If you've lived in the Bay Area and survived Comcast or AT&T, you know the bar for internet reliability is somewhere around "please just stay on." Monkeybrains blows that standard out of the water. I've been using Monkeybrains internet for a little over a year now, which feels like the appropriate amount of time to decide whether the internet is good or if it's just pretending. In the past year I can only remember one outage that lasted longer than about five minutes. Compared to my previous providers, that already puts it way ahead. I stream, upload large video files for editing, and occasionally do some online gaming. Those are all situations where bad internet immediately ruins your day. Dropping a connection while uploading a 10GB video or during a dungeon raid is the digital equivalent of stepping on a Lego. Fortunately, Monkeybrains has been very reliable. I actually can't comment on customer service because I've never had to call them. Either I'm lucky, or the service just quietly works. The price has felt worth it and the performance has been consistently solid. Final verdict: the best compliment I can give my internet provider is that I mostly forget it exists. read more

Why do I get the feeling that anyone who notes they're 'switching to Sonic once it's available in my neighborhood' is a person who works for Sonic. Anywho, this review is for Monkeybrains. They are a local company (i.e. quick and easy to get someone on the phone if need be) and reasonably priced. You do have to provide your own router, so plan accordingly. Never experienced service interruptions or any other issues in the 2 years I had them as my ISP. Sonic, however, crapped out literally the same day the techs were done installing it. They also have to drill into the infrastructure, so now I have all these bolts sticking out of the walls, uglifying my kitchen space. Thanks, Sonic. (Go with Monkeybrains) read more

Would love to rate their network lower than 1 star! Been a customer for 5+ years and while they used to have fast, solid internet service, it's gone down big time the past 12+ months. Most recently, the internet went down for about 1 hour mid-week during business hours a week or so ago. Network download speeds have been all over the charts in a bad way past couple weeks and tonight the download speed is pathetically below 1mbps - 20 mbps for over 1hr. I already replaced my entire wireless network, updated firmware and cold rebooted my connecting devices. Worst ISP ever! I already started looking for another ISP. Monkeybrains no longer has any type of stability or consistency. I can't recommend this ISP and will be telling my friends and family to avoid Monkeybrains at all costs. My guess is that they have grown too much and can't provide speed or consistency due to high volumes of usage. Don't get lured in by their cheap monthly rates. You're paying for an intermittent, terrible service. Get ready to use your mobile phone as a hotspot often! Pathetic! read more

Equally or worst than Comcast. I am so beyond over them... unfortunately, the only other provider in my building is Comcast so I am stuck with them. My internet is ALWAYS down. I can't never work from home and if I'm in the office I can't check on my two dogs because they are always off line. No notice ever is given.... Some days it's 2 plus hours at a time off line. I rather pay more money for better service than $35 for unreliable internet. read more

Monkeybrains - Internet Service Providers Near Me - San Francisco, California

I came in to ask a question about setting up WiFi service and everyone on staff was amazingly helpful from the minute we walked in the door. That says a lot about the culture of the workplace and what you can expect from their customer service! read more

Monkeybrains - Inside of work space - Internet Service Providers Near Me - San Francisco, California

I couldn't be happier with Monkeybrains. They notified me a few months back that they were upgrading legacy antennas. And to my surprise, my connection speed is often more than doubled. I used to be happy getting 75 or 80 Mbps, but now I'm getting in the 200s most days. Sometimes even in the 300s! Way more speed than I know what to do with, but I'm happy to have it! We've had some heavy rains this winter, and sometimes I test my speed when it's coming down hard. Service issues during storms was something I'd been led to believe could/would happen, from reading reviews here. I'm happy to report that I have yet to see speed decreases, let alone drops in service during storms. Monkeybrains powers through it all. read more

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Terrible. My service was always down, sometimes for days without resolving or resolution. I had two technicians arrive one day because my equipment failed. One technician went into his truck and started yelling at the top of his lungs. Cursing, yelling this "is only a $100 job". He refused to do his job. I felt bad for his coworker. The yelling continued long enough for my little one to hear. My little one ran under the bed he was so frightened. I discontinued my service because of this. I should have just told them what happened. They are unresponsive and hard to word with. Shotty service, unprofessional, unreachable. read more

