The very best Wi-Fi extenders in 2025

In case your Wi-Fi sign is struggling to succeed in each nook of your house, a sign booster — also referred to as a Wi-Fi extender — is perhaps the repair you want. Whether or not you are coping with annoying useless zones, buffering video calls or laggy gaming periods, the proper Wi-Fi extender may help increase protection and enhance connectivity with out forcing you to maneuver your router.

There are various kinds of Wi-Fi extenders to select from. Some fashions use exterior antennas to push the sign farther, whereas others, like mesh extenders, create a seamless, whole-home community. If you happen to’re merely seeking to prolong protection into a particular room, a Wi-Fi repeater can do the job — however it might lower your bandwidth in half. Extra superior extenders, nevertheless, may help preserve sturdy speeds and reliability all through your house.

We have rounded up one of the best Wi-Fi extenders to swimsuit totally different wants, whether or not you are in search of an reasonably priced repair or a high-performance improve.

Desk of contents

Finest Wi-Fi extender for 2025

TP-Hyperlink

TP-Hyperlink has a bunch of Wi-Fi extenders underneath its umbrella, however the one that may doubtless serve most individuals one of the best is that this AX3000 mannequin, which is available in two variations: the RE700X and the RE705X. Each extenders have the identical specs, together with Wi-Fi 6 assist, however the 705X has a barely totally different design with pull-out antennas on both facet. I examined the 705X, so I’m basing my advice off of my expertise with that mannequin, particularly.

Establishing this extender was as straightforward as plugging it in and following directions in TP-Hyperlink’s Tether cellular app. The entire gadgets I attempted adopted the identical fundamental setup course of: first, plug within the extender near your wi-fi router, comply with directions in a cellular app or on a setup webpage, and as soon as the connection is established, transfer the extender to your required location.

It took all of 5 minutes to pair the 705X with my Verizon FiOS router – most likely essentially the most time-consuming bit was deciding what I needed to call the brand new 5Ghz and a pair of.4Ghz networks. I went with the identical title for each as a result of I didn’t need to manually select from two totally different bands when connecting issues like my telephone or laptop computer. The machine will routinely pair your machine with the suitable band — for instance, connecting most good house devices to the two.4Ghz community, which regularly helps scale back latency.

The everlasting location the place I moved the entire extenders I examined was in my basement, since that’s the place we will get the spottiest Wi-Fi sign. I first ran pace assessments on my iPhone and MacBook utilizing Speedtest.internet and Speedcheck.org so I may examine them with the usual speeds I obtained when related to my router’s principal community. Unsurprisingly, the speeds generated by TP-Hyperlink’s extender had been a lot slower than these from my router’s community, however that was the case with the entire gadgets I examined. Solely our high choose (see under) obtained near my router’s customary speeds, however I anticipated this. Wi-Fi extenders aren’t going to make your connection higher – they’re simply going to present you a wider space of protection. From a spec perspective, each the 705X and the 700X are rated for speeds as much as 2402 Mbps on the 5GHz band and 574 Mbps on 2.4GHz band.

Regardless of the outcomes of my assessments, I used to be blissful to find that I wasn’t held again by the 705X’s seemingly slower speeds. I labored as regular for hours with my telephone and laptop computer related to the extenders wi-fi community, answering emails, messaging in Slack, streaming YouTube movies and in any other case sustaining a couple of dozen tabs in Chrome, with none hiccups or noticeable slow-downs.

I used to be not shocked to search out TP-Hyperlink’s Tether companion app to be straightforward to make use of, if just a little easy, as a result of that was my expertise with TP-Hyperlink’s good house app. Tether is particularly used with the corporate’s networking gadgets, and also you most likely gained’t spend a ton of time in it after preliminary setup. I particularly like that you could title wi-fi gadgets which can be related to your extenders community like your telephone and good TV. That makes it a lot simpler to know which issues in your house are consistently paired with the extender relatively than your router’s default community.

One necessary factor to notice with these TP-Hyperlink extenders is that they each assist OneMesh, which is the corporate’s characteristic that permits you to create one seamless community you probably have a suitable mesh router. Since I’m nonetheless utilizing the router supplied to me by my ISP, I wasn’t capable of take a look at out this characteristic, nevertheless it works like this: you probably have a OneMesh router and OneMesh-compatible extenders, you’ll be able to hyperlink all of them collectively underneath the identical community title. So relatively than having a router community and an extender community underneath the identical roof, every little thing can be linked and filed underneath your principal community’s title.

