Since the majority of home network devices still use Wi-Fi 5, there’s no need to splurge on a Wi-Fi 6 router anyway unless you have more than a few Wi-Fi 6 devices on your network, especially since even the latest smartphones and tablets are fully compatible with all Wi-Fi 5 routers. This means you don’t need to pay a premium for a leading-edge router, and you probably won’t even get any advantage from one unless you’re living in a large home with dozens of Wi-Fi 6 devices on your network. This makes the best 802.11ac routers a great choice for anybody who wants solid performance from their home Wi-Fi without spending a bundle. This allows it to deliver more than ample performance for smooth 4K streaming and uninterrupted video calling, but it’s also a strong performer for gaming, thanks to its dual-core CPU that processes traffic quickly and keeps the latency low. With MU-MIMO support and advanced features like adaptive QoS, it can also easily handle a dozen or more active devices without breaking a sweat, while making sure that everyone gets their fair share of your broadband connection. One of the best things about Asus’ routers is how versatile and full-featured they are, so there’s a lot here for advanced users to like as well, including eight Gigabit Ethernet ports around the back for connecting wired devices, plus two USB 3.0 ports for sharing media, files, and even printers in a bunch of different ways. This includes everything from backing up your Macs with Apple’s Time Machine feature to setting up a DLNA server for sharing videos, photos, and music on your home network. You also get Asus’ AiProtection Pro suite of tools to secure your network from threats—both from outside and from within—and best of all you don’t need to pay a recurring subscription fee to maintain the latest antivirus and anti-malware protection. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: AiProtection, WPA2 | Standard/Speed: AC3100 | Bands:Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 9 Although the main base unit still need to be plugged in wherever your cable or DSL modem lives, you can drop the other satellite units in whatever areas of your home need the strongest Wi-Fi coverage. Your devices in those areas connect to the nearest Orbi unit, which relays those signals back to the main base station over a dedicated 1.7Gbps backhaul connection on the 5GHz band. This ensures you’ll always get the best possible speeds no matter which of the Orbi units you’re connected to, and with tri-band AC3000 Wi-Fi, it still offers another 1.2Gbps of bandwidth to all your client devices on the 2.4GHz and second 5GHz bands. A pair of Orbi units will give you enough coverage for a 5,000 square foot home, while also making sure you get the strongest coverage exactly where you need it. If you need more, however, you can add up to five additional satellites to expand or optimize your coverage for the best performance. Each satellite also includes four Gigabit Ethernet ports, so you can wire in game consoles or PCs in any room and still get a fast connection, thanks to the dedicated backhaul channel. With built-in security and parental controls provided by Netgear’s Armor and Circle with Disney, this also makes a great system for families, although you’ll need to pay an annual subscription fee to fully benefit from these features. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: NETGEAR Armor, WPA2, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AC2200 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports:4 (per unit) In fact, thanks to dual-band Wi-Fi, the Archer A6 offers up 1.2Gbps of bandwidth across its 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, which is more than enough for smooth 4K streaming on Netflix and uninterrupted video calling on services like Zoom and FaceTime. Plus, the four beamforming antennas with MU-MIMO support will make sure all of your devices will get their fair share of bandwidth throughout a modest-sized living space. What we found particularly surprising for a router in this price range is support for more advanced features that often aren’t even included on more expensive routers, including the latest WPA3 wireless encryption standard, plus a built-in OpenVPN server. Of course, TP-Link still had to cut a few corners somewhere to product such an affordable router, so while there are still four Gigabit Ethernet ports around the back, you won’t find any USB ports for file and printer sharing. Note that the Archer A6 and Archer C6 are virtually identical routers, with TP-Link simply using different model numbers for marketing purposes. Both offer the same features and capabilities, however. