Usenet Newsgroup Server FAQ & Price Comparison
Jump straight to the Best Usenet Plans Table |
Jump Straight to the Newsgroup Server Back-End Xref Table |
Usenet has been around since before the World Wide Web - and we've been reviewing the major providers since 2002. Usenet was the original online distributed discussion forum. Messages posted on one server were compared against other connected servers, and together they shared what each was missing so that within and hour and eventually minutes, a message posted on one server was duplicated on all servers so everyone connected to read and reply to it. Over time techie-geeks figured out ways to include attachments, which has kept Usenet as a viable discussion medium even well after the World Wide Web exploded in to general use.
What will you find in Usenet Newsgroups? Special Interest Group discussions on Pinball Machines, favorite music artists, and of course, porn. Some ISP's include very basic Usenet access with your normal Internet connection, but to really use Usenet Newsgroups, you'll need to subscribe to a Premium Usenet provider.
Back when we started doing newsgroup server reviews, any Tom, Dick or Harry could set up a newsgroup server and peer with others. But as usenet traffic grew into the thousands, millions, billions of messages, the bandwidth and storage requirements meant only players with large assets could afford the equipment. ISPs, universities, and 10 or 15 private companies. Equipment was really expensive, so storing 3 or 4 days worth of messages was quite an accomplishment. The high cost of bandwidth meant that only 60 or 70 percent of the messages were reliably copied to all the servers.
These days there is so much daily newsgroup traffic and bandwidth that colleges can only afford to listen to a few groups (non-binaries), and the newsgroup server storage requirements are so huge that ISP's have all but exited the field. The only ones that can afford to really support the infrastructure are private companies (Premium Usenet Providers), and at that just the ones with deep pockets. There are still a few small Tom, Dick, and Harry usenet providers out there, but mostly they just buy server access and bandwidth from the same three super-newsgroup-providers - Giganews (US), Highwinds (US), and News-Service (Netherlands)
All three have the resources to connect to all the fastest network backbones; they all have great completion rates; and cheap hard drives have given them all the ability to have hundreds of days of retention (over 400 days for all of them). The biggest differentiation these days is redundancy in their internal infrastrutures - also known as reliability. Providers with higher prices have typically built in more redundancy and see less downtime and lost messages.
The pages on this site try to explain Usenet and Newsgroup Servicers in normal, everyday terms - primarily focused at normal Windows and Mac (i.e. non-geeky) users. We also do a semi-annual back-trace report of all the smaller providers to try to figure which of the big three they are actually linking though.
As a general rule, you'll find we only recommend Usenet providers that are either completely controlled by or closely associated with one of the big three super-newsgroup-providers. We regularly re-evaluate the available plans, cross-check the providers' claims, and then recommend the best usenet plans for different categories of users. You decide which user group you fit in, and we help you decide which newsgroup server company and plan fits your needs best.
Best Usenet Newsgroup Plans (updated 7/28/2010) |
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| Key Benefits | Provider / Plan | Features | Std Price | Specials | Notes |
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Max retention Max system redundancy Max # of locations |
Giganews Diamond |
Unlimited Downloads 707 Days header retention SSL (Diamond) 20 - 50 conx |
$30 / mo |
The Giganews Diamond Plan is the Best Usenet plan in the industry - there, we said it. Giganews is the Usenet provider with the longest retention and most resiliant system, and the Giganews Diamond program is their flagship product. On the Diamond Usenet plan they also throw in their new VPN encryption service - VyprVPN, worth about $15 a month (Click here to read more about what VPN is). And if you have any problems, their help desk is staffed 7/24 to help you through them. Sure, you pay a good bit more, but especially with the VPN service, it's the best newsgroup server program for usenet binaries users who are serious about being able to get the most out of newsgroups. |
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| Cheapest unlimited accounts with SSL |
Supernews |
Unlimited Downloads 500 days header retention SSL |
$12 |
$12 Regular Price |
Supernews is affiliated with Giganews and is the way Giganews offers an entry-level version of its services. You get all the redundency and support levels of Giganews, but retention is cut off at 400 days - which we think is more than enough for almost anyone. Click here to read more about Giganews, the back end for Supernews. |
Usenetserver High Speed Plus Plan |
Unlimited Downloads 500ish days header retention SSL 20 conx |
$12 |
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If you're a cheapskate, and you can admit it, the Usenetserver $10 special Usenet price deal may be for you. Usenetserver is managed by Highwinds, one of the Big Three in the Newsgroup Server industry. Highwinds focuses more on keeping costs down - which means that from time to time they have system failures (read more on the Highwinds page). But if $$ per month is more important than super long retention, the Usenetserver $10 special is a real bargain! Click here to read more about Highwinds and recent retention issues |
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| Easiest to use (no newsreader software required) |
Easynews Classic |
Web-based interface 150+ days retention Batch-downloads possible |
$10 | Free 14 day trial account |
Easynews is closely affiliated with Highwinds and uses their back end services for its Newsreader-based access. Whoop-dee-doo you say? Easynews also has a super-cool online search feature that incorporates a web-based viewer - you can see thumbnails of usenet binaries and decide which ones you want without even downloading headers! And of course, you can use a regular newsreader program too. Retention is based on which usenet plan you choose and unlimited plans are available too. Read more about the company that provides the back end services for Easynews. |