Dec 30, 2025 I was happy with the service and thought it was a good value until it started to rain. In light rain the connection begins to get spotty and then cuts off completely in steady or heavy rain. Given that it rains here about half of the year, this will not work for me. After creating a service ticket I was informed that they will monitor my connection in order to assess the problem, yet it appears, from many online reviews, and the fact that everyone in the condo community I live in is having this issue, that it seems to indicate an infrastructure problem. Interestingly, I just received an email from Monkey Brains as I write this. They state that they will try to improve the connection to my building which should be completed by next week. We'll see how it goes. I would be happy to come back to update. Several days after writing this, I received a phone call from a member of the sales team to inform me they were in the process of doing upgrades. Yesterday they installed a new antenna that should be more resistant to bad weather. I am happy to see that they took this issue seriously and responded to it and I am adjusting my reading accordingly. We've been having good weather the past few days. Hopefully this will hold up the next time it rains. UPDATE So after the insulation of the new antennas, the problem seems to have been resolved. We had several rainy days in this area after the installation, and the connection was solid. I have updated my rating accordingly. Thanks Monkey Brains! read more

I had an installer (Vito), come by my apartment to set up the hardware, and he was fantastic. He was knowledgeable, friendly, and took the time to give me great advice on which router to buy and how to properly test my speeds. The whole experience was smooth and professional. Thank you, Vito! read more

Miguel from MonkeyBrains was excellent. Patient, kind, and clearly knew what he was doing. He took the time to explain everything, set up the Wi-Fi quickly, and went above and beyond to make sure everything was running smoothly before he left. MonkeyBrains as a whole has been smooth to work with--customer service is responsive, and the Wi-Fi is fast and reliable. Great experience all around. read more

Popescu provided great service. Our internet in Alameda was spotty and slow. Must have been the old Common net equipment. I should have called for service earlier. Now it is much faster and more stable. So I got an appointment the next day. quick and we are up and running again. I get 90MPS not bad for $39/month. read more

I gave Monkey Brain 1 star on my review as of 3/11/25. This review is a revision from 1 to 5 star. I had an internet issue today and it was resolved quickly with the help of a nice technician, named Marius. My network seems to be running faster too. Thank you Monkey Brains and thank you Marius. Helen L. read more

I've been a customer for several years now. MonkeyBrains has been wonderful! Fast and reliable. Definitely a deal for the money.

I had a Gfiber outage in my building that Google wouldn't be able to send someone out for days to fix. Monkey brains was out the next day. The whole thing was so seamless. Way better to support a local business too. Internet speed is just as fast as it's always been and at half the cost. It's a no brainer, monkey! read more

I have only good things to say about Monkeybrains internet service (formerly Common Networks). Installation is quick and easy, with very little and very small accompanying hardware. Service is impeccable, and Support, if ever needed, is responsive and PERSONALISED: no texting or chatting with a stupid bot or some flunky reading from a script. Monkeybrains always contacts me if they notice abnormalities in my hookup, typically when I am traveling abroad and simply not using the service. Currently, a MB representative is in contact with the managers of a new apartment complex that I am moving into. Clint has been exceptionally patient and professional with these folks, who generally push new residents toward much more expensive international ISPs. Do your wallet (and your sanity) a favor and switch today! read more

Popescu Marius is super nice Came on time and all problems resolved today. THX. Julie W read more

I've had Xfinity and Sonic in the past, and Monkeybrains is faster and cheaper. Bonus: They have actual people in their customer service department, so there are no annoying AI chats and emails. Dad joke incoming: Monkeybrains is a no-brainer. read more

Monkeybrains is affordable but the service is unreliable. We haven't had WiFi for several days.

