[POLL] Who makes the best router in 2025?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

This year we have a new poll for who makes the best router. 

There are a lot of manufacturers out there, so we will be focusing largely on home and SOHO manufacturers, although a few enterprise gear manufacturers whose products end up in home labs are included as well.

As this is our first year for this poll, it is possible we've missed your favorite brand:  If your choice is not listed, please choose "other" and reply below with the company name and model of your device.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky


 

[AndyMutz]

AVM FRITZ!Box (any model)

 

 -andy-

[jjbackes1]

Synology router

 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Zimaboard with OpnSense, success! 😎

Use ASUS wireless router as AP for wireless.

[Groovedude]

I'm a bit of a Ubiquiti fan boy since switching all the home network setup

[Barney T. Administrators]

I have to go with Ubiquiti Dream Machine. Very stable, excellent range, and outstanding software.

[Circaflex]

dreammachine for me

[+Raze Subscriber²]

ASUS

RT-AX86U with Merlin firmware.

 

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

If you are somewhat tech savvy I think small, low powered x86-64 hardware running something like pfSense or OpnSense is the way to go. The hardware will essentially be supported for its usable life, not until the manufacturer decides its not worth the effort anymore.

I have a Lenovo M70q with an Intel I350-T4 V2 nic installed. What's nice about the M70q is I could replace the nic at a later date and have 2.5GbE or 10GbE with my existing hardware, so I see it as a futureproofed investment compared to an off the shelf router.

Although not user upgradable like a 1L mini PC with a PCIe expandability, Protectli make some good hardware with pfSense or OpnSense in mind.

[inactive]

I did not vote as I am still using fairly ancient Wireless-G router tech... 'Linksys WRT54GS v1.1' with DD-WRT firmware from 2021 (I could update to something more recent though but I doubt much changed from when I last updated mine).

but since I got better internet not all that long ago, the router is now a bottleneck as it can't process any faster than 3.xxMB/s (maybe 4MB/s on the very high end) range at the WAN connection even though I know it's capable of at least twice that speed (given I got a laptop with a wireless connection which totally bypasses my wired setup on that old Linksys router).

still, I am in no rush to upgrade as even 3.xxMB/s range is MUCH better than what I had as before I was stuck at 0.42MB/s MAX. so I am 'at least' 7.5x faster now which made a significant difference as I can now watch say a YouTube video while downloading etc where as before watching any video was pretty much it as downloading a file while watching a YouTube video was simply not going to happen outright. so while I could get more speed if I ditched that router for something semi-modern, I am in no rush.

so while my router is fairly ancient, on the bright side, it's rock-stable. as they say... 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'

[i_was_here]

On 04/01/2025 at 01:41, InsaneNutter said:

Although not user upgradable like a 1L mini PC with a PCIe expandability, Protectli make some good hardware with pfSense or OpnSense in mind.

Actually they just recently released the VP3210 and VP3230 that include a single slot PCIe expansion (25W max). I hope they expand it to the higher-end solutions.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

On 05/01/2025 at 03:29, ThaCrip said:

I am still using fairly ancient Wireless-G router tech... 'Linksys WRT54GS v1.1' with DD-WRT firmware from 2021

I'm impressed your WRT54GS is still going in 2025! the WRT54G series we're the routers to have in the 2000's.

I had the WRT54G (1.1 I think it was, in late 2003), I eventually flashed DDWRT to that, then later the original Tomato firmware. I only ever upgraded as internet speeds eventually increased to the point it couldn't cope with the throughput, however it lived on as a wireless access point. With a third party firmware it was rock solid as you say, pretty sure mine had well over a years uptime at one point. Only generally getting rebooted when their was a power cut.

[grunger106]

Palo Alto / Fortigate would be my pick money no object.

I run a Sophos XG310 myself as the NFR licence is as good as you can get for free from a commercial company.

Never looked into pfsense, but would probably be my second pick if the XG failed to do something I need.

Not really strictly speaking routers though, sure they'll route traffic but they're also Firewall, and AntiX solutions - for PURE routing I wouldn't be using a NGFW which is what most of the stuff I've just described is!

Not a fan of consumer/SOHO kit.

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 04/01/2025 at 21:29, ThaCrip said:

I did not vote as I am still using fairly ancient Wireless-G router tech... 'Linksys WRT54GS v1.1' with DD-WRT firmware from 2021 (I could update to something more recent though but I doubt much changed from when I last updated mine).

but since I got better internet not all that long ago, the router is now a bottleneck as it can't process any faster than 3.xxMB/s (maybe 4MB/s on the very high end) range at the WAN connection even though I know it's capable of at least twice that speed (given I got a laptop with a wireless connection which totally bypasses my wired setup on that old Linksys router).

still, I am in no rush to upgrade as even 3.xxMB/s range is MUCH better than what I had as before I was stuck at 0.42MB/s MAX. so I am 'at least' 7.5x faster now which made a significant difference as I can now watch say a YouTube video while downloading etc where as before watching any video was pretty much it as downloading a file while watching a YouTube video was simply not going to happen outright. so while I could get more speed if I ditched that router for something semi-modern, I am in no rush.

so while my router is fairly ancient, on the bright side, it's rock-stable. as they say... 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn

[cork1958]

On 03/01/2025 at 20:10, Raze said:

ASUS

RT-AX86U with Merlin firmware.

 

I voted ASUS also as I have the RT-AX58U with Merlin firmware. It's my third ASUS router and have had very good luck with them. Reasonably priced SOHO routers.

[inactive]

On 05/01/2025 at 05:12, InsaneNutter said:

I'm impressed your WRT54GS is still going in 2025! the WRT54G series we're the routers to have in the 2000's.

