Wifi is not important and I know one can always add a switch, but I'm curious if there's a single box with more than 5 LAN ports (+1 WAN port) that OpenWrt runs well on.
My Lanner Electronics FW-7582A has six Intel NICs and a PCIe slot that I could add more. They have current production products as well.
But that's not really an option for most.
A better approach is a device that has sufficient Ethernet bandwidth for your needs and a managed switch. You can pick up a used Cisco SG300-series unit with more ports than you likely need for US$100-150 (10, 28, 52 ports), or others have recommended the ZyXEL units, for US$60-100 (8, 24 ports) new. Trunk your VLANs out to the switch and have at it.
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Zyxel GS1200-8 managed switch, for $30 on Amazon looks like a winner. Is this pretty much in the same league as your typical Netgear, TPLink, DLink switch or is Zyxel supposed to be higher quality?
I would check the manual for the 1200 model. The gs1900 series is pretty functional but the 1200 might be feature stripped at that price
I wouldn't be happy with the GS1200, which appears to be a home-grade unit. I have never used the ZyXEL units, but you can compare the manuals against you needs.
Here are a couple I found:
- ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/GS1200-5/user_guide/GS1200-5_V1.00%20ed1.pdf
- ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/GS1900-24/user_guide/GS1900-24_V1_Ed2.pdf
Edit: @diizzy later writes in this thread, "I would however recommend you to go for GS1920 instead of GS1900."
The rb493g is a really nice unit. 8 lan ports, 1 wan, 3 miniPCI slots, 256 MB RAM, 128 MB flash, 680 MHz. It is currently running 18.06.1.
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This one does look interesting. Thanks for the suggestion.
rb493g has a 680 Mhz AR7161 so it's ancient tech that probably won't handle currently available internet speeds for many people. If they had about a 1.5GHz ARM it'd be a great board 
By far I think the EdgeRouter ERX is going to outperform it based on recent thread about that device's performance. Not more than 5 lan ports, but add a managed switch and you're set.
I have an ERX in service. I bought it to put OpenWRT on it but stock firmware works well enough and they seem to be on top of it with regular updates. Great little device, I wish they made an 8-port version. I have it mounted on a wall and don't want to also mount a switch.
Like modems, switches are, in the long run, better not integrated with routers so the pieces can be changed out independently as they fail, or technology overtakes them. 10GigE in the home isn't that far off.
No reason you have to put the switch right next to the router. Run an Ethernet cable to a convenient spot and branch from there.
That's where all house wiring meets, kinda stuck. Leave it to the homebuilders to do networking and they'll pull the cables smack in the center of the wall!
Zyxel GS19** series are very nice nice ones, I would however recommend you to go for GS1920 instead of GS1900.
I agree the rb493g is old tech but it works very well for me. My max internet speed is 18Mbps. All it does is routing. WiFi is handled by a wrt-1200ac.
I think the RB4011iGS+RM is a good router but it doesn't have openwrt support. It has 10 gigabit ports, quad core AL21400 processor at 1.4ghz, 1GB of RAM. If it supported openwrt this would be my router.
Looks like a nice little device, and a good price, but if you need that level it still seems like x86 + managed switch is better and not a lot more expensive.
Gs1920 seems nice but almost twice the price, seems like browsing the manual to see if the features are important for the specific use would be best. If I wanted more features than the 1900 I'd be tempted towards a Cisco sg350 series.
Not in Europe in general at least...
110£
128£
Amazon (US) shows $120 and $150 for the GS1900-24 and GS1920-24 at this time.
Cisco SG350-28 is running $217 on Amazon and I haven't seen the SG350s on the used market yet.
At least for me, over $200 is too much so spend on a core-infrastructure switch for home use as I already have 10GigE devices (MacMinis) waiting for a switch to support them.
Yes here in US the gs1900-24e is about $100 and the gs1920-24v2 is about $175. So there's a bigger difference here. Obviously prices vary from place to place.
The sg350-10 is around $125 so it could be a good way to get a few advanced features like netflow collector or advanced QoS at a core location, if you need more ports a lower powered downstream switch could be effective. All depends on the needs. People with home offices or small business offices with multiple VoIP phones or a NAS or two would obviously have different needs from say a medium sized family all concerned mainly about Netflix or gaming or etc. Most demanding of all is probably the medium sized family WITH home office 
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