The useful comparison between these two is not a marketing table. It is what you can actually order, mount and use in a Berkshire or Surrey home this year.
We install Starlink every week. We are also a registered Amazon Leo installer, and we survey properties for Amazon Leo ahead of its UK consumer launch. This guide is the honest version of that conversation as of early November 2026.
If you only remember one line: Starlink is a working UK broadband service. Amazon Leo is the coming low earth orbit alternative, not a dish you can treat like Starlink at every postcode today.
What is live today
Starlink is fully available across the UK. You order the kit from SpaceX, we assess the sky view, mount the dish, route the cable and commission the connection. On a straightforward wall or pole job you are online the same day. The constellation has about 11,200 working satellites, and the first 26 of SpaceX’s larger V3 satellites went up on Starship’s fourteenth flight on 28 September 2026 to add capacity.
Amazon Leo, formerly Project Kuiper, is Amazon’s low earth orbit network. Ofcom approved it in February 2025. The UK is listed among the first consumer markets. An enterprise preview for selected businesses has been running since November 2025. Amazon has about 392 satellites in orbit and has not launched any since 2 July, because its main rocket, ULA’s Vulcan, was grounded in February. Vulcan was due back in mid-November. On Amazon’s results call on 29 October, Andy Jassy said Leo “remains on track to begin initial service this year”, with a wider rollout likely stretching into 2027.
What that is not: a residential order page that works like Starlink for a Windsor or Virginia Water postcode. If you still see headlines saying Amazon Leo is “now available in the UK”, they are ahead of the facts. The current snapshot lives in our Amazon Leo UK status post.
If you need internet this month because copper is slow or 4G keeps dropping, Starlink is the answer. That is more pressing with the copper phone network closing in January 2027; our landline switch-off guide covers what changes for rural lines. If you are planning a new build or can wait, we can still survey the roof so the mount and cable route work for either dish.
How Starlink actually behaves on local houses
Starlink is not magic. It is a dish that needs clear sky, a cable that needs a sealed entry, and an indoor network that can carry the speed.
On a clear Ascot or Bracknell plot a wall or fascia mount is often enough. On woodland plots around Virginia Water and Englefield Green, summer leaf takes a low garden stand down. We survey for northern sky before we drill and will specify a pole or chimney mount when a patio table will fail.
That is why Starlink installation in Surrey has its own page. North Surrey is not one housing type. Wentworth-scale gardens, commuter estates in Woking and riverside streets in Staines need different elevations.
Town pages already exist for Windsor, Slough, Maidenhead, Ascot, Bracknell, Virginia Water, Reading, Wokingham, Camberley and Woking. Use those when they match. Use the Surrey county page when they do not.
Order through our referral link; Starlink shows the current referral reward at checkout. Then send photos of the mount face and tree line.
What Amazon Leo is, and what it is not
Amazon Leo will compete on the same job Starlink already does: usable broadband where fibre has not arrived, or where the copper path still disappoints.
The physical product will still be an outdoor terminal, a cable and an indoor router. Amazon has announced three antennas: Leo Nano, rated up to 100 Mbps; Leo Pro, the standard home unit at about 28 cm square, rated up to 400 Mbps; and Leo Ultra, an enterprise antenna rated up to 1 Gbps. Until a Berkshire household can buy one, those ratings are a brochure, not a specification we can quote against your roof.
What we can say from the installer’s side:
- Ofcom approval is real. The regulatory door is open.
- First-generation coverage latitudes include the whole of the south of England. Windsor, Ascot and Virginia Water sit well inside that band.
- Early service will be capacity-limited. “On the map” is not the same as “order this week”.
- Promised speed and price advantages have not been proven on UK houses yet.
We will not sell a mount for a service you cannot activate. We will survey the elevation, agree a cable route that can be reused, and book the dish when the kit is actually for sale.
How the physical installs compare
The job on the house is almost the same for both brands:
- Clear sky, usually with a northern bias
- A mount that survives wind, not a garden table or a cable tie
- A sealed, weatherproof cable entry
- An indoor network that can actually carry the speed
Tree lines decide the mount height more than the logo on the box. A Weybridge garden with mature oaks and a Virginia Water plot on a private road have the same problem in July that they do not have in January. We check more than one elevation before we commit.
Listed and conservation houses around Windsor and Clewer add another constraint: we will not run a cable down the street elevation. The route goes through the loft, a rear void or a discreet side return. That planning is identical whether the terminal says Starlink or Leo.
Rescue jobs we already see on Starlink will apply to Leo as well. Temporary ground mounts left as permanent. Open windows used as cable entries. Dishes sat where the patio is convenient rather than where the sky is clear. The Starlink DIY install mistakes guide covers those in more detail.
Indoor WiFi is the same problem on both
A new satellite dish replaces the broadband path. It does not replace the radios in the house.
The included router covers a room or two. It does not cover a Victorian terrace in Windsor, a three storey townhouse in Bracknell, or a Wentworth plot with a garden office. Fast satellite into a hallway cupboard still dies through solid brick and foil insulation.
That is why we talk about whole home WiFi and data cabling on the same visit. On large Surrey houses the indoor design is the job. The dish is only the feed. Reliable WiFi in large Surrey homes is the local version of that argument.
If your speed test next to the current router is already fine and the far bedroom is not, do not order a dish to fix brick and distance. Distribute first.
Speed, monthly cost and when to wait
Starlink lists its UK residential plans at £40, £60 and £80 a month for the 100 Mbps, 200 Mbps and Max tiers. Since the end of October the price varies by address, by up to about 20% either way, so the 100 Mbps tier has been quoted at £32, £36 or £40. The two cheaper tiers are only sold in select areas. There is a £19 shipping fee, and the kit is free upfront in select areas or from £299 elsewhere. This year has already brought a £5 rise on 18 June, Standby mode doubling from £4.50 to £9 a month, and a £10 kit fee from June that was withdrawn around 20 July. Enter your address on starlink.com for the figure that applies to you.
Real-world downloads are usually enough for video calls and streaming where fibre has not arrived. Uploads are slower than good FTTP. Weather and trees are the main caveats. Is Starlink worth it in the UK and Starlink vs 4G and 5G cover that in detail. Starlink installation cost separates kit, professional mounting and indoor WiFi.
Amazon Leo will publish home prices when it is selling to homes. Until then, comparing headline speeds is guesswork. We will not invent a Leo monthly figure to win an argument.
If full fibre is already solid at the property, neither dish is the answer. If it is only a promise, check when full fibre is likely to reach your village before you commit to either. The issue is almost always indoor WiFi. We will say so.
Which should you book
- Need a working rural or poorly served connection now: Starlink installation, including Surrey
- Already on solid full fibre: fix indoor WiFi first, do not buy a dish
- Planning ahead for Leo: Amazon Leo installation and a roof survey that keeps cable routes reusable
- Unsure about the line versus the rooms: send a speed test from the cupboard and from the room that fails
Rural edges toward Binfield, Warfield, Chobham and Windlesham are exactly the places satellite earns its keep, once you can actually switch it on. Commuter streets in Slough or Woking that already have decent fibre usually need access points, not a new sky view.
Send photos of the likely mount face, the tree line and the incoming cupboard. We quote the mount, the cable and any indoor WiFi before we book the day.
If Starlink is the live option, order the kit through our referral link. Starlink shows the current referral reward at checkout.