Review of UsenetBucket, a Dutch Usenet provider
I have been a happy Giganews customer for a very long time and recommend the service still. It is a premium Usenet service on the other hand that is on the expensive end subscription-wise.
New to Usenet? Check out our Usenet Starter Guide here.
You do get great stuff on top of Usenet access though, a VPN account for example with any of the unlimited plans but not everyone needs that.
I began to look into alternatives and the one that I found to be suitable for my needs is UsenetBucket (affiliate link). The service operates from the Netherlands, does not restrict access to specific countries, and offers only unlimited traffic plans.
The three plans it offers share all the same features except for bandwidth and the maximum number of connections:
- Basic Bucket for €2.95 per month (about 3.70) is capped at 10 Mbit per second and 25 connections.
- Comfort Bucket for €4.95 per month (about 6.20) is capped at 40 Mbit per second and 25 connections
- Ultimate Bucket for €12.95 per month (about 16.20) is capped at 400 Mbit per second and 50 connections.
You can get unlimited Usenet access for €2.95 per month if you don't mind being capped to 10 Mbit per second.
There is also a free trial option available which gets you seven days of free access or 5 Gigabyte of traffic whichever you hit faster.
All plans support the same features that you come to expect from a Usenet provider. All support SSL encryption and when asked about logging, USenetBucket told me that they don't log what users do. What they log is the download total which they display in the user's dashboard on the official website.
As far as retention goes, it is currently 1100 days which means more than three years of posts to the Usenet.
The company is an XsNews reseller which offers better rates. The smallest package you can subscribe to costs €3.70 for instance over at XsNews and that is capped to 5 Mbit and 4 connections.
Once you subscribe to an account you receive login information for the dashboard in an email. It arrived minutes after signing up. You need to visit the dashboard at least once as it lists the Usenet server and user account information that you use in the client program on your device.
I have used UsenetBucket with my favorite Usenet client Newsbin for some time now and have not noticed any issues, slow downs or accessibility issues so far.
As far as speed is concerned, downloads are constantly capped at 11,1 Mbit instead of the advertised 10 Mbit the smallest plan ships with.
I did not notice any issues with broken or pulled files either, all downloads were complete regardless of age or type.
While it is quite the change coming from a truly unlimited plan that had no data transfer cap, I don't really mind having to wait longer before files get downloaded.
I have contacted support twice so far and received replies quickly both times and satisfactory answers.
Conclusion
If I compare what I pay now to what I paid Giganews, I can only come to the conclusion that UsenetBucket offers a fantastic deal for the money they charge, especially for the two smaller accounts. I pay a fifth of what I paid before and while I'm capped to 10 Mbit instead of unlimited traffic and get only 1100 days of retention instead of double that, it is not something that I miss as I made barely use of that in the past.
If you are looking for a cheap but reliable Usenet provider, this is the one that I recommend currently.
Now you: Use a different provider? Share the who and why in the comments below.
I use Frugal Usenet for $5 a month. For that I get uncapped speed, SSL, US and EU servers, 30 connections. Retention is “only” 300 days but it’s enough for me. Works fine most of the time.
I thought Usenet was a particular news server that Google bought and made into a closed-off web-based forum (called Google Groups)? I guess that was just a big Usenet provider with the same name.
No. What Google Groups is offering is access to the non-binary part of the Usenet. Google does not own the Usenet.
Thank God Google doesn’t own Usenet. Greedy company, ultra DMCA’d and dictatorial behavior and implementation.
Astraweb as my main ($11/mth unlimited) + NewsGroupDirect for my fills ($20/500Gb blocks).
Astra, while better and way cheaper then Giga, still has a lot of holes and DMCA takedowns. I’m just waiting for NewsGroupDirect to have another unlimited sale (I think it’s like $7/mth unlimited) to switch to them for my main.
Sounds like healthy Dutch business sense! ;-)
What about NewsLeecher? I have been using them for a couple of months and wonder what others think.
I have never used them, what are they offering in terms of price, speed and retention?