It’s a small perk that turns into not so small you probably have a spotty extender, and even simply an awkwardly laid-out house. In my testing, I discovered my telephone disconnecting from some extenders’ networks once I went upstairs to the principle ground of the home from my basement. It could then try to reconnect to the extender community, when actually I might have most popular it to default again to my router’s community. That fortunately didn’t occur with TP-Hyperlink’s RE705X, nevertheless it’s one thing to bear in mind when contemplating shopping for a Wi-Fi extender in any respect. If you may get one which has a characteristic like OneMesh, it’ll make your life a lot simpler.

Coming in at $130 and $120, respectively, the RE705X and RE700X will not be the most cost effective Wi-Fi extenders on the market, however their protection vary, newest Wi-Fi assist and max speeds make both of them a very good choose. If you recognize precisely the place you need to put an extender and it’s not in an ungainly or hard-to-reach location, the marginally cheaper, antenna-free RE700X may match simply positive for you. However if you need that further means to tweak antennas to fit your wants, the RE705X is the best way to go.

Professionals

Simple setup course of
Good efficiency
Simple to make use of companion app
Integrates with TP-Hyperlink OneMesh

$130 at Best Buy

TP-Hyperlink

TP-Link’s RE315 Wi-Fi extender is bodily similar to the RE705X, however with decrease specs and that’s what makes it a $50 machine. You’ll rise up to 867 Mbps speeds on the 5GHz band and 300 Mbps on the two.4GHz band, and it solely gives protection for as much as 1,500 sq. toes. That gained’t be as a lot of a difficulty for most individuals as max speeds will, however you probably have a very giant property, you’re higher off going with a dearer extender that may cowl extra space.

There’s additionally no Wi-Fi 6e assist on the RE315, which can be a dealbreaker for individuals who not too long ago invested in a Wi-Fi 6 router. This mannequin does assist OneMesh, although, which is good if you have already got a OneMesh system in your house.

I’m specializing in specification variations as a result of my expertise with the RE315 wasn’t that far off from the RE705X. Setup was simply as plain and easy because the RE315 additionally makes use of the Tether cellular app, and whereas speeds had been barely decrease in my testing, I didn’t discover an excessive amount of of a distinction in actual world use. For $50 usually, and infrequently nearer to $30 when on sale, the RE315 is a simple choose for anybody who desires a budget-friendly strategy to fill Wi-Fi useless zones of their house.

Professionals

Reasonably priced
Simple setup course of
Good efficiency for the value
Simple to make use of companion app

Cons

Solely gives 1,500 sq. toes of protection
Doesn’t assist Wi-Fi 6

$20 at Amazon

NETGEAR

Having a couple of Wi-Fi community in your home is par for the course relating to including an extender into the combo. However that’s not so with the Netgear EAX80 mesh community vary extender – it has “seamless good roaming,” which lets you set it up underneath your current SSID title. So as an alternative of disconnecting out of your principal wi-fi community and reconnecting to the extender’s community if you transfer out of your front room to your basement, all it’s a must to do is… transfer from one room to a different and let Netgear’s machine do the heavy lifting.

That’s one of many premium options included on the EAX80, however its $250 price ticket will be attributed extra so to another perks. It’s a dual-band, Wi-Fi 6e mesh vary extender that may work with just about any wi-fi router you might have. It helps speeds as much as 6 Gbps and might have greater than 30 gadgets related to it directly. So far as sq. footage goes, it’ll widen your Wi-Fi’s protection by as much as 2,500 sq. toes, which must be a lot for small and medium-sized houses. It carried out properly in our pace assessments, coming very near the add/obtain speeds I obtained when being related to my principal community earlier than putting in the extender.

There’s nothing out of the unusual concerning the Nighthawk cellular app, which is what you’ll use to initially arrange the EAX80 extender. After that, you need to use the app to troubleshoot, verify Wi-Fi speeds and see which gadgets are in your community. It’ll doubtless be an enormous listing because you’ll see every little thing that’s paired to your router’s community as properly. My solely gripe is that you could’t edit machine names. For instance, my den’s TV exhibits up as “LGwebOSTV” and our soundbar in our basement exhibits up as “sonyaudio” — however there are a selection of related gadgets with no title in any respect, and we’re simply caught with that.

