The 9 Top Router Features To Look For

If you want to use Wi-Fi in your home, you’ll need a wireless router of some kind. Some ISPs will rent you their one-size-fits-all solution for a monthly fee, but if you want to stay in control of your own hardware and software, it can be a good idea to get your own router. You can keep it simple and grab one of the best Wi-Fi routers or one of the best mesh systems. If you really want to understand what you’re buying though, you’ll want to look out for these important features.

9 Subscriptions

Getting paid once is good, but getting paid every single month is much better. So it’s no surprise to see multiple router manufacturers offering (and doing their best to sell) all sorts of paid subscriptions. Netgear Armor, for example, offers improved security features for your network. Many Netgear routers come with a few months or a year of free Netgear Armor, which doesn’t need a credit card to start. TP-Link’s HomeShield Pro has similar features, and also includes its advanced parental controls alongside of its security enhancements.

Then you have Eero Plus. Eero Plus not only comes with some router features like internet backup, ad blocking, and content filters, but it also comes with other services, including a VPN from Guardian, Malwarebytes, and 1Password.

Still, if you don’t want to pay, you can find most of these features for free from other brands. For example, Asus offers AiProtection on its routers, and its security and parental control options are plenty for most people.

8 Parental Controls

Parental controls are a popular software feature in routers. Parental controls can range from simple URL site blocking, to content blocking based on a database of known sites and risks. TP-Link HomeShield, Netgear Advanced Parental Controls, and Eero put some of their better controls behind paid subscriptions. These solutions also offer some basic settings for free, but if you want the full package, you’ll have to pay.

Some, like Asus, have set themselves apart by offering advanced parental controls for free. The exact features and ease of use can vary a lot between brands, so you’ll want to check for a few features.

For example, content blocking can block sites by categories, such as gambling or adult content. Scheduling allows you to schedule online and offline time for the kids’ devices so you can make sure they’re not spending too much time on the internet. There are also time rewards that make it easy to give your kid some extra online time if, for example, they did well on a test.

It’s worth remembering that if a router only offers URL blocking, you would be responsible for manually blocking each site, and if one of the sites you leave open is Google, it probably won’t take your kid that long to figure out how to get around the URL you blocked.

7 Virtual Private Network support

There are two types of VPN connections you can make on your router: VPN server and VPN client. VPN server allows you to connect to a VPN server on your router, so you can access your home network from somewhere else. You could configure this all yourself, or if you’ve got a brand like AmpliFi or Asus, you could use their AmpliFi Teleport or Asus Instant Guard apps to make it much simpler.

VPN client allows you to connect to another VPN server, including those from the best VPN providers like ExpressVPN or NordVPN. The speed can vary, with support for faster protocols like Wireguard offering much higher speeds than OpenVPN. Beyond that, some routers allow you to assign which devices can use your VPN, and even add multiple VPN connections. If, for example, you want to pass a gaming PC straight through with no VPN, you can do so with features like Asus VPN Fusion.

6 Router apps for easy access

If you’re looking for a quick and easy setup process, getting a router with a good app is the place to start. Router apps are designed to make setting up and changing settings on your router extremely easy. You can get a new router connected and set up in just a few minutes with some of the better apps available. Unfortunately, some apps require users to create an online account to use them, which some people don’t like. Check the requirements section of the router’s specs to see if an account is needed.

If you don’t mind playing ball a bit with the app, you can get quick access to your router’s settings, which is great for making easy changes, like enabling a guest network, changing the Wi-Fi password, or checking for software updates.

Most traditional routers, like TP-Link Archer, Linksys, Netgear Nighthawk, or Asus allow you to use either web or app for setup, so you can stick with a web browser on your PC if that’s how you prefer to manage your network. Some mesh-focused brands though, like Eero, TP-Link Deco, Netgear Orbi, or Nest Wifi, won’t actually allow you to get into the advanced settings and require the app for setup. Some like Deco allow you to connect with the web browser, but with a much more limited set of options compared to the Archer routers.

5 Mesh support for better range

Mesh networks are great for improving coverage around a large property, but you’ll need multiple nodes and that can greatly increase the price. A lot of routers from makers like TP-Link, Asus, Eero, and more support mesh expansion, but the openness of the support varies greatly. Some routers, like the TP-Link Archer BE800 support EasyMesh expansion, which can be used by any brand. If you want to add a mesh node to an EasyMesh router, you just need to find a router or extender with EasyMesh support.

Other mesh systems like Eero, Asus AiMesh, Nest Wifi, and TP-Link Deco will work with the vast majority of nodes from the same product family. You can use an older Wi-Fi 5 Eero with an Eero Pro 6E, for example. Asus AiMesh is a bit of an exception because while it’s limited to Asus devices, most of its routers, mesh kits, and Wi-Fi Extenders support AiMesh, so you’ve got quite a few options.

