How to use Usenet - TechRadar
The best Usenet providers make it simple and easy to get the most out of one of the oldest and most-misunderstood parts of the Internet, both in terms of service levels, features, and pricing. With all the Usenet Providers out there, how can you tell which ones are worth your money? Here's what TechRadar looks for when evaluating the best service options.
The best Usenet providers:
- Make it easy to connect to Usenet and access the posts you want.
- Have long retention periods, providing access to recent posts, along with many years of older posts.
- Grow their storage capacity to continually offer a larger Usenet archive.
- Include Usenet search capability with their service.
- Have fast network speeds because when transferring data, every millisecond counts.
The key feature to look for from a Usenet provider is a large archive of posts, known as "retention." The longer the retention, the larger the archive of posts available to you, and the better the experience.
To get the most out of your Usenet subscription, choose a provider that has:
- Long retention periods (5,035+ days)
- The same retention level for all newsgroups
- A clear retention policy
- Day-by-day retention growth
- Enough storage to never expire posts from its servers
Many Usenet providers limit their retention, providing only a fraction of Usenet's posting history archive. Some even delete Usenet posts at unpredictable times so you'll never know when posts you might want will vanish from their servers.
So with all that in mind, here are the best Usenet providers we could find:
The best Usenet providers of 2022 in full:
[70% Off] Newshosting (Official Promotion) - Get 3 FREE MONTHS of Unlimited High-Speed Downloads + a Free Newsreader with Search + VPN from TechRadar's #1 Rated Usenet Provider (opens in new tab)
Newshosting is the best Usenet provider as evaluated by our experts. A strong all-rounder of a Usenet service, it has the fastest speeds and best retention with the most complete archive of Usenet posts (over 120,000 newsgroups and almost 14 years of binary and text retention).
Newshosting has the largest Usenet archive available from any provider. Their retention grows day by day as more posts stream onto Usenet.
Other Usenet providers temporarily store files posted to Usenet and discard them after a short time if those files aren't requested straight away by enough users. Newshosting, instead, keeps every file posted to Usenet, regardless of how old it is or how many users are requesting it. So no matter how old or unpopular the post is that you are looking for on Usenet, Newshosting likely will have it waiting for you.
Newshosting operates multiple US and European server farms for fast speeds globally. All plans include unlimited downloads and a high-quality newsreader app with Usenet search and file previewing built-in, making it easy to find articles posted to newsgroups. A free, if basic, VPN service is icing on the cake.
Through this exclusive TechRadar promo, get 3 FREE MONTHS of unlimited Usenet downloads with unlimited speeds, 100 total connections, plus a free newsreader with built-in Usenet search. A free unlimited VPN account is also included for extra online security.
Read our full Newshosting review.
More detail about Newshosting and our evaluation.
Newshosting tested the fastest during our download speed tests. We learned that they buy premium connections into all major ISP networks instead of cheaper bandwidth that gets overcrowded during peak traffic times which many providers use to lower costs.
It also passed our tests in retrieving old Usenet posts we could not find from other Usenet providers. There's very little to complain about, save for their basic VPN client and English only tech support, but the core Usenet service is the best we found in our research.
Newshosting is well priced, especially considering you get access to the most retention and fastest speeds, a free newsreader with Usenet search, and a free VPN. You will be hard-pressed to find a better value. TechRadar visitors exclusively get 3 FREE MONTHS of unlimited Usenet downloads with no speed caps plus 100 SSL connections, saving you 70% on our top recommended Usenet provider.
[Official Promotion - 27% Off lifetime discount] Eweka - 7 Day unlimited GB free trial, then 27% off + Free High Speed Upgrade (opens in new tab)
Eweka is an independent, EU-based Usenet provider that owns and operates the data center housing its Usenet farm. During our testing, Eweka delivered comparably high completion rates, meaning we were generally able to find posts on their servers not found elsewhere. Eweka is a good option for either primary or secondary Usenet server access.
Eweka also operates its own trans-Atlantic Usenet backbone for fast and reliable speeds regardless of your location. Our own speed tests showed that we were able to max out our local ISP's full bandwidth speed with the unlimited download speed offered with our Usenet plan.
The retention offered at Eweka is close to the best you can get anywhere. High retention is important and determines how many Usenet posts you get access to.
Providers with low, limited retention delete older posts to make room for newer articles that are posted to Usenet. So if you are looking for an article that was not posted to Usenet within some providers' retention time, you will not find what you are looking for on those providers' servers. Not so with Eweka. They keep almost everything on Usenet: new and old.
Read our full Eweka review.
There's plenty more to like with Eweka, including the service performance during our completion and retention testing (grabbing old files).
You also get free access to the Newslazer newsreader app that includes a Usenet search tool, file previews, unlimited nzb imports and auto-downloading.
The Official TechRadar offer gives you a 7-day free trial with unlimited downloads, unlimited download speeds, and a free newsreader. Subscribe after your free trial, and receivea 27% lifetime discount applied if you signed up for your free trial through the link below.
[80% Off] Easynews (Official Promotion) - Get 3 FREE MONTHS of Unlimited Access with No Download or Speed Caps + Money-Back Guarantee (opens in new tab)
Easynews is an exceptional Usenet service -- it has fast, accurate search technology and unlimited Usenet access from any web browser on any device including mobile.
The web-based Usenet search interface is well designed and simple to use. Search results include file previews to help you pinpoint the exact posts you are looking for. Also, filtering by file type, file extension, newsgroup and even file size, make Easynews Web Usenet search flexible and feature-rich.
Retention rates are well over 13.75 years and growing on all text and binary newsgroups.
The Big Gig Plan also comes with a bundled unlimited VPN service (albeit with a rather basic client) plus unlimited NNTP Usenet access for free if you prefer to use your own newsreader client like SABnzbd.
Read our full Easynews review.
Pricing starts from $9.99 per month to $29.94 per month, depending on the monthly bandwidth you need. There is also an 80% discount available exclusively through TechRadar that gets you 3 FREE MONTHS plus unlimited access (the max you can normally get is 150GB per month) and uncapped speeds with a 30-day money-back guarantee included.
Newsleecher launched in 2002 and is a well-known provider of Usenet access with servers in the USA and EU. It also has a widely-used desktop client, which unlike competitor apps, is not locked to a particular Usenet host.
Newsleecher's text and binary retention is 5,019 days and continues to grow daily - an exceptional service level and a primary reason why they're a top recommended provider. You also get unlimited downloads, a maximum of 500Mbps, SSL, and the SuperSearch and SuperLeech features for fast file discovery and automated download.
Read our full NewsLeecher review.
We tested Newsleecher on a 63Mbps connection, with a 2.1GB video file, which downloaded at an average rate of 2000Kbps, peaking at 2100Kbps.
Newsleecher's Usenet bundle is probably its best option, available for $9.49, with a 14GB limited 14-day free trial. PayPal or credit cards are accepted, but there is no privacy policy to refer to if you're curious about how your data is used.