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: WPA3 | Standard/Speed: AC1200 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 5 Not only does the Eero Pro provide powerful tri-band Wi-FI, with three units able to cover homes of 5,000 square feet and beyond, but you can also add more affordable dual-band Eero units or plug-in Eero Beacons to expand your coverage into areas of your home where you don’t have too many devices, or simply don’t need the fastest possible throughput. There’s also no practical limit to how many Eero Pro, Eero, or Eero Beacon units you can add, making this a system that can grow with you to cover even the most sprawling estates. You’ll find two Ethernet ports on the back of each Eero Pro and Eero unit for connecting wired devices, and while the Eero Beacons don’t offer any wired connections, they make up for this with a low-profile design that can simply plug into any wall outlet, and double as a night light at the same time. While the Eero system doesn’t offer more advanced features that power users might be looking for, like built-in VPN support or dynamic DNS, the basics are all there, including WPA3 security, plus time-based parental control filters with an optional Eero Secure subscription. The only catch to this otherwise great system is that it lacks support for the PPPoE protocol used by some ISPs, so while it should be fine for all cable providers, if you’re on DSL or fibre you’ll want to double-check with your ISP to make sure it’s compatible. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: Eero Secure, WPA3 | Standard/Speed: AC2200 | Bands: Tri-band / Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 2 (per unit) These are all areas in which the GT-AC5300 excels, with tri-band Wi-Fi that means you’ll be able to dedicate one of the two 5 GHz bands exclusively to your high-performance gaming traffic, while the powerful quad-core processor will help to ensure lag-free gaming. This means you won’t have to worry about your network slowing you down just as you’re about to make that critical kill shot in Call of Duty. This router also packs in some powerful game optimization features like the Gamers Private Network (GPN) for automatically making connections to the fastest and most stable game servers. While the GT-AC5300 is designed to prioritize gaming traffic, with 5.3Gbps of total throughput, there’s more than enough performance here so that everybody in your home can enjoy the uninterrupted streaming and video calling, with MU-MIMO technology that will make sure that every device gets its fair share of bandwidth, and eight beamforming antennas that help to deliver a strong and focused enough signal for even the largest homes. A generous collection of eight Gigabit Ethernet ports and two USB 3.0 ports also provides plenty of room for wiring in PCs, game consoles, and external storage devices. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: AiProtection, WPA2 | Standard/Speed: AC5300 | Bands:Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 9 This router is no slouch when it comes to performance either, with dual-band AC1900 speeds that deliver up to 1.3Gbps on the 5GHz frequencies and up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz side. While that lack of MU-MIMO support means you shouldn’t expect to get top speeds if you throw a lot of devices at it, there’s still more than enough bandwidth to allow for three or four devices to stream Netflix in 4K or stay in touch on Group FaceTime calls without slowing each other down. Plus, you’ll still find the usual assortment of ports around the back—four Gigabit Ethernet ports for connecting wired devices for maximum speeds, plus two USB ports—one of which is USB 3.0—which can be used for just about anything you can think of, from sharing files and printers to backing up your Macs with Apple’s Time Machine or streaming media to a smart TV via DLNA. Even at this more affordable price, the RT-AC68U includes Asus’ full (and free) AiProtection Pro security suite, so you won’t have to worry about viruses or malware getting into your network either. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: AiProtection, WPA2 | Standard/Speed: AC1900 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: No | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 5 In fact, in the RT2600ac, Synology is offering up a full-featured router operating system that not only delivers advanced parental controls, but lets you download additional packages like VPN servers and cloud sync services to enhance your home network experience even more. The parental controls let you easily set up profiles for each of your kids, so you can schedule when and how much they’ll be allowed online and control what they can access based on a list of over 20 content filtering categories such as gaming, social media, and entertainment. Filters for each profile can also be customized for different periods of the day, so you can make sure your kids aren’t playing online games when they’re supposed to be doing their homework. In terms of performance, the dual-band Wi-Fi on the RT2600ac delivers 2.6Gbps of bandwidth across the 5GHz and 2.4GHz channels, and the four beamforming antennas punch out a strong enough signal for all but the largest homes. In addition to the standard set of four Gigabit Ethernet ports, the RT2600ac also keeps with Synology’s NAS expertise by offering a pair of USB ports and even an SD card slot to let you easily share media files with your whole family. