If you’re looking to build a state-of-the-art home network, it goes without saying that a high-quality Wi-Fi router should rank very high on your priority list. Now, provided you live in a big mansion, or you just want to have the best gear money can buy, today’s article is aimed at helping you choose the best wi-fi router for long range. Why long range?
Well, unlike regular wireless routers for “normies”, long-range Wi-Fi routers are specifically designed to mitigate the issues of significant signal loss and/or dead spots in one’s home, especially if we’re talking about 2k-3k (or more) square foot homes. If you live in a big house like that and you want to get all your bases covered so to speak, i.e. to benefit from good internet coverage and reliable connectivity for your devices in all “corners”, you’ll definitely require a long-range Wi-Fi router.
But don’t worry, as we’ve already done the research and listed the best offers, so you won’t have to waste your time.
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Last update on 2023-10-01 // The links above are affiliate // Images from Amazon
How to Choose the Best Long-range Router
When it comes to picking the best long-range Wi-Fi router, there are a few things to consider; to make it really easy for you, think along the lines of choosing the best gaming router (yes, we have an article on that too) and add a long range into the mix. Basically, if you feel that your old router cannot get the job done anymore, i.e. to provide you with a stable and strong internet connection when you’re gaming online, streaming video or just browsing from your basement, it’s definitely upgrade time.
A proper long-range Wi-Fi router has a number of special features, which differentiate it from that cheap stuff your ISP rents you. The latter is designed to provide a strong wireless signal to a single room, if that, and once the radio signal hits a wall (especially a concrete wall), the strength plummets like the home-market did back in 2008. Even if you can still browse the web or chat with your buddies, you’ll most probably experience connection drops and all that jazz.
A long-range Wi-Fi router is designed to prevent this from happening, and some of the best in the business are perfectly capable of covering areas of up to 5k square ft. To make a long story short, when you’re shopping for a long-range router, you must check out its coverage area, then see if it fits your desired location, whether it’s your home or a business/office or whatever.
Another thing to look after in premium long range router is beamforming technology and multiple antennas, which allow for the Wi-Fi signal to be focused on areas that need it the most. Moreover, you must check out what frequencies it broadcasts on, look for interference issues while you’re at it, watch out for dual-band/tri-band connectivity, and finally MIMO/MU-MIMO technology, which is nice to have, especially if you want to play lag-free or to stream HD media in a multi-user environment.
Finally, there’s a nice piece of free software out there, NetSpot respectively, an application of sorts that allows you to make comprehensive wireless network assessments, as well as scanning and even surveys. Basically, by using NetSpot you’ll be able to visualize areas of signal weakness in your home/place of business, and the exact Wi-Fi coverage of a given router; in this way, you can get the general idea about what type of long-range Wi-Fi router you’re looking for.
PS: don’t worry; you don’t have to be a tech geek or an IT professional to use NetSpot. And now, with all these things in mind, let’s check out the best long-range Wi-Fi routers, in no particular order.
9 Best Long-Range Routers
TP-Link AC4000 Smart Wi-Fi Router
Long Bow and Smart
We’ll begin today’s show with the TP-Link AC4000, which makes for highly advanced long range smart router, powered by a 1.8 GHz CPU. Besides its high-end 1.8 GHz quad-core 64 Bit processor, the AC 4000 ticks all the important boxes we’ve already told you in the preamble of today’s piece, including tri-band performance, MU-MIMO technology, explosive fast speeds over Wi-Fi due to 1024-QAM technology, 512 MB of RAM and, on top of that, 3 additional co-processors to help with delivering smooth performance for HD streaming, online gaming and mobile devices.
However, since today’s topic is long range performance, rest assured as the TP-Link AC4000 is designed to provide strong Wi-Fi signal from your basement to the bedroom to the backyard and all that jazz, via Range Boost and Beamforming technologies. Moreover, if you’re the “security concerned” type of person, this smart router comes with parental controls, to restrict both content and the amount of time your kids spend online, and even a built-in antivirus solution.