On the other end, some devices like Netgear Orbi routers can only be extended with specific nodes. This guarantees a certain level of performance, but can also mean much higher costs to expand your mesh.

4 CPU and RAM

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Most of the time, the CPU power and RAM of a router aren’t worth worrying about. This is not the case though if you’re using a lot of software features, especially a VPN. More powerful hardware can also improve responsiveness when you’re accessing the settings, and can help the router start up faster after a power outage. The need for more powerful hardware can also scale with the number of devices you have, so a large family of heavy internet users could gain a smoother experience. So, if you have a lot of users and plan on using many router features, going with a more powerful CPU could be worth it.

3 Wired support

Wi-Fi routers also come with an Ethernet switch built-in for your wired devices. If you’re only using Wi-Fi for all of your devices, you might never use any of your Ethernet ports, but if you’re looking for the best speed and lowest latency, you’ll still want an Ethernet option. Just make sure you’ve got enough Ethernet ports on your router for the number of devices you want to connect to it. Most routers offer a minimum of gigabit wired speeds with some higher-end routers opting for 2.5GbE or 10GbE. Multi-gig speeds mostly matter if you’ve got access to an internet connection over 1Gbps or have a fast network storage device.

2 Wireless features

Congestion is one of Wi-Fi’s greatest enemies, with just about every household running a wireless router and other wireless technology in the home. With a limited number of bands, there’s a good chance your router will have to use the same spectrum as another device. To make the best of this situation, tech like Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) helps improve speeds in congested situations, while Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) can modulate the signal to sidestep congestion as well.

For improved performance, multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) tech gives a router the capacity to talk to multiple devices at the same time without needing to switch between them. MU-MIMO is included with all but the most budget options these days.

Wi-Fi 7 routers have a feature called multi-link operation (MLO). This allows a device to connect to the router using both 5GHZ and 6GHz connections. The router can then split the duty of upload and download between them, which improves speed and latency.

Last but not least, getting a router with the latest WPA-3 security protocol will give you better protection from someone trying to get your password by snooping through your wireless transmissions. Remember though: WPA-2 is generally still a strong option, but with the right hardware and software, it can still be bypassed by someone who knows what they’re doing.

If you’re a gamer sharing a slower connection with multiple people, quality of service (QoS) software is a must because it prioritizes internet traffic to the most important devices. For example, you can prioritize a gaming console to make sure your online gaming data has the lowest ping possible and reduces lag spikes whenever someone else uses the network. The nice thing is that common internet usage like browsing social media or streaming video won’t be overly impacted by QoS prioritizing another device, so you won’t need to feel bad about using it either.

1 Wireless Speed

If you’re looking to buy a new router, you’re probably looking for more speed. There are quite a few factors that affect a router’s speed, but one of the biggest and most obvious is the Wi-Fi generation. The newest routers coming out use Wi-Fi 7, but there are still a lot of great Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E routers with solid performance. At 5GHz, for example, Wi-Fi 7 increases 160MHz speeds to 5760Mbps compared to 4804Mbps on Wi-Fi 6.

While most of our devices are still running older Wi-Fi generations, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 routers work fine with those older devices with extra capacity ready if you upgrade more of your tech. Each band has its own capacity, so in advertising, speeds are often listed as AX5400 or BE19000. You can find the speed breakdown in the tech specs to see how that speed is split between bands.

Speaking of bands, you’ll see routers advertised as dual-band, tri-band, or even quad-band.

Routers have several chunks of spectrum available at 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz, so a tri-band router can offer greater capacity than a dual-band router. Most dual-band routers will use 5.2GHz for their main band, but a tri-band router with another 5GHz band can use 5.8GHz, opening up more space. Similarly, some support extended frequencies such as DFS bands used by radar, but the availability depends on your location. Some routers have also opened up some new 5GHz space, up to 5.9GHz which is largely vacant, though fewer devices will support it.

These bands can be up to 160MHz wide on 5GHz with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) with Wi-Fi 7 bringing 320MHz support at 6GHz. Some exceptions exist, but for the most part, consumer devices mainly use 80MHz with some more premium devices supporting 160MHz. There are a couple of Wi-Fi 7 PC cards that support 320MHz Wi-Fi 7, however.

If you’ve got a lot of devices sharing your connection, you’ll want a router with plenty of spatial streams. This stat is buried a bit further down in the specifications, but it’s worth knowing as it has a major impact on speed. This can make the speed more consistent and improve ping on a network with a lot of users.