The honest answer to “what speed do I need?” in Ireland is almost never 2 Gb, and it is almost never a brand. It is a household shape plus the network at the Eircode. 100 Mb is a real product (FTTC, some fibre starters, Starlink’s cheaper residential). 500 Mb is the family default on full fibre. 1 Gb is what you take when it costs the same as 500 Mb, or when the house already fills 500. 2 Gb is for people who can explain where the first gigabit went.
The ranking below is illustrative: the same retailers as our best broadband in Ireland hub, in that contract-and-value order, so you can see who actually sells which tier. Sky is the 500 Mb intro illustration. Vodafone is the “1 Gb for the 500 Mb price” illustration. Virgin is the urban 1 Gb / 2 Gb download illustration. Nobody here can sell you SIRO on a Virgin-only street.
Figures are advertised headline speeds from published plans (August 2026), not lab results. Wi-Fi will waste a 1 Gb plan faster than any retailer will.
100 Mb, 500 Mb, 1 Gb or 2 Gb — the household table
Match the row to the house, then see which network can actually deliver it. Do not skip to 2 Gb because the comparison site sorted on headline Mb.
| Tier | Fits this house | Typical Irish product (August 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Mb | One or two people, HD telly, browsing, light WFH (one HD call) | Open Eir FTTC sold as “fibre”; Pure Telecom 100/100 full fibre (€30 intro); Starlink residential 100 Mb (€35) |
| 500 Mb | Typical family: a couple of 4K streams, phones, one WFH desk, console in the evening | Sky 500/100 from €27.99; Vodafone 500/500 at €40; Eir 500/100 from €34.99; Digiweb NBI 500/500; Virgin 500/50 from €30 |
| 1 Gb | Busy house already bumping into 500 Mb: several 4K sessions, big downloads, two desks | Vodafone 1 Gb/1 Gb often the same €40 as 500; Virgin 1 Gb/50 often the same €30 intro as 500; Sky 1 Gb/100 from €40; Digiweb SIRO/NBI gigabit; Eir 1 Gb/200 |
| 2 Gb | Power users, NAS, many wired devices, or “we already saturate 1 Gb” | Vodafone 2 Gb/2 Gb from €55; Virgin 2 Gb/100 from €55; Digiweb SIRO 2 Gb from ~€60. Eir’s 5 Gb exists — almost nobody’s living room needs it |
Default buy for most Irish homes on full fibre: 500 Mb. Upgrade to 1 Gb when the extra gig is free or cheap (Vodafone and Virgin often do this) or when you can point to congestion on 500. Treat 2 Gb as a specialist tier. Treat 100 Mb as enough only if the household is small and you know it is FTTC or a genuine 100 Mb FTTH starter — not a mis-sold “fibre” copper tail you expected to run four 4K TVs.
Upload sits in a different column
The table above is mostly download because that is what ads shout. Working from home, cloud backup and live-streaming care about the other number:
| Quoted plan (dataset) | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| Sky 500 Mb Ultrafast Plus | 500 Mb | 100 Mb |
| Vodafone 500 Mb / 1 Gb full fibre | 500 / 1,000 Mb | 500 / 1,000 Mb (symmetrical) |
| Virgin 500 Mb and 1 Gb cable | 500 / 1,000 Mb | 50 Mb |
| Virgin 2 Gb | 2,000 Mb | 100 Mb |
| Pure Fibre 500 / 1000 | 500 / 1,000 Mb | 500 / 1,000 Mb |
| Starlink residential 100 / 200 | 100 / 200 Mb | 15 / 20 Mb |
Same “1 Gb” badge, three different uploads. If the house is a desk as well as a telly, use best broadband for working from home and prefer SIRO/NBI symmetry. If it is mostly Netflix and sport, best broadband for streaming is the better sort.
Who illustrates which tier
The cards above follow our overall ranking so the page stays honest about price and contract. Read them as examples, not as “buy #1 for 2 Gb”:
- Sky — 500 Mb default. Often the cheapest 12-month 500 Mb fibre intro on Open Eir, SIRO and NBI. Illustration of “enough for a family, watch thereafter (€50 on that plan).”
- Vodafone — 1 Gb for 500 Mb money. Illustration of “if both are at the Eircode, take the gig.” Also the 2 Gb symmetrical illustration at €55.
- Pure Telecom — 100 Mb done properly. 100/100 full fibre from €30, then symmetrical 500 and 1 Gb if you grow. Illustration of a fair contract, not the flashiest intro.
- Virgin Media — urban 1 Gb / 2 Gb download. Illustration of cable: huge downstream, 50–100 Mb up, footprint-limited, steep year two.
- Digiweb — rural 500 / 1 Gb / 2 Gb. Illustration of NBI and regional SIRO, including a 2 Gb SIRO quote.
- Eir — coverage and 5 Gb, not value. Illustration of “the line exists” plus the thereafter/April-rise reason people switch.
- Imagine, Three, Starlink — not speed tiers, technologies. 5G “500 Mb” and Starlink “200 Mb” are not FTTH 500. They illustrate what to use when the pole is empty.
Availability still wins. Run find broadband for your Eircode before you pick a row in the table. Wholesale vs brand: Open Eir vs SIRO vs NBI vs Virgin.
Wi-Fi will waste a gigabit faster than the ISP will
A 1 Gb FTTH plan feeding a 2018 router through two stone walls will test at 80 Mb on the TV. That is not “I need 2 Gb”. That is a mesh, a better placement, or a cheap Ethernet run to the living-room box.
- Speed-test on Ethernet or 5 GHz next to the router before you upgrade the plan.
- Old extenders, microwave ovens and neighbouring Wi-Fi eat 4K more often than Open Eir does.
- Device caps: some smart TVs never pull a 4K bitrate. The ISP cannot fix that.
If the wired test is genuinely stuck far below the advertised tier, that is a different complaint — wrong product (FTTC vs FTTH), a line fault, or peak contention on cable/5G. Switching retailer on the same Open Eir cabinet will not magically add 400 Mb.
How this ranking is ordered
Unlike the WFH, gaming and streaming pages, we do not re-sort on upload or speed sub-score here. The list is the hub order — Sky first — because the job of this page is to explain tiers, and the overall ranking already encodes year-one vs thereafter, contract fairness and coverage. Treating Vodafone as #1 because it sells 2 Gb would teach the wrong lesson.
We still show advertised headline Mb, intro and thereafter on every card. We do not invent lab Mbps. Commissions do not change the order.
Related: best broadband for gaming · best rural broadband · cheapest broadband.