I have a business account. It was great for the first year. Now it drops multiple times a day making video calls and even accessing cloud files impossible. Yes, it will work for an hour or two. but just when I start to think its OK it starts dropping again. Daily. I have been calling almost daily for help. the first time I called they tried to help. Since then they just take a message AND NEVER CALL ME BACK. Is anyone else having this issue in SF? read more

In Oakland outages are too frequent. I've experienced 5 or more, 4 exceeding 6 hours. I want small biz to win but they r making it difficult. 5 for support, 2 for poor service or equipment. read more

Unbelievable speeds at an unbelievable rate. I had internet with Comcast (worst) and Tmobile (second worst) and am so glad Monkeybrains is offered in my service area. You can't beat the price and they don't lie to customers about data caps, etc like Tmobile and it's "uncarrier" movement. They are also a local biz which makes my decision to support them even easier. read more

Marius was an amazing technician so patient and really thorough. I had some technical difficulties with other equipment. He was there troubleshooting really amazing service in addition did all the wiring and made everything look very polished. read more

Roy bent over backwards to get my service up and going. He had to troubleshoot the situation and went above and beyond to provide excellent quality service. Super hard worker with a great attitude. read more

MonkeyBrains is pretty decent for the service and price but the reason I love MonkeyBrains is because of Will who provides the tech support. He's super knowledgeable and super responsive and super helpful - in short he is just SUPER!!! read more

Worst and most unreliable service I've ever had. It makes me wish I still had my DSL with 0.5mbps upload and 12mbps download. I've had maybe 2 outages with ATT DSL for the last 10 years. Monkeybrain service has gone down for me atleast 10 times in the last few months. Right now service is degraded (ping is 1000ms and jitter 1000ms with download of 7mbps and upload of 0.7). I have a business account and pay $150 / month. They don't seem to care. I have submitted so many support tickets and its the same answer. "We tweeked your settings, please let me know if it helps." If your paying $35/ month I guess you kinda get what you paid for but at $150 / month business account I expect better. Time to look at comcast or ATT fiber. Anything has got to be better then Monkeybrain. One more thing to add, when things are good I still get decent transfer speeds. But my conference calls are very jumpy. They have terrible latency and its not the wireless dish. Seems to be overloaded radio towers or something else on their network end. The service also always seems to go down when its raining. Not sure if they are using IP67 rated water proof equipment but service is definitly the worst when its raining. My current outtage is clear skies, 8mph wind, no fog. read more

Monkeybrains - Internet Service Providers Near Me - San Francisco, California

I just got monkeybrians installed and Marius Popescu did an excellent job. He came in and knew straight away what to do. Excellent service and speed! read more

Update: If you need a connection of 100 mbps download or better, don't shop here. My dealings in the last week have led me to think this company is not a good service anymore. It is dated. It relies on a roof disk, and in my experience, the service is acceptable after they come to make adjustments or replace a dish, but it starts to degrade over time. Then you have to ask for another uptick in service about a year later. The company tried to sell me on 60 mbps as an acceptable rate, and then implied my router was out of date. My router was irrelevant because I was testing my signal directly (hardwired, no router) and still getting subpar results. I asked for basic service of 100 mbps download and 20 mbps upload. They changed the subject in their email response, apparently dodging the question. I can only conclude they can't deliver this minimally adequate level of service. I asked them to cancel my account. THINK TWICE. It's not a product I can live with anymore. read more

I had Monkeybrains ISP install service in my appartment last Monday. Roy, the technician who did the work was great! Very friendly, knew what he was doing and worked fast! Thanks Roy! The download speed isn't as fast as I had hoped, but it's more than fast enough for me. Upload speed is very fast which was a surprise. I know other tenants using this ISP and they all say how much they like it. read more

Had service for 5 months. Had to call tech support on average twice per month for latency or other speed issues. In the first 6 weeks of service, a technician had to come to our place 3 times because they kept messing things up. I wanted to love monkeybrains, but their customer service is terrible. If you have an issue after-hours, you're SOL. And if you call during business hours, you get sent to an off-site answering service that just takes a note of your call and doesn't actually know anything. They like to talk about high up-time, but in reality there are many times that the service was technically "online" but was not usable. read more