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: WPA2, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AC2600 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 5 As a mesh Wi-Fi system, Google’s Nest WiFi will not only give you a really tight level of integration into the full Google experience, but it also provides great coverage for larger homes, thanks to the ability to deploy multiple satellite units in those places where you need the best wireless coverage. A Nest WiFi router and single-point combo will give you enough coverage for a 3,800 square foot home, while you can bump that up to 5,400 square feet simply be adding a second point. Even better, each of these “points” can also double as a Google Assistant smart speaker, saving you the need to deploy even a Google Home mini in those rooms. The Google Home app also makes the Nest WiFi effortless to set up and manage, letting you prioritize devices, schedule online access for your kids, and easily link up Chromecast devices around your home. Naturally, these features also tie right in to Google Assistant, so you can ask it to do things like run speed tests and pause your kids’ Wi-Fi access when they’re supposed to be doing their chores. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: WPA3 | Standard/Speed: AC2200 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 2 (per unit) Specifically, the WRT3200ACM will deliver speeds of up to 2.6Gbps on the 5GHz band, plus 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz side, with enough range to handle 4K streaming and group video calling in all but the very largest homes. Four wired Gigabit Ethernet ports let you wire in your PC, game console, or smart TV, plus USB 3.0 and eSATA ports provide extra versatility for hooking up external storage devices to share files and other media on your network. What really sets the WRT3200ACM apart from most modern routers, however, is its fully customizable and modular open-source firmware, which lets you make this router your own with packages from a variety of repositories such as OpenWrt or DD-WRT. This means there’s almost no limit to the features you can add, including more advanced security and intrusion detection firewalls, VPN services, network traffic analyzers, and much, much more. Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: WPA2, OpenWrt/DD-WRT | Standard/Speed: AC3200 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 5 Bill Thomas is a Denver-based freelance writer who covers technology, music, film, and gaming. They began writing for Lifewire in January 2018, but you can also find their work on TechRadar. Bill has also worked as an editor at Future. Jeremy Laukkonen is an experienced tech journalist with a background in automotive repair that has taught him the importance of breaking down complex technical subjects in understandable ways. He specializes in VPNs, antivirus, and home electronics, and manages his own automotive blog on the side. Yoona Wagener enjoys helping people simplify processes. She has experience providing technical support and help documentation to end users, building websites for small business owners, and offering career advice to social-impact job seekers. Benjamin Zeman is a business consultant, musician and writer based in southern Vermont. When he’s not reviewing tech products for Lifewire, he’s getting nerdy fixing them or solving complex problems for businesses in need of an outside perspective.
The Ultimate 802.11ac Router Buying Guide
The 802.11ac standard was ratified in late 2013, and these days it’s pretty difficult to find a modern router that doesn’t support it. In fact, even though it took until 2013 for it to become official, it was actually around in draft form for a few years before that, so there have been 802.11ac capable routers available on the market since at least early 2012. This means that unless you’re looking for a really inexpensive router or trying to stay on the bleeding edge of Wi-Fi technology, just about any router you’re shopping for will be an 802.11ac router, which are also now referred to as Wi-Fi 5 routers, but with so many on the market it can be hard to sort them all out. Should you go for faster AC5300 speeds? What about dual-band or tri-band? Or supporting older devices? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, but the good news is that picking out an 802.11ac router isn’t nearly as complicated as it sounds, and you only need to consider a few relatively simple factors to select the best router for your needs.
Why Buy an 802.11ac Router
At this point, 802.11ac is the definitive standard in Wi-Fi technology, having been around in official form since 2013, so the better question to ask might be why not buy an 802.11ac router? While you can certainly save a bit of money by going with an older or more basic budget-friendly router that only supports the older 802.11n standard, unless you’re on a really tight budget, or simply looking for a router for a cottage or dorm, it’s a good idea to at least get basic 802.11ac support in your router even if you don’t have any devices that support it or if you don’t need the faster Wi-Fi performance. Every 802.11ac router supports older Wi-Fi standards, so you won’t be hampering your performance by getting a better router, and you’ll be ready to support faster speeds when you do need them. Further, as a rule 802.11ac routers tend to offer better performance and reliability even for older Wi-Fi devices thanks to their support for the higher-frequency 5GHz band, which can also be used by 802.11n Wi-Fi 4 devices, even though it’s rarely found in pure 802.11n routers.
