Eliminate dead spots and stretch your Wi-Fi coverage with the best Wi-Fi extenders. By providing stronger signal that reaches where your regular router can't, you can improve your home network without busting your budget. Whether you call it a Wi-Fi booster, wifi repeater or signal booster, these small and affordable devices provide stronger Wi-Fi where you need it, often for much less money than upgrading to one of the best mesh routers.
We've reviewed several popular Wi-Fi extenders, from inexpensive wall plug units that can be hidden behind a couch to desktop units that prioritize power over aesthetics. There are plenty of functions and features to consider, but the best Wi-Fi extender for you is the one that can be positioned to expand your Wi-Fi coverage to where you need it. Big or small, cheap or expensive, we've tested them all to give you the best advice when shopping for a Wi-Fi extender.
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The best Wi-Fi extender for you will meet your coverage needs and be convenient to use, as well as fitting your budget. Overall, our rating criteria include design, range, throughput, setup and which settings you can adjust. But our recommendations aren't purely about speed and coverage, but also price, so you can find the right device without spending too much money.
Based on our in-depth lab tests and hands-on usage in a real home, the best Wi-Fi extender on the market is the TP-Link RE650 AC2600 Wi-Fi Range Extender. It has great range and performance in a plug-in design that's easy to install in most any room. It also has a handy smartphone app that makes managing your network easier.
With so many options for upgrading your home network, like getting a new router or a mesh router, or adding a Wi-Fi extender or powerline extender, how do you know which is the best option for you?
If most of your house is adequately served by the Wi-Fi router you already own, you may not need to buy a new one. A Wi-Fi extender is the perfect solution if you've got one room or one section of the house where your internet always seems to cut out. Wi-Fi extenders are great for knocking out a specific dead spot, for giving you a little more signal with a little more range, enough to reach that far room or give your Wi-Fi a little oomph to make it to the next floor.
However, if you have large portions of your home or property that don't get adequate Wi-Fi, you may need to step up to one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems, which use multiple devices to create a larger shared network. If you have multiple rooms with spotty coverage, or a far end of the house that your router can't reach, or want to extend your coverage out to the backyard or garage, then a mesh kit is the better choice.
How Much Should a Wi-Fi Extender Cost? The cheapest Wi-Fi repeaters will often sell for less than $50, and our current budget pick sells for half that. Newer signal boosting devices have support for the latest wireless standards and offering technologies like beam-forming and Mu-MIMO for enhanced performance will often cost more, but even the best extenders can be had for less than $200. And watch out for cheap discount range extenders, like the one in our Super Boost Wireless-N Wi-Fi Repeater review. The attractively low price also brings extremely poor performance.
Plug-In or Desktop? While most signal boosters use small plug-in designs that connect directly to a wall outlet, they aren't the only option. Some of the best Wi-Fi extenders use larger designs that sit on a desk or shelf, more like a traditional router. These larger devices don't have the same size and weight limitations of plug-in units, allowing for better antenna placement and better internal hardware. Plug-in models, on the other hand, will often be less expensive and more convenient to install.
Match Wi-Fi Standards: While you may not pay much attention to which wