CenturyLink vs Spectrum: Price, Features & What’s Best in 2019

In a comparison between business internet service providers CenturyLink vs Spectrum, it can be difficult to choose based on price alone. Spectrum is available in more areas and delivers comparable and, sometimes, faster speeds than CenturyLink. However, CenturyLink offers flexible billing options and decent speeds, but it might not be available in your area.

When to Use CenturyLink

CenturyLink has a lot of flexible and affordable billing options that you don’t find with Spectrum or other business internet providers. Its lowest-priced plan doesn’t require an annual contract or deposit and has no cancellation fees. Many plans are prepaid on a month-to-month basis. The trade-off for that flexibility is slower connection speeds and limited availability.

Visit CenturyLink

When to Use Spectrum

Spectrum is a great business internet solution for small- to medium-sized businesses because of its convenient phone-and-internet bundles and reasonable prices. However, if you need faster speeds and greater bandwidth to handle lots of data or a large group of employees, it might not fit your needs.

Visit Spectrum

When to Use an ISP Finder

A quick and easy way to find out whether a business internet service provider (ISP) serves your area is to use Business Services Connect. It’s a matchmaking service that’s free to use. Enter your location information and business internet needs, and you’ll get a list of services that could work for you. Compare plans from business communications services and choose the best one for your business.

Visit Business Services Connect

CenturyLink vs Spectrum at a Glance

	CenturyLink	Spectrum
Pricing	$65-$84.99	$59.99-$109.98
Installation Cost	$60	$99
Availability	37 States	41 States
Speed Options	Varies on location	100-300 Mbps
Contract Required	Varies on plan	No
Equipment Lease	Yes	Yes
Data Cap	No	No
Type of Internet	Cable, fiber	Cable, fiber
More Information

How We Evaluated CenturyLink vs Spectrum

We considered several factors when we evaluated the best small business internet options. We paid particular attention to the recurring monthly costs, where services are available, and how fast their connection speeds are. Below is a full list of the criteria we used to determine which is best for you.

Price: We considered how much you’d pay for the service each month.
Ease of installation: We looked at how easy it is to install yourself, or how much you would pay for professional installation.
Internet speeds: The speed of your connection is important, depending on what you do, or how many people you expect to use the internet at your small business.
Uptime: We also considered how often the service goes down because businesses especially rely on stable internet connections.
Availability: Not all small business ISPs are available everywhere in the United States, so we looked at where each is available.
Contract length: We considered whether you must sign a long-term contract with either service and whether there are cancellation fees you should expect should you choose to break a contract.
Customer support: We assessed how you can seek help from your ISP, be it by phone, live chat on a website, through email, or by way of frequently asked question (FAQs) sections.
User reviews: We also considered what customers of these ISPs have to say about the level of service they get.

Taking all the criteria above into consideration, it’s an easy choice between CenturyLink vs Spectrum. Although CenturyLink offers low prices and bundles to help small businesses, Spectrum is comparable in costs, offers higher speeds, and it’s available in a few more states.

CenturyLink vs Spectrum: Pricing & Features

When considering costs, CenturyLink offers overall lower prices on its plans than Spectrum, especially if you’re looking for internet and phone bundles. However, CenturyLink has lower speeds available, and one plan includes long-term contract requirements and cancellation fees if you decide it isn’t right for you.

CenturyLink Pricing & Features

CenturyLink logo

At first glance, it seems as though CenturyLink would be a good choice for a small business. All three small business internet plans cost less than $100 per month. However, with speeds only up to 140 Mbps, you may find it’s too limiting.

CenturyLink Tiered Features

	CenturyLink Simple Internet	CenturyLink Simple Internet + Traditional Phone	CenturyLink Simple Internet + Digital Phone
Pricing	$65	$84.99	$90
Speeds up to 40 Mbps	✔	✔	✔
Speeds up to 140 Mbps	✔		✔
Unlimited Nationwide Calling	N/A	✔
Voicemail and Visual Voicemail	N/A	✔
Instant Messaging and Mobility Features	N/A	✔
Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials Included	N/A	✔
Business Extras	N/A	✔
Contract Length Required		2 years	None
Prepaid Plan	✔	N/A
No Cancellation Fees	✔	N/A

CenturyLink Simple Internet

This CenturyLink plan is exactly what it sounds like—an internet connection and nothing else. No phone service, no bundled software—nothing. However, it has the benefit of not locking you into a contract and being affordable. Plus, there’s no cancellation fee, and you pay month-to-month. Additionally, speeds up to 140 Mbps aren’t awful.

CenturyLink Simple Internet + Traditional Phone

Another plan that’s self-explanatory: the internet and a traditional landline. You can choose to get both internet and phone service for your business for about $84 per month. One strange thing about this CenturyLink plan is that the connection speed goes down from the Simple Internet Plan to only 40 Mbps. This is lower than even the average residential internet speed, which is nearly 100 Mbps. Most business affairs will be just fine with a connection at that low speed, but it does seem odd that you pay more and get less.

CenturyLink Simple Internet + Digital Phone

If you want an internet and phone bundle for your small business, this is the CenturyLink plan to choose. You get the same benefits as you do with the traditional phone plan, such as unlimited nationwide calling, traditional and video voicemail, and even two licenses for Microsoft Office. It’s a good value for the cost. Plus, it’s a prepaid plan so that you’re not locked into a long-term contract.

Spectrum Pricing & Features

Spectrum Business logo

Spectrum Business internet solutions offer three tiers for your business internet needs. Each plan grows in price and features as you go up the ladder. Its tiers make sense because even though it “forces” you to bundle with phone service for higher plans, the rates are fair, and the speeds far exceed that of CenturyLink.

Spectrum Tiered Features

	Spectrum Business Internet	Business Bundle	Business Bundle Ultra
Pricing	$59.99	$64.98	$109.98
Internet Speeds Up to 100 Mpbs	✔	✔	✔
Internet Speeds Up to 300 Mpbs	N/A	N/A	✔
Business Phone	N/A	✔	✔
Unlimited Local & Long-distance Calling	N/A	✔	✔
Advanced Business Calling	N/A	✔	✔
Wi-Fi Network Included	✔	✔	✔
Web Domain & Email	✔	✔	✔
Security Suite	✔	✔	✔
Modem	✔	✔	✔
24/7/365 Support	N/A	✔	✔

Spectrum Business Internet

If the internet is all you need, Spectrum’s entry-level tier will work for your small business. You can get speeds up to 100 Mbps, a professional built-in Wi-Fi network as well as a web domain and email. It’s everything you need to get started with your business. It’s also about $10 less than the opening CenturyLink bid. Because there’s no long-term contract, there’s little risk.

Spectrum Business Bundle

This is Spectrum’s mid-tier plan that includes phone service with your internet. The Business Bundle plan has the same connection speeds as Business Internet, but you also get unlimited calls within the United States, a slew of professional phone features, the Wi-Fi network, web domain, email, and security suite included. It’s only $5 more than the plain internet connection—so there’s no reason not to upgrade unless your business uses no telephones at all.

Spectrum Business Bundle Ultra

The ultra version of the Spectrum Business Bundle is what you want to get if you need faster connection speeds. This plan gives you up to 300 Mpbs speeds along with everything else in the Business Bundle. This is more than double the speeds you get with the Simple Internet + Digital Phone plan from CenturyLink, but you’ll pay about $20 more.

CenturyLink vs Spectrum: Ease of Installation

Technically minded people and information technology (IT) professionals shouldn’t have any problems installing the business internet themselves. However, you don’t want to overestimate your abilities, and both Spectrum and CenturyLink have professional and affordable installation options available.

CenturyLink Ease of Installation

CenturyLink gives you the option to waive the installation fee if you feel you have the ability to connect it yourself. This should be a simple decision. If you’re confident that you can do it, go for it. However, if there’s any doubt, it’s worth shelling out the $60 to have a professional do it for you.

Spectrum Ease of Installation

Spectrum’s installation plans are a bit more expensive than CenturyLink’s at $100. However, there’s no getting around it. Spectrum doesn’t offer a self-installation option.

CenturyLink vs Spectrum: Speed & Uptime

When we spoke to representatives from both Spectrum and CenturyLink, they confirmed that their companies guarantee internet availability more than 99% of the time. It’s impossible to know how accurate these claims are, but it’s a good bet that you’ll rarely find yourself without a connection with either of these companies.

CenturyLink Speed & Uptime

CenturyLink’s speeds are its biggest drawbacks. In the plans we evaluated, the top speed is 140 Mbps. While workable for some circumstances, it’s just not enough for companies who have multiple employees using the internet every single day. No other business ISP we looked at offers top speeds this low.

Network outages can occur with any ISP, but CenturyLink guarantees uptime for 99.95% of the time. The only time you might not have service otherwise is during scheduled maintenance.

Spectrum Speed & Uptime

Spectrum’s internet speeds weren’t the fastest we’ve seen either. However, with a starting tier that offers up to 100 Mpbs, it’s more than enough for many small businesses. Even if upgrading to the 300 Mpbs plan isn’t as fast as services like Comcast and AT&T, any small- to medium-sized businesses should function fine at that rate. Similar to CenturyLink, Spectrum claims you should have reliable service 99.9% of the time on its fiber network.

CenturyLink vs Spectrum: Customer Service

CenturyLink and Spectrum offer a few ways in which you can get the help you need, including phone, email, live chat, and through a knowledge base. The biggest difference in customer support between the companies is phone support availability.

Internet service providers, as a whole, have a bad reputation when it comes to customer services. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) gives the entire industry a 62% satisfaction score. And both CenturyLink and Spectrum come in below that at 59. It’s worth noting that the score is not for business customers only.

CenturyLink Customer Service

When you need help from CenturyLink, you can contact the support team through email or search the knowledge base at any time of day or night. Live chat is available on CenturyLink’s website, and you can call a toll-free phone number to speak with someone. Phone support hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central time Monday through Friday.

The ACSI gives CenturyLink a satisfaction score of just 59, which puts the ISP just below the average mark for customer satisfaction. Compare that score to last year’s 58, and it seems that CenturyLink is improving. Only one company—Verizon—scored a 70, which is the highest among all ISPs.

Spectrum Customer Service

Like CenturyLink, Spectrum offers numerous ways for you to get the support you need. Call, email, search the website or use live chat. The call center hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday.

Spectrum’s customer satisfaction score is the same as CenturyLink’s: 59. However, the difference is that Spectrum went down to that score from last year, while CenturyLink went up. Neither of those should be taken as a long-term trend since, in recent years, both have reached a score of 65. It’s hard to knock either of the companies for these scores, given how bad the industry is, but it’s still concerning.

CenturyLink vs Spectrum: User Reviews

We looked through user reviews of these business internet providers online to see what common customers thought of both CenturyLink and Spectrum. If anything, it shows that the ACSI seems to be reflective and accurate of online reviews from customers.

CenturyLink User Reviews

CenturyLink reviewers gave the company 3 out of 5 stars on average. The most critical reviews highlighted poor installation, frustrating customer service calls, and very poor internet speeds. High-rated reviews praised informed and helpful technicians, prepaid service plans, and a dependable connection.

Spectrum User Reviews

Spectrum’s ratings were about the same, maybe a little lower, on average than CenturyLink’s. The complaints follow along much the same lines. Billing issues not being resolved promptly, slower than advertised connection speeds, and individual customer service nightmares. Happy customers echoed CenturyLink’s in their praise for installation and maintenance technicians.

Bottom Line: Spectrum vs CenturyLink

When it comes to CenturyLink vs Spectrum, the clear choice is Spectrum when it comes to cost, speed, and value. However, CenturyLink certainly has its benefits, such as prepaid contracts and month-to-month plans.

One of the best ways to find out whether Spectrum, CenturyLink, or any other ISP is a good solution for you is to use Business Services Connect. Answer a few questions online about your business’ size and location, and the telecommunications co-op will provide you a list of business internet providers that would be a good match. Try the free service today.