
| 12 | Herotel | 23.90 | 3.0 | 2.1 | 65% | 1.8 | ~3% |
Speed Score is a composite of download, upload and latency from Ookla Speedtest Intelligence. Cool Ideas declines to maintain a TrustPilot profile, it ranks #1 on MyBroadband's satisfaction survey instead.
| Metric | Value | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| ISPs scored | 12 | 6 of them we also hold verified prices for |
| Top TrustPilot | 4.4/5 | Webafrica · 16,900+ reviews |
| Highest Ookla score | 45.76 | Cool Ideas · Netflix index 3.6 |
| Best price per Mbps, 100 Mbps band | R0.99/Mbps | RSAweb · Octotel |
| Cost-to-own spread, 24 months | R3 264 | Accelerit cheapest to own, Webafrica dearest |
Webafrica is the runaway TrustPilot #1
TrustPilot is the largest independent customer-review platform South Africans use to rate their ISP. We pulled every mainstream SA fibre ISP profile in April 2026 and sorted by score. Webafrica is in a class of its own, 4.4/5 from over 16,900 reviews, more reviews than every other ISP on this list combined.
| ISP | TrustPilot rating | Reviews | What recent reviews say | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Webafrica#1 | 4.4 | 16,900+ | Reviewers consistently praise named support agents, fast onboarding and proactive billing fixes. More TrustPilot reviews than every other SA ISP combined. | View ↗ |
| RSAWEB | 3.7 | 200+ | Generally positive on installation speed and Wi-Fi 6 router quality; recurring complaints centre on first-line support response time. | View ↗ |
| Vox | 3.2 | 200+ | Mixed: business and SOHO reviewers rate Vox highly; residential fibre reviews more often flag downtime resolution and account management. | View ↗ |
| Cool Ideas | 1.8 | 20+ | Too few public TrustPilot reviews to be representative, Cool Ideas wins MyBroadband's annual ISP satisfaction survey instead. Treat this score with caution. | View ↗ |
| Afrihost | 1.5 | 220+ | Recurring theme: long support-ticket queues and slow escalation. Pricing and catalogue are still strong, but service complaints dominate recent reviews. | View ↗ |
| Vodacom | 1.4 | 690+ | Dominant complaint themes: billing errors and contract cancellation friction. Bundling can be attractive but standalone fibre experience rates poorly. | View ↗ |
| Axxess | 1.3 | 80+ | Recent reviews dominated by support-response complaints; small sample size means individual reviews carry disproportionate weight. | View ↗ |
| MTN | 1.3 | 200+ | Group-level profile (covers MTN globally, not just SA fibre). Mostly mobile and billing complaints, read with caution when judging the fibre product specifically. | View ↗ |
| Telkom | 1.3 | 410+ | Persistently low: dominant themes are billing disputes, slow fault repair and difficult cancellation. Telkom also leads Icasa's complaint register. | View ↗ |
| Supersonic | 1.3 | 360+ | MTN-owned. Common themes: installation delays and contract billing. Speed itself rates better than service. | View ↗ |
| MWEB | 1.1 | 480+ | Lowest mainstream score on TrustPilot. Recurring themes: cancellation difficulty, stale email infrastructure, and slow ticket resolution. | View ↗ |
Snapshot taken April 2026 from each brand's canonical TrustPilot.com profile (the figures shown match what TrustPilot displays at the top of each profile page). Notes summarise the dominant themes in roughly the most recent 50 reviews per ISP. Cool Ideas has too few public TrustPilot reviews to be statistically representative - read its score with caution and lean on the MyBroadband satisfaction column in the rankings table above.
Brand vs brand
Five matchups people search for the most. Each verdict is grounded in the rankings table above, the public TrustPilot/Hello Peter profiles and Icasa's most recent complaints register.
Afrihost vs Webafrica
Winner: Webafrica
Afrihost is the largest pure-play SA fibre ISP with packages on every major FNO, but its TrustPilot score (1.5/5 from 220+ reviews) reflects long-running complaints about slow ticket resolution. Webafrica has roughly a quarter of Afrihost's customer base yet sits at 4.4/5 on TrustPilot from over 16,900 reviews, more than every other SA ISP combined, thanks to its named-agent support model. Pick Afrihost only if pricing on a specific FNO is materially cheaper; otherwise Webafrica wins on service by a margin no other ISP comes close to.
