Best Wifi Routers 2025 | Top-Rated Home Routers and Network Solutions

There’s a lot of jargon to decode when shopping for a wireless router. For most people (myself included), the flashy specs don’t really matter. I just want my internet to work smoothly, all the time. Here are the things worth paying attention to. 

Wi-Fi standards explained

These days, you’ll mostly see three Wi-Fi standards when shopping for a Wi-Fi router: Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7. (Some Wi-Fi 5 routers are still on the market, but you can safely pass them by at this point.) These numbers refer to the generation of standards; Wi-Fi 7 is the seventh iteration of Wi-Fi standards. 

All these standards were developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a worldwide association of technical professionals. When a device uses the latest standard, an organization called the Wi-Fi Alliance gives its stamp of approval to devices that meet its qualifications. 

	Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)	Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)	Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)	Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be)
Frequency bands	5GHz	2.4 and 5GHz	2.4, 5 and 6GHz	2.4, 5 and 6GHz
Maximum bandwidth	80MHz	160MHz	160MHz	320MHz
Maximum speed	1.3Gbps	9.6Gbps	9.6Gbps	46Gbps

• Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be): Uses the 2.4, 5 and 6GHz bands and doubles the channel size of the 6GHz band from 160 to 320MHz. A typical Wi-Fi 7 laptop could reach “potential maximum” speeds of 5.8Gbps — 2.4 times faster than the 2.4Gbps possible with Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, according to Intel. Multi-Link Operation (MLO) also allows Wi-Fi 7 devices to simultaneously connect on two bands, providing improved reliability and ultralow latency.
• Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax): The first Wi-Fi standard to add in the 6GHz band along with 2.4 and 5GHz. 
• Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax): A massive upgrade over Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 was the first standard to allow your router to divide the channel it’s using — 2.4 or 5GHz —  to send its signals through smaller frequency allocations. This allowed for much faster speeds than the previous generation.
• Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac): Wi-Fi 5 used the 5GHz band exclusively. It was the first Wi-Fi standard to exceed 1Gbps maximum speeds, but its range is significantly smaller than Wi-Fi 6. 

If you think that all sounds confusing, you’re not alone. The jump from Wi-Fi 6E to Wi-Fi 7 has been particularly technical. Even though both use the newly opened 6GHz band, only Wi-Fi 7 routers will get the MLO feature. 

“Whenever I spoke with the Wi-Fi Alliance, they always tried to make people forget that Wi-Fi 6E even existed,” said Nicholas De Leon , a reporter covering routers for Consumer Reports (no relation to CNET’s Samantha De Leon). “It was kind of a stopgap, Band-Aid solution while on the road to Wi-Fi 7.”

As if that wasn’t confusing enough, some Wi-Fi 7 routers don’t even use the 6GHz band. Our pick for the best budget Wi-Fi 7 router, the Netgear NightHawk RS100, is one of them. It’s one of the growing wave of “dual-band” Wi-Fi 7 routers, which is a bit of a stretch since they’re missing the most important part of the equation. 

But Wi-Fi 7 is about more than the 6GHz band, said David Coleman, director of wireless networking at Extreme Networks.

“Wi-Fi 7 introduces several key upgrades that set it apart from tri-band Wi-Fi 6E routers,” Coleman said in an email. “For example, Wi-Fi 7 supports 320MHz-wide channels  — double the size of the widest channels in Wi-Fi 6E — meaning it can deliver much higher data rates. It also brings 4K-QAM modulation, boosting transmission efficiency by up to 20% compared to Wi-Fi 6E.”

Keep in mind that you’ll need both a Wi-Fi 7 router and a Wi-Fi 7 device to take advantage of the standard’s improvements. When Wi-Fi 7 was officially launched, in January 2024, very few devices could actually use it. Today, that list has expanded tremendously and includes the latest iPhones, Microsoft Surface laptops and the PS5 Pro. 

These Wi-Fi standards are backward compatible, so a Wi-Fi 7 router will still work with a device that has only Wi-Fi 6. Likewise, you can use a Wi-Fi 6 router to game on a PS5 Pro — you just won’t be able to fully take advantage of its improved speeds. 

Single routers vs. mesh systems

Mesh routers use multiple devices to relay a better Wi-Fi signal throughout your home, with fewer dead zones. They’re likely the right approach if you live in a large, multistory home or if there are multiple spots where you can’t connect as reliably as you’d like.

There are many great mesh systems available at this point, and prices have come down significantly in the last few years. For more information and our top recommendations, be sure to check out our full rundown of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems of the year.

Speed ratings demystified

When shopping for Wi-Fi routers, you’ll often see designations like “AC1900” or “AC3150.” The idea is to give you a quick sense of which version of Wi-Fi a given router supports (“AC” for Wi-Fi 5, “AX” for Wi-Fi 6, and so on) as well as its speeds. 

Take that speed number with a big grain of salt. It tells you the sum total of the maximum theoretical transfer rates across each of the router’s bands, which will almost always be much higher than the speeds you get as a user. 

Take our top overall pick, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000. The “AX6000” tells you it’s a Wi-Fi 6 router that supports speeds of up to 6,000Mbps. When you add up the two bands, you’ll get to 6,000Mbps, but you won’t necessarily be able to get all that speed on one device. Even that’s probably a stretch, as those top speeds are measured in optimized lab conditions, not real-world environments. 

The exception to this rule is if you’re using a Wi-Fi 7 router with a Wi-Fi 7 device. In that case, your router will be able to use Multi-Link Operation to connect to different bands at the same time. 

