Best Mesh Systems for Whole-Home Wi-Fi

Editor’s note: We think you should be aware that TP-Link routers are under investigation by the US government over security concerns and could be banned in the US this year, according to multiple news reports. The TP-Link Deco W7200 was previously named our best overall choice. While our evaluation of the hardware hasn’t changed, out of extreme caution for our readers, we decided to pause it as our top recommendation until we learn more. Read CNET’s reporting for more information.

What is the best mesh Wi-Fi system overall?

The best mesh router overall is the Eero 6 Plus. It’s a two-piece mesh system that checks a lot of boxes: support for Wi-Fi 6, fast performance and a price tag of $300. Those specs translate to real-world results: The Eero 6 Plus produced fast, consistent speeds and range in our testing.

We’ve still got lots of routers and mesh systems we’d like to try out, the majority of which use Wi-Fi 6 technology. In 2024, we also saw plenty of new systems that support Wi-Fi 7, which promises to make even better use of that 6GHz band for smoother, faster connections. A few of those systems, including the Netgear Orbi 970 series and the Eero Max 7, are already available for purchase (more on those a little further down the post).

Shop around and you’ll find mesh routers from Eero, Netgear Orbi, Linksys, Nest and others that support Wi-Fi 6E, which means they can also accessnewly unlocked mass of fresh bandwidth in the 6GHz band.

Expect regular updates to this post as new Wi-Fi mesh routers like those make it to market. For now, here are our picks for the top-tested systems you should be considering first if you’re shopping for the best mesh Wi-Fi system options available now.

Best mesh routers

Eero 6 Plus

Best overall

For a mesh router upgrade that really feels like an upgrade, you’ll want to look for these things: Wi-Fi 6 support and a tri-band design with the usual 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. You’ll also want a second 5GHz band that the system can use as a dedicated backhaul connection for wireless transmissions between the main router and the satellites. The problem is that tri-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers like that are typically expensive. Not too long ago, I commended Asus and Eero for bringing the cost of a two-piece system like that down to around $400.

Now, TP-Link is doing even better and selling the Deco W7200 mesh router, a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 system that costs $143 for a two-pack. That’s an excellent value, and the even better part is that it performs like a champ, with fast, stable speeds and decent range. In addition, the setup process is about as easy as it gets, with satellite extenders that automatically join the mesh as soon as you plug them in.

All of that makes the Deco W7200 an outstanding value and one of the first mesh routers I’d point people to if they asked for a recommendation. Just know that it’s been in and out of stock this year on Walmart’s website, so it might not be immediately available in your area. If it isn’t, you could also consider the TP-Link Deco XE75, a similar system that adds Wi-Fi 6E support for $170 for a two-pack. The TP-Link Deco X90, a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system, outperformed the W7200 in my tests and adds in a multi-gig Ethernet jack for high-speed internet plans. It typically sells for $250 for a two-pack, but you can currently find it on sale for $220.

…Read more

Asus ROG Rapture GT6

Best performance

Nest Wifi

A solid Wi-Fi 5 system

(but don’t spend more than $200)

Several years ago, Google Wifi became a breakout hit thanks to its easy setup and its ability to spread a fast, reliable Wi-Fi connection throughout your home for all of your connected devices. Then, there was Nest Wifi, a second-gen follow-up that adds in faster internet speeds and a better-looking design, plus Google Assistant smart speakers built into each satellite extender. It was an immediate standout in our tests and our top-recommended mesh router prior to the arrival of Wi-Fi 6.

There’s now a new, third-gen follow-up called Nest Wifi Pro that adds support for Wi-Fi 6E. That system failed to wow us, and in the meantime, the second-gen Nest Wifi is still a solid mesh router that frequently costs a lot less than before.

On average, the Nest Wifi notched the fastest top speeds that I saw in my tests from any Wi-Fi 5 mesh router (and faster speeds than some of the Wi-Fi 6 systems I’ve tested too). It also aced our mesh tests, never once dropping my connection as I moved about my home running speed tests. I never caught it routing my connection through the extender when connecting directly to the router was faster, either, which is a common pitfall for mesh connections.

