Cuckoo Broadband

review: is it any good?

Updated on
July 10, 2023

In a nutshell

Super-fast broadband, no contract, great service, supports charity, what more could you want? It’s not the cheapest, but it’s not far off and it just might be the best.

Our rating

Cuckoo Broadband rated 5 stars
Nutty

Cuckoo Broadband

cracked open 🥥

Fed up with your broadband? Terrible service? Complex deals? Hidden price rises? Well so were the team at Cuckoo Internet. And out came what they call ‘simple broadband, for good’.

Cuckoo Broadband review

In the internet world, Cuckoo broadband are the new kids on the block as it were. They’re a new company taking on a whole industry. And possibly the only internet provider with a conscience; according to Ofcom (the people who make sure you are treated fairly), as many as 25,000 homes per day are falling into the broadband loyalty trap – that’s when your initial contract ends with your internet provider and they whack the price up for the same service.

Cuckoo Broadband website

Imagine you have a 2 year deal for a fixed monthly price, after the 2 years you’ve forgotten all about your broadband and assume it will be the same forever until you change it. But no. Most people see their bill surge by as much as £17 per month, for no apparent reason, except profit for the provider. On the other hand Cuckoo won't ever increase their price and you will even get £20 off¹.

A special offer just for you

The nice guys at Cuckoo are taking £20 off for our readers (that's you!) 🎉

Get your £20 off here¹Get your £20 off here¹

Internet providers know that most people either won’t notice, or don’t want the hassle of switching to a cheaper provider so put up with it, or even calling up your same provider to try and ‘negotiate’; definitely not what us Brits are comfortable with. But the reality is, it’s not that hard to switch and you can save tons of money.

Check out these typical price rises from the likes of BT, Sky and TalkTalk.

Cuckoo broadband review price comparison

Probably didn’t realise big brands like BT and Sky are ‘in on the game’ too did you? If there’s money to be had, anyone will go there.

Cuckoo have set to end this practice and make broadband transparent, offering super-fast broadband with no fixed contracts – we’re talking speed starting at 67Mb/s, all the way to 1Gb (if you don’t know about internet speeds, that’s fast). And on a simple rolling monthly contract at a fixed price from £29.99, so you’re not tied in to any contract and can cancel anytime. It’s as simple as that. Better yet, 1% of your bill goes to good causes.

What’s the catch? Well, not much! It has a set up fee of £60 if you want a monthly rolling contract, but no fee on a 12 month contract. Which is slightly higher than other providers, where the set up fee can sometimes be free, but often around £30-50.

However for that with Cuckoo you also get a super-fast router too (the thing you plug into the wall), worth £82.99. Our readers also get £20 off too!¹.

Speeds available

Eggceptional (Full fibre – 1Gb)

Ultra fast broadband with truly eggceptional speeds – Cuckoo’s full-fibre gives speed of 1Gb per second, that’s fast! Perfect for gaming and large households all using devices.

The cost? £54.99 per month. For this speed, that is a great price. It’s actually cheaper than the Virgin Media 1Gb package, and you don’t need to sign up for 18 months either!

Depending on where you live however, you might not be able to get these speeds just yet.

Price: £54.99 per month
Average download speed: Avg download speed: 900 Mb/s
Average upload speed: 115 Mb/s
Type: fibre direct to home (FTTP)

Really fast (125 Mb)

It’s called really fast for a reason, it’s not quite the ultimate package, but still very fast. If you’re not a big gamer, or a smaller household but still want awesome speeds, this is for you.

You might not be able to get these speeds just yet – depending on where you live.

Price: £39.99 per month
Average download speed: 98 Mb/s
Average upload speed: 20 Mb/s
Type: fibre direct to home (FTTP)

Fast (80 Mb)

This is the regular option, but don’t go thinking it’s slow! It’s still very fast. Cuckoo don’t do slow. It’s perfect for smaller households who do normal things like zoom calls and stream Netflix.

Price: £29.99 per month
Average download speed: 67 Mb/s
Average upload speed: 8 Mb/s
Type: fibre direct to cabinet (FTTC)

Contract options

Your options are super simple, everything is the same price per month, and won’t change. The only thing that affects the price is the speed.

