Best Overall: Netgear Orbi Whole Home Wi-Fi System
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Full Home Coverage
Speedy performance
Beautiful aesthetics
Pricey
Older devices can complicate things
Netgear’s Orbi offers a much more living room friendly aesthetic than most wireless routers, and it’s actually a pretty big departure from Netgear’s usual design. However, it’s also the company’s first mesh Wi-Fi system, so it’s not something you’re expected to hide somewhere in your basement. Chances are you actually will have one or more of these units in your living space, so looks are important here.
Don’t let its appearance fool you, however, as this powerful Wi-Fi system can easily cover even the largest and busiest homes with more than enough performance for all of your streaming and video calling needs. The Orbi offers tri-band Wi-Fi, reserving one of the 5GHz bands as a backhaul channel to ensure that traffic is always moving smoothly between the main router and one or more satellite points around your home. This means you’ll still have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies available to your devices, yet you’ll get top speeds no matter where you are in your home—whether you’re connected to the main router or one of the satellites.
This makes the four Gigabit Ethernet ports on each satellite especially useful, since you can hardwire in a smart TV, PC, or game console, and get the same performance at a satellite unit that you would from plugging straight into the main router. With Netgear Armor security and advanced Circle with Disney parental controls, it’s also a great system for families of all ages.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: NETGEAR Armor, WPA2 | Standard/Speed: AC3000 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 4
"Anyone that has a large home or office that needs a fast and reliable network connection will find a lot to love with this router." — Bill Thomas, product tester
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Lifewire / Bill Thomas
Best Value: TP-Link Archer AX50 AX3000 Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 Router
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Affordable Wi-Fi 6 technology
160MHz-wide channels
Free advanced security and parental controls
Slow NAS performance
TP-Link’s Archer AX50 is a really affordable way to move into the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology without spending a bundle. Even if you don’t have a lot of Wi-Fi 6 devices in your home yet, this router can make sure that you’re ready when they come along, and in the meantime it will deliver impressive performance for all your 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5 devices.
With enough range to handle a modest-sized home, the AX50 offers great value for its modest price tag, delivering up to 3Gbps of bandwidth to all of your 802.11ax and 802.11ac Wi-Fi devices. It also supports 160MHz-wide channels, which is a pleasant surprise considering that’s something omitted by many more expensive Wi-Fi 6 routers. On top of that, TP-Link also includes a lifetime subscription to its HomeCare suite of security and parental control features, powered by Trend Micro, letting you block malware and create profiles for different family members to set time limits and keep your kids safe online.
Around the back you’ll find the usual collection of four Gigabit Ethernet ports, but the AX50 has another nice surprise up its sleeve in the form of LAN aggregation. This lets you combine two of the Ethernet ports to use as a single 2Gbps link, so you’ll be able to use it with some of the fastest internet plans available. There’s also a USB 3.0 port for hosting an external storage device or sharing a printer, and while it doesn’t offer the fastest NAS capabilities we’ve seen, it’s more adequate for things like network backup, and it even supports Apple’s Time Machine for Mac users.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: HomeCare, WPA3 | Standard/Speed: AX3000 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 4
Best Security: Asus RT-AX88U AX6000 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Router
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Advanced Wi-Fi 6 support
Advanced security features
Eight LAN ports
A bit pricey
If you’re looking for a router that can offer you peace of mind in knowing that your home network is safe against malware and other online threats, then Asus RT-AX88U has you covered. It’s a high-performance router that offers a wealth of advanced features, from online security and parental controls to the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology, and enough range and power to cover a large and busy home.
With its suite of AiProtection features powered by Trend Micro, the RT-AX88U will block malicious sites to protect your devices from malware, phishing, spam, adware, and ransomware attacks. A two-way intrusion prevention system also prevents infected devices in your home from making outbound connections that could transmit your sensitive personal information. Plus, the built-in router security assessment tool helps you identify potentially insecure settings that you should change to lock things down properly, so you won’t need to worry about a misconfigured router leaving your home network vulnerable to hackers.