Make no mistake, the lack of Wi-Fi 6 support means that the second-gen Nest Wifi is a somewhat dated system at this point, but it does include support for modern features like WPA3 security, device grouping and prioritization, and 4×4 MU-MIMO connections that offer faster aggregate speeds for devices like the MacBook Pro that can use multiple Wi-Fi antennas at once. It’s also fully backward-compatible with previous-gen Google Wifi setups, which is a smart touch. All of it is easy to set up, easy to use and easy to rely on. Among dual-band mesh routers, I’d much rather have a top-of-the-line Wi-Fi 5 system than an entry-level Wi-Fi 6 system, and even among the new competition, the Nest Wifi mesh router fits that bill.

…Read more

The AC1200 version of Netgear Orbi is a smaller, simpler version of the popular mesh system. It doesn’t offer blazing-fast speeds, but the performance is consistent and it costs a lot less than other, fancier Orbi builds.

Netgear brought the cost down by sticking with Wi-Fi 5, ditching the built-in Alexa speaker that comes with the Orbi Voice and skipping the tri-band approach and the dedicated 5GHz backhaul band that other Orbi systems use to connect each device in the mesh. I wonder if Netgear missed an opportunity by not branding this system as “Orbi Lite.”

It all makes for a less robust mesh system than other Orbi setups, but I hardly noticed in my tests. Among the Wi-Fi 5 systems I’ve tested, the dual-band Netgear Orbi actually notched the fastest top speeds at close range, it kept up with the Nest and Eero in our real-world speed tests and it offered excellent signal strength in the large-size CNET Smart Home.

Netgear’s app isn’t as clean or intuitive as Nest’s or Eero’s, and the network didn’t seem quite as steady as those two as it steered me from band to band in my tests, but those are quibbles at this price. If you just want something affordable — perhaps to tide you over until you’re ready to make the upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E — the most budget-friendly Netgear Orbi definitely deserves your consideration. We’ve regularly seen the three-piece system selling for under $100 over the past year or two, so try to score it at that price if you can.

…Read more

CNET editors pick the products and services we write about based on editorial merit. When you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read more about how we test mesh routers.

What is a mesh router?

A mesh router is a network of Wi-Fi routers that work together to extend a wireless internet connection throughout your home. In most cases, these are identical routers that you place around your home for optimal coverage. These all exist on the same network, so your devices will automatically use the strongest signal available. Typically, mesh systems include two or three routers total. How many you need will depend on the size of your home and the kind of barriers your Wi-Fi signal has to travel through. For most homes, two devices will do just fine, but you might want to opt for three if you need high speeds in both a basement and second-floor office, for example.

When do you need a mesh Wi-Fi system?

Mesh Wi-Fi systems are ideal for larger homes with multiple stories. A single router will struggle to travel through walls and floors, so the further you get from the router, the more it will struggle to do basic tasks like streaming video.

With multiple devices spread throughout your home, a mesh router is like a team of routers that can relay your wireless traffic back to the modem better than a traditional router. They’re particularly good fits for large or multistory homes where your Wi-Fi network has a lot of ground that it needs to cover — and walls to travel through — but they can also help boost speeds at range in small- or medium-size homes. And in 2024, there are lots of new, next-gen options on the market, so it’s a good time to make the switch.

Some of the most consistent mesh router performance we’ve seen in our tests comes from systems from Eero, which popularized mesh networking before being bought by Amazon in 2019, as well as the latest setups from the TP-Link Deco, Asus ZenWiFi, Netgear Orbi and Google Nest product lines. Mesh systems regularly sold for as much as $500 a few years ago, but now these manufacturers offer multipoint mesh router systems — including the main router and the additional satellite extenders — for closer to $200. Though we’d recommend aiming a bit higher, you can even find basic, entry-level mesh systems for as little as $40 per device that can provide a strong Wi-Fi signal throughout your entire home.

Mesh routers: Testing their speed and performance

Router manufacturers make big claims about top speeds, many of which can be misleading or at least confusing when you’re shopping for a new one. That’s why we put every router we review through our own, independent speed tests in a real-world test environment. For much of the past few years of working from home, that test environment has been my house, but in 2024, CNET has been working to relocate those tests to our test lab, where we can do more to control for variables in the environment.