Wireless Frequencies and Standards
When it comes to wireless frequencies, the rule of thumb is that higher frequencies offer faster throughput but shorter range. While Wi-Fi technology has always been capable of running at different frequencies, back in the early days manufacturers standardized on the 2.4GHz band for its longer range and lack of any real need for blazing fast Wi-Fi speeds; early 802.11b devices maxed out at 11Mbps, and even the “newer” 802.11g standard was capped at 54Mbps—tortoise-like speeds by today’s standards, and plenty for the 2.4GHz frequency range to handle. However, as faster internet connections became the norm, it was necessary to create faster Wi-Fi standards as well. This began with 802.11n, a new standard that could run on either the existing 2.4GHz bands or the higher-frequency 5GHz range, offering throughput of up to 600Mbps. Following that came 802.11ac, which runs exclusively on the 5GHz band, offering potential speeds up to 2.1Gbps. Keep in mind, however, that these are theoretical maximums, and for various reasons you’ll almost never see those kinds of speeds from a single client device. In practical terms, the best you can expect to get from an 802.11n device is around 300Mbps, compared to around 800Mbps from an 802.11ac client. Last year, the Wi-Fi Alliance came up with more consumer-friendly names for these standards, so 802.11n is now known as Wi-Fi 4, and 802.11ac is now known as Wi-Fi 5, which makes it more clear where they fit within the spectrum, but these are just new names and the underlying technologies remain exactly the same.
Dual-Band or Tri-Band?
As we noted earlier, 802.11ac runs on the 5GHz band exclusively. However, since it’s still unlikely that all the devices you’ll be using in your home will be 802.11ac devices, it’s necessary for Wi-Fi 5 routers to be backward compatible with all of the older standards. This means that they also have to support the 2.4GHz frequency band. As a result, all 802.11ac routers are at least dual-band routers, which is a simple way of saying that they operate on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. Older 802.11b/g devices will use the 2.4GHz band, 802.11n devices can use either, and 802.11ac devices will stick to the faster and less congested 5GHz band. However, since 5GHz has a shorter range than 2.4GHz, especially indoors, the lower-frequency band is also important even for your 802.11ac devices, which can fall back to 802.11n when they wander out of 5GHz coverage. You won’t get the fastest speeds in this case, but at least you’ll still be connected, and it should usually be more than enough for casual surfing and even streaming video. There are also 802.11ac routers that are tri-band routers, which means that they offer a second 5GHz band to help distribute your devices across two different frequency ranges, improving overall performance by reducing congestion. Think of it like another dedicated highway for your Wi-Fi devices to travel on. However, much like a car can only drive on one road at a time, a single device can only connect to one band at a time, so tri-band routers are only useful if you have a lot of 5GHz 802.11ac and 802.11n devices on your network. The extra band is also only for the 5GHz range, so it won’t make any difference at all to your older devices, since they’ll have to stay cluttered up in the single 2.4GHz slow lane.
Speed and Bandwidth
The speed rating on an 802.11ac router—normally expressed as an “AC” number, like AC1900 or AC3100—refers to the total throughput it can offer across all of its Wi-Fi bands. If you have a dual-band router, this usually means that between 300Mbps and 600Mbps is reserved for the 2.4GHz band, which as we noted earlier is only used by the slower 802.11b/g/n standards, while the remainder is dedicated to the one or two 5GHz 802.11ac frequency bands. So if you have an AC1900 router—meaning one that provides 1,900Mbps (1.9Gbps) of bandwidth—you’re likely getting around 1,300Mbps (1.3Gbps) on the 5GHz 802.11ac band and 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n band. This gets a bit more complicated with tri-band routers, since now the “AC” bandwidth number applies to all three bands, which is why you’ll usually see higher numbers on tri-band routers. Generally, the lone 2.4GHz band still gets the slower speed, since most 802.11n devices max out at 300Mbps, while the remainder is divided between the two 5GHz bands—and not always equally. For example, one popular AC5300 router offers 1,000Mbps on the 2.4GHz side and 2,167Mbps on each of the two 5GHz channels, while another AC3000 router divvies that up into a 400Mbps 2.4GHz channel, an 866Mbps 5GHz channel and another 1,733Mbps 5GHz channel. These router speeds usually go well beyond what individual 802.11n and 802.11ac devices are actually capable of, however, not to mention the speed of your home internet connection. The point of these numbers isn’t to give you super-fast throughput for a single device, but rather to ensure that your router has enough bandwidth to serve all of the Wi-Fi devices in your home, and much like buying a tri-band router, there’s no point in spending more money for faster speeds if you don’t have enough Wi-Fi devices—or the internet speeds—to take advantage of it.
