Usenet backbone providers

Best Usenet Service Providers 2023 ranked by backbone

Explanation of USENET and the backbones: USENET backone is an important point to understand. A Backbone is the main provider of USENET servers: Tier-1 Provider and USENET reseller. A backbone may either sells direct to individuals through its own Tier-1 providers (very often, a backbone and a Tier-1 Provider are one and the same) and/or resell services through a reseller.

Backbones can have servers located across multiple geographic locations: United States (US), Netherlands (NL) and Germany (DE). The physical location of the Usenet server has some incidence on speed. For better speed, you should seek a server that is geographically close to you. 

List Of All Usenet Backbones 

There are 8 backbones: UNS Holdings - Eweka - Tweaknews - Vipernews - UsenetExpress - BaseIP - Abavia - UsenetFarm.

The best Usenet Backbone is UNS Holdings, which owns and manages multiple server farms in the US and Europe and counts nearly 20 clients operating from its vast server backbone. They buy the fastest, top-priority bandwidth routes compared to other backbone providers with lower-end (cheaper) bandwidth. This means end-users on the UNS Backbone get the best speeds at any given time whereas end-users on other backbones can experience slower speeds during high-traffic times since their Usenet traffic is carried over lower-priority routes.

UNS Holdings also has the most binary and text retention, by far, of any backbone. This means end-users get access to the most Usenet articles (hundreds and hundreds of billions) for the best completion. In addition, UNS Holdings regularly adds more server storage, allowing them to continue growing retention daily. This means no articles are ever overwritten in order to make room on ther servers for new posts made to Usenet. End-users get access to a complete and growing archive with hundreds of millions of new articles becoming available every day. Other backend providers not only have less retention available, but often have a finite amount of retention (i.e. retention does not grow), meaning end-users have access to only a small subset of recent articles posted to Usenet.

UNS Holdings also has complete retention for every article on every newsgroup. All articles are stored at the exact length of their retention. Other backbones systematically choose what articles to keep based on what they think their end-users would want, then delete the rest. This results in very spotty article availability and thus, spotty completion.

Best Usenet providers for each backbone

What features are important when choosing a Usenet provider?. When we test a provider we take a look at the completion, retention time and speed. Completion, retention and speed are the three most important factors. Completion rate may be the most important. The business of premium Usenet providers is generated primarily on their ability to offer excellent completion and retention rates, as well as their ability to offer very fast connections to users. 

There are many providers that's why for each backbone we have indicated the best Usenet Service Provider, Tier-1 providers take priority since the News servers have a much better quality. On this page there is a Provider Map that shows which providers use which backbone.

UNS Holdings backbone ✩✩✩✩✩

UNS Holdings is a major player in the Usenet market. UNS Holdings owns Tier-1 providers and manages multiples resellers in the US and Europe.

UNS Holdings follows DMCA takedown process (Corporate offices are based in USA).

There are many different offers from Usenet Service Providers that use UNS Holdings as a backbone. We have picked the best one for you.

The best Usenet Service Provider from the UNS Holdings backbone is Newshosting

Newshosting is a good choice if you want a reliable Usenet service. Newshosting provides its own Usenet newsreader software. 

Main Features of Newshosting

Completion: I have always good completion rates with Newshosting. If you combine Newshosting with Obfuscated Filenames, you are all set.

Retention: Newshosting has always offered the longest binary retention. Newshosting has an excellent 5,400+ day data retention period. Full Binary Retention

Speed: Newshosting owns and operates its own multi-gigabit server farms throughout the U.S. and Europe (Netherlands). This guarantees you the fastest Usenet access available from any Usenet server

Newshosting subscription options

Newshosting is offering NH Unlimited Usenet access for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.

1 month plan - $9.99

12 month plan - $8.33 per month ($99.99 total cost). Save 58% on High-Speed Usenet with Unlimited Downloads.

You can sign up for NEWSHOSTING here

Eweka backbone ✩✩✩✩✩

Eweka owns and manages their own Usenet backbone in Amsterdam. Eweka follows NTD takedown (Corporate offices are based in The Netherlands).

Eweka is the best Dutch Newsgroup provider. Eweka is itself a backbone (Servers are in the Netherlands).

Main Features of Eweka

Completion: Eweka has the highest completion rates of the European providers.

Retention: The only Dutch News Service provider to offer more than 5400+ days of retention. Only Eweka rate can rival the retention of American providers. Full Binary Retention

Speed: Fast servers offering unlimited download speeds. Downloading from Eweka was as fast as advertised.

Eweka subscription options

Get 7 days of FREE unlimited, high-speed downloads + 27% lifetime discount

12 month plan - 7 Euros per Month (84 € total cost). Save 27% (EXCLUSIVE LIFETIME DISCOUNT)

You can sign up for EWEKA here

Tweaknews backbone ✩✩✩✩

Tweaknews is an independent Usenet backbone based in The Netherlands. Tweaknews manages their own backbone. Servers are located in the Netherlands.

