Supernews

Usenet services aren’t new by any means. The idea for a worldwide newsgroup system was first dreamt up by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979, although many of the most popular providers didn’t launch until the 1990s. 

Supernews happens to be one of the oldest Usenet services on the market, having launched in 1995. Offering users direct access to global newsgroups, it’s become a respected option for both Usenet experts and novices over the years.

What it does

 Over the past two decades, the company claims that it has striven to uphold the traditional ‘independent spirit’ of Usenet, positioning itself as a provider that puts reliability and affordability first.

• You can sign up for Supernews here

This Usenet service has a global reach, owning servers across the US and Europe. That means you’ll be able to access newsgroups regardless of where you’re based in the world, which is not the case with every provider. The website is also available in English, French, German and Dutch.

Performance

Retention – how long data is stored for – is obviously an important aspect of any Usenet service, and Supernews doesn’t disappoint in this critical area. Currently, you’re provided with 2,357 days of binary retention and 5,021 days of text retention. Just to compare, Giganews comes in at 2,367 and 5,016 days respectively, so they’re pretty much neck-and-neck.

Most Usenet providers offer customers access to more than 100,000 global newsgroups, and things aren’t any different with Supernews. Once you sign up to the platform, you can connect to over 110,000 newsgroups. Every user is given unlimited speed and access to these groups.

Speed and support

Supernews keeps multiple copies of the Usenet articles across its service, which the firm says ensures a 100% article completion rate. As we already mentioned, all articles are available at unlimited speeds, meaning you can access them without any performance hitches whatsoever (in theory, anyway). And that’s regardless of how old the articles are. 

The service offers 30 connections, and the company’s servers won’t throttle your speed; you’re free to consume as many articles as you want. You don’t have to worry about your privacy, either. Supernews uses SSL encryption for all Usenet connections. 

It’s true that Usenet platforms can be daunting, especially if you haven’t accessed one before. Should you run into any problems, you can make use of Supernews’ support team, with technical support available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week and all year round. That’s pretty impressive.

Pricing

When it comes to signing up to a Usenet platform, you’re often inundated with a wide variety of plans at different price points. This can make for some difficult decisions as to which plan to choose, but Supernews makes everything simple: there’s only one plan and price. 

For $11.99 (£9.60, AU$15.70) a month, you can use every feature and aspect of the platform – including unlimited speed and access. Of course, some people may feel the opposite way, and bemoan the lack of choice here, but we think this is a good thing – particularly for novices to the Usenet world. At any rate, before you sign up, you can test out the service with a free 3-day trial.

Final verdict

Overall, Supernews is among the most powerful Usenet providers on the market, offering impressive value-for-money. It’s rare to see a company offer so many high-quality features for such a low price. Of course, it’s always worth checking out the competition, but Supernews is a hard act to beat.

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