Range and Coverage
If you have a large home, you’ll want to make sure you get a router that has enough coverage to reach all of your devices. This is especially true if you have a busy household with a lot of devices, since network congestion also comes into play, effectively reducing the kind performance you’ll get when you move farther away from the router. While there are some good standalone long-range routers available, if you have a very large house and can afford it, we strongly recommend getting a mesh Wi-Fi network system, which will make sure you get strong coverage throughout your home by letting you place satellite units where good Wi-Fi performance is needed most. This is especially important if you want to ensure the fastest speeds are available throughout your home. Since 5GHz signals don’t travel nearly as far as 2.4GHz signals do, even the best standalone long-range routers will have you falling back to the 2.4GHz band much more quickly than you might like, which means you’ll no longer be using your router in 802.11ac mode. With a mesh system, on the other hand, you can always be close enough to a satellite unit to get a strong 5GHz connection, even across multiple floors.
Wired Connections
As great as Wi-Fi can be, sometimes it’s just better to plug a device right in, especially if it’s something stationary that’s near your router anyway, such as a PC or a game console. Wired connections can give you faster performance than Wi-Fi in most cases, and this is especially true for gaming, where low latency is a critical requirement. If you’re a serious gamer, or have one living in your home, most Wi-Fi routers just won’t cut it, so you’ll have to either plug-in using Ethernet, or be sure to invest in a specialized gaming router. If you need wired connections for one or more devices, start by making sure that your router has enough Ethernet ports for your needs to begin with, and definitely be sure that they’re Gigabit Ethernet, since otherwise your 802.11ac devices will still likely get a faster connection than your network jacks can provide. Also if you’re buying a mesh Wi-Fi system, consider whether you’ll need Ethernet ports on the satellite units, as not all mesh devices provide them.
What About Wi-Fi 6?
You may have heard of Wi-Fi 6, also known by its more technical name, 802.11ax. This is the very newest leading-edge standard in Wi-Fi technology, and while it offers some nice benefits, it’s not yet widely supported by client devices. If you’re buying for the very long term, it might be worth investing in a Wi-Fi 6 router, but in most cases we’d recommend saving your money unless you’re absolutely sure that you need the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 and actually have devices that can take advantage of it. As with any new technology, Wi-Fi 6 routers are expensive right now, but will become more affordable as the standard is more widely adopted At this point, 802.11ac, aka Wi-Fi 5, is the mainstream standard for high-performance routers. It’s been around since 2013, and is supported by all but the most budget-friendly routers. It’s a safe choice that will remain supported for years to come and should meet the needs of all but the most seriously demanding Wi-Fi users.
Top Brands
Asus Some of the most sophisticated and feature-rich routers you’ll find are made by Asus, which particularly specializes in higher-end gaming routers that offer peak performance for busy networks. Thanks to a wealth of options to configure and excellent range, Asus offers some of the most versatile routers you’ll find, and its tri-band routers are especially good if you have a really large home with a lot of Wi-Fi devices. Netgear Netgear is one of the more venerable names in the business, having produced routers and other networking gear for over two decades for both home and business applications. The company provides a wide range of routers for different needs, ranging from small apartments and condos to excellent mesh systems that can cover homes of several thousand square feet. TP-Link This company is best known for its lineup of really affordable routers, and it offers some good options for those looking for a fairly no frills router that provides good performance at wallet-friendly prices. While TP-Link does make some longer-range routers and even some mesh systems, the company is best known for its solid and affordable wallet-friendly routers.
Conclusion
It’s important to buy a Wi-Fi router that will meet your needs, both now and into the future, and that’s especially true if you’re looking at a more expensive one. However, don’t be dazzled by higher numbers and specs like tri-band coverage, since you probably don’t need these features as much as you might think. When picking our an 802.11ac router, the key factors to consider are what kind of speed you actually need, how large of a home you need to cover, and how many devices you have on your network. There’s no point in buying a router that’s faster than your internet connection, nor do you need a tri-band router if you’re a single person living in an apartment or condo, or even a small family with few Wi-Fi devices.
