Modem & Router Buying vs Renting in 2022: What’s More Beneficial?

Confused if you should buy the internet equipment or continue with the monthly lease that costs just $10-12/month? That’s why after spending time checking the pros and cons of each. Here’s a post to help you figure out what’s best for you.

If you’re here just for a YES or NO and trust us enough, then our answer is: Always consider buying over rental but if you are testing a particular service provider for a very short term (1-2 months), consider opting for monthly rental.

Renting Internet Equipment (Modem/Wireless Router)

Most of the cable providers charge around $8-15/month for the internet connectivity equipment. But that doesn’t stop there.

Despite paying such huge rentals, most of them provide outdated equipment or the equipment that can’t work with high-speed plans which means even if you have a 100 Mbps plan and your modem/router just supports speeds up to 10 Mbps, then you won’t be able to experience what you’ve paid for.

While testing various approved modems for different ISPs, 9/10 networking experts said that “RENTING” sucks. The 1 who said doesn’t suck doesn’t spend more than 1 month at a single place, he said if it wasn’t for the rental equipment, he might’ve had to carry everything while moving or traveling.

Disadvantages of Renting a Modem or Router

• Outdated equipment that’s not capable of handling fast internet plans.
• Rental is high, you can buy a cheap modem/router combo for 3 months rental and a good quality model by paying 6 months of rental fee at once.
• Despite paying high rental for the lease, you don’t get the promised speeds according to your plan because of capability issues.
• Even after paying rent for more than a year, you don’t own the equipment, so you’ll continue paying rent till you use the services (According to a research, a subscriber sticks to the ISP for 6-7 years.) So basically, you shall spend almost $120/year ($840 for 7 years.)

Advantages of Renting a Modem or Router

• Better technical support (If there are outages in the internet or issues with the modem/router) you shall contact the customer support and you’ll get better service over the ones who’ve bought the equipment.
• Great for short term (If you don’t spend more than 2 months at a place, you shall consider getting equipment for rental, as you don’t have to carry it when you move.)
• You don’t have to spend $50-150 at once for buying the equipment. (However, you’ll end up spending double the amount if you continue for a year and even after that you’ll have outdated equipment and not own it.)

Buying: Should You get your OWN Modem or Wireless Router?

Buying internet equipment can set you free from the $8-15/month rental which is around $100-300/year. You can get a good quality modem or modem/router combo for 10-12 months of the rental. But is it actually beneficial?

If you want the same modem/router model that was provided by your ISP when you subscribed to the equipment lease, then you won’t spend more than $50-100 to get it which is around 6-7 months of rental.

However, if want superior quality equipment that shall work with high-speed or gigabit internet plans then you might have to spend between $200-400.

Your purchase wouldn’t just stop at modem, if you’re not buying a combo, then you’ll have to buy a separate Wireless router too!

Advantages of buying your own Modem/Router

• The average ROI for a good quality modem or modem/router combo is 10-12 month. (In 10-12 months of rental for the lease, you’ll be able to own it.)
• No more paying of rent.
• You get high-quality equipment that allows you to use the internet at its fullest possible speed (according to your plan.)
• No more slow speed or internet issues unless there’s an internet outage.

Disadvantages of BUYING over renting

Yes buying the internet equipment has a few disadvantages too, they are:

• A lot of cable internet service providers provide free upgrade to their customers, if you get a budget modem or router that’s limited to your current internet plan then you won’t be able to take benefit of the upgrade.
• You’ll have to spend 12 months of rental at once.
• If you shift to a different cable internet provider, then there’s no guarantee that this modem would be approved by (or compatible with) them.
• You won’t get technical support for a few ISPs.

Conclusion

In short: We feel that buying a modem is a much better return on investment.

We took a survey among 2713 users located in various parts of the US and found out that 73% of them never shifted to a different provider.

In another study we did, we found out that 52% of the users weren’t able to use their internet at the fullest possible speed according to their plan because of an outdated modem.

After doing research & considering all the advantages of buying & renting both, we found buying internet equipment provides a better return on investment. You can get futureproof modems and routers for 10-12 months of the rental amount and won’t have to pay rent for the coming 5-6 years.

Whether you have a different opinion about it or support this, help other people who are confused by sharing your opinion in the comment section.