Except for its quick speeds and dependable connection, two issues set this Netgear extender other than the opposite gadgets I examined. First is that seamless good roaming characteristic – not having to modify between Wi-Fi networks when going round my house was tremendous handy. I by no means needed to fear about my laptop computer dropping connection to a devoted extender community once I moved from my basement to my second ground, which is one thing I often needed to cope with when testing different gadgets.

The second differentiating issue is the EAX80’s design. Not like different vary extenders which can be chunky blocks that plug straight into an AC outlet, Netgear’s mannequin seems extra like a standalone router. Whereas that does imply it has a bigger footprint than different gadgets I examined, it was truly simpler to search out good spots for it in my house as a result of it didn’t should be chained to the wall proper above an outlet. Most individuals, particularly these tight on area, will most likely choose the usual extender design, however the EAX80 gave me a bit extra flexibility. I additionally appreciated that the EAX80 has 4 built-in ports for utilizing an Ethernet cable to bodily join issues like TVs, consoles and extra, plus one USB-A port for hardwiring a printer.

Netgear’s EAX80 vary extender is a strong possibility when you don’t thoughts dropping a bit of cash to get a bunch of handy options on high of stellar speeds and Wi-Fi 6 assist. Nevertheless it’s value noting that Netgear has a couple of choices which can be just like the EAX80, however with numerous variations in pace, protection and have set. Essentially the most comparable is the $130 EAX20 extender, which incorporates 1,500 sq. toes of protection, assist for Wi-Fi 6 and as much as 1.8Gbps speeds, plus seamless good roaming capabilities. The wall-plug model of that, the EAX15, is definitely a tad dearer at $140.

Professionals

“Seamless good roaming” enables you to use your current SSID title
Twin-band Wi-Fi 6 assist
Widens protection by 2,500 sq. toes
Wonderful efficiency

$239 at Amazon

How do Wi-Fi extenders work?

These useful wi-fi gadgets do precisely what their title suggests: prolong your Wi-Fi community so it covers extra areas of your house. Most wi-fi extenders plug into an AC outlet and hook up with your current router to allow them to then rebroadcast it to spots that your router alone might not cowl properly. As a rule of thumb, you’ll get one of the best outcomes by inserting the extender half means between your router and the useless zone you’re making an attempt to repair or enhance your W-Fi connection and strengthen the wi-fi sign.

One necessary factor to notice about Wi-Fi vary extenders (additionally generally known as “repeaters”) is that the majority of them truly create a brand new Wi-Fi community when rebroadcasting your current one. That community can have a brand new title (it’ll usually be your default community’s title with an EXT appended on the finish, until you alter it) and meaning you’ll have to hook up with totally different networks when in numerous components of your house. Whereas that’s a small tradeoff in return for improved web connection, some shall be extra inconvenienced than others.

If you happen to’d relatively have one, a lot bigger community in your house, you’re higher off upgrading to mesh networking programs. Mesh programs include a principal router and a wi-fi entry level or two that, by default, create one giant Wi-Fi system that must be accessible all through your entire house. They are usually one of the best Wi-Fi routers you may get, however that additionally interprets to dearer, and presumably extra difficult, gadgets. Mesh Wi-Fi programs are, by far, extra pricey than a easy extender, plus you might have to work along with your web service supplier to get your house’s current community working in your new router.

What to search for in a Wi-Fi extender

Pace

Extenders at present can assist single, twin or tri-band Wi-Fi, and they’re going to inform you the utmost speeds they assist on all of their out there bands. For instance, one dual-band machine may assist 600Mbps speeds over its 2.4GHz band and as much as 1300Mbps over its 5GHz band, for a mixed most pace of 1900Mbps. For one of the best efficiency, you’ll need to go along with a Wi-Fi extender that has the very best speeds attainable (and people, as you may count on, are likely to value extra). Some extenders even assist Wi-Fi 7, supplying you with the most recent in wi-fi know-how for increased bandwidth, sooner web pace and decrease latency.

Nevertheless, it’s necessary to do not forget that Wi-Fi extenders usually are not true “sign boosters” since they aren’t designed to enhance speeds throughout your house. Actually, chances are you’ll discover that the extender’s community is slower than your router’s. As a substitute, extenders are designed to extend the sturdy Wi-Fi protection all through your house, making them preferrred for filling in useless zones. Some mesh extenders may help create a extra seamless community, lowering the drop in pace and bettering connectivity in bigger areas.

