Which Starlink Plan Fits You?

When you land on Starlink's pricing page for the first time, it feels like you're reading a rental car menu: five plans, vague descriptors, buttons that all say "Get Started." The real differences — who the plan is engineered for, where it wins, where it fails — aren't there. This guide fills that gap.

Want a shortcut? Our 5-question plan picker scores all 5 plans against your specific situation in 60 seconds. Or keep reading for the deep comparison.

The five plans at a glance

Plan-by-plan deep dive

Residential — the default for homes

This is what 80% of Starlink customers buy. $120/month, locked to your service address, 1TB of priority data per month. The dish gets first-tier access to your cell's capacity, meaning peak-hour speeds (7-11pm) stay high while Roam users in the same cell get throttled. It's the right choice if you're installing on a roof and never plan to move it. Gotcha: moving the dish outside your registered service address triggers $100 address-change fees and can temporarily deactivate service until Starlink approves the new location.

Roam Regional — the RV sweet spot

$50/month and the most underrated plan in the lineup. Portable anywhere on your continent (US/Canada/Mexico for North America), no fixed address, pausable month-to-month via the app. Only catches: 50GB of priority data per month (fine for most mobile users; tight if you stream heavily), and no in-motion use without adding a $200 mobility hardware upgrade. If you RV 6 months a year and pause the other 6, this plan's $300 annual cost crushes every alternative. The ideal match for Class B vans, travel trailers, and seasonal cabin owners.

Roam Global — for true globetrotters

$165/month and a premium for worldwide coverage. Unlimited priority data, works in every country Starlink serves. This is what liveaboard sailors use for coastal cruising, and what digital nomads running 4-country-a-year schedules default to. Not cheap, but the alternative for this lifestyle is multiple country-specific cellular plans at $80-150 each, which adds up fast. For international business travelers who need guaranteed internet on boats, RVs, or remote accommodations, it's the only real option.

Priority — for business-class reliability

$500/month, $2,500 hardware, built around the High Performance dish. The hardware draws 140W (twice as much as Standard) and delivers strong throughput consistently with rock-solid uptime SLA. Priority users get first access to the cell's capacity even when Residential users are being throttled. This is the plan small-to-medium businesses, medical clinics, schools, and remote construction sites buy. Expensive on paper, but 10× cheaper than the leased fiber these sites would otherwise need.

Maritime — for open-ocean operators

$5,000/month, $10,000 hardware. Only real customer base: commercial shipping, oil rigs, large yachts with professional crews. Maritime's unique feature is pole-to-pole coverage — it works at the Arctic and Antarctic circles where regular plans lose signal. Recreational boaters should never buy this; Roam Global at 1/30th the cost covers coastal and Caribbean sailing perfectly. The rule of thumb: if you're crossing the Atlantic under your own power, you need Maritime. If you're day-sailing in San Francisco Bay, you don't.

Five user personas, five answers

Rural WFH household

You're a family of 4 in a farmhouse 20 miles from the nearest cable line. Two adults working remote with daily video calls, two kids streaming Netflix in 4K at night, smart-home devices always on. Monthly data: 800GB typical, spikes to 1.3TB during holidays. Answer: Residential. The fixed address locks in priority access, and upgrading to Priority only makes sense if the extra latency during peak hours is hurting your income.

Year-round RV couple

You live full-time in a Class B, move every 2-4 weeks, work remote when you have signal. Monthly data: 200-400GB (work + streaming in the evening). Answer: Roam Global. You don't want to think about data caps, and Roam Regional's 50GB ceiling will annoy you. The $115/month premium over Regional is insurance for the lifestyle.

Weekend boat owner

You sail coastal waters 20 weekends per year, use internet for weather apps, route tracking, and occasional video calls. Monthly data: 10-40GB. Answer: Roam Regional, pause in off-season. Six active months at $50 = $300/year total. Pausing is the superpower here — Starlink is one of the only ISPs that lets you turn service off without a reactivation fee.

Rural clinic

Small medical office, 3 staff, needs guaranteed uptime for patient scheduling, telehealth, and EMR backups. Monthly data: 300-500GB. Answer: Priority. The $500/month is a fraction of the revenue lost in a day of downtime. The 2TB priority tier plus first-access scheduling means telehealth calls don't drop during peak hours.

Construction contractor, remote site

Project manager on a 6-month build site 40 miles from the nearest cell tower. Needs internet for 8-10 field workers, CAD file transfers, daily site-report uploads. Monthly data: 400-600GB. Answer: Priority. Same logic as the clinic — business continuity overrides cost. Bonus: when the project wraps, you can resell the HP dish on eBay for $1,200-1,500 (50-60% of $2,500 new).

The three most common plan-picking mistakes

Mistake 1: Choosing Residential because it's cheaper than Roam Global

If you're moving even 3-4 times a year, Residential's $100 address-change fee per move eats the "savings." Worse, it disrupts service for 24-72 hours each time while the new address is validated. Roam Regional at $50 is the correct comparison, not Residential.

Mistake 2: Buying Maritime because you own a boat

Covered above. Maritime is for open-ocean commercial operations. A 32-foot cruiser doing weekend trips on San Francisco Bay gets identical coverage from Roam Global at 3% of the price.

Mistake 3: Upgrading to Priority before trying smart-plug scheduling

A surprisingly common path: a household upgrades from Residential to Priority after one month of throttled evenings. But the throttling often comes from hitting 1TB early in heavy-streaming months. A smart-plug schedule that cuts idle overnight draw (and a little behavior change — 4K → 1080p for background watching) often solves it without the $380/month upgrade.

Still deciding whether Starlink is the right connection at all? Compare it with 5G home internet and DSL in rural internet options compared.