The 5 best Wi-Fi routers in 2022 for a faster and more reliable Internet connection

The TP-Link Archer AX73 is a fantastic value, bringing top-tier performance to a mid-range price. It's even easy to set up.

Pros: Excellent performance, simple setup process, attractive design, reasonable size, good value 

Cons: No support for faster wired Ethernet

The TP-Link Archer AX73 hits the sweet spot in today's competitive router market. It provides the features and performance you demand but keeps the price just below $200. 

My tests show the Archer AX73, which supports Wi-Fi 6 and quotes a maximum wireless bandwidth of 5,400 Megabits per second (Mbps), is nearly as fast as high-end routers, like the and Linksys EA9500, Netgear Nighthawk RAX200, and TP-Link AX6600. When near the router, I see sustained real-world speeds of up to 682Mbps, which drops to 106Mbps in a detached home office. The AX73 was no more than 20% slower than top performers across my tests. 

The AX73 comes with four Gigabit Ethernet ports, along with an inbound Gigabit Ethernet wide-area network (WAN) port, and has a single USB 3.0 port for connecting a storage device directly to the router. At this price, I would like support for faster WAN speeds, such as 2.5Gbps or 10Gbps Ethernet. This isn't a concern for most owners, however, as few people have access to internet service that exceeds Gigabit performance.

The AX73 is exceptionally easy to set up and use. The company's Tether app, which is used to set up and control most TP-Link routers, is among my favorites in the industry. The app is not required, however: TP-Link also offers a great web interface that can be accessed through a PC or Mac's web browser.

I like the look and size of the AX73. It's fairly conventional and, while larger than less expensive models, still reasonably easy to place on a shelf or desk. Other, faster routers take up more space and stick out more in a room.

The TP-Link Archer AX50 is a smaller, more modest, and more affordable spin on our top pick.

Pros: Good performance at long range, simple setup process, attractive design, compact size

Cons: Maximum Wi-Fi speeds could be higher

The TP-Link Archer AX50 is an outstanding Wi-Fi router that effectively makes every other budget Wi-Fi router obsolete. You can buy a router for less, but the sacrifice you'll make in performance isn't worth the savings.

Performance is good, though not great, with a maximum real-world download speed of 485Mbps. That's very fast but a definite step down from the best.

However, the AX50's performance remains respectable at range. It handled our two most demanding test scenarios (a living room chair on the opposite side of the house and a detached office) just as well as the more expensive AX73. This budget router also beats budget mesh systems like Google's Nest Wi-Fi.

The AX50 connects to the same intuitive, approachable Tether app used to set up other TP-Link routers. Router setup takes less than five minutes. Power users can still rely on an in-depth web interface accessible through a PC or Mac's web browser. It also has four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a single inbound Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, which is typical of most modern Wi-Fi routers.

It's compact, too – approximately as large as a Nintendo Switch in its dock. This makes the AX50 easy to place out of sight on a desk or shelf.

The Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 is an outrageously quick Wi-Fi 6E router that can blanket most homes in speeds that rival wired Ethernet.

Pros: Supports Wi-Fi 6E, excellent Wi-Fi performance, performance holds up at range, as a 2.5 Gigabit LAN port 

Cons: Large, could use more Gigabit LAN ports for its size 

Netgear's Nighthawk RAXE500 is perfect for those seeking extreme performance from a conventional Wi-Fi router. It delivers incredible Wi-Fi speeds over the new Wi-Fi 6E wireless standard. 

I measured a maximum Wi-Fi 6E speed of 827Mbps and a maximum upload speed of 802Mbps. That sets a record in our testing. Wi-Fi 6 performance isn't far behind. A Wi-Fi 6 device connected to the 5GHz band measured a maximum download speed of 733Mbps and maximum upload speed of 632Mbps.