- really fast smart router (750 MBPS) on the 2.4 GHz band
- tri-band (1625Mbps on the 5 GHz band)
- rock solid hardware (quad-core CPU, 3 coprocessors, 512 MB of RAM)
- 2x USB ports, including 1x USB 3.0
- 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports
- features MU-MIMO and Beamforming technology
- built-in security features including OpenVPN and PPTP VPN server option
- lots of parental controls
- comes with Homecare AV solution
- impressive long-range performance
- 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports
- well built
- kind of expensive
- big
ASUS RT-AX3000
A Basic-Looking, yet Highly Capable Wi-Fi Router
ASUS RT-AX3000 is an easy-to-use Wi-Fi 6 router that presents the sheer top of the wireless router offerings and ultimately a perfect choice for small or mid-sized homes, due to its fair price, long list of features, and foremost, great performance.
With this router, you are getting all the latest technologies, such as OFDMA, MU-MIMO, Beamforming, and AiMesh, but in the first place, excellent performance and total data transfer speed of 3000Mbps (575Mbps in 2.4GHz band and 2402GHz in 5GHz band), which is rather impressive.
ASUS RT-AX3000 is capable of covering an area of up to 3000 square feet and it can simultaneously connect up to 30 devices. It is fair-priced, comes with a three-year warranty, and offers multiple handy features, such as AiProtection Pro that will give you malware protection, or ASUS Router App that allows for its setup through the cloud, with both Android and iOS-based devices.
This router is run by the Broadcom BCM6750 1.5Ghz Triple-Core CPU and 512MB of RAM, which isn’t much, but it does the work and comes with multiple connection options that involve one Gigabit WAN port, four Gigabit LAN ports, and one USB3.1 port.
In other words, ASUS RT-AX3000 brings a great value for the money and presents one of the best long-range routers that should satisfy even the most demanding users.
- Wi-Fi 6
- Easy setup
- Great speed
- AiMesh support
- ASUS Router App
- Good signal coverage
- Feature-rich
- Fair price
- Three-year warranty
- Decent connectivity
- Not the best parental controls
- No Link Aggregation
- It has no multi-Giga LAN ports
ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000
The Best Long-Range Wi-Fi Router for Gaming
The ROG line of gear from Asus is well known among gaming enthusiasts, due to its inherent qualities (cutting edge technology/rugged design) and gaming-centric performance. Since ROG stands for Republic of Gamers, any Asus ROG product is built and designed to satisfy the pickiest gamer out there, and the same philosophy can apply to the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 wireless router, which is a high-end gaming router by any definition.
Just like any high-quality product, this baby is larger than life and very, very expensive, but if you want ultimate gaming performance plus one of the best long-range Wi-Fi routers out there, you’ll have to pay top dollar, there’s no way around that. If you thought the Linksys Max-Stream AC5400 was expensive, just check out this ROG’s price tag and weep silently. Joke aside, you’ll get a lot of wireless router for that kind of money, including features like Next-Gen Wi-Fi 6, 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports, Tri-Band 10 Gigabit Wi-Fi, Aimesh compatibility for Mesh WI-FI Systems (think along the lines of seamless whole-home coverage), eight antennas to cover every corner of your gaming-mansion and cutting edge hardware inside for the ultimate gaming performance (1.8GHz Quad-Core processor and a 2.5G gaming port).
- perfect for gaming and video streaming
- Next-Gen Wi-Fi 6
- 8 antennas, 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports
- stellar tri-band performance which actually improves with distance
- fabulous 2.5Gbps wired connector
- lots of customization options
- solid hardware inside (1.8GHz quad-core CPU/ 1GB RAM/ 256MB storage)
- built like a tank
- gamer friendly
- compatible with Alexa
- elegant user interface
- one of the fastest beasts in the wild
- big, heavy and expensive
- overkill for most users
NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR300
The Best Long-Range Wireless Router for Low Budgets
Next in line we have a so-called “budget” router for gamers, which is actually quite expensive, but not as much as the previous one (s); the NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR300 can be best described as XR500 light, or, to put it another way, a cheaper yet high-performance option for pro-gamers on a budget, or for people who are looking for a long-range router which can be used for gaming purposes as well.
What’s very interesting about the XR300 is that it runs a gaming-centric operating system, Duma OS respectively, which has been developed especially for this purpose from the ground up, and offers lots of gamer-friendly features, like a smart QoS engine that prioritizes bandwidth for gaming, or the latency-minimizing Geo Filtering thing. As per tech specs, you’ll get an AC1750 3×3 dual-band Wi-Fi router, which is capable of delivering 1300Mbps on the 5GHz band and 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band.
