Best Newcomer Router - 2025

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

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:

  1. Supports official STABLE OpenWrt 23.05.x. No snapshot builds. I will update this when 24.10 ships.
  2. Clear one-step installation instructions, without warnings, in the Table of Hardware. Provide link to Device Page
  3. Mass market device with case, power supply, and "standard" network connections: a WAN port, one or more LAN ports, Wi-Fi. No assembly required
  4. 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
  5. 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.

Many thanks!

6 Likes
2

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.
7 Likes
7

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.

8

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.

1 Like
9

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

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36 posts were split to a new topic: Interesting low-cost routers

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.