Performance holds up at range, as well. I saw speeds up to 100Mbps in a detached office 50 feet and many walls away from the router. That's not as quick as the Linksys Atlas 6E mesh router featured below, but high enough to feel fast and reliable. 

Like most routers, the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 is easy to set up through the company's Nighthawk mobile app. It includes the company's Armor security, which provides notifications when new devices are connected or suspicious network activity occurs. The Nighthawk app was easy to use and felt quick in my testing. You can also control the router through a web browser.

The RAXE500 is a very large router. You might have trouble finding a place to position it. Given it size, the router's inclusion of just four Gigabit LAN ports is surprising. There's room for more. The router also has a 2.5G LAN port and two USB-A 3.0 ports. 

Netgear's Nighthawk RAXE500 is expensive but justifies its price by providing a flagship experience. It's ideal for mid-sized homes that can place a router in a central location. At close range, it can deliver performance in league with the Linksys Atlas Max 6E mesh system at a lower price.

Linksys' absurdly quick Atlas Max 6E is the last word in Wi-Fi mesh performance.

Pros: Top-tier performance, excellent range, plenty of wired connectivity, access points look attractive

Cons: Extremely expensive, large access points

Mesh systems often promise outstanding performance, but don't always deliver. Linksys's Atlas Max 6E is an exception. This mesh system demolished other routers to become the fastest mesh router I have ever used. 

Performance is outstanding while close to the primary access point, hitting an average of 753Mbps in our benchmark. What impresses me most, though, is the Atlas Max 6E's fast download and upload speeds across all test scenarios. There's even more performance available. This is a Wi-Fi 6E router, which means it has a 6GHz band available for even higher speeds on compatible devices.

Wired connectivity is strong as well. Each access point has one 5G Gigabit WAN port and four Gigabit LAN ports, plus a USB-A port for attaching peripherals to the network. This means you can use any of the mesh system's access points as the primary router. The wired ports will not work on the additional access points, however. 

Setup is easy, though nothing to write home about. Linksys has an attractive app that will guide you through setup and provide a healthy variety of routing options once finished. There's also a web interface available, though Linksys makes some advanced settings hard to find. 

The real problem is the price: at least $800 for two routers or $1,200 for three. This is a high price for any router. However, it's in line with the price of competing routers with Wi-Fi 6E support.  

To be clear, most people don't need a system this fast or reliable. The Linksys Atlas Max 6E targets demanding owners in large homes connected to an internet service with Gigabit speeds.

Despite aging hardware, Google's Nest Wifi remains an intuitive, reliable choice with useful smart home connectivity.

Pros: Easy to set up and manage, router and points are small and attractive, access points double as smart speakers. reliable performance at range, attractive pricing

Cons: Wi-Fi 6 upgrade is sorely needed 

Google's Nest Wifi is an excellent choice if you need a reliable, intuitive mesh router for your smart home.

Starting at $300 for a router and secondary node point (and often on sale for much less), you can purchase a three-point Nest Wifi system for significantly less than more capable mesh routers from Linksys or Netgear. 

Nest Wifi unfortunately remains stuck on the older Wi-Fi 5 standard, so maximum performance tops out around 100Mbps. This is redeemed by the system's reliable performance across all testing locations. At range, the Nest Wifi is often as quick as budget mesh systems that do support Wi-Fi 6. 

Google's Home app is used to set up and control the Nest Wifi router and any connected access points. This is appealing if you use Google Home to control other smart home devices, like smart lights or a Chromecast. Nest Wifi access points also double as Google Home smart speakers.

The Nest Wifi router has one open Gigabit Ethernet port for connecting an external device. This is a bit disappointing but not unusual for an affordable mesh router. 

Nest Wifi remains the best choice if you want a budget mesh router. The competition has upgraded to Wi-Fi 6, but real-world performance from budget mesh systems fail to maximize its potential. That leaves Google's mesh system at the top – for now.