Specifically, we’ve set up a five-room, 1,300-square-foot test space for home networking tests, with incoming gigabit internet speeds (940Mbps downloads, 880Mbps uploads). It’s not as big as the multi-bedroom, multistory homes where mesh routers really shine, but it’s still enough space to see a separation between the top mesh systems on the market.

To get there, we set each mesh system up in the same locations within the environment, and then we started running Wi-Fi speed tests across each of the five rooms. That includes tests during morning, afternoon and evening hours, and tests to a variety of client devices, including both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E devices. For half of my tests, I start by connecting in the same room as the router and then work away from it — for the other half, I start by connecting at the farthest point from the router and then work towards it. In the end, I average it all together to get a good, comprehensive look at how each system performs.

You can see those results for yourself in the bar graph above, which shows the overall average Wi-Fi 6 upload and download speeds for each system we’ve tested. We’re still working to re-test the top-rated systems from previous years alongside new systems as they come out, so you can expect regular updates to this post whenever I’ve got new data to share.

For now, the system that kept my Wi-Fi 6 downloads the highest was our top performance pick, the Asus ROG Rapture GT6. Right behind it is the Netgear Orbi 970 Series — it’s the most expensive mesh router I’ve tested to date, and one of the first I’ve tested that supports Wi-Fi 7, but for these tests, remember that I’m using a Wi-Fi 6 device. In third place is the TP-Link Deco X4300 Pro, followed closely by our top recommended system for most homes, the affordable TP-Link Deco W7200. At this point, it’s been a performance standout across multiple rounds of exhaustive speed tests in multiple locations against dozens of competitors. It’s always been right at the top of the pack in terms of speeds and reliability, so it remains my top overall recommendation among Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems, especially considering that it isn’t too expensive at $143 for a two-pack.

Top picks aside, some interesting new competition has entered the scene in the last year or two. Most notable are two of the newest mesh systems from Amazon, the Eero 6 Plus and the Eero Pro 6E. Like the Deco W7200, each of those systems has held up well across multiple rounds of speed tests, with demonstrably stronger speeds than previous-gen Eero devices. In fact, the Eero Pro 6E actually notched faster average speeds to my Wi-Fi laptop than the brand new Eero Max 7 did, though that was largely due to the fact that it offered steadier, more consistent performance. The 6 Plus and Pro 6E offer a similar level of performance to Wi-Fi 6 devices, so the less expensive Eero 6 Plus is probably the better pick for most homes at $300 for a three-pack (or less, if you can catch one of Amazon’s frequent sales).

That said, if you’re starting to use devices at home that support Wi-Fi 6E, then the Eero Pro 6E might be worth the extra expense, as it adds in access to the 6GHz band to deliver faster speeds to devices like those. I re-ran my speed tests on a Wi-Fi 6E test device capable of connecting over 6GHz and the only Wi-Fi 6E system that returned faster speeds than the Eero Pro 6E was the AXE11000 version of the Netgear Orbi, which costs a whopping $989 for a three-pack. From a performance standpoint, it’s our top-tested Wi-Fi 6E system, but the Eero Pro 6E is right behind it and costs less than half as much at $550 for a three-pack or less. Just note that the system that finished in first place in these 6E tests was, again, the Asus ROG Rapture GT6, which isn’t a Wi-Fi 6E router at all, but rather, a super speedy Wi-Fi 6 router.

On the Wi-Fi 6E front, I was less impressed with the speeds I saw from the Motorola Q14 and from the Nest Wifi Pro, both to my Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E test devices. Both were workable systems that did the job in my tests, but with 6GHz speeds that fell short of Eero and Netgear, neither system offers a noticeable speed upgrade over the competition, and that makes them harder to recommend. Still, give Nest Wifi Pro some credit for stable speeds, strong smart home chops and good value at $315 for a three-pack.

Asus ZenWifi AX Mini: Also known as the ZenWifi XD4, the ZenWifi AX Mini is a pint-sized smaller sibling to the larger and more powerful ZenWifi XD6 and XT8 systems recommended above. Performance was scattered in my tests, with annoying speed drop-offs whenever I’d connect at a distance, so it isn’t as recommendable as other ZenWifi offerings.

