Recommandations for a cheap wifi router for VLAN

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hi everyone,

I would like get your thoughts about the Asus RT-AX52 for my needs. So far, I relied on some "all-in-one" basic router provided by my ISP, but I would like to get more control on my home network.

Here are my needs :

  • Set up VLANs, in particular over Wifi (3 or 4 subnets, mainly for security purpose ; I would thus obviously need to implement inter-VLAN ACL / firewall rules) – this is the main reason I’m looking for buying a router

  • Small number of hosts (let’s say 10 to 50, including IoT devices)

  • Modest bandwidth consumption: no gaming, no servers necessitating high bandwidth, most of the time only 2 users could be using streaming platform (like Netflix, Prime and so on) / VoIP at the same time and some "basic" internet home usage

  • My ISP is currently limiting bandwidth to 1 Gbs and its router only has a gigabit WAN interface, but I’m planning to change of plan in a near future, so it may become better … Control on the router provided by the ISP is quite limited, so I I’m first thinking about using the ISP router as modem+router but deactivating all additional services (except the firewall and DHCP client). I may eventually check with my ISP to use it in bridge mode in the future. Anyway, for now, I want to save me the trouble of having to set up correctly the modem and DHCP client, so buying a router without modem would be totally fine for my needs.

  • One floor apartment (3 rooms, no concrete wall between them)

  • Budget < 100 € would be greatly appreciated (even lower if feasible)

Additional feature that would be appreciated (but not mandatory) :

  • QoS

  • Ability to easily extend the Wifi coverage by adding APs in the future (mesh would be better I guess)

  • Maybe set up Netbird / Headscale / Tailscale at some point ; but I’m considering setting it up on a host rather than the router to be honest

  • No need for supporting services like Pi-Hole as I am already using a NUC as server

Given my currents needs, I was looking for a rather cheap router with a good OpenWRT compatibility, in particular as it seems Wifi could be sometimes tricky from what I’ve read. Do you think the Asus RT-AX52 may indeed fulfill my needs?

Please let me know if I’m totally missing a point regarding the VLAN implementation (like maybe the consequences of VLAN segmentation on the available bandwidth?) or anything else, and if you think a router like this one will be too limited for my needs. I’ve read many recommendation about the Flint 2 on forums, but does it really worth buying a device like this one given my needs and the difference of price (~ 165 € vs 40 € in my country)?

Also, I have to tell that I have absolutely no experience with OpenWRT but I’ve got most essential knowledge about network. On the other hand, I’m enthusiast with the idea of moving towards a open-source solution and I’ve been using Linux (Debian) for years now which may hopefully help a bit.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Best

2

Asus is ok, it has no usb port, but if you say so nuc can help with it.

mesh is not better, each packet takes 3x airtime, get cables.

Anything with 2+ network ports can be extended with wires and switch.

https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi type mt79 for cpu aka filogic.

3

Yes, AX52 is fine. RT-AX59U may still exist where you are. OpenWrt One also exists. Any filogic router will do.

2.5G WAN - TUF-AX4200, OpenWrt One
2.5G WAN + 2.5G LAN - flint2, TUF-AX6000, BT8

Flint2 is kind of "old" but well supported. There is no flintX replacement yet. Asus BT8 is the only upgrade; people in EU have reported it for $150. It's 2026, you should get the BT8 if you are going to splurge over the flint2. If you still want the flint2, try to find the TUF-AX6000 as it should be way cheaper as it is being discontinued.

Unless you've used DDWRT in the past, openwrt will feel foreign and clunky for a bit. Stay with luci GUI especially for vlans to make everything easy.

4

Thank you very much for your answers and advice, I appreciate them and I'm taking note of them.

I'll get a closer look to the models you mentioned, but as RT-X52 is the cheapest, I'm thinking about starting with this one to start playing with OpenWRT (I'm indeed not familiar with DDWRT neither) and eventually moving to a more capable router if bandwidth is insufficient with this one.

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5

Yep, once you need an extender just replace this with more capable one (should be a lot more capable at the same price in 2-3 years) and use this as an extender.

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