Cool Ideas vs Afrihost
Winner: Cool Ideas (technical) · Afrihost (value)
Cool Ideas tops Ookla's SA Speed Score (45.76) and the MyBroadband satisfaction index four years running, but only resells on selected FNOs (mainly Vumatel, Octotel, Frogfoot). We hold no first-party Cool Ideas catalogue, so we publish no Cool Ideas price and no comparison against Afrihost's - check its own site for current rates. On the service metrics we can verify it is the technical winner; whether its premium is worth paying is a judgement we cannot make for you without its prices.
Vodacom vs Telkom
Winner: Vodacom
Both telcos lean on captive fibre (Vumatel/Openserve for Vodacom; Openserve for Telkom). Vodacom edges Telkom on Ookla speed score (26.10 vs 24.80), Netflix index, and complaint resolution. Telkom's biggest weakness is billing, it dominates Icasa's complaint register year after year. Choose Vodacom for the cellular bundle, otherwise look at a pure-play ISP.
RSAWEB vs Vox
Winner: RSAWEB
Both target the prosumer/SOHO market. RSAWEB scores higher on TrustPilot (3.1 vs 2.2) and ships free Wi-Fi 6 routers on most plans. Vox has the wider business catalogue (SD-WAN, voice, hosting) but the residential fibre experience is middling. RSAWEB wins for home; Vox wins if you also need business voice and cloud.
MWEB vs Axxess
Winner: Axxess
MWEB is the legacy brand (now under Vox/MTN umbrella) and trades largely on nostalgia. Axxess has invested in newer infrastructure, posts a higher Ookla score (30.02 vs 26.95), and offers month-to-month with no install on most FNOs. Unless you already have an MWEB email lock-in, Axxess is the better default.
Monthly pricing compared
Every figure here is computed from the catalogues of the 6 ISPs we re-verify against the operator's own prices, last checked 9 November 2026. Prices are each ISP's current advertised monthly rate, promotional pricing included, with the standard rate shown beside it wherever the promotion ends.
This table prices only the ISPs whose catalogues we verify ourselves. Cool Ideas, Axxess, Supersonic, Vodacom, Telkom and MTN are reviewed above on service metrics rather than price, because we track no first-party catalogue for them and a figure we cannot check is worse than no figure at all.
| ISP | Entry 25-50 Mbps down | Mid 100 Mbps down | Gigabit 1 Gbps down or faster | Router | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSAweb | R249Metro Nexus 30/30 Mbps · R495 standard | R99Octotel 100/100 Mbps · R845 standard | R699Vumatel 1000/250 Mbps · R1 375 standard | Included, free to use | 1 / 12 / 24-month |
| Vox | R409Vumatel 30/30 Mbps · R499 standard | R695Vumatel 100/50 Mbps · R895 standard | R1 115Frogfoot 1000/500 Mbps · R1 645 standard | Included, free to use | 1 / 12 / 24-month |
| MWeb | R379Metro Nexus 30/30 Mbps · R529 standard | R739Vumatel 100/50 Mbps · R889 standard | R879Cybersmart 1000/1000 Mbps | Included, free to use | Month-to-Month |
| Accelerit | R393Accelerit 25/25 Mbps | R753Accelerit 100/100 Mbps | None tracked | Not stated | Month-to-Month |
| Webafrica | R419Vumatel 30/30 Mbps · R519 standard | R789Metro Nexus 100/100 Mbps · R889 standard | R1 209Vumatel 1000/250 Mbps · R1 309 standard | Included, free to use | Month-to-Month |
| Afrihost | R427Openserve Web Connect 40/20 Mbps | R797Link Africa 100/100 Mbps | R1 297Unifybr On High 1000/200 Mbps | Included, free to use | Month-to-Month |
Cheapest monthly-billed line each ISP sells in each band, across every fibre network we track, cheapest 100 Mbps first. Bands: entry = 25-50 Mbps down, mid = 100 Mbps down and gigabit = 1 Gbps down or faster. Each cell names the exact product the figure comes from, and the standard rate where the price shown is promotional. Checked on 9 November 2026. Monthly-billed packages only; pre-paid passes are priced per pass, not per month, and are excluded from per-month figures.