I had the WRT54G (1.1 I think it was, in late 2003), I eventually flashed DDWRT to that, then later the original Tomato firmware. I only ever upgraded as internet speeds eventually increased to the point it couldn't cope with the throughput, however it lived on as a wireless access point. With a third party firmware it was rock solid as you say, pretty sure mine had well over a years uptime at one point. Only generally getting rebooted when their was a power cut.

Yeah, mine will run years without issues if the power does not go out here and there (but currently my power has not went out in a long time as my primary use PC (Mint 21.2-Xfce) has nearly 503 days of uptime as it's been going 24/7 since late August 2023), at least when I was on my "0.42MB/s" internet. but even with my current internet it shows uptime of nearly 36 days and no issues so far. so I sort of expect the rock-stable trend to continue even with me occasionally hammering the router with downloads.

but yeah, it's wireless is bad (generally always has been but it's wired connection is still passable for many people I suspect as I primarily use the wired connection on my desktop PC etc), which is why I just flat out disabled it in the router once I got better internet as any wireless stuff I just use the new device that the internet service comes with as it's much faster.

but in regards to this router... I replaced the capacitors (I think it was 3-4 of them) with new ones in Feb 2020. I doubt the old ones were even dead but the ones in it now will likely last a very long time at this point, which should help ensure it stays rock-stable.

but yeah, like you said, these Linksys WRT54 types of routers were quite common back in the 2000's. the one I have has either 4MB flash/32MB RAM or 8MB flash/32MB of RAM (it's CPU is currently 216MHz I think). but the firmware I flash to it only needs 4MB flash anyways (although DD-WRT does have one for the 2MB flash routers which are the more crippled ones of the day). so it's one of the better models of the type.

even not long ago just to see if I could get more speed out of it I tried flashing back to a old Tomato firmware from I think about the year 2010. but the WAN speed got worse, so I flashed back to the DD-WRT I had on it (currently r46640 mini from May 13th 2021) as I can consistently get at least low 3.xxMB/s range (down or up) assuming a site is capable of giving me at least that speed. which is more than enough for many uses. but you can see the routers CPU is getting hammered when a download that taxes the router is going and I try accessing the routers built-in DD-WRT configuration page (192.168.1.x) it acts like it's dead (or at best really sluggish/unresponsive). but once I stop hammering it, I can access it like usual without problem.

long live the king of ancient routers

p.s. even on local network transfers through LAN, it's capped to the LAN speed ports which is basically 10-11MB/s. but I don't do too much transfers this way so even when I do once in a while it's not a real issue for me. if it was doing certain things often with the router I would have likely dumped it years ago and moved on. but in regards to a general use wired connection, it's still respectable for general use especially considering it's age. but if 3.xxMB/s ever becomes a problem, then at that point it will just be screwed. but I suspect it will be good enough for at least years to come if they don't dump 720p/1080p standards anytime soon, which I doubt they will because it offers a lot of bang-for-the-buck.

[froggyliver]

I have been a big fan of Meraki for business but they are quite pricey. I am really liking Meraki Go for my home. Or Firewalla has actually been pretty good too.

[bikeman25]

Well if i didn't have to Rent Comcast Xfinity XB8 Gateway in order to support my Wireless TV Box for Upstairs TV

 

i'd probably choose Asus Wifi 6E Router or Netgear

Previously used Netgear for a while in old Residence, and it worked pretty well til moved,  then got told i'd have to rent a Gateway to support Upstairs TV Wireless box,  so been renting since 2019

 

[remixedcat]

Yay Ubiquiti is winning!!!

I got the following stuff from them

 

Cloud gateway ultra

Switch ultra 60w

US-8-60w

 

and 2 UAP-AC-Lites and an LR

 

and all been working great.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I'm really tempted to move to Ubiquiti gear - my needs are basic, IoT devices, a few PCs and one Plex/NAS server.  My problem is:

• I live in a listed building and cannot run cable (cleanly)
• I live in a VERY old building with ridiculously thick walls
• I live in a densely populated building (102 other residents)
• I rely upon Virgin for my broadband coming into the property, and I believe I still need to use their router/modem in modem mode, then into the Ubiquity router - and their router/modem is the weak link in the chain?

[remixedcat]

it should work fine and there's even auto-rf optimizing that you can schedule!

[Barney T. Administrators]

I have Ubiquiti Dream Machine and access points throughout my house. It works so well! I've never had an issue with them and they cover all of my house without any issues at all.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 20/08/2025 at 18:52, remixedcat said:

it should work fine and there's even auto-rf optimizing that you can schedule!

Was this in response to me?  If so, can you possibly elaborate please?

Would it overcome the first 3 issues, and finally with the Virgin modem/router in modem mode, are you saying it should then become a non-issue?

 

Thanks!

[remixedcat]

On 21/08/2025 at 08:46, Nik Louch said:

Was this in response to me?  If so, can you possibly elaborate please?

Would it overcome the first 3 issues, and finally with the Virgin modem/router in modem mode, are you saying it should then become a non-issue?

 

Thanks!

Yes

Under "Daily spectrum optimizer">set desired times 

 

Also as you see there's a lot of settings you can apply be default too. 

 

As for the modem thing you can run your virgin router on bridge mode or modem only and you shouldn't run into issues

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 21/08/2025 at 20:57, remixedcat said:

Yes

Under "Daily spectrum optimizer">set desired times 

 

Also as you see there's a lot of settings you can apply be default too. 

 

As for the modem thing you can run your virgin router on bridge mode or modem only and you shouldn't run into issues

Thank you so much, and I've seen these circular things you put onto the wall to create a mesh?