UsenetBinaries |
Web-based interface 120+ days retention |
$15 | If all that is too much flexibility for you, a simpler site is UsenetBinaries.com - although their signup process is weird (create a free account, then wait for an email invite to create a full account). The image thumbnails and video previews make finding and downloading stuff easy. | ||
| Best for occasional users or backup for another service |
NewsDemon
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500ish days header retention |
$2 to $87 |
If you are just starting out, only access Usenet once in a while, or just want a good backup to another (non-Highwinds-based) Usenet Provider, the NewsDemon annual block accounts are great. | |
Best Newsgroup Server Companies - Summaries (updated 7/28/2010) |
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| Back-end Usenet Provider | Sold under | Specials | Summary Of Company History and Strengths |
| Giganews |
Giganews SuperNews PowerUsenet Usenet.net |
Giganews Diamond 1/2 off first month plus free VyprVPN |
Giganews is the overacheiver in the industry. Their support desk is available 7X24. They have the longest retention and the best system redundancy. And they have servers in the US, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong. If anything fails anywhere in their system, its mirror can kick in immediately or worst case they can re-load from another location. The multiple locations also means users world-wide can choose the newsgroup server closest to them. Most of Giganews plans are more expensive than their competitors, but you can get Giganews service levels for less. Giganews offers Silver and Bronze plans where downloads are capped at 10 or 50 GB a month - or through its related companies like Supernews, where it cuts off the retention at a lower level. Giganews also launched a new VPN encryption service that works on ALL your internet traffic, not just Newsgroups. They sell it for $15 a month, or it comes free with their top-end Diamond Usenet plan. |
| Highwinds |
Newshosting Usenetserver Easynews |
Free Trials at |
The Anchordudes have had a long relationship with Highwinds - even before it was Highwinds! Usenetserver.com was the first Newsgroup Server company we actually paid for (besides out ISP) and was our first site reviewed. Highwinds was a software and infrastructure company that has bought up many of the independent Newgroup Server sites over the past five years (including Usenetserver) and built an empire by taking the best features of each service it bought. Newshosting and Usenetserver are now the flagship retail services for Highwinds. They also supply the back-end services for many, many of the reseller sites out there. Because their network was built by combining many individual services, they have had hiccups in service through the years, but standardization in 2009 had smoothed things out. Unfortunately they had a software bug cause them to lose about 100 days of retention in most newsgroups recently, so we have them marked as only having 500 days right now. A few of the groups have even less retention. They tell us that the data was not lost, but it will take quite a while to re-organize and re-index it all. |
| News-Service |
Usenext Eurofeeds Sonic-news |
News-Service is the third of the Big Three usenet providers worldwide. We know they are based in the Netherlands, and that their retention and reliability are quite good, but unfortunately language barriers have kept us from getting a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Firsthand reports from users are good, and the industry folks we've spoken to say the management are good guys. Sorry we don't have more info to share... | |
| AstraWeb | Astraweb | $11 / mo unlimited Special |
Astranews is something of an enigma wrapped in mystery surrounded by styrofoam peanuts. We've been tying to get in contact with them to learn more about their operation, but so far have had no luck. We know they are running their own newsgroup servers, which they supplement with purchased services from at least 2 of the Big Three for really old articles. Sometimes their website is slow or unresponsive. But they have a loyal following of subscribers. They certainly have low prices. Normally we wouldn't include them in this listing because of their size and use of reseller services, but their users' loyalty means they must the right choice for at least a certain niche of Usenet users. Be careful of their unlimited plans - the entry level newsgroup service rate speed limits you to 1Mbit / sec - OK for dial up or old DSL, but not for cable modem users. |
| Resellers | Hundreds |
There are hundreds of resellers out there, buying and reselling services from Highwinds, Giganews, and News-Service. Most buy a huge block of data usage and then hope the people they sell it to don't use it up every month. Others buy a certain number of simultaneous connections and hope they don't have too many of their customers try to use them all at once (like an airline over-selling seats). There are some good resellers out there - trustworthy and well funded. But for the most part our experience with resellers has been not so good. Many have billing problems where they charge the wrong amount or don't stop charging when you cancel your account. As month-end approaches users get more "unable to connects" and encounter bandwidth limiting to slow down how fast they use up the reseller's quota. That's why we only recommend services sold directly by the Big Three, or their closely related partners (listed in the table above). We get hate mail regularly regarding this policy (as well as offers to pay us big bonuses to give them favorable treatment), but time and time again it's turned out to be the safest bet to not recommend them. No hard feelings guys... |
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Check out the European Usenet Service Provider table too! |
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| The list of all the newsgroup server back-ends has gotten so big that we had to move it to its own page. So if you want to see who's actually providing the newsgroup servers for the usenet provider you've chosen, follow the link HERE. |