The world moves on, and the recommendations in Best "newcomer router" - 2024 have evolved, too. The next post lists the current winners. I'll keep it updated as I get new recommendations.
My criteria remain the same: inexpensive, easy to flash, full ability to fight bufferbloat, etc. These are the critical characteristics:
Supports official STABLE OpenWrt 24.10.2. No snapshot builds.
Clear one-step installation instructions, without warnings, in the Table of Hardware. Provide link to Device Page
Mass market device with case, power supply, and "standard" network connections: a WAN port, one or more LAN ports, Wi-Fi. No assembly required
List Price below US$125 or equivalent in your currency. It must be available today (Amazon, eBay, etc.) not promised at some indeterminate date. Provide link to source
Able to handle 300mbps with SQM enabled. Provide link to citation or personal experience
A perfect entry would say something like this:
I have installed OpenWrt on a FooBar 123 router. It works fine after I installed the OpenWrt 23.05.x "factory firmware". I use it to connect to my 350/50mbps ISP connection, and the SQM is set to 325/45 with good results. I got it for $45 from Amazon/eBay. You can see the Table of Hardware entry at: https://openwrt.org/toh/start
I am looking for personal recommendations, not a debate about the criteria. Posts that get off-topic or that are significantly different from the criteria above will be removed.
The following routers meet (or are close to) the criteria. Here are links to their recommendations:
OpenWrt One About US$100 from AliExpress. High performance, has all the ant-bufferbloat fixes. $10 from each purchase goes back to support the OpenWrt project.
GL.iNet GL-MT3000 - About US$86 on Amazon, available now, easy installation, plenty of horsepower
GL.iNet GL-MT6000 - This appears to be a great router, and is now officially supported in OpenWrt 23.05.3. Its price (~US$130 after coupon) slightly exceeds the criteria, so you will need to decide if it's worth the extra money.
MT6000 is definitely a model that is easy to find to buy, flash, and put into service. It is worth the cost if you need all that performance. But it is overkill if you don't have a gigabit line and it is on the high side for energy consumption if you're sensitive to that.
OpenWrt One is sold out and €108 euros when following your AliExpress link which is quite a difference from $89. And that's ignoring the EU customs fee lottery. And Flint 2 is €148 in the official EU store and €150 with a discount on Amazon DE.
Thanks for the update about OpenWrt One pricing and availability. I adjusted the description (about US$100) and the link (to point to the search results page).
I know there are lots of less expensive but powerful routers out there. Are there any that meet Criteria #2 (clear one-step installation without warnings)? Thanks
These are very interesting posts, but they're off-topic because they don't meet the criteria. If you have information about a router that meets all the criteria in the original post, please mention it here. Thanks.
Just wondering, is the super stable and inexpensive Linksys E8450/Belkin RT3200 not listed here because it's technically not for sale from the manufacturer any longer? (It's still available "new" on eBay and other sites, though, which does meet your criteria.)
I've been eyeing the GL.iNet GL-MT6000 but keep reading about unresolved issues in their thread that puts me off, and it makes me want to wait until WiFi 7 (on Mediatek's chips) to really upgrade.
My E8450 is very stable, sufficient for 1Gbps symmetrical fiber and 300-600+ Mbps WiFi 6, and I highly recommend it.
I do second the listing of the GL-MT3000 (I have one as a backup & potential travel router), but I think the E8450 is a bit stronger.
I have been enjoying the EDUP 2960S, a mediatek based AX1800 unit available for ~20 euros and shipping with OpenWRT (look for the "open" version).
Performance is good and the flash space is generous, only annoyance is no USB port.
Yes, it's rock solid now. That whole "OKD" kerfuffle was from a bug introduced in firmware upstream that plagued the device until it was finally discovered and patched in August 2024.
No. The Linksys/Belkin is not recommended for beginners because of the tricky two-step installation process. These are good routers, but the criteria above are designed so that a newcomer to OpenWrt is virtually guaranteed to succeed. (I own two of these, and the instructions for which "recovery installer" to use leave a lot to be desired.)
I am not including it because it appears to have a multi-step install: use initramfs-factory.bin, then mtd erase firmware, and finally flashing the sysupgrade image.
It is a single step install, a simple update from the factory supplied OpenWRT image. I have two of these and was able to install 24.10.2 with a single step.
Perhaps you have missed that OpenWRT is available direct from the factory for this model?
Example (price varies): https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ex1f2y6
This is the MTD layout on the EDUP from the factory:
That certainly is an astonishing (low) price. But still, the device page is not suitable for a newcomer. Specifically, the Installation section has a bunch of options - all apparently equally important. (Imagine you've never heard of OpenWrt, and a friend told you to check it out. If you got to this page, would you know what to do?)
Let's review the criteria from the original post:
Supports current Openwrt: you say you're using 24.10.2 Check
The installation instructions are still not suitable. Please revise that page. (Or give me edits and I can post them. PM is OK.)
Mass market Check
List price < US$125 Check
Do you run SQM on the router? How fast is your ISP link? (Faster than 300Mbps?) What do bufferbloat tests show? (Send a link to the Waveform results)
I can't tell whether any of these three devices meet the criteria. Would you provide answers for the the five points (see message above) as well as a personal recommendation about your experience. Thanks.
TUF AX4200 and 6000 don't, they need a two stage install (one with an unofficial image from the stock OS and then a flash with the official image) or opening the case and using a serial console.
they meet the others criteria (24.10.2, mass market, price and SQM till 1GBits)
I have updated the installation section to explain that the normal OpenWRT sysupgrade can be used.
I am using these as cost-effective dumb-APs with wifi6 so I cannot directly comment on the routing performance, however the SoC is a widely used Mediatek unit and should not provide any surprises. Performance will match comparable devices using that SoC such as the Asus RT-AX53U or TP-Link EX220. Certainly additional package installation is unlikely to be a problem with 128MB flash and 256MB RAM provides opportunity to leverage a few additional tools as well.
Ultimately this is a cheap option and will not satisfy performance hungry uses, but at around 20 euros the knowledge the you are buying a unit pre-flashed with OpenWRT and enough flash space for years of upgrades is valuable in itself. As a wifi AP the performance is solid but I cannot speak for the routing throughput.
