Best Mesh Routers of 2025
These models from Linksys, Netgear, TP-Link, and others use two or more units that work together to spread WiFi throughout your home
When you shop through retailer links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions. 100% of the fees we collect are used to support our nonprofit mission. Learn more.
In an ideal world, your WiFi router connects all of the wireless devices in your home, from your laptop to your big screen TV and everything in between, to your broadband internet connection.
Of course, we don’t live in an ideal world.
With a poor WiFi connection, streaming video services like Netflix and Disney+ stutter and buffer, turning movie night into a frustrating experience. Zoom calls lag, making working from home a chore. And good luck playing Valorant or FIFA online with your friends.
One possible solution to these WiFi woes? A mesh router.
Unlike a traditional wireless router, mesh routers come in packs of two or three units that work together to spread WiFi throughout your home. Typically, the base station plugs directly into your modem, while the satellite units wirelessly connect to create a single unified “mesh” network.
Best Mesh Routers
How CR Tests WiFi Routers
Every model in our ratings is tested by the expert technicians in our labs, just north of New York City, where we simulate a typical home environment, measuring the throughput (which might be thought of as the router’s “speed”) at three separate distances: 8 feet, 20 feet, and 55 feet.
We take into account how easy the router is to set up and manage (which nowadays is often done with a smartphone app); whether it has useful features like built-in Ethernet and USB ports, and parental controls; and the quality of service, a technology that helps prevent your video calls for work from being interrupted by other traffic on the network.
We also evaluate the router’s data privacy policies and whether the model automatically updates with the latest firmware, which can help keep you and your data safe.
WiFi Standards Explained
The latest WiFi standard, known as WiFi 7, was finalized at the beginning of 2024. You may sometimes (including in our ratings) see it referred to by its more technical name, 802.11be.
WiFi 7 supports speeds of up to 46 gigabits per second, up from 9.6 gigabits per second in WiFi 6 and 3.5 gigabits per second in WiFi 5. That’s the on-paper max, however: All sorts of things can affect the speeds you experience in real life at home, including the building materials in your walls and impediments like refrigerators and fish tanks (it’s the water, not the fish).
Because WiFi 7 is so new, you will still see plenty of routers on store shelves based on the older WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E standards. These are plenty fast in their own right and are likely to serve you well for years to come. In fact, WiFi 6E (which came out in 2020) has one of the hallmark features of WiFi 7: support for the 6-gigahertz band. This band is so spacious that it allows for great performance even in dense environments like apartment buildings.
BEST TIME TO BUY:
