Which Starlink Plan Fits You?
Which Starlink Plan Fits You? Residential is the best fit for fixed homes at $120/month, Roam Regional works for light mobile use at $50/month, Roam Global suits heavier travel at $165/month, and Priority at $500/month is the business pick when uptime matters more than price.
Residential, Roam Regional, Roam Global, Priority, Maritime — five plans, very different prices, and a pricing page that hides the real tradeoffs. Here's the decision matrix with actual numbers and five user personas.
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 | $/month | Hardware | Priority data | Mobility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | $120 | $599 | 1 TB | Fixed address |
| Roam · Regional | $50 | $349 | 50 GB | Continent-wide |
| Roam · Global | $165 | $599 | Unlimited | Worldwide |
| Priority | $500 | $2,500 | 2 TB | Fixed address |
| Maritime | $5,000 | $10,000 | Unlimited | Open ocean |
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 pulls down 220-400 Mbps 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 100ms of 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.
FAQ
What's the difference between Residential and Roam?
Residential ($120/mo) is locked to a single service address — it uses that address's capacity cell for priority data. Roam Regional ($50/mo) is portable within your continent, has no fixed address, but only gets 50GB of priority data per month and no in-motion use without an extra add-on. Roam Global ($165/mo) is portable worldwide with unlimited data. If you never move the dish, Residential is cheaper and more reliable. If you move even occasionally, Roam avoids the $100 address-change fee Starlink charges Residential customers.
Can I switch between Starlink plans anytime?
Yes, via the Starlink app or web portal. Plan changes take effect on the next billing cycle. There's no fee to switch between tiers within the same category (Residential → Priority, Roam Regional → Roam Global). However: changing the service address on Residential costs $100, and downgrading Priority often means losing priority data allocation mid-cycle without proration. If you're seasonal, plan switching is free and fast — many RVers keep Roam Regional year-round and upgrade for cruise seasons.
Do I need Maritime just because I'm on a boat?
No. Maritime ($5,000/mo) is engineered for ocean vessels — pole-to-pole coverage including open sea where regular plans lose signal. If you stay within 12 nautical miles of coast, Roam Global ($165/mo) works fine and is 30× cheaper. Maritime's target customer is commercial shipping, luxury yachts at open sea, and research vessels. For 90% of recreational boaters, Roam Global is the right answer.
Does Priority have unlimited data?
Priority has a higher priority-data tier (1TB or 2TB depending on plan variant), but after that it deprioritizes just like Residential. The difference is that Priority gets first access to the cell's capacity before Residential users. In practice, Priority customers rarely notice congestion even during peak hours. The cap matters only for heavy commercial use — mid-size businesses running 10+ video calls simultaneously can blow through 1TB in a week.
Is Roam Regional slower than Residential?
Only during peak congestion hours in your cell. Residential gets priority access to the cell's capacity; Roam customers are deprioritized. Off-peak (morning, midnight-to-6am) they're identical speeds. In crowded cells during 7-10pm, Roam users can see 20-40% slower download. For most mobile users this is invisible because they're rarely in the same place for a full peak window.
What happens to my Starlink hardware if I cancel?
You keep it. Starlink sells the hardware outright — it's not a lease. If you cancel, the dish becomes a $599 paperweight unless you reactivate it on a new plan (no extra hardware fee) or resell it. The secondary market is healthy: eBay and the Starlink subreddit sell used dishes at 45-60% of MSRP within a week. Make sure to deactivate the device from your account before selling, otherwise the buyer can't link it to their own account.