Off-grid living solves power, water, and waste — and then runs into a problem nobody warned you about: internet. Working remotely, streaming a film, or video-calling family all need a connection, and rural properties often have none of the easy options. In practice, two solutions dominate for off-grid homes: satellite internet via Starlink, and cellular internet via a 4G or 5G router. Each wins in different situations, and many off-grid households end up using both.

Starlink works almost anywhere with a clear view of the sky, which is its superpower. The standard kit costs around $599 for hardware plus roughly $120 a month, and delivers 50 to 200 Mbps down and 10 to 30 Mbps up — enough for video calls, streaming, and most remote work. It needs 40 to 75 watts continuously, which matters on a solar system: that is roughly 1 to 1.8 kWh per day just for internet. Performance dips in heavy rain and snow, and the dish needs a clear northern sky view, which can be tricky in dense forest.

Cellular internet uses a 4G or 5G router with a SIM card and an external antenna, and it is dramatically cheaper and lighter on power. Hardware runs $150 to $400, plans cost $30 to $80 a month, and a router draws only 5 to 15 watts. Speeds vary wildly with location: near a tower with good signal, you can see 50 to 100 Mbps; in a weak-signal valley, you may get 5 Mbps or nothing. An external directional antenna mounted high on a pole or roof can double or triple usable signal, and is the single best upgrade for a cellular setup.

The smartest setup for many off-grid homes is both: Starlink as the primary connection, cellular as the backup, with a dual-WAN router that switches automatically when one fails. This costs more, but it solves the two biggest frustrations — Starlink outages in storms and cellular dead zones — at once. If you only need internet for email and light browsing, cellular alone may be enough. If you work remotely with video calls all day, Starlink is the safer primary, and cellular is your storm-day backup.

Decide by testing before you commit. Spend a weekend at the property with a phone on each carrier you are considering, and run speed tests in different spots and at different times. Check Starlink's coverage and obstructions with its app before ordering. And size your solar system for your internet choice: a Starlink dish can be the third-biggest power draw in an off-grid home after heating and refrigeration. Internet off-grid is no longer a luxury problem — it is a solvable one, as long as you choose for your actual location rather than the marketing.

Internet gear is easy to forget in an off-grid power budget, and that is exactly why it causes problems. A Starlink dish drawing 40 to 75 watts continuously consumes 1 to 1.8 kWh per day — for a small solar system with a 5 kWh battery, that is a fifth to a third of your entire storage, before you run a single light or charge a phone. A cellular router, by contrast, draws 5 to 15 watts, or roughly 0.1 to 0.4 kWh per day, which is almost negligible. Budget honestly: add up the daily watt-hours of every always-on device — router, dish, and any network switches — and size your battery and panels to cover them plus your other loads, with margin for cloudy days. Two tricks help: put the dish on a timer so it sleeps overnight when nobody needs it, saving up to a third of its daily draw, and keep the router on a small separate battery so a main-system outage does not kill your connection entirely. Internet is infrastructure now, and like any infrastructure, it deserves a line in your power budget rather than a surprise on your battery monitor.