There’s so much to do on Florida’s Gulf Coast that it’s easy to forget about internet. But you still need it, and with so many options in the area, it’s hard to know which one is right. Start with these three:

#1 Spectrum

Tampa is one of those markets where the internet provider space is dominated mainly by one company: Spectrum. There is competition, but none match Spectrum in terms of coverage, speed, and reliability.

Max speeds on Spectrum’s network reach 300 Mbps, with the average being around 100 Mbps, more than enough for most.

We’d like to see the possibility to upgrade to gigabit speed (1000 Mbps), but no one in Tampa offers that service at this moment. As a result, it’s really hard to go wrong with Spectrum.

#2 Frontier

As Spectrum’s main competitor, it’s certainly worth it to explore it as an option. In general, Frontier is an adequate internet provider, although overall speeds do tend to be slower. The max is around 100 Mbps, with average speeds hovering more around 60 Mbps.

This is probably fine for most, but it’s also a bit disappointing, especially since you won’t experience much of a savings.

If Spectrum isn’t available to you for some reason, Frontier will do the job, but know there are better options out there.

#3 Viasat

This is only an option if, for some strange reason, you can’t access either of the other two providers on this list.

Viasat offers satellite internet, which means it can reach more remote areas, and the connection speed is good – max is around 100 Mbps – but being a satellite connection, it’s considerably more expensive and also unreliable (storms and other weather can disrupt it).

Overall, you really only have one exceptional choice in Tampa. Competition exists, but we recommend you don’t complicate things and instead focus on the true best in the region.