Tweaknews follows NTD takedown (Corporate offices are based in The Netherlands).

Main Features of Tweaknews

Completion: Tweaknews is a Netherlands-based Usenet provider, this helps to ensure a 100% completion rate.

Retention: You will have access to over 4,200 days of binary retention through the service. Full Binary Retention

Speed: Tweaknews offers impressive download speeds. The maximum speed of Tweaknews is around 1 GB/s

Tweaknews subscription options

Tweaknews offers unlimited Usenet access with free SSL

Get MBG

12 month plan - 7.50 € per month (€90 total cost).

Tweaknews also offers block Usenet plans:

10 GB 2 € - 50 GB 7 € - 100 GB 13 € - 250 GB 30 € - 500 GB 45 €

ViperNews backbone ✩✩✩

ViperNews is a "Tier 1" Usenet provider. Vipernews is a NL based Usenet service provider. Vipernews owns its network backbone and data centers in The Netherlands. Vipernews offers cheap Usenet. Vipernews is offering a 7-day money-back guarantee - no questions asked.

Vipernews supports NTD take-down (Corporate offices are based in The Netherlands).

Main Features of Vipernews

Completion: Vipernews is a Dutch Usenet provider based in The Netherlands. Based in the Netherlands helps to maximize completion rates.

Retention: Vipernews has 1500+ days of retention

Speed: Fastest plan caps out at 1Gbps FttH connection

Vipernews subscription options

Vipernews is offering a 7-day money-back guarantee - no questions asked.

The cheapest plan costs only €1.79 and you get 10 Mbit/s of speed.

Vipernews also offers block Usenet plans:

500 GB 13,99 € - 1000 GB 23,99 € - 2000 GB 42,99 €

UsenetExpress backbone ✩✩✩

The Usenet Service Provider UsenetExpress is a rising star. UsenetExpress has their own backbone.

UsenetExpress is an independent backbone with servers in the US. UsenetExpress follows DMCA notice (Corporate offices are based in USA).

Main Features of UsenetExpress

Completion: Usenetexpress is based in the United States. Despite that, we found that completion rate was above average.

Retention: Many Articles Over 4,000 Days Old.

Speed: Fast servers with up to 1GB/s download speeds. In our tests, the speed was OK.

UsenetExpress subscription options

UsenetExpress is offering a 30 days risk free.

Unlimited Usenet access for $10 a month. A full year of access costs only $90.

UsenetExpress also offers a block Usenet plan: 500 GB $20

BaseIP backbone ✩✩✩

BaseIP is a backbone that only offers its network via Usenet resellers. Only Netherlands servers.

BaseIP follows NTD takedown (Corporate offices are based in The Netherlands).

The best Usenet Service Provider from the backbone BaseIP is Usenetbucket.

Main Features of UsenetBucket

Completion: Usenetbucket has good completion in my experience.

Retention: Usenetbucket gives users access to 1,600 days of binary retention.

Speed: Fastest plan caps out only at 400 Mbit.

Usenetbucket subscription options

Prices are based on download speed. From 2,95 € for the basic Bucket rate (15Mbit/s) to 12.95 € for the ultimate Bucket rate at 400Mbit/s.

Abavia backbone ✩✩

Abavia is a backbone headquartered out of Chiesanuova, San Marino with servers in the Netherlands. Abavia follows DMCA takedown process

The best Usenet Service Provider from the backbone BaseIP is StingyUsenet.

Main Features of StingyUsenet

Completion: StingyUsenet offers a 99,5% completion rate. We tested several downloads and found completion to be very high

Retention: StingyUsenet offers 2,400 days of binary retention

Speed: The StingyUsenet servers are located in the Netherlands and you will still max out your internet connection.

StingyUsenet subscription options

StingyUsenet has three different flat rate subscriptions with unlimited downloading: 30 days (€ 4,95) - 180 days (€ 28,95) - 365 days (€ 54,95)

Usenetfarm is an independent provider with servers in the Netherlands. UsenetFarm owns its network backbone and data centers in The Netherlands.

Usenet.Farm supports NTD take-down (Corporate offices are based in The Netherlands).

Main Features of UsenetFarm

Completion: They have one of the best completion rates in the industry.

Retention: Usenetfarm has a maximum of 3,000 days retention for their service.

Speed: UsenetFarm was fast in testing. The maximum speed of UsenetFarm is around 1 GB/s

UsenetFarm subscription options

UsenetFarm offers a free trial to its users. A free trial is limited to 10 GB data limit. Get this 10GB trial for free with no time limits.

UsenetFarm offers 2 monthly subscription plans to its users. The cheapest plan costs €4.95 and you get 100 Mbits of speed. For the €7.95 ‘To the max’ monthly plan, you’re given unlimited speed.

Usenet.farm also offer Block account: 500 GB 15 €