There are four Gigabit Ethernet ports plus 1x Gigabit WAN, not to mention a USB 3.0 port located on the front. The whole show is run by a decent 1 GHz dual-core CPU, along with 512 MB of RAM and 128 MB of storage (flash memory). Even if it doesn’t sound like much compared to the Asus ROG or the Linksys Max-Stream, it’s more than enough for delivering an excellent user experience.
- good Wi-Fi coverage via 3 antennas
- supports Beamforming for 2.4 & 5GHz bands
- comes with IPv6 Support
- gaming-centric
- lots of useful (gaming friendly) features
- Quality of Service (QoS) fine-tuned for gaming
- robust web interface
- 4x Gigabit Ethernet
- USB 3.0
- automatic firmware updates
- very easy to set-up
- great value for money
- relatively modest CPU, but we’re being picky
TP-Link AX6600 WiFi 6 Router (Archer AX90)
An Almighty Long-Range Wi-Fi Router
Archer AX90 is a reliable, fair-priced router, with fast data transfer speeds and excellent security features that position it at the sheer top among the best long-range Wi-Fi routers. This is a tri-band router, with the support for 4804Mbps speeds in the first 5GHz band, 1201Mbps speeds in the second 5GHz band, and 574Mbps speeds in the 2.4 GHz band, which makes the impressive total data transfer capacity of 6600Mbps.
As mentioned, Archer AX90 is packed with security features that include Network Security Scan, Parental Controls, QoS, WPA3 network security, and even device identification, which is great, although this part of the Home Shield feature requires a subscription. Other than the protection features, this router also incorporates all the latest technologies such as OFDMA, MU-MIMO, Beamforming, and OneMesh. Also, it offers good wired connectivity that involves one 2.5Gbps WAN/LAN port, one 1Gbps WAN/LAN port, three Gigabit LAN ports, and two USB ports, which should be enough even for the most demanding users.
Archer AX90 is run by the high-performing Broadcom BCM6755 1.5Ghz Quad-Core CPU; it has eight antennas for a more reliable and stable connection and offers an excellent mix of features that will certainly please most people.
- Excellent performance
- Great security features
- OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology
- 6600Mbps Wi-Fi capacity
- Reliable
- Wall mountable
- Home Shield requires a paid subscription
NETGEAR Nighthawk RAX120
Long Range Router With an Interesting Design
If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll definitely love the NETGEAR Nighthawk RAX120, due to its peculiar design that reminds us of an Imperial hunter-killer space ship. In regard to router design, this baby is the sexiest of the bunch by a wide margin, and the cherry on top (besides its hefty price tag) is that this alien spaceship posing as a router is engineered to provide comprehensive Wi-Fi coverage for large to very large homes, and that’s a quote from NETGEAR themselves.
Basically, if you’re looking for a high-end router which looks awesome and delivers with flying colors in the long-range department, you’ve already found your match, provided you’re on an unlimited budget, or you just don’t care anymore. Joke aside, you’ll get a lot of bells and whistles for the money asked, things like Wi-Fi 6, dual-band up to 1.2 + 4.8 Gbps, 12 simultaneous streams for multiple Wi-Fi devices, 4 x 1G and 1 x 2.5/5G Ethernet, a high end 2.2 GHz quad-core CPU, eight amplified antennas, MU-MIMO plus Beamforming technology, Amazon Alexa voice controls, Smart Connect, OFDMA, USB 3.0 ports and even smart parental controls.
Seriously now, what more can you ask from a long range wireless router? This baby has it all, including top hardware specs: 2.2GHz quad-core processor with 512MB DDR3 RAM and 1GB of internal flash memory.
- specially designed for long-range
- works flawlessly covering a 3500 square feet home
- 8 powered antennas
- amazingly fast
- strong hardware inside
- excellent Wi-Fi6 performance
- supports 12 simultaneous streams
- comes with Beamforming and MU-MIMO technology
- awesome design
- friendly user interface
- easy to set-up
- well built
- expensive
TP-Link Archer C5400X
Gamers’ Delight
Here comes yet another tri-band gaming-centric router, featuring a strong 1.8 GHz quad-core CPU and MU-MIMO technology, along with 8 powered antennas and a flashy design aimed at the inner-child in each of us. To make a long story short, the Archer C5400X is a top-shelf gaming router, big and expensive obviously, which combines amazing range with “first world” speed and built-in security options.
