If you are heading off-grid in WA for one trip, the honest first question is not “which Starlink” but “should I even buy one?”. For a lot of travellers the answer is no. Buying makes sense when you will use it often. For a single trip it usually costs more and adds admin you do not need. Here is how renting and buying actually compare.
What buying actually costs
Two costs, not one: the hardware, then the service plan on top. In Australia the Starlink Mini kit is $399 at the time of writing, and the dish has actually come down in price over the past year. For travel you run a Roam plan, where the entry plan is $85 a month and now includes 100GB of data, up from 50GB previously, with an unlimited tier above it. So the hardware has dropped while the plans have crept up.
Starlink pricing checked June 2026 on starlink.com. Our rental rate is unlimited with no plan to manage.
Then there is the part people forget: you own it now. You set it up, you manage the plan, you pause and restart the billing between trips, you store it, and eventually you sell it or it gathers dust. None of that is hard, but it is all yours.
What renting costs
Renting collapses that into one line. We hire the Mini on one unlimited plan: $179 a week for a 7 to 13 day trip, dropping to $22 a day from 14 days and $19 a day from 25 days, so the longer you go the cheaper each day gets. Standalone hires take a $300 refundable bond, pickup is from our Cloverdale depot in Perth, and use is within WA. No hardware to buy, no plan to manage, no resale later.
For a two or three week trip, that is usually well under what the hardware alone would cost you, and you hand it back when you are done.
When buying makes sense
Buying is the right call if you will actually use it:
- You travel remote often, several trips a year.
- You are going full-time or long-term on the road.
- You need connectivity for a business or a property, not just a holiday.
If that is you, the hardware pays for itself and managing the plan is worth it. At that point our Starlink road-trip guide covers the setup and power side in detail.
When renting wins
Renting wins for the one-off and the occasional:
- A single big WA trip, a few weeks up the Coral Coast or down south.
- Your first remote trip, where you are not sure you will need it again.
- You want to turn up, collect a kit that already works, and not think about plans or hardware.
This is most holiday travellers. You are paying for the trip, not for a device you will use twice.
The hassle nobody mentions
The money is only half of it. Owning means pausing the Roam plan so you are not billed between trips, keeping the dish safe and undamaged, updating the app, and working out what to do with it after. Renting means none of that. You collect it, it is already on an unlimited plan, you use it, you return it. For comparing the wider connectivity options before you decide, our off-grid internet options guide lays them out.
The simple answer
If you are a few-trips-a-year remote traveller, buy it. If this is one trip, or you are testing whether you even need satellite internet, rent it. You can hire a Starlink in Perth on its own or added to a camper, and if you are not sure which way to go, send Dorian your dates and he will give you the honest maths for your trip.