Vary, and variety of supported gadgets

With the title of the gaming being protection space, being attentive to a tool’s vary is necessary. Relying on the scale of your house and property, chances are you’ll solely want as much as 1,200 sq. toes of protection. However these with bigger houses will need to spring for an extender that may assist upwards of two,000+ sq. toes of protection.

Equally, these with a lot of devices will need an extender that may deal with them unexpectedly. If you happen to spend most of your time in your telephone or laptop computer and perhaps have your good TV on-line for a couple of hours of Netflix every day, you would get by with a extra restricted extender. Good house aficionados and tech lovers ought to spend money on one which gained’t buckle underneath the stress of some dozen related gadgets. That is particularly necessary when you plan on linking the entire gadgets in a sure a part of your house to your Wi-Fi vary extender’s community, relatively than on to your current router. Some fashions with exterior antennas can enhance efficiency by offering stronger, extra directional wi-fi sign.

Design

There isn’t a ton of innovation relating to design within the Wi-Fi extender area. A lot of the ones you’ll discover at present are rounded rectangles roughly the scale of your hand that plug into a normal wall outlet. They often have a couple of indicator lights that may present you when the extender is related, how sturdy its sign energy is and when there’s an issue, and a few will even have moveable exterior antennas that firms declare present even higher Wi-Fi sign. Typically, they’re fairly easy to put in and get related, however when you’re scuffling with easy methods to arrange your Wi-Fi extender, there are many YouTube movies you’ll be able to try.

Except for that, there are the scant few standalone Wi-Fi extenders that sit on an finish desk or a desk, and people look fairly just like common ol’ routers. However make no mistake, something labeled as an extender or a “Wi-Fi repeater” will want an anchor router to ensure that it to work.

One other handy characteristic you’ll discover on most Wi-Fi extenders is an additional Ethernet connection port (or a couple of). This lets you use the extender as a wi-fi entry level when you join it to your current router, or an adapter to offer gadgets like TVs, good house hubs or recreation consoles a hardwired connection to the web. Unsurprisingly, this wired connection often gives you with the quickest speeds attainable, so chances are you’ll need to use it in your most vital gadgets.

Wi-Fi extender FAQs

What is the distinction between a wifi booster and extender?

These days, there’s actually no distinction between a Wi-Fi booster and Wi-Fi extender – they’re simply totally different names for a similar factor. Beforehand, nevertheless, Wi-Fi boosters had been gadgets that acquired indicators from wi-fi routers, broadcasting them to a different community. This basically extends the vary of the sign. Wi-Fi extenders increase the protection inside your house’s Wi-Fi community, however usually you will notice extenders described as boosters.

Is a Wi-Fi extender higher than a mesh router?

Mesh routers, or mesh Wi-Fi systems, use a number of gadgets (or nodes) throughout your house to create a bigger house community. Basically, you’ve a number of routers round your house with these programs, and that may hopefully present one of the best protection attainable. Wi-Fi extenders, then again, are often only one machine that extends your current Wi-Fi sign, and so they usually require you to modify networks when connecting. Wi-Fi extenders are extra reasonably priced, although, and are nice when you’re touring or want a Wi-Fi sign in harder-to-reach areas. Nevertheless, a mesh router can provide a greater long-term answer to improve your total house’s Wi-Fi.

Ought to I exploit a number of Wi-Fi extenders?

Some folks may have to make use of a number of Wi-Fi extenders, as an example, if your house is giant or has useless zones in numerous areas. However when you do use a number of Wi-Fi extenders, there’s an opportunity of interference. You may additionally have to manually hook up with the extenders individually, which isn’t all the time handy.

What’s the most distance for a Wi-Fi extender?

The utmost distance for a Wi-Fi extender varies relying on the mannequin, however most can successfully prolong your wi-fi sign between 800 and a pair of,500 sq. toes. Some high-end fashions might attain even farther, particularly in the event that they characteristic exterior antennas or are a part of a mesh system with extra devoted wi-fi entry factors.

Nevertheless, take into account that real-world efficiency is determined by elements like your house’s structure, wall supplies and interference from different gadgets. For finest outcomes, place your extender about midway between your router and the realm with weak or no Wi-Fi connection. At all times verify the producer’s specs — a few of our high picks clearly listing their anticipated vary so you’ll find one that matches your area.

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