This long-range Wi-Fi router is designed following the principle “big is beautiful”, i.e. this monster is an absolute unit, with a 9.5 x 9.5 x 2.2 inch base. In terms of hardware, the Archer C5400X is powered by a powerful quad-core Broadcom BCM4366 Wi-Fi processor and three additional coprocessors, 1 GB of RAM and 512 MB of flash memory for settings and software. Speed-wise, you’ll get 1Gbps on the 2.4GHz band, plus 2.167Gbps over each of the 2 5GHz channels, which is kind of impressive, to say the least.
- amazing performance in 5 GHz band
- high-end hardware specs
- triband design
- 8 antennas
- MU-MIMO technology and Rangeboost which enhances Beamforming
- comes with security software
- parental controls with Malicious Content Filter
- features built-in VPN server
- Bluetooth
- 2x USB 3.0 ports
- Alexa and IFTTT compatible
- friendly user interface
- 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports
- robust QoS, easy to set-up
- kind of pricey and flashy
ASUS AX6000 WiFi 6 Gaming Router (RT-AX88U)
The Future is here
ASUS RT-AX88U is a fast dual-band router, run by the powerful Broadcom BCM49408 1.8 GHz CPU that brings a ton of features and security functions that should make your streaming, gaming, or any other similar activity an amazing experience. This is a router that brings only the best; however, only if your entire equipment is Wi-Fi 6-ready. If not, you may find it a bit pricey; nonetheless, if you want a future-proof device, ASUS RT-AX88U is the thing to buy.
As mentioned, this is a dual-band device, with support for 1148Mbps data transfer speeds in the 2.4GHz band and the impressive 4804Mbps data transfer speeds in a 5GHz band. It is fitted with multiple security features that, among others, include robust QoS settings and built-in malware protection presented in Trend Micro’s AiProtection software that will protect your network from viruses, malicious sites, and so on.
ASUS RT-AX88U also incorporates the technologies such as Link Aggregation, Beamforming, and MU-MIMO, and offers good wired connectivity that includes eight Ethernet ports, and one USB3.1 port that should satisfy most of your needs. The router itself is very easy to control and install and offers two ways to do so, with the help of the mobile app and through the web console that offers multiple options, yet could be a bit more intuitive.
In other words, there is everything you need for the premium performance, the only question is: are you willing to pay its a bit higher price tag.
- Feature-rich
- Fast performance
- Good connectivity
- Future proof
- Easy setup
- A nice set of security features
- Not the best firmware
- Not the best bandwidth
- A bit pricey
NETGEAR Orbi Tri-band Mesh WiFi 6 System (RBK752)
An Easy-to-Use Mainstream Mesh System
If you are seeking a versatile, easy-to-use system that allows for wide Wi-Fi coverage, Netgear Orbi RBK752 is the thing for you.
Although this system doesn’t bring top-class performance and is on the pricey side, its plug-in-and-forget nature makes it an attractive choice for many users. Sure, its combined data transfer speed of 4.2Gbps won’t impress anyone; however, if you are a mainstream user, looking for good coverage in a large area that is 465 square meters or more, this is the device for you.
This mesh system, with its Qualcomm IPQ8174 Wi-Fi chip, allows for more than 40 simultaneous connections; it has a NETGEAR Armor protection (it requires a subscription after a 30-day trial) and it comes with a one-year warranty. When talking about the connectivity, there are three Gigabit Ethernet ports on the router and two Gigabit Ethernet ports on the satellite, while you have to use the Orbi App in order to control the system. This app brings an intuitive interface and plenty of options.
What is even better is that the purchase of the extra satellite extends the range of the system by the additional 232 square meters.
Therefore, if you are after an easy-to-use system that will bring the coverage of the best long-range routers, Netgear Orbi RBK752 is the system to seriously consider.
- Excellent range
- Easy setup
- Sleek looking
- Voice commands
- No USB ports
- Large
