Best Mesh Routers For 2022
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With the increase in the workforce working from home and , with friends and calling loved ones , has surged over the past few years. The bandwidth-heavy use makes the need for a reliable Wi-Fi signal at home a necessity. If you've been struggling to stay connected at top speed, it might be time for a home networking upgrade.
One of the best moves for many households is to upgrade from a router to a mesh system. With multiple devices spread throughout your home, a good mesh router is like a team of routers that can relay your wireless traffic back to the modem better than a traditional router, especially when you're connecting at range. And there are lots of new, next-gen options on the market, so it's a prime time to make the switch.
With the right system quarterbacking your connection, you could enjoy total wireless coverage and speeds that reach your network's capacity throughout the majority of your home, if not the entirety of it. Better yet, you won't have to juggle your connection between your main network and a separate extension network like with a lot of . Given that range extension is already baked into the system, the mesh router will automatically route your connection accordingly within a single, unified network.
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Some of the best mesh routers we've tested include systems from , which popularized mesh networking before being , as well as the latest setups from , , and . Mesh systems regularly sold for as much as $500 a few years ago, but now these manufacturers offer multipoint mesh router systems -- including the main router and the additional satellite extenders -- that cost less than $300, or even below $200. Though we'd recommend aiming a bit higher, you can even find basic, entry-level mesh systems for .
We've still got lots of routers and mesh systems we'd like to try out -- including a that use , promising better performance and faster speeds. More mesh routers that support , which means they can access a , should continue to arrive , but it's probably (and believe me, ).
Expect regular updates to this post as new Wi-Fi mesh routers like those make it to market. For now, here are our picks for the top-tested systems you should be considering first if you're buying now.
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For a mesh router upgrade that really feels like an upgrade, you'll want to look for these things: Wi-Fi 6 support, and a tri-band design with the usual 2.4 and 5GHz bands, plus a second 5GHz band that the system can use as a dedicated backhaul connection for wireless transmissions between the main router and the satellites. The problem is that tri-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers like that are typically pretty expensive. Not too long ago, for bringing the cost of a two-piece system like that down to around $400 or so.
Now, TP-Link is doing even better and selling the Deco W7200 mesh router, a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 system that only costs $229 for a two-pack. That might be the best mesh router value I've ever seen -- and the even better part is that it performs like a champ, with fast, stable speeds, decent range and a setup process that's about as easy as it gets, with satellite extenders that automatically join the mesh as soon as you plug them in. In fact, the only mesh system that beat the Deco W7200 outright in my at-home speed tests, the Netgear Orbi AX6000, costs more than three times as much at $700 for a two-pack.
All of that makes the Deco W7200 an outstanding value, and the first mesh router I'd point people to if they asked for a recommendation. Just know that it's been in and out of stock this year on Walmart's website, so it might not be immediately available in your area. If it isn't, you could also consider stepping up to the , which performed even better in my tests and adds in a multi-gig Ethernet jack for high-speed internet plans. It costs more at $450 for a two-pack, but Amazon currently has it on sale , which isn't a bad deal.
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At a retail price of $699 for a two-pack and currently on sale for $667 on Amazon, the AX6000 version of the Netgear Orbi is too expensive to recommend outright -- but if you just want one of the fastest mesh routers money can buy, look no further.
With full support for Wi-Fi 6 and a second 5GHz band that serves as a dedicated backhaul connection for the router and its satellites, the powerful system was downright impressive in our tests, with top speeds of nearly 900Mbps at close range in our lab. That's one of the fastest numbers we've ever seen from a mesh router in that test, and it only fell to 666Mbps at a distance of 75 feet -- which is still faster than we saw from the Nest Wifi up close, just 5 feet away.
Things got even more impressive when we took the Orbi AX6000 home to test its performance in a real-world setting. With an incoming internet connection of 300Mbps serving as a speed limit, the system returned average speeds throughout the whole home of 289Mbps to Wi-Fi 5 devices and 367Mbps to Wi-Fi 6 devices, including speeds at the farthest point from the router that were 95% as fast as when connecting up close. That's an outstanding result, and it's held up as I've continued my controlled mesh router speed tests. In the two years that have passed since I first tested the Orbi AX6000 at my home, no other system I've tested has been able to take its top spot on the leaderboard, not even that adds in support for Wi-Fi 6E (yes, really).