| Package | Monthly price | Download | Price per Mbps |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSAweb · OctotelBest value | R99 | 100 Mbps | R0.99 |
| Vox · Vumatel | R695 | 100 Mbps | R6.95 |
| MWeb · Vumatel | R739 | 100 Mbps | R7.39 |
| Accelerit · Accelerit | R753 | 100 Mbps | R7.53 |
| Webafrica · Metro Nexus | R789 | 100 Mbps | R7.89 |
| Afrihost · Link Africa | R797 | 100 Mbps | R7.97 |
| # | Package | Advertised | Reverts to | Once-off | 12-month total | Effective /mo | Rank on cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RSAwebOctotel · 100/100 Mbps | R99 | R845after 2 mo | R250 | R8 898 | R742+R7 710 vs advertised | 144outside the top 10 |
| 2 | RSAwebMetro Nexus · 30/30 Mbps | R249 | R495after 3 mo | R250 | R5 452 | R454+R2 464 vs advertised | 23outside the top 10 |
| 3 | AcceleritAccelerit · 10/10 Mbps | R293 | — | R49 | R3 565 | R297+R49 vs advertised | 1 |
| 4 | RSAwebOctotel · 55/25 Mbps | R299 | R599after 2 mo | R250 | R6 838 | R570+R3 250 vs advertised | 63outside the top 10 |
| 5 | RSAwebOctotel · 300/200 Mbps | R299 | R895after 2 mo | R250 | R9 798 | R817+R6 210 vs advertised | 205outside the top 10 |
| 6 | AfrihostOpenserve Web Connect · 10/5 Mbps | R307 | — | not stated | R3 684 | R307 | 2 |
| 7 | MwebFibreSuburb Networks · 5/5 Mbps | R309 | — | R1 248 | R4 956 | R413+R1 248 vs advertised | 12outside the top 10 |
| 8 | RSAwebOpenserve Web Connect · 10/5 Mbps | R315 | — | R250 | R4 030 | R336+R250 vs advertised | 4 |
| 9 | MwebOpenserve Web Connect · 10/5 Mbps | R319 | — | not stated | R3 828 | R319 | 3 |
| 10 | AfrihostComtel Fibre · 5/5 Mbps | R337 | — | R1 497 | R5 541 | R462+R1 497 vs advertised | 24outside the top 10 |
A once-off installation or activation charge is paid once, so it weighs on year one and not on year two. Where a line wins on the advertised rate but loses over twelve months, check how long you expect to keep it, and compare on effective monthly cost rather than on the headline. Next: Rank the whole catalogue on price.
“None tracked” means the ISP’s verified catalogue carries no line in that band, not that we failed to look. “Not stated” in the router or contract column means the catalogue publishes no such fact for the lines quoted - an unset value is not established, never a guess. Herotel has no row at all because its ladder skips all three bands: it sells 20/10 Mbps, 120/120 Mbps and 200/200 Mbps only. Prices are national; which networks reach your street is not, so confirm the figure at your own address before signing.
Same band, 6 different bills
On the 100 Mbps band alone the ISPs we verify advertise from R99 at RSAweb (Octotel 100/100 Mbps) to R797 at Afrihost (Link Africa 100/100 Mbps) - but those are the stickers, not the bills. Costed over 24 months with the promo reversion and the once-off included, the cheapest line to own is Accelerit at R18 121 and the dearest is Webafrica at R21 385, a spread of R3 264 - and every one of the 6 ISPs we price there changes position. This page scores ISPs; it does not pick one for you, so the click-out for every ISP we track lives on one page.
Which ISPs sell on which networks
South African fibre is open access, ISPs resell capacity from a handful of FNOs. Your address determines which FNOs are lit; that determines which ISPs you can choose from.
| ISP | Vumatel | Openserve | Octotel | Frogfoot | MetroFibre | Evotel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrihost | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Webafrica | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Axxess | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Cool Ideas | ● | – | ● | ● | – | – |
| RSAWEB | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Vox | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| MWEB | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | – |
| Vodacom | ● | ● | – | – | – | – |
| Telkom | – | ● | – | – | – | – |
Deep dive on the top brands
Six ISPs that get most of the attention in 2026, profiled honestly, strengths, weaknesses, and who they're really for.
