What muddies the water is when you start considering the wide range of add-ons and introductory deals.
Trustpower and others such as megaTEL can bundle in power and Vodafone and Spark offer services such as Sky, Netflix or Lightbox. Orcon customers can get a free Xbox or Apple TV on a 24-month contract. Nice if you want one of those boxes.
Slingshot is giving away free Chromecast devices to customers who sign up for the same period.
But beware of the word "free". It is you who is paying for these. An example is the Spark broadband offer, which includes Netflix for 12 months. But at $20 a month more than Orcon for the same amount of broadband or fibre, you're effectively paying for your own Netflix.
Think about what you need. I'm motivated by price and convenience - and want a landline with free national calls, prepaid landline to mobile minutes, and cheap Australian calls.
You might be rural, need VDSL because broadband isn't available in your area, want or not want fibre, need a static IP address or simply like your broadband, landline, mobile and/or power charges all on one bill.
Don't fall into the trap of confirmation bias, which makes us seek out "evidence" to justify a decision.
It's also worth thinking about how long you want a contract for. This may be particularly pertinent if you're in a flatting situation, or intending to travel.
Another consideration is how much broadband you need. Many providers offer free connection and subsidised modems. But the free one might not be up to the job if your you do anything more than email, browsing and social media.
If you don't need a home line - and fewer and fewer of us do - "naked" broadband offerings usually cost $5 to $20 a month less than those with a landline.
If you're a gamer or stream movies speed is essential. The standard 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload might leave you wanting to punch a hole in the wall.
Bigpipe, for example, offers a massive 900Mbps/400Mbps package for a $49 connection fee and $129 a month. At the other end of the scale it makes little or no difference to the price if you want standard ADSL broadband or 100/20 Mbps fibre.
The majority of offers these days include unlimited data but if you don't use much data then it might be worth shopping around. Budget broadband starts from $59 a month, albeit often at slower speeds than the unlimited offerings.
Introductory offers can also make comparisons difficult. For example, MyRepublic is offering $39.99 a month for the first six months on naked broadband then $79.99 thereafter.
The best upfront discount on broadband/fibre I found was from Skinny, at $30 a month for 12 months.
Vodafone is not far behind with a $300 joining credit. Trustpower offers a $50 monthly discount for the first 12 months then $30 a month thereafter if you bundle it with power. Introductory offers rely on fixed terms and customer inertia when the offer expires.
Above and beyond cost are other considerations. What's the customer service like? Every man and his dog will have opinions on the customer service and tech support they receive.
I was the first in my street to get fibre and spent an unbelievable seven hours on the phone to my provider in the first week.
Canstar Blue does an annual comparison of leading providers and the top overall satisfaction for customer service, network performance, value for money, contract clarity, bill clarity and flexibility of contract goes to Flip, followed by 2Degrees, Orcon and Slingshot.