I recently moved my monkey brain service to a new location and the experience was seamless. I was able to schedule a tech to service my unit with a DSL modem. Ronnie arrived within the specified window. He was professional and completed the job as promised. He answered all my questions and was very kind. I would highly recommend monkey brains, and praise the tech, Ronnie, for his professionalism. Thank you!! read more

I've been a customer for many years, but I'm not a happy customer. The service has too many outages per month, often lasting multiple hours. It simply isn't reliable. read more

I have been a long-term subscriber of Xfinity Internet, they wined and dined me like a new lover for two years with low rates, a free modem, excellent service and then after two years they wanted to charge me for that modem and jacked my rate up to $75 a month; take the L out of lover and it's over right? I reluctantly paid but when a sign was posted in my apartments elevator for monkey brains Internet service. I called them up and was very much interested in paying only $35 a month. Two very professional installers showed up, took about one hour and 30 minutes to install the hardware on the roof, run a wire down to my fire escape, drilled a small hole through my wall so I can plug in my router. The cost was $150 for the installation of which $35 was for my first months Internet monthly payment. The Internet service has been working consistently, no interruptions in service, I'm very pleased with the service I have been receiving and I highly recommend to anyone who is tired of paying more than they think they should for Internet service to give this company a try. read more

I had been a customer for years and recently found out that they serviced my current apartment in San Francisco. I literally dropped my previous ISP within 24 hours to get Monkeybrains back. Thank you x3, for all that you do. read more

just got installed. Roy and Alex got the install done under and hour. they were patient and didn't make a mess. A++ thanks guys. read more

we changed to monkeybrains from google fiber cause it was faster and cheaper. marius came on time and helped us with installation. he was very professional, finished everything, and wore shoe covers to protect our floors. we are very happy to have this internet service in our neighbourhood thank you! read more

I have had monkey brains Internet service for years and am very satisfied! Good quality, good service and good price.

Our Common Networks internet service in Alameda was unfortunately bought out by Monkeybrains and now we are stuck with such slow, inconsistent wifi that I can't even upload a screenshot of a speed test (see photo, if it uploads). I don't care what the ins and outs of their tech issues are or how their tech works (or doesn't). I don't care that they send the same stock email response every time their slow service putters out and we have to contact them. I don't even care that they're a little company supposedly sticking it to the man anymore. Their service and product are just so terrible that I can't wait to move to some other company. We have to have a standby hotspot cellular data hub thing for when Monkeybrains cuts out or slows down, which is most days recently. Any recommendations for a consistently reliable internet service in Alameda would be gratefully received! And to the owners of Monkeybrains, please don't respond to this honest review with one of your halfhearted invitations to call you to discuss the service blah blah blah as you've lost our custom already and nothing Monkeybrains could say would make us stay so save your typing energy. read more

Monkeybrains - Monkeybrains internet speed - Internet Service Providers Near Me - San Francisco, California

Came in and hooked up my system in no time at all. Had some problems with connection, and they were out immediately. Thank you Marius and MonkeyBrains read more

I just want to express my gratitude for MonkeyBrains sending Daniel to resolve an issue I was having with my equipment. Everything was resolved quite quickly and I appreciate the effort that MonkeyBrains put in to keep this Customer happy. read more

I signed up for service with monkeybrains in July. We moved into a house with an existing hookup, so starting the service was seamless. The uptime is terrible. We have had an outage *every single Sunday* since we signed up, with frequent small outages during the week that make it difficult to work from home. *Every time* I have called tech support, I have been promised a call back, and *never once* have I received one. I do not know how to get this issue resolved. Today, the technician I spoke to said he would call me back in 15 minutes with more information. "Will you, though?" I asked. "No one has *ever* called me back." He yelled at me! "I WILL CALL IN 15 MINUTES!" But of course, he never called. DO NOT sign up for monkey brains. read more