Cool Ideas, the engineer's choice
Founded 2009 in Johannesburg. Runs its own AS37680 backbone with direct peering to Netflix, Google Global Cache, Cloudflare, Microsoft and Akamai. Highest Ookla Speed Score in SA for the past four reporting periods. Smaller FNO footprint and BYO-router stance keep casual users away, but for gamers, remote workers, and 4K households it consistently outperforms.
Afrihost, the volume leader
MTN-owned since 2020. Estimated 350,000+ fibre subscribers, roughly one in five SA fibre lines. Sells on every major FNO with the deepest catalogue in the market. Persistent TrustPilot complaints centre on long support queues, but pricing is consistently among the cheapest at every speed tier.
Webafrica, the service standout
Cape Town-based, founded 1997. Differentiates on customer experience: every customer is assigned a named 'support buddy', and the brand sits at 4.4/5 on TrustPilot from over 16,900 reviews, more than every other SA ISP combined, and the only mainstream SA ISP with a TrustPilot score above 4. Bundles a Wi-Fi 6 router free with most plans. Footprint matches Afrihost on the major FNOs.
Vodacom, the bundle play
Largest mobile-led fibre ISP. Strongest reason to pick Vodacom is bundling: discounts on a fibre line if you have a mobile contract, plus inclusive Showmax. Standalone, the experience is mid-table, Ookla 26.10, TrustPilot 1.6/5, and contracts default to 24 months.
Telkom, incumbent under pressure
Owns Openserve, the largest open-access FNO. As an ISP it's been losing share to pure-play resellers since 2020 and dominates Icasa's complaint register, mostly on billing. Improving steadily on speed (Openserve XGS-PON rollout) but still ranks last on TrustPilot.
RSAWEB, the prosumer pick
Acquired by MTN in 2024. Targets work-from-home and small business with included Wi-Fi 6 hardware, IPv6 by default, and proactive line-quality monitoring. Smaller customer base than the top three but consistently strong technical reviews.
Webafrica review themes
Why Webafrica's TrustPilot profile is so far ahead of competitors, themed from the most-cited customer phrases.
How we rank ISPs
Six independent inputs, each with a public source. We don't accept ISP money to influence ranking, and the one affiliate link on this page is labelled as such where it appears.
Speed Score (Ookla)
A composite of median download, upload, and latency drawn from millions of consumer-initiated Speedtest results in South Africa over H2 2025. Higher is better. Source: Ookla Speedtest Intelligence.
Netflix Index (Mbps)
Netflix's prime-time average bitrate per ISP over the most recent reporting month. A direct measure of streaming quality at peak congestion. Higher is better. Source: Netflix ISP Speed Index, South Africa.
TrustPilot
Public profile rating out of 5, weighted by review recency and volume. We only count ISPs with 100+ reviews to avoid noise. Snapshot taken April 2026.
Customer satisfaction
Drawn from MyBroadband Insights' annual ISP satisfaction survey (10,000+ South African respondents). Reported as the percentage of customers who rate their ISP 'good' or 'excellent'.
Hello Peter rating
Public TRI* (Trust Index) score out of 10 from Hello Peter, calibrated on review recency, response rate, and resolution. Best read alongside TrustPilot, Hello Peter skews toward complaint capture.
Subscriber share (estimated)
Estimates blend Icasa's State of ICT Sector report (2025), publicly disclosed fibre subscriber numbers, and MyBroadband market estimates (Q1 2026). Treat as directional, not audited.
Overall thoughts
Three ISPs lead 2026 for clearly different reasons. Webafrica is the runaway customer-experience winner, 4.4/5 on TrustPilot from over 16,900 reviews, more than every other SA ISP combined, and the only mainstream brand above 4 stars. Cool Ideas is the technical winner if your address supports it, measurably better speed and peering, four straight years at the top of MyBroadband's satisfaction survey. Afrihost remains the safe default for breadth and pricing, with packages on every major FNO and roughly one in five SA fibre lines, though its 1.5/5 TrustPilot tells you what to expect from support.
Avoid signing a 24-month contract unless you're chasing a specific bundle. The pure-play ISPs all offer month-to-month, install fees are routinely waived on promotion, and switching between ISPs on the same FNO line takes 24–72 hours.
