Choose Starlink hardware by how you will live with it: travel versus a fixed roof, how hard the install is, how you will power it, and how busy the network will be. Mini, Standard, and Performance are different tools, not three prices for the same internet.
Kit names, included parts and prices change. This comparison uses current official product positioning while keeping the decision focused on practical fit.
Hardware claims reviewed August 14, 2026. Verify current specs, availability and prices on Starlink’s official shop before buying.
Do not look for a separate Mini-versus-Standard article on TNET. The three-way comparison is this URL.
How to use this comparison
Starlink’s catalog has used overlapping labels: Standard, Mini, Performance, High Performance, Flat High Performance, generation numbers, and third-party marine or vehicle kits. Marketing pages also mix terminal, router, mount, and service plan. You can buy the wrong dish for the right plan.
Work in this order:
- Use case — stay put, roam, vehicle, cabin, backup bag.
- Install envelope — roof, pole, railing, suction, professional marine/vehicle work.
- Power reality — wall outlet versus battery/solar/vehicle.
- Load — one laptop versus a household versus a shop.
- Then open the official shop and match a current SKU. Use TNET’s plan quiz for the service-pattern question (fixed versus mobile, household versus lighter use). Use the cost calculator for ownership budget after you have real kit prices. Use the off-grid power sizer when the outlet is not a given.
This article stays qualitative on purpose. A stale watt number is worse than none.
Mini: mobility first
Mini exists so the terminal can travel. Bags, trucks, temporary sites, camping, a spare at a second property, a journalist or field kit. The value is mass, setup time, and the ability to pack the path away.
Install. Think minutes on a picnic table, a railing, or a short mast—not a drilled residential mount you never touch again. That speed is also the risk: people under-clear the sky because “it’s only for the weekend,” then spend the weekend on obstruction scans. Mini does not repeal trees.
Power. Mini is the class you consider when the site is a battery, a vehicle, or a small inverter. “Lower power than a home kit” is the right qualitative expectation. It is not a license to invent amps. If you are sizing solar for a cabin that will run Mini for months, put real nameplate figures from the current shop into the power sizer—do not copy a forum wattage into a battery order.
Load. Mini is a poor default for a two-story house that wants simultaneous streams, cameras, and a work call all day. Association versus comfort is explained in how many devices can connect. A quiet video call on the road can be fine; see working from home and video calls. A party of busy clients is the wrong story.
When Mini is the answer. You move the dish more often than you mow the lawn. You need a backup path in a go-bag. The building is not yours to drill. Power is constrained.
When it is not. You are furnishing a primary residence and calling it “basically Mini because it’s cheaper” without checking the current shop. Price is not the axis of this article; fit is.
Standard: the fixed-home default
Standard (the current residential-class kit in Starlink’s lineup—search still says “Gen 3” often) is the kit you should bias toward when the dish will sit on one property and serve a normal household.
Install. Roof, pole, ridge, or a proper mount with cable into the house. You will care about wind, drip loops, and not parking the dish under an eave. High-wind mounting matters more here than on a picnic table because the install is meant to last. Weather is a year-round roommate: bad weather, snow, heat and cold.
Power. Wall power is the assumed story. Off-grid Standard is possible; it is a power-system project, not a “the dish is efficient so a car battery is fine” project. Size it; do not guess.
Load. This is the class that usually matches “family plus a job.” It still will not make speed or gaming immune to evening contention. Ethernet the office desk. Do not expect Standard to feel like fiber latency; see Starlink vs fiber latency.
When Standard is the answer. Primary home, rental you can mount on, small business in a building with sky, a cabin that is actually a house with a pole. You want one install and a router that is trying to cover rooms, not a backpack.
When it is not. You truly live out of a vehicle or a bag most weeks. You need a form factor the Standard dish cannot physically be (some vehicle roofs, some marine envelopes). Those jobs are why Performance-class products exist—not because Standard is “slow.”
Performance: higher capability for demanding work
Performance (including products historically sold as High Performance or Flat High Performance) is built for demanding fixed, mobile and maritime installations. Current official positioning combines a more resilient enclosure, wider operating envelope, AC or DC power options and a higher hardware performance ceiling than the consumer kits.
Starlink’s current Performance page describes the kit as capable of download speeds above 400 Mbps and says network and plan upgrades can unlock higher speeds without a hardware replacement. Those are provider claims, not a guarantee for every address: plan priority, cell capacity, routing and installation still determine the result.
Search demand here is noisy: kit names, generation numbers, wedge mounts, pipe adapters, third-party brands wrapping Starlink terminals. Most of those queries are shopping for a physical product, not for a magic latency SKU. This page will not rank Gen 2 versus Gen 3 Performance with invented throughput.
Install. Budget for mounting hardware that matches the platform. A flat terminal on a vehicle is a vehicle project (vibration, cable glands, height limits). A high-performance-class dish on a house is still a sky-and-mount project. If a vendor kit bundles Starlink hardware, read what is actually in the crate on the official or vendor sheet—TNET will not recite kit contents.
Power. Performance-class terminals are the ones people put on bigger electrical systems. Qualitatively: plan more power headroom than Mini, and do not assume a cigarette-lighter story. Confirm nameplate data, then size with the off-grid power sizer if you are not on utility power.
Load. The higher hardware ceiling can matter for a business or demanding site, but it does not create unlimited comfortable clients. The service plan, network capacity and local Wi-Fi still set practical limits.
When Performance is the answer. You need greater resilience, in-motion or maritime support, DC power flexibility, professional mounting, or the higher performance ceiling for an important site.
When it is not. You only want lower gaming latency at an ordinary home. Clear sky, Ethernet and a suitable service plan matter before a larger terminal. Gaming reliability is covered in this guide.
Side-by-side: use case, not a spec sheet
| Question | Mini | Standard | Performance-class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Travel, temporary, compact backup | Fixed home / stay-put property | Harsh or specialized platforms |
| Typical setup time | Short, reversible | Real mount and cable run | Platform-specific, often professional |
| Power story | Most portable; still verify nameplate | Utility outlet unless you engineer off-grid | Plan more electrical headroom; verify |
| Indoor network | Fine for a small footprint | Default for a dwelling | Depends on the kit; not a client-count cheat code |
| Wrong reason to buy | “Cheapest sticker this week” | “Everyone online said Gen 3” | “It must be faster for games” |
Plans are not dishes
Hardware class and service plan are sold next to each other and confused constantly. A roam-style plan on Standard hardware, or a residential plan on a dish you then drive around, can violate current terms. The shop and account rules win. TNET’s quiz helps you name the pattern; it does not override Starlink policy.
Generation numbers in search (“Gen 2,” “Gen 3,” a Mini revision) describe products that Starlink may have already renamed or replaced. Use them only as a hint, then match the live SKU. A used listing that says Performance Gen 2 is not a substitute for reading what Starlink currently ships and supports.
Priority, fair-use, and mobility rules live on the plan, not on the plastic. Buying Performance-class hardware does not automatically buy a business plan. Buying Mini does not automatically buy roam. Confirm both layers before you pay.
If your real question is “what will this cost to own,” stop adding kit folklore and open the cost calculator with current shop prices. If your real question is “will this run off a battery,” stop copying wattage from a comment thread and use the off-grid power sizer with the nameplate on the unit you will actually plug in.
Scenarios
Apartment with a balcony and a job. Standard if you can mount legally and safely with sky; Mini if you cannot drill and you will supervise the terminal. Performance is usually excess unless the building requires a specific low-profile unit—confirm that, do not assume.
Family house, one roof, mixed streaming and WFH. Standard-class. Wire the office. Hunt obstructions. Skip Mini as the permanent core.
Van life, weeknights in different lots. Mini or a vehicle-oriented Performance/flat kit depending on how permanent the roof install is. Power is the project. Do not copy watt-hours from this paragraph.
Rural homestead, storms, long pole. Standard plus a mount rated for the wind you actually get. Performance only if the Standard terminal will not physically do the job.
Boat. Choose the Performance, flat or maritime class currently approved for that platform, and follow marine installation practice for the mount, cable and power system.
Backup for a fiber office that fails twice a year. Mini in a closet with a rehearsed sky spot can be enough. If the backup must run the whole house, you are back to Standard and power failover, not a gadget.
What to do next (without calculator math)
- Circle one row in the table. If you circled two, you probably need two kits or a honest primary/backup split—not a compromise dish that is bad at both.
- Open Starlink’s official shop and write down the current names, what each kit includes, and the price. If the name you remember from 2024 is gone, use the live name.
- Run the Starlink plan quiz so the service pattern (fixed, roam, household load priorities) is explicit.
- Put the live prices into the cost calculator. Do not use memory.
- If any of the power story is off-grid or vehicle, use the off-grid power sizer with manufacturer figures, not this article’s adjectives.
Coverage and expected connection quality at a place and time are still location problems: Starlink coverage and a connection outlook. Hardware class will not save a blocked sky.
Verify current specs, kits and prices on Starlink’s official shop before buying.
Primary next step: Take the Starlink plan quiz to match mobility and household pattern, then confirm the live hardware SKU on Starlink’s shop—not on a remembered comparison chart.