I tested real-world router performance using a file transfer test and the Ookla Speedtest app. To keep the testing objective, all benchmarks are carried out on an Apple iPhone 12 Mini using the same files and app.

Benchmark results are measured in four areas around a single-level home.

• An office desk no more than three feet from the router.
• A bedroom nightstand approximately 25 feet from the router and separated by several walls.
• A living room chair approximately 40 feet from the router and separated by several walls. 
• A detached office approximately 50 feet from the router. 

All testing was conducted while the home network was free from other traffic. The routers were connected to a modem providing Gigabit internet service. To ensure the internet service provider was not a bottleneck, I verified its speed with a desktop connected to the modem. The ISP provided network speeds of 930Mbps on average.

We considered dozens of routers for this guide. These alternatives left an impression (good or bad) in our testing.

• Asus RT-AX55: Asus's alternative to our favorite budget router, the TP-Link Archer AX50, is similar in price, size, performance, and wired connectivity. I prefer TP-Link's app experience, however.
• Asus RT-AX82U: This gaming router certainly has the look, and it delivers solid overall performance at a reasonable price. Its gaming specific features don't impress, so I think the TP-Link Archer AX73 is a better choice.
• Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000: The GT-AXE11000 is a high-end Wi-Fi 6E gaming router with impressive performance and tons of Ethernet ports. It's large, however, and a bit too garish for most homes.
• Eero Pro: The Eero Pro is a mesh system from Amazon that delivers Wi-Fi 6 at a reasonable price. Its performance is an improvement over Google's Nest Wifi, but Google delivers a better app experience through Google Home. 
• Linksys Velop 4200: The Linksys AX4200 is a mesh router system that provided strong maximum performance in our testing, but I am disappointed by its performance at range.
• TP-Link Archer AX10: The Archer AX10 is an appealing budget pick, but its performance is behind slightly more capable Wi-Fi 6 routers. The Archer AX50 is well worth its higher price.
• TP-Link Archer AX6000: The Archer AX6000 is a fast, high-end router that provides strong performance at range, but the Archer AX73 is nearly as quick despite its significantly lower price.

Wi-Fi 5 vs. Wi-Fi 6: Which is better?

Wi-Fi 6 is a newer wireless standard that delivers a huge performance upgrade over Wi-Fi 5. In our testing, Wi-Fi 6 routers are often two to three times quicker than similarly priced Wi-Fi 5 routers. 

You will only see Wi-Fi 6 performance if you have both a router and a device that supports Wi-Fi 6, but most new smartphones, laptops, and game consoles (like the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5) support Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 6 routers still support older Wi-Fi standards, so they remain compatible with older wireless devices. 

I generally recommend Wi-Fi 6 routers which, at this point, are the standard. This is especially true when buying a standalone router instead of a mesh router: every standard (non-mesh) router I recommend supports Wi-Fi 6.

Standard routers vs. mesh routers: Which is better?

A standard router is a single device that you'll typically place near your internet modem. Mesh routers have additional access points that connect wirelessly to the primary router which, again, will be placed near your internet modem. 

I recommend a standard router for most people. A modern Wi-Fi 6 router, like the top-rated TP-Link Archer AX73, can provide excellent coverage for a typical two-story, 2,000 square foot house. It can handle larger homes when placed in a central location with no nearby obstructions. 

Mesh routers can improve reliability by using multiple access points to get around objects that cause Wi-Fi dead spots, like a large appliance or a concrete brick wall. Just don't expect higher maximum performance: in my tests, mesh routers didn't impress relative to their price. 

Ease-of-use is often touted as a perk for mesh routers, but that's not true in 2022. Router companies have brought app-based router controls to all their products. The TP-Link routers we recommend have an excellent app experience that's often even more straightforward than a mesh system, since you don't have to set up or manage additional access points.

What is Wi-Fi 6E?

Wi-Fi 6E is the latest wireless standard. Routers with Wi-Fi 6E started to hit shelves in the spring of 2021.

The standard's key upgrade is a new 6GHz band that joins the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands found on most routers sold in the past few years. This new band is faster than the prior options and opens new portions of the radio spectrum that are less crowded. 

It's still early days for Wi-Fi 6E. Very few routers support the standard, and those that do are expensive. You can't tap the full potential of Wi-Fi 6E unless you buy a new smartphone or laptop with a compatible wireless adapter, which is also rare right now.

However, Wi-Fi 6E is clearly the future of wireless. It provides a big leap in performance at short range. At its best, a Wi-Fi 6E connection can rival the speed of wired Gigabit Ethernet, rendering wired connections obsolete for most homes. 

What is 2.5G, 5G, 10G Ethernet, and do I need them?

Ethernet is synonymous with Gigabit Ethernet, which supports network speeds up to one Gigabit per second (1Gbps), but the 2.5G, 5G, and 10G standards are starting to arrive on mainstream routers. These provide speeds of up to 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps, or even 10Gbps, respectively. 

While fast, Ethernet standards beyond Gigabit Ethernet aren't useful for most people because few internet providers offer service that can exceed one Gigabit. 

However, this feature could be useful if you have a wired home network that you use to transfer files between computers, and it becomes a necessity if you're among the lucky few with access to superfast fiber internet.

5G: The term "5G" is used by routers to either describe a 5 Gigabit Ethernet port or, in some cases, a wireless router's 5GHz band. It has nothing to do with 5G cellular connectivity found in smartphones.

Ethernet: Ethernet is the tried-and-true standard for wired internet connectivity. All routers have at least one Ethernet WAN port that accepts an incoming connection from your internet modem. Most routers also have Ethernet LAN ports that can be used to connect wired devices.

ISP: This acronym stands for Internet Service Provider. This is the company or organization that delivers internet connectivity to your home. 

LAN: This acronym stands for Local Area Network and, for routers, describes the Ethernet LAN ports used to connect wired devices. LAN ports can connect devices on your local network but can't connect directly to your internet modem (unless they are dual-purpose WAN/LAN ports).

Mesh: A mesh router system uses multiple access points to create a blanket of Wi-Fi coverage over a wide area. Devices connected to a mesh system will automatically connect to the mesh router or access point that provides the best Wi-Fi signal. 

WAN: This acronym stands for Wide Area Network and, for routers, describes the Ethernet WAN port used to connect the router to your internet modem. 

Wi-Fi 5: Formerly known as 802.11ac, Wi-Fi 5 is a wireless standard introduced in 2013. It's now the outgoing standard and is, in most cases, inferior to Wi-Fi 6.

Wi-Fi 6: The Wi-Fi 6 standard came to market in 2017 and is now widely supported by new routers, laptops, smartphones, and game consoles. It's a significant upgrade over Wi-Fi 5.

Wi-Fi 6E: New for 2021, Wi-Fi 6E adds a new 6Hz band that can achieve even higher network speeds than Wi-Fi 6. It's a good choice for homes connected to gigabit internet service, but compatible devices remain rare.

A good router is essential for daily life, whether you're streaming movies in 4K or want to look your best during your Zoom meetings. Our picks are discounted pretty regularly throughout the year, but especially during Black Friday and Cyber Monday; TP-Link routers, for example, are usually available for $20 less than retail. 

We're already seeing some impressive deals, like $200 off Linksys's Atlas Max AXE8400 Tri-Band Mesh Wifi 6E System at Best Buy. We rounded up mesh routers, budget routers, and more at different prices for your budget below.

TP-Link Archer AX73

$149.99 FROM AMAZON

Originally $154.99 | Save 3%

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TP-Link Archer AX50

$100.17 FROM AMAZON

Originally $149.99 | Save 33%

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Google Nest WiFi Router (2-Pack)

$219.99 FROM AMAZON

Originally $299.00 | Save 26%

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