Standard routers are great if you’re willing to stay in areas of the house where the signal is strong. However, if you want to be able to do work on your laptop, record on TikTok, or play competitive multiplayer games anywhere you want in the house, there’s a good chance a regular router will fail you at some point.
Mesh routers offer a more dependable way to set-up Wi-Fi in your home. Instead of using a single wireless point to broadcast throughout the house, mesh networks allow you to use additional nodes that extend Wi-Fi coverage in areas where your main router’s signal just won’t quite reach. Whether you want to listen to Spotify on the backyard speakers, download files on your basement servers, or record TikTok videos on the roof, a mesh router is your best shot at ensuring all those places let you do those things uninterrupted.
These are the best Wi-Fi mesh routers to bring a strong signal to every corner of your home.
Eero 6
If you have an internet connection with a bandwidth of 500 Mbps or less, this affordable Eero 6 model should more than suffice for your needs, allowing you to blanket your home in Wi-Fi without spending a premium. If you don’t like fiddling with plenty of router settings, you’ll love the simple set up for this mesh system, allowing you to get everything ready in short order. It’s as set-and-forget as a router gets, with the system seemingly just running well at all times, complete with automatic updates, so it gets updated firmware at all times without any intervention needed. And if you do encounter any problems, you can easily monitor what’s going on via the remote app (yes, you can check your home router even while at work).
Performance is good at short to medium range from the main router, although you will notice some drop off in bandwidth once you’re connecting from either of the two nodes. It’s not much, but if you’re monitoring precise bandwidths, you will notice the difference, although most people probably won’t even feel it, since everything still loads really fast. Because Eero is an Amazon company, it can also use some Echo speakers as a Wi-Fi extender (you can check their website for the supported models), which is pretty cool if you have Echo speakers at home.
- WHOLE-HOME WI-FI 6 COVERAGE - an eero 6 2-pack covers up to 3,000 sq ft. with wifi and supports wifi...
TP-Link Deco W7200
This mesh router feels like it should be more expensive than it is. It has Wi-Fi 6, WPA3 security, and even two 5GHz bands, allowing it to use one as a dedicated backhaul connection between the main router and the nodes. Performance is impressive, with bandwidth staying mostly consistent on short-, medium-, and long-range connections, although the drop in bandwidth from short range to long range is quite significant, as you can lose around 200 Mbps on fast connections. Still, losing speed at distance isn’t uncommon among mesh satellites, although some options on this list definitely keep the difference a lot closer. For most people, though, the difference between getting 500 Mbps over 300 Mbps isn’t that noticeable, since all your Netflix videos are still loading without any buffer and it does keep the speed at a pretty consistent rate with no drastic slowdowns even in busy networks. As we said, though, the best part about this model is the price, as you get Wi-Fi 6, tri-band design, and consistent performance at a price you typically see in mesh routers with last-generation tech.
Netgear Orbi AX4200 RBK752
Netgear makes a lot of mesh routers that kind of look the same and even have similar names, making it difficult to decide which one you’re supposed to get. We like this model, in particular, which boasts Wi-Fi 6, support for faster-than-gigabit speeds up to 2Gbps., and an impressive coverage of 2,500 square feet for each module. Setup is not as simple as other mesh routers in this list, so this is probably not the system you want to give to your mom. Once you get it running, though, the coverage and speeds are impressive, with little drop off in bandwidth between the main router and the satellite node. Seriously, why can’t all mesh networks be this consistent? While it’s not the speediest we’ve tested, we really appreciate the fact that it delivers, more or less, the same speed for every connection on the network. The coverage is impressive, too, allowing you to blanket a large home with just two satellite nodes (three if it’s very large). With that said, we do wish they can improve on the setup and the app, as neither is on par with what other top companies in the category offer.
- Coverage up to 5,000 sq. ft. and for up to 40 devices. Extend coverage up to 2,500 sq. ft. with each...
Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro
If you value simplicity over everything else and you’re willing to spend a bit more for the more convenience, Google’s newest mesh router might be your ideal option. Setup is the simplest we’ve seen, requiring you to just scan QR codes and follow instructions to get optimal signal. That’s it. It boasts Wi-Fi 6E, which is supposed to be two times faster than Wi-Fi 6 and a tri-band configuration that uses the 6Hz range as its backhaul, so it’s completely out of the way for the other two bands you might be using for your connections.
Performance is actually pretty good on its own. Bandwidth is speedy throughout its area of coverage and, more importantly, very consistent, with no sudden drops or glitches. Compared to other top routers, though, it just misses the mark, regularly falling behind in speed measurements. Basically, it doesn’t deliver the fastest Wi-Fi performance, but it does strike arguably the best balance in speed, consistency, and ease of use. For some people, that may be more important. Plus, it’s going to support the upcoming universal Matter standard, so it’s a good router to invest if you plan on installing more smart home devices around the house throughout the year.
- Nest Wifi Pro is up to 2x faster than Wi-Fi 6, so you get super fast speeds and a reliable...
Asus ZenWiFi AX XT8
If you’re paying for a gigabit connection, you want a mesh router that will maximize all that bandwidth. This model from Asus does just that, complete with a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, delivering incredibly speedy performance and distributing it very well to every corner of your home. We love the router’s straightforward setup, which you can easily do from a mobile app, allowing you to get the whole thing running in mere minutes.
Each mesh network module offers three Ethernet ports, so you can hook up wired connections if you prefer that, although the wireless performance is really what you’re paying for here. It supports Wi-Fi 6 with all the technologies it brings to the fore, ensuring faster and more stable transmissions even with dozens of devices moving data at the same time. Performance is consistently fast from both near and far alike, even sustaining speeds of over 500 Mbps at long range. We also appreciate the WPA3 security and the anti-malware AiProtection Pro, especially since the latter doesn’t require a subscription unlike similar services, as well as the AiMesh support that lets you add other Asus routers to further extend the range.
- Maximum Range : 5500 Sq Ft.LED Indicator : Power x 1. Power Supply : AC Input : 110V~240V(50~60Hz),...