On the hardware side, the RT-AX88U also offers up a powerful beamforming antennas array that can cover a 5,000 square foot home, with a total of 6Gbps of bandwidth for your devices. It’s also got a generous collection of eight Gigabit Ethernet ports around the back, so you can hardwire in your PC or game console for maximum performance, and a pair of USB 3.1 ports for sharing files and other media on your home network.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: AiProtection, WPA2, 802.1x | Standard/Speed: AX6000 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 8
"I was able to stream high definition Netflix to two televisions on my network while someone else was gaming, and various other phones and tablets were in use without any stuttering or slowdown." — Jeremy Laukkonen, Product Tester
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Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen
Best Mesh: Eero Pro Mesh Wi-Fi System
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Very easy to set up
Great wired speeds
Real-time content filtering & malware protection
Limited Ethernet ports
Lacks PPPoE support
Content filtering requires monthly subscription
The Eero Pro takes all the complexity out of setting up a mesh Wi-Fi system, with an intuitive mobile app that will have you up and running in a matter of minutes. This versatile and expandable mesh Wi-Fi system can also grow with you to cover even the largest homes.
A single tri-band Eero Pro router will cover up to 2,000 square feet on its own, which means if you spring for a three-pack of Eero Pro units, you’ll get a total of 6,000 square feet of coverage. If you need more, you simply need to purchase additional Eero units, each of which can be either another Eero Pro for the fastest tri-band speeds, or standard dual-band Eero or Eero Beacon units, each of which offers 1,000–1,500 square feet of additional coverage.
With the exception of the Eero Beacons, you’ll also get a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports on each unit, so you can also hardwire in non-Wi-Fi devices like game consoles or smart TVs. The more discrete Eero Beacons, on the other hand, omit the wired ports, but have the advantage of simply plugging directly into any wall outlet and doubling as night lights around your home. Unfortunately, Eero is one of the very few routers that lacks support for the PPPoE protocol used by many DSL providers, so if this is your ISP you’ll want to steer clear of Eero unless you're willing to change providers, or you have the advanced networking skills needed to work around it.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ac| Security: Eero Secure, WPA3 | Standard/Speed: AC2200 | Bands: Tri-band / Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 2
"The bottom line is that this system offers decent performance while demystifying the process of setting up a mesh Wi-Fi network." — Jeremy Laukkonen, product tester
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Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen
Best for Gaming: Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Wi-Fi 6 Router
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Advanced Wi-Fi 6 Support
Extremely Fast Performance
Cutting-edge game-centric QoS
Large footprint
Expensive
User interface can be a bit daunting
Asus’ GT-AX11000 is an insanely powerful gaming router that can handle the needs of the most demanding online gamers with performance to spare, so the rest of the family can also enjoy other online activities like 4K streaming and video calling.
With blazing fast 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 performance and up to 10Gbps of total throughput, the GT-AX11000 can handle even the busiest homes, and the eight-antenna beamforming array will easily cover a living space of up to 5,000 square feet. If that’s not enough, Asus’ AiMesh 2.0 technology will let you add additional routers into the mix to create a full mesh Wi-Fi system. The usual four Gigabit Ethernet ports around the back are also joined by a special high-speed 2.5Gbps dedicated gaming port for the ultimate in wired performance.
Under the hood you’ll also find a full collection of the kind of advanced configuration features that Asus routers are known for, including its AiProtection suite of security and parental controls, plus built-in VPN features, and the ability to tweak the three Wi-Fi bands for optimal performance. The 1.8GHz quad-core CPU makes sure gamers get a lag-free experience, while also powering advanced optimization features like the WTFast Gamers Private Network, adaptive QoS to prioritize gaming traffic, and VPN Fusion to protect your privacy without slowing down your games.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: AiProtection Pro, WPA3, 802.1x, VPN | Standard/Speed: AX11000 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 6
"The ROG Rapture AX11000 worked almost flawlessly in the five days I spent with it. Even with multiple devices hitting it from every direction for high-bandwidth streams, it never failed to provide what was needed." — Jeremy Laukkonen, Product Tester
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Lifewire / Jeremy Laukkonen
