How we test & rank SA fibre deals
Live pricing. Address-level coverage. Price-per-Mbps and fee-adjusted year-one cost. The methodology that produces every ranking on Fastest Fibre — published in full, reviewed every 90 days.
Read the signals
The short version
If you only read one section, read this.
What we measure when we rank
Every Fastest Fibre ranking blends these six signals. The weighting changes by page (a 'cheapest' page weights price-per-Mbps higher than a 'best gaming ISP' page), but the inputs are always the same and always disclosed.
Live ISP pricing
Every deal we publish is pulled from a live ISP partner feed and re-checked against the ISP's public price list whenever we have new information from our network and ISP contacts. If we spot a stale price, the page is flagged and pulled from rankings until corrected.
Address-level coverage
We don't rank deals you can't actually buy. Coverage is verified against the FNO's live address feed (Vumatel, Openserve, Frogfoot, Octotel, MetroFibre, Evotel, Mitsol, Lightstruck) before a deal lands on a city or suburb page.
Price-per-Mbps weighting
Pure sticker price is misleading. We rank value as monthly price ÷ download Mbps, and separately track the upload-corrected score for work-from-home buyers who need symmetry.
Fee-adjusted year-one cost
Every comparison includes once-off router fees, install fees, activation fees and any cancellation penalty. The cheapest sticker is rarely the cheapest year-one cost.
Open-access network neutrality
We rank ISPs across every major South African open-access FNO. We don't penalise smaller networks (Mitsol, Lightstruck, Comtel, Fibonacci) when they win on value in their footprint.
Independent & reader-funded
We earn an affiliate commission when readers sign up via our partner links. Commission rates do NOT influence rankings — they're disclosed publicly and identical across the ISPs we recommend.
How often we re-check
Stale data kills trust. We're in regular contact with the SA networks and ISPs we cover and refresh data as soon as new information lands.
Live pricing
We're in regular contact with the major SA networks and ISPs and update deals whenever they share new packages, promos or price changes with us. If you spot a stale price, please tell us and we'll fix it.
Ranking refresh
Every comparison and 'best of' page is re-ranked whenever the underlying deal pool changes meaningfully. Headline pages (cheapest, best-value, gaming, streaming) get a fresh top-pick analysis on each refresh.
Methodology review
This methodology page is reviewed at least every 90 days, and any change to the weighting formula is documented in the page's last-reviewed date.
Our affiliate disclosure policy
We earn affiliate commissions. When you click a deal link and sign up with the partner ISP, we receive a one-off commission. This is how the site is funded — there are no banner ads, no sponsored placements, and no paid rankings.
Commission does not buy a ranking. Our partner commission rates are flat across the ISPs we recommend. If a non-partner ISP offered a better deal at your address, we would say so. The methodology is fixed and applied identically across every provider.
Spot a problem? Email hello@fastestfibre.co.za with a screenshot and the URL. We fix verified pricing or coverage issues within 48 hours.
Methodology questions
Who writes the rankings on Fastest Fibre?
All rankings are produced by the Fastest Fibre editorial team — an independent group of South African fibre researchers. We publish under a team byline because the rankings are produced collaboratively from live data feeds, not as personal opinion pieces.
Are the deals you publish actually live?
Yes. Every deal on the site is pulled from a partner ISP feed. We're in regular contact with the networks and ISPs and update prices whenever new packages, promos or changes are shared with us. If you spot a price difference, please tell us and we'll fix it.
Do you take commission from ISPs?
Yes — we earn an affiliate commission when readers sign up through our partner links. This funds the research. Commission rates do NOT change rankings: they are flat and disclosed, and we will recommend a non-commissioned ISP if it wins on value.
How do you decide which ISP is 'cheapest'?
We compute price ÷ download Mbps to find the best value. We also track fee-adjusted year-one total cost. The headline 'cheapest' is the lowest sticker price; the headline 'best value' is the lowest price-per-Mbps with the upload speed weighted by intended use case.
How often is each page updated?
We refresh deals whenever our network and ISP partners share new pricing or packages with us — there's no fixed weekly schedule, but we're in constant contact and update as soon as we have something to update. Comparison and 'best of' pages are re-ranked whenever the underlying pool changes meaningfully, and the methodology itself is reviewed at least every 90 days. Each page shows a 'Last reviewed' date in its header.