Coverage considerations

Will a single wireless router be able to broadcast a Wi-Fi signal throughout your entire home? No matter how good the router, you’ll always see a significant speed drop-off in rooms far away from the router. 

Many Wi-Fi routers list coverage areas north of 5,000 square feet, but I recommend switching to a mesh system if your home is larger than 2,500 square feet. That said, it’s a matter of percentages. If you have a multigig internet plan, you’ll still get plenty of speed for streaming TV or browsing social media in a far corner of a 5,000-square-foot home. But you’ll probably have issues if you’re starting with only 100Mbps.

Additionally, the type of home you live in — not just the size — can affect your Wi-Fi signal.

“A lot of it depends upon housing construction,” said De Leon. “I’ve got family down in Puerto Rico and Florida, where a lot of the houses are concrete, and that obviously just destroys Wi-Fi signals.”

Frequency bands and channel width

You can think of your router like a radio — it sends and receives signals through airwaves. Whereas a radio picks up audio broadcasts in AM or FM airwaves, a Wi-Fi router sends and receives data through 2.4 and 5GHz airwaves (as well as 6GHz airwaves if it’s a fancy Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 router). 

Nearly all routers include separate radios for those bands, which lets you connect to whichever band is best. Some routers will automatically steer your connection between the multiple bands available, but you can usually turn that off as well, making each band its own, separate Wi-Fi network. The 2.4GHz band offers a better range than higher bands, but speeds are limited. With 5GHz (or 6GHz), you can hit much faster speeds, but those speeds will drop off faster than you’ll see with 2.4GHz as your device’s distance from the router increases.

In general, the 5GHz band is your best bet for a reliable, high-speed connection at close and medium range, and the 2.4GHz band is great for devices at the far reaches of your Wi-Fi network, where the improved range is worth the speed trade-off.

Ethernet and USB connectivity

Typically, the more high-end the router, the more Ethernet ports you’ll see. These let you plug a device directly into your router. A wired connection is inherently much stronger than Wi-Fi; in one test, a CNET writer got 395Mbps download speeds through Ethernet and 126Mbps through Wi-Fi. If there’s one device that you absolutely want to get the best connection to, an Ethernet cable is the way to go. Ports are often marketed as “gigabit Ethernet ports,” which means they’re capable of delivering gigabit speeds through a wired connection. The more ports a router has, the more devices you can connect this way. 

USB ports on Wi-Fi routers have several different use cases. You can use them to connect devices like printers directly to your router, which allows you to share them with the rest of the devices on the network. You can also attach an external hard drive to the router to share its contents with other devices on the network. 

Security features

Any router you look at should have WPA3 certification at minimum. This is the most recent security protocol issued by the Wi-Fi Alliance, and it ensures that the router follows best practices that encrypt data and make passwords harder to crack. 

“Honestly, as long as it has WPA3, that’s probably the big security thing to look for,” said De Leon.

He also recommended looking for routers that support automatic firmware updates. Not all the routers CNET recommends automatically update firmware. One of the manufacturers I spoke with said it’s received “quite vocal feedback from the community” against them, as they can affect network performance. Whether they’re automatic or not, the main thing to know is that the manufacturer regularly issues updates and that they’re easy to install. 

QoS and traffic management

Many routers come with Quality of Service (QoS) settings that let you prioritize specific devices on the network. If you wanted to make sure your work computer was in line ahead of your kid’s Nintendo Switch, for instance, you could adjust this in the settings. Our best overall router, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000, has traffic management settings designed specifically for gaming, but you could use them on any device you want to get the best connection.

Parental controls and family features

Most routers these days come with some form of parental controls. These can usually be set through the router’s app, and they let you automatically restrict access to specific websites or any adult content. You can often set up a schedule for when a device can access Wi-Fi, or even set daily limits. 

Smart home integration

Some routers, like the Eero series, work with voice assistants like Alexa to let you control the router with your voice. You can also use Amazon Echo devices as mesh nodes and access points with your network. Others, like TP-Link, let you control Tapo, Kasa, Philips Hue and Matter smart home devices through the TP-Link Deco app. 

Mobile apps and management

App management is the norm for routers these days. All our top picks can be set up through the smartphone app — most of them require it — and you can control your network through the app as well. This lets you see which devices are connected to your router, manage your network remotely or set up parental controls.

Processor and RAM

The processor in a Wi-Fi router is like its brain. It determines how well the device can manage your network’s traffic and perform multiple tasks simultaneously. All our top picks use a quad-core processor (when publicly listed), which is the standard in 2025. Not all quad-core processors are created equal, though. The A73 processor used by the Eero Max 7, for example, is considered significantly more advanced than the A53 processor used in the Eero Pro 6E. 

A router’s storage capacity can also affect how well it performs. This is usually broken up into RAM and flash. RAM, short for random-access memory, affects the router’s ability to process data, while flash storage typically houses the router’s settings. 

Mesh expandability

If you’re not sure whether a standalone router or a full-fledged mesh system is right for your home, some routers offer a nice middle ground, allowing you to add more routers to create a mesh system later on. You’ll be limited to buying another router from the same brand (and possibly product line), but it’s a nice option if you don’t want to invest in a mesh router right off the bat. 

Budget considerations

How much you should spend on a Wi-Fi router depends on what you need and how many people and devices need to connect, but a small- to medium-size home or apartment can probably get by with a well-tested dual-band router in the $130 range. If your home is larger, it’s probably worth spending more on a mesh system that can spread more consistent speeds from room to room. If you’re working from home, gaming online or sharing bandwidth with multiple housemates or family members, upgrading to something like a high-speed tri-band router is probably a good investment too.