The best 10 Wi-Fi Extenders in comparison

If you’re having problems with the Wi-Fi coverage in your home, Wi-Fi extenders are a great way to improve your home network. They can help to fix any dead zones in your home and enhance stability in areas where the signal is weak. Buying a Wi-Fi extender is much more affordable than buying a new router, so it can be a good option if you don’t feel like replacing your entire router. However, if your current router is very old, an extender might not do much to alleviate your problems, so you may wish to consider upgrading. It’s also worth noting that Wi-Fi extenders are not very efficient. In essence, they are rebroadcasting a signal, which often results in a reduction in speed. That being said, a good Wi-Fi extender with optimal placement can often solve the problem of poor network coverage.

How to choose the best Wi-Fi extender

When choosing a Wi-Fi extender, there are several things you’ll want to consider. These include the version of Wi-Fi, security options, and additional features such as beamforming or MU-MIMO — all of which we’ll look at in this article.

Wi-Fi version

First and foremost is the Wi-Fi version. The current version available in consumer products is Wi-Fi 7 (also known as 802.11be), but there are still very few on the market and they come with a considerable price tag. The most common routers and extenders today are Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6/6E, which should provide more than enough bandwidth and features for most users. 

For those just doing basic tasks like browsing the web or streaming video at HD resolution, Wi-Fi 5 would probably suffice, but it’s worth getting an extender with Wi-Fi 6 to be a bit more futureproof. You should also take into account the amount of devices that are on your network. Newer Wi-Fi versions are designed to handle more devices at once, so if you are living in a household with many people or have a lot of additional devices such as smart speakers, streaming sticks, and game consoles, it’s worth considering a Wi-Fi extender with Wi-Fi 6 or above.

Another thing that is important to consider is your router's version of Wi-Fi. If you have an older, slower router, buying a Wi-Fi extender won’t do anything to alleviate problems with slow speeds or connectivity. In fact, you’ll probably get even worse performance than before.

Bandwidth and speeds

The listed speeds for different versions of Wi-Fi are theoretical, as home network speeds are nowhere near the maximum speeds supported by a router/extender. These bandwidth speeds are also a total of all the channels, and each device you have can only connect to a single channel. There’s also congestion on Wi-Fi frequencies from neighbors to consider, distance from the extender, and how fast your device is. Although you can’t expect to reach the speeds listed in the specifications of Wi-Fi extenders, higher numbers generally indicate higher versions of Wi-Fi and other features that will usually result in better performance.

Beamforming

Beamforming is an important feature to have, especially if you’re buying a Wi-Fi extender because of coverage issues or a lack of stability on your devices. A Wi-Fi extender without beamforming will just broadcast its signal out in a circular pattern, which works ok for the most part. However, a device with beamforming will know a device’s location and direct a stronger signal to that point. This results in greater stability and potentially speed as well, as the signal is stronger where your device is.

Mesh Wi-Fi

If you want seamless coverage across your entire home, consider buying a router system with mesh Wi-Fi. This creates one large network area, with the different devices (routers and extenders) working together. Without a mesh network, your device will have to disconnect from one device to connect to the other. It’s important to note that you'll need a compatible router if you opt for a Wi-Fi extender with mesh technology. This means choosing a router and extender from the same brand, as most brands have their own mesh network technology that's incompatible with other brands.

MU-MIMO

MU-MIMO allows the router or Wi-Fi extender to communicate with many devices simultaneously. This results in greater stability, lower latency, and better performance. If you are streaming, playing online games, or have many devices connected at once, you should definitely look for an extender with MU-MIMO technology.

Security

Generally speaking, routers are very secure now and have been for many years. Most home Wi-Fi networks will use a version of WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), with newer versions being more secure. You should avoid extenders that only have WPA as it lacks features like AES encryption, which makes it susceptible to attacks. Although WPA2 was introduced in 2004, it is still considered secure even today, as it added AES encryption and other features to make up for the shortcomings of the original WPA. For the best security, look to buy an extender with WPA3. Although these devices are not as common, they are even more secure than WPA2, thanks to stronger encryption algorithms and other features that provide increased privacy and security between devices connected to the network.