Reviews are one input, not the answer. A satisfaction score tells you how an ISP behaves when something breaks; it says nothing about whether the line is priced competitively at your address, and the two rarely rank in the same order. The six inputs above feed our overall best fibre ISP in South Africa ranking, which weighs them against live pricing and FNO footprint instead of treating customer sentiment as the whole picture. And if the budget is the binding constraint rather than the support queue, the cheapest fibre deals we track rank most of the brands profiled here on price alone - which is the clearest way to see what a four-star support record actually costs you each month.
The ISPs we hold verified prices for is the right buy if…
- You want the support record and the price in one decisionWe score 12 ISPs on six independent inputs and hold verified first-party prices for 6 of them. 6 are scored on service only, because we track no catalogue we can check for them and a price we cannot verify is worse than none.
- You will read the term total, not the monthly rateOn the 100 Mbps band the advertised order and the cost-to-own order are not the same list. Costed over 24 months with the promo reversion and the once-off included, Accelerit is cheapest at R18 121 while RSAweb advertises the lowest monthly rate at R99. Between the two orderings, every one of the 6 ISPs we price there changes position.
- You are comparing like for like on one tierEvery ISP priced here sells a 100 Mbps line, so the band is directly comparable. RSAweb · Octotel is the cheapest per megabit at R0.99/Mbps against R7.97/Mbps at the other end.
Who should look elsewhere
- You are judging an ISP on its star rating aloneAccelerit advertises R753 on this band, more than three of the 6 ISPs we price there - yet over 24 months it costs R18 121, and not one of them comes in cheaper. A satisfaction score tells you how an ISP behaves when the line breaks. It does not tell you what the line costs, and the two rarely rank in the same order.
- You assume the best-reviewed ISP is also the cheapestIt is not, on this band. Webafrica leads TrustPilot at 4.4/5, and Accelerit is the cheapest 100 Mbps line to own over 24 months. If the bill matters more than the support queue, the scores above are the wrong tie-breaker.
- The ISP you want is one we do not priceCool Ideas, Axxess, Supersonic, Vodacom, Telkom and MTN are reviewed here on service metrics only. If one of those is your shortlist, this page can tell you how it treats customers and nothing about what it will charge you.
- You want the cheapest line on the market, whoever sells itThis page ranks ISPs, not lines. The cheapest genuinely-monthly line in the whole catalogue sits outside the three bands compared here, and the tables that rank every package on price are the right place to start instead.
Disclosure: Webafrica is the only brand on this page we hold an affiliate relationship with, and it pays us nothing for the position it holds in the tables above - the figures are Ookla’s, Netflix’s, TrustPilot’s and our own verified catalogue, in that order. If Webafrica is the brand you landed on, check its live coverage and pricing (affiliate link); if it is not, every other ISP we track has its own click-out on best fibre deals.
ISP questions
Data sources
Every metric in this guide is drawn from a publicly accessible source. The third-party review and speed snapshots were taken April 2026 and carry that date throughout; the price table is our own catalogue, checked 9 November 2026.
- Ookla Speedtest Intelligence, South Africa, H2 2025. Composite Speed Score per ISP. speedtest.net/global-index/south-africa
- Netflix ISP Speed Index, South Africa. Prime-time Mbps per ISP. ispspeedindex.netflix.com/country/south-africa
- MyBroadband Insights, Annual ISP Satisfaction Survey. ~10,000 SA respondents per wave. mybroadband.co.za/insights
- TrustPilot. Public ISP profiles. trustpilot.com, searched per brand.
- Hello Peter. Public TRI* ratings. hellopeter.com
- Icasa, State of the ICT Sector Report 2025. Subscriber and complaint statistics. icasa.org.za
- FastestFibre deal catalogue. Every price in the pricing table is the cheapest monthly-billed line in the band from our own tracked catalogue for RSAweb, Vox, MWeb, Accelerit, Webafrica and Afrihost, each re-verified against the ISP’s own published prices and last checked 9 November 2026. We publish no price for an ISP whose catalogue we do not verify.
Pick a top-rated ISP today
Live deals from every ISP scored above, prices checked 9 November 2026 - filter by network, speed and month-to-month terms, then click out to whichever brand your own criteria pick.