You just have the choice between a monthly rolling contract, or a 12 month contract. Whatever suits you. The only difference is on the monthly contract you’ll have a £60 set up fee, and on the 12 month contract there’s no set up fee!

Cuckoo Broadband Contract options

On the 12 month contract, you'll simply move onto the monthly rolling plan after the contract ends. If you wanted to cancel during the contract, its a £60 fee.

And lucky you, you're reading this. Get £20 off with Nuts About Money¹.

Get online in 24 hours

Cuckoo also offers a pretty great option for those who prefer an internet connection as soon as possible (it can sometimes take a few days to a few weeks for some connections to be set up).

They’ll send you a 4G Wi-Fi dongle and your broadband router the very next day – so you can get up and running almost straight away.

Once it turns up, all you need to do is plug the dongle into the router, and you’ve got fast, reliable internet to use on all of your devices. It won’t be quite as fast as the fibre broadband you’ll get once the connection goes fully live, but it’s pretty great (it’s 4G).

And once your full connection goes live, simply post the dongle back to Cuckoo, in a pre-paid envelope they’ll send you. Or, you can choose to keep it for an extra fee.

It’s not a free service however, you’ll have to pay £40 extra.

Quick summary

Price: £29.99 - £54.99 per month
Set up fee: £0 - £60
Speed: 67Mb/s - 1GB/s (super fast)
Usage: Unlimited
Router: Technicolor Wi-Fi Hub
Contract length: 1 month rolling or 12 months
Perks: Supports charity with every bill
Deal: £20 off with Nuts About Money¹

Customer service

Cuckoo's customer service is truly 'eggcellent', lol. Customers really are their focus (along with fast speeds). It's all handled over email, live-chat or a phone call, and they'll respond to you almost immediately with any problem you have. Plus it's all UK based, rare these days!

Cuckoo Broadband customer reviews

Pretty epic service is what they say. Just take a look at this from a poll by MoneySavingExpert:

Best broadband service

Nearly 100% of respondents rated the service great – almost double the second best EE.

The popular review website, Trustpilot, gives Cuckoo a rating of 4.1 / 5, which is an awesome rating for any company, but particularly an internet company, where customers often demand the best service.

In fact, you'll be struggling to find a bad review in between so many calling it 'The best service I've ever experienced'.

For comparison, BT and Sky both have a rating of 1.5 / 5 and Virgin Media has a rating of 2.2 / 5.

Pros and cons

Here’s the pros and cons of Cuckoo:

Pros

  • No price rises
  • Fast broadband speeds
  • Amazing customer service
  • Be up and running in 24 hours
  • Monthly contract available
  • 1% of your bill goes to charity
  • Get £20 off

Cons

  • Uses the Openreach network, which is great and almost all broadband providers do, but means there can be engineering issues outside of their control.
  • Not much else!

Our thoughts

If it wasn’t too obvious reading this, we love them. Any company set up to take down the big players squeezing every last drop of money out of everyday people gets approval from us! Better yet, your money goes to charity and the service provided is great. 

The internet speed is fast, customer service is awesome (4.1/5 on Trustpilot), there's no fixed contracts, and you can be online within 24 hours. what more could you ask for?

Cuckoo Broadband Trustpilot rating

The price might be near the top end if comparing against deals from other providers for ‘new customers only’ but we’re only talking a few quid per month, and they’re often not the same speed. It’s definitely worth considering and you never have to worry about your internet ever again. Cuckoo are a new team taking on a giant industry, and they’ve had a cracking start. 5 stars from us.

Here's the Cuckoo website¹ to learn more and get started.

Is there a deal?

Yep! 🎉

They've given us a discount for you guys – a massive £20 off when you sign up here¹, and £5 donated to charity. Full disclosure as always, we'll also get a small fee too, which helps us keep the lights on.

If you'd prefer not to use it, or would like to learn more, head to their website instead (you can always come back here and get the discount when you're happy to go ahead).

A special offer just for you

The nice guys at Cuckoo are taking £20 off for our readers (that's you!) 🎉

Get your £20 off here¹Get your £20 off here¹

A special offer just for you

The nice guys at Cuckoo are taking £20 off for our readers (that's you!) 🎉

Get your £20 off here¹Get your £20 off here¹

Related companies

Nuts About Money logo

We’re here to help ease money worries for everyone by providing an easy to use website for all things money related.

About us