This time last year we were reading retention announcements. UseNetServer, Giganews, Astraweb, Newshosting and NewsDemon reaching for a year of binary retention. Oh what a difference a year makes!
Now we see UseNetServer offering 550 days of binary retention for $10 a month. That’s over a year and a half of retention for $10! Quite an accomplishment considering how important a few extra days of retention was in the past.
When it comes to binary retention Giganews still leads the way with 577 days. Followed by Astraweb at 567 days. However, neither offers unlimited Usenet access for $10 a month like UseNetServer.
There are also other newsgroup services in the same price range. Supernews at $9.99 a month offering a very reliable service with 350 days retention. NewsDemon offers comparable retention to UNS plus a free newsreader for $10.95 a month. Astraweb offers an additional 17 days of binaries for $11 a month.
In the end though UseNetServer is the best deal going right now. The combination of price and retention make them very hard to beat.
If you’re waiting around for a $10 Giganews account you should hedge your bet. I think it’s more likely we’ll see premium providers like Giganews, Newshosting and others start to set themselves apart by offering valuable add-on services as we’ve seen with the recent release of Giganews VPN access.
We always encourage month to month Usenet accounts. The UNS $10 deal is just that. You receive unlimited newsgroup access for $10 a month for the life of your account. Stay for years or cancel anytime. They also offer an annual account option for $95.40 a year. A great value that breaks down to $7.95 a month.