The very best Wi-Fi extenders in 2025

In case your Wi-Fi sign is struggling to achieve each nook of your private home, a sign booster — often known as a Wi-Fi extender — may be the repair you want. Whether or not you are coping with annoying useless zones, buffering video calls or laggy gaming classes, the suitable Wi-Fi extender may also help increase protection and enhance connectivity with out forcing you to maneuver your router.

There are several types 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. Should you’re merely trying to lengthen protection into a selected room, a Wi-Fi repeater can do the job — however it could minimize your bandwidth in half. Extra superior extenders, nonetheless, may also help preserve sturdy speeds and reliability all through your private home.

We have rounded up the very best Wi-Fi extenders to go well with completely different wants, whether or not you are on the lookout for an inexpensive repair or a high-performance improve.

Desk of contents

Greatest Wi-Fi extender for 2025

TP-Hyperlink

TP-Hyperlink has a bunch of Wi-Fi extenders below its umbrella, however the one that may doubtless serve most individuals the very 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 completely 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 cell app. All the 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 cell 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 completely different bands when connecting issues like my telephone or laptop computer. The machine will robotically pair your machine with the suitable band — for instance, connecting most sensible dwelling 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 are able to get the spottiest Wi-Fi sign. I first ran velocity checks on my iPhone and MacBook utilizing Speedtest.web and Speedcheck.org so I may examine them with the usual speeds I received when linked to my router’s most important community. Unsurprisingly, the speeds generated by TP-Hyperlink’s extender have 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 beneath) received near my router’s normal speeds, however I anticipated this. Wi-Fi extenders aren’t going to make your connection higher – they’re simply going to provide 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 checks, I used to be comfortable 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 linked to the extenders wi-fi community, answering emails, messaging in Slack, streaming YouTube movies and in any other case sustaining a number of dozen tabs in Chrome, with none hiccups or noticeable slow-downs.

I used to be not stunned to search out TP-Hyperlink’s Tether companion app to be straightforward to make use of, if a bit easy, as a result of that was my expertise with TP-Hyperlink’s sensible dwelling 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 would be able to title wi-fi gadgets which might be linked to your extenders community like your telephone and sensible TV. That makes it a lot simpler to know which issues in your house are always paired with the extender reasonably 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 in case you have a suitable mesh router. Since I’m nonetheless utilizing the router offered to me by my ISP, I wasn’t capable of take a look at out this characteristic, however it works like this: in case you have a OneMesh router and OneMesh-compatible extenders, you’ll be able to hyperlink all of them collectively below the identical community title. So reasonably than having a router community and an extender community below the identical roof, every thing can be linked and filed below your most important community’s title.

It’s a small perk that turns into not so small in case you have a spotty extender, and even simply an awkwardly laid-out dwelling. In my testing, I discovered my telephone disconnecting from some extenders’ networks after I went upstairs to the primary flooring of the home from my basement. It will then try and 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, however it’s one thing to remember 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 affordable 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 understand 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 go simply positive for you. However if you need that additional potential 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 supplies 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 in case you have a very giant property, you’re higher off going with a costlier extender that may cowl more room.

There’s additionally no Wi-Fi 6e assist on the RE315, which can be a dealbreaker for many who just lately 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 for the reason that RE315 additionally makes use of the Tether cell app, and whereas speeds have 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 straightforward choose for anybody who needs a budget-friendly option to fill Wi-Fi useless zones of their dwelling.

Professionals

Inexpensive
Simple setup course of
Good efficiency for the worth
Simple to make use of companion app

Cons

Solely supplies 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 combination. However that’s not so with the Netgear EAX80 mesh community vary extender – it has “seamless sensible roaming,” which lets you set it up below your present SSID title. So as a substitute of disconnecting out of your most important wi-fi community and reconnecting to the extender’s community while you transfer out of your front room to your basement, all it’s important 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 could 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 could have. It helps speeds as much as 6 Gbps and may have greater than 30 gadgets linked to it without delay. 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 nicely in our velocity checks, coming very near the add/obtain speeds I received when being linked to my most important community earlier than putting in the extender.

There’s nothing out of the unusual in regards to the Nighthawk cell app, which is what you’ll use to initially arrange the EAX80 extender. After that, you should utilize the app to troubleshoot, test Wi-Fi speeds and see which gadgets are in your community. It’ll doubtless be an enormous listing because you’ll see every thing that’s paired to your router’s community as nicely. My solely gripe is that you would be able to’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 linked gadgets with no title in any respect, and we’re simply caught with that.

Apart from its quick speeds and dependable connection, two issues set this Netgear extender aside from the opposite gadgets I examined. First is that seamless sensible roaming characteristic – not having to change between Wi-Fi networks when going round my dwelling was tremendous handy. I by no means needed to fear about my laptop computer shedding connection to a devoted extender community after I moved from my basement to my second flooring, which is one thing I continuously needed to cope with when testing different gadgets.

The second differentiating issue is the EAX80’s design. Not like different vary extenders which might 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 dwelling as a result of it didn’t need to be chained to the wall proper above an outlet. Most individuals, particularly these tight on house, will most likely want 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 stable possibility for those who 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. But it surely’s value noting that Netgear has a number of choices which might be just like the EAX80, however with varied variations in velocity, 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 sensible roaming capabilities. The wall-plug model of that, the EAX15, is definitely a tad costlier at $140.

Professionals

“Seamless sensible roaming” allows you to use your present SSID title
Twin-band Wi-Fi 6 assist
Widens protection by 2,500 sq. toes
Glorious efficiency

$275 at Amazon

How do Wi-Fi extenders work?

These useful wi-fi gadgets do precisely what their title suggests: lengthen your Wi-Fi community so it covers extra areas of your private home. Most wi-fi extenders plug into an AC outlet and connect with your present router to allow them to then rebroadcast it to spots that your router alone might not cowl nicely. As a rule of thumb, you’ll get the very best outcomes by putting the extender half method between your router and the useless zone you’re attempting 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 typically referred to as “repeaters”) is that almost all of them truly create a brand new Wi-Fi community when rebroadcasting your present one. That community may have a brand new title (it’ll typically be your default community’s title with an EXT appended on the finish, until you alter it) and meaning you’ll have to connect with completely different networks when in several elements of your private home. Whereas that’s a small tradeoff in return for improved web connection, some might be extra inconvenienced than others.

Should you’d reasonably have one, a lot bigger community in your house, you’re higher off upgrading to mesh networking techniques. Mesh techniques include a most important 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 complete dwelling. They are typically the very best Wi-Fi routers you may get, however that additionally interprets to costlier, and presumably extra difficult, gadgets. Mesh Wi-Fi techniques are, by far, extra pricey than a easy extender, plus you could have to work along with your web service supplier to get your private home’s present community working in your new router.

What to search for in a Wi-Fi extender

Velocity

Extenders at this time can assist single, twin or tri-band Wi-Fi, and they’ll let you know the utmost speeds they assist on all of their obtainable 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 velocity of 1900Mbps. For the very best efficiency, you’ll need to go along with a Wi-Fi extender that has the very best speeds doable (and people, as you may count on, are likely to value extra). Some extenders even assist Wi-Fi 7, supplying you with the newest in wi-fi expertise for increased bandwidth, sooner web velocity and decrease latency.

Nevertheless, it’s necessary to do not forget that Wi-Fi extenders will not be true “sign boosters” since they don’t seem to be designed to improve speeds throughout your private home. In reality, it’s possible 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 private home, making them best for filling in useless zones. Some mesh extenders may also help create a extra seamless community, decreasing the drop in velocity and enhancing connectivity in bigger areas.

Vary, and variety of supported gadgets

With the title of the gaming being protection space, paying attention to a tool’s vary is necessary. Relying on the scale of your private home and property, it’s possible 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 plenty of devices will need an extender that may deal with them all of sudden. Should you spend most of your time in your telephone or laptop computer and possibly have your sensible TV on-line for a number of hours of Netflix every day, you might get by with a extra restricted extender. Good dwelling aficionados and tech lovers ought to spend money on one which gained’t buckle below the stress of some dozen linked gadgets. That is particularly necessary for those who plan on linking the entire gadgets in a sure a part of your private home to your Wi-Fi vary extender’s community, reasonably than on to your present 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 house. A lot of the ones you’ll discover at this time are rounded rectangles roughly the scale of your hand that plug into a regular wall outlet. They normally have a number of indicator lights that may present you when the extender is linked, 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. Usually, they’re fairly easy to put in and get linked, however for those who’re combating tips on how to arrange your Wi-Fi extender, there are many YouTube movies you’ll be able to take a look at.

Apart from 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 number of). This lets you use the extender as a wi-fi entry level for those who join it to your present router, or an adapter to supply gadgets like TVs, sensible dwelling hubs or sport consoles a hardwired connection to the web. Unsurprisingly, this wired connection normally supplies you with the quickest speeds doable, so it’s possible 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 completely different names for a similar factor. Beforehand, nonetheless, Wi-Fi boosters have been gadgets that obtained 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 private home’s Wi-Fi community, however typically 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 private home to create a bigger dwelling community. Primarily, you may have a number of routers round your private home with these techniques, and that may hopefully present the very best protection doable. Wi-Fi extenders, then again, are normally only one machine that extends your present Wi-Fi sign, and so they typically require you to change networks when connecting. Wi-Fi extenders are extra inexpensive, although, and are nice for those who’re touring or want a Wi-Fi sign in harder-to-reach areas. Nevertheless, a mesh router can provide a greater long-term resolution to improve your complete dwelling’s Wi-Fi.

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

Some folks might have to make use of a number of Wi-Fi extenders, for example, if your private home is giant or has useless zones in several areas. However for those who do use a number of Wi-Fi extenders, there’s an opportunity of interference. You might also must manually connect 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 lengthen 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, needless to say real-world efficiency will depend on components like your private home’s structure, wall supplies and interference from different gadgets. For greatest outcomes, place your extender about midway between your router and the world with weak or no Wi-Fi connection. At all times test the producer’s specs — a few of our high picks clearly listing their anticipated vary so yow will discover one that matches your house.

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