Eero 6: Amazon’s first Wi-Fi 6 mesh router, the Eero 6 hit the market back in 2020, but it didn’t blow us away during our tests. Eero systems that followed it did a lot better in my speed tests and they offer the same smart home perks, like built-in radios for Zigbee and Thread.

Nest Wifi Pro: The Nest Wifi Pro mesh router reworks the original Nest Wifi pitch by ditching the built-in Google Assistant smart speakers and adding in access to the 6GHz band via Wi-Fi 6E support. With a built-in Thread radio and robust smart home controls via the Google Home app, it’s a decent pick for smart home enthusiasts, and it was as stable a performer as I’ve seen in my speed tests. Still, those speeds were a bit lackluster, and the system also lacked backward compatibility with previous Nest Wifi and Google Wifi hardware. At $320 for a three-pack, it’s a bit expensive for such middle-of-the-road performance.

Netgear Orbi AX6000: Originally released as the Netgear Orbi 850 series, and recently updated to the 860 Series, both generations of Netgear’s flagship AX6000 mesh router offer strong performance, but I wasn’t as impressed with the system’s speeds on a gigabit network, where several systems that cost less have managed to outperform it in my tests. Even so, this is one of the most consistent mesh routers I’ve tested, with reliable speeds from test to test. If that type of steady performance is what you’re after, then it belongs high on your list.

Netgear Orbi AXE11000: The AXE11000 version of the popular Netgear Orbi router is a high-powered Wi-Fi 6E tank that leads all other routers I’ve tested in terms of its speeds to Wi-Fi 6E devices. It’s a strong performer over plain ol’ Wi-Fi 6 too, but not nearly as dominant as you might expect given that it costs over $989 for a three-pack.

Netgear Orbi 970 series: Netgear’s newest flagship, the 970 series is a tower-shaped Orbi system that adds support for Wi-Fi 7, the new Wi-Fi standard that promises to build upon Wi-Fi 6E’s expansion into the 6GHz band. The system was just as speedy as expected when I tested it out, but not quite as fast with Wi-Fi 6 devices as the top-performing Asus ROG Rapture GT6. As for Wi-Fi 7 devices, we didn’t see notably better performance than Wi-Fi 6 in our initial tests, but it’s still very early for the standard. We’ll know a lot more once we’ve had a chance to test additional Wi-Fi 7 setups out, so stay tuned for updates on that front in the coming year. In the meantime, this extremely expensive system is almost certainly overkill for most households.

TP-Link Deco X4300 Pro: The Deco X4300 Pro is an impressive system that features some of the best Wi-Fi 6 speeds we’ve seen, plus multi-gig Ethernet jacks on each device. The Deco W7200 still seems like the better value for most homes, but if you’re looking for a step up from that system, put the X4300 Pro on your radar.

TP-Link Deco X55 Pro: The X55 Pro shares a lot of similarities with the Eero 6 Plus — support for Wi-Fi 6, far-reaching range, gigabit Ethernet jacks — but I lean towards Eero’s mesh system for its features like built-in Zigbee radio. The Eero 6 Plus also returned slightly faster speeds in testing. At $230, the X55 Pro is a decent value for a three-piece mesh system, but I’d put it more in “good not great” territory.

TP-Link XE75: TP-Link’s first Wi-Fi 6E mesh router, the XE75 did a decent job in our initial tests in 2022, though the system’s average upload speeds were lower than I’d expected. It’s a clear value pick and currently available in a two-pack for $190, so give it a look if you’re curious about Wi-Fi 6E but fearful about overspending. I’ll update this page once we’ve retested it in our lab, so stay tuned for that.

TP-Link Deco X90: With a multi-gig WAN port and a faster speed rating, the Deco X90 is a midrange upgrade pick over the Deco W7200, and it costs $220 for a two-pack. It performed well in my tests, but not enough that I’d recommend paying $80 more than the Deco W7200 for it.

Vilo: The Vilo mesh router was one of the most affordable mesh routers I had ever tested back in 2021 when devices were available for about $20 each. These days, you can snag it for a little less than $40 per mesh device, but you shouldn’t expect high speeds from a low-cost Wi-Fi 5 system like this one. In fact, it rang in with the slowest average uploads and downloads among any system I tested it against. Still, it got the job done, so if you just need something dirt cheap, speeds be damned, give it a look.