Again, the problem is the price: $699 is simply too expensive for most folks, especially given that you'll need a connection of at least 500Mbps in order to notice much of a difference between this system and others we like that cost less than half as much.
There's also the . It's still a tri-band Wi-Fi router that supports Wi-Fi 6, but you don't get the multigig WAN port that comes with the AX6000 model here. We'll keep an eye on that one and update this space once we've tested it out.
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Amazon
Eero was an early pioneer of the mesh networking approach, and in 2019, it got . Then, in 2020, we got two new versions of the Eero mesh router: the and , both of which add in support for -- you guessed it -- Wi-Fi 6.
Each system is priced at a value, netting you a three-piece setup with two range-extending satellites for about as much as some competitors charge for a two-piece setup. That's great if you live in a large home and you need your Wi-Fi network to cover a lot of ground -- the additional mesh Wi-Fi network extender will make a big, noticeable difference in your speeds when you're connecting at range.
But between the two of them, I strongly prefer the Eero Pro 6, which costs $599 for a three-pack or less . Unlike the regular Eero 6, which disappointed in my tests with poor band-steering, the Eero Pro 6 setup I tested worked like a charm, spreading fast, reliable speeds across my entire home. Plus, it features a tri-band design with two 5GHz bands, which is key for optimal mesh performance. It's also a great pick for Alexa users thanks to a built-in Zigbee radio that lets you pair things like smart locks and smart lights with your voice assistant without needing any extra hub hardware.
$599 isn't inexpensive by any stretch, but it's about as good a price as you'll find for a three-piece, tri-band mesh router with full support for Wi-Fi 6, and Amazon has a habit of putting it on sale. That makes it a worthy and sensible upgrade for large homes. Meanwhile, if you don't need a three-piece system, you could also consider the Eero Pro 6 two-pack, .
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Several years ago, became a breakout hit thanks to its easy setup and its ability to spread a fast, reliable Wi-Fi connection throughout your home for all of your connected devices. Now, there's the Nest Wifi, a second-gen follow-up that adds in faster internet speeds and a better-looking design, plus Google Assistant smart speakers built into each satellite extender.
The price is a little lower this time around, too -- $269 for the two-piece setup above, with roughly the same area of Wi-Fi coverage as a three-piece, $300 Google Wifi setup from years back. That's less of a good deal now than it was when the system first launched, but there's still plenty of reason to consider the Nest Wifi if you catch it on sale (the most recent of which brought the price down by $80, but that's over now -- I'll update this post a discount like that pops up again.)
On average, the Nest Wifi notched the fastest top speeds that I saw in my tests from any Wi-Fi 5 mesh router (and faster speeds than some of the Wi-Fi 6 systems I've tested, too). Plus, the two-piece setup offered enough signal strength to provide sufficient coverage at the 5,800-square-foot . It also aced our mesh tests, never once dropping my connection as I moved about my home running speed tests, and I never caught it routing my connection through the extender when connecting directly to the router was faster, either.
The lack of Wi-Fi 6 support , but the Nest Wifi does include support for modern features like WPA3 security, device grouping and prioritization and 4x4 MU-MIMO connections that offer faster aggregate speeds for devices like the that can use multiple Wi-Fi antennas at once. It's also fully backward-compatible with previous-gen Google Wifi setups, which is a smart touch. All of it is easy to set up, easy to use and easy to rely on. Among dual-band mesh routers, I'd much rather have a top-of-the-line Wi-Fi 5 system than an entry-level Wi-Fi 6 system -- even among new competition, the Nest Wifi mesh router fits that bill.
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It isn't quite as fast as the AX6000 version of the Netgear Orbi listed above, but the Editors' Choice Award-winning Asus ZenWiFi AX (model number XT8) came awfully close -- and at $400 for a two-piece system, it's a lot easier to afford.
In fact, the ZenWiFi AX offers the same multigig WAN ports as the Orbi AX6000, which is a great piece of future-proofing that you don't always get in this price range. The tri-band build means that it also boasts the same dedicated backhaul band to help keep the system transmissions separate from your network traffic, and it offers the same ease of setup, the same steady mesh performance, and the same strong speeds at range, too. All of that makes it a future-ready upgrade pick at a fair price. It even comes in your choice of white .
I also appreciated the depth of control in the Asus app, which lets you manage your network and customize that backhaul as you see fit. If $400 is a bit too much for your budget, know that there's a smaller version of this system called the . It isn't as high-powered and it isn't a tri-band system like its big brother, but it comes with three devices that all support Wi-Fi 6 for $250, which makes it pretty interesting. There was also a new dual-band ZenWifi system last year called the -- it performed quite well in our tests, but it only costs slightly less than the XT8. Between the three of them, the XT8 is the one I'd be looking to buy first.
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I did a double take the first time I saw the price tag for the slimmed down, dual-band version of the Netgear Orbi mesh router system. Currently available at just , which is even less that it was selling for during the holidays, it's a clear value pick -- and a dramatic turnaround from the , which was too expensive for most consumers at $400 for a two-pack.
Netgear brought the cost down by sticking with Wi-Fi 5, ditching the built-in Alexa speaker that comes with the and skipping the tri-band approach and the dedicated 5GHz backhaul band that other Orbi systems use to connect each device in the mesh. I wonder if Netgear missed an opportunity by not branding this system as "Orbi Lite."
It all makes for a less robust mesh system than other Orbi setups, but I hardly noticed in my tests. Among the Wi-Fi 5 systems I've tested, the dual-band Netgear Orbi actually notched the fastest top speeds at close range, it kept up with the Nest and Eero in our real-world speed tests and it offered excellent signal strength in the large-sized .
Netgear's app isn't as clean or intuitive as Nest's or Eero's, and the network didn't seem quite as steady as those two as it steered me from band to band in my tests, but those are quibbles at this price. If you just want something affordable -- perhaps to tide you over until you're ready to make the upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E -- then the budget-friendliest Netgear Orbi definitely deserves your consideration.
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(CNET editors pick the products and services we write about based on editorial merit. When you buy through our links, we may get a commission. .)
With a fiber internet connection of 300Mbps in my home, these are room-by-room average download speeds for each mesh router I've tested with a Wi-Fi 6 client device. The Netgear Orbi AX6000 is our top performer, but the TP-Link Deco W7200 is right behind it and costs less than a third as much.
Ry Crist/CNET
At-home speed tests
Router manufacturers make a lot of big claims about top speeds, , or at least confusing as you're shopping for a new one. I'm more interested in knowing the ins and outs of how they'll perform in people's homes, where incoming speeds might be limited and multiple devices might be competing for bandwidth.
To find out, I test all of the routers I review out of my home, a one-story, 1,300-square-foot house in Louisville, Kentucky, with incoming fiber internet speeds of 300Mbps, upload and download. Up until 2020, I ran the majority of these at-home tests using a Dell XPS 13 laptop that uses Wi-Fi 5. Then, once Wi-Fi 6 became available, I started running two separate sets of tests: one to measure speeds to that Wi-Fi 5 laptop, and another, separate set of tests to measure speeds to a client device that supports Wi-Fi 6. That means that there are some routers listed in this post that were tested before we were able to run our at-home tests to a Wi-Fi 6 device (I've starred them in the leaderboard graph below).
After running countless speed tests in multiple spots throughout my home, where I have fiber internet with upload and download speeds of 300Mbps, I average the results together to get these aggregate speed ratings for each mesh router I test. Here's the leaderboard as it currently stands. (Routers with stars were tested with a Wi-Fi 5 client device, before we were using Wi-Fi 6 devices for our at-home tests. Routers without stars were tested with a Wi-Fi 6 client device.)
Ry Crist/CNET
The biggest names that are still waiting for Wi-Fi 6 speed test data are the Nest Wifi mesh router and the Asus ZenWifi XT8, both of which performed well when I tested them with my old Wi-Fi 5 laptop. The latter is a tri-band router with support for Wi-Fi 6, so it would likely be a spot or two higher on that leaderboard (and potentially higher than the dual-band ZenWifi XD6) if we had tested it with a Wi-Fi 6 device.
I'll update this post when I'm able to add those results, and I'll also continue to run tests on both types of client devices in order to get a good sense of how well these routers perform with both current- and previous-gen hardware. You can check out my full reviews for more information on that breakdown.
The short version is that newer client devices that support Wi-Fi 6 will typically be able to hit sustained speeds that are noticeably faster than what you'll get with older, Wi-Fi 5 devices -- but previous-gen devices like those can still benefit from a mesh router that supports Wi-Fi 6.