Are speed checkers honest? 28 July 2021 at 1:41PM in Broadband & internet access 17 replies 411 views

alandebrut

Hello,

I have tried several speed checkers and they are speeds at least 50% less than my existing provider (BT), these speed checkers are also affiliated so it is in their interest for you to switch providers. MSE suggests trying several speed checkers which I have done, the affiliated ones are the ones that will make money out of a switch.

The best and seemingly most honest speed checker was Broadband Genie, it has no affiliates, it was closest to my BT broadband speed checker.

So my question is: "Can we trust broadband speed checkers with companies that are affiliated?"  I don't think so!!

I look forward to hearing comments from others regarding my question

Regards
Alan

onomatopoeia99

I find the Think Broadband tester pretty good, it said 74Mbps download for me just now, which is about as good as can be expected on FTTC.  If they are affiliated to an ISP I don't know which one it is.

ISP owned checkers may give a slight inherent advantage to their own customers as the packets never leave the ISP's network .

Neil_Jones

Also do not do speed tests over wireless, as the results are not reliable.  Always wired.

JJ_Egan

As above i always use Okla or the BT Diagnostics test .

(Most honest speed checker was Broadband Genie, it has no affiliates)

Is that really true i don't think it is in any way honest .

iniltous

Personally I would be suspicious of a speed tester on a ‘comparison’ site , for the reason the OP states, that they make money by people switching, offering a ‘speed test’ with your current provider that suggests that the speed is ‘poor’ is more likely to get a customer to switch than one that shows a ‘good’ speed.
TBH, if it’s a comparison between company’s that use the same underlying network ( company’s that offer service over Openreach for example)  then if the ‘product’ being compared is the same, 80Mb FTTC for example , it doesn’t really matter what company is offering it, the sync speed should be the roughly the same , possibly a small difference if one company’s router is superior to another , but the line, the equipment etc is the same if you switch so why would there be any noticeable difference , you will always get some who will claim that they got much faster speed when they switched from one company to another but unless it’s a different network operator then it’s unlikely to be true, unless the ‘switch’ somehow resolved a fault that  could have also been been fixed with the original provider 

Tokmon

I would say the most honest one will be https://fast.com/.

This speed tester uses the Netflix servers so the logic is that no ISP will prioritise he traffic to get a better result because they don't want the massive amount of Netflix traffic to be prioritised on their network. Also Netflix have no reason to give a false result so it's a good one for a true speed but not the best in all situations. 

JJ_Egan

me 22 meg more on that one than speedtest.net and 23 meg more than the BT wholesale speed tester .

Mister_G

Just checked and get 18Mb on fast.com but 22Mb on both BT speed tester and speedtest.net.

tallmansix

Mister_G said:

Just checked and get 18Mb on fast.com but 22Mb on both BT speed tester and speedtest.net.

I definitely think BT are trying to steer me away from Virgin - my speed test results (down/up Mbps)

Fast.com = 350 / 34
BT speed tester = 23 / 41 
Speedtest.net (browser) = 334 / 37
Speedtest.net (router) = 385 / 37

Interestingly, although the BT one gave the lowest download score (as low as 10 on some attempts), it consistently gave the highest upload score over several tests - given my connection is theoretically capable of 37 Mbps upload, I am concerned they are giving 41 Mbps as the test result.

There are so many variables doing a speed test but the only consistently accurate one was the speed test run directly on my router.

Conclusion: Speed testers are not accurate - take many reading across different providers and if possible run directly on the router.

Roland_Sausage

I find nPerf to be the most accurate. I get 300/50 every time using mobile app and browser versions (BT FTTP)

Mister_G

Just tried nPerf and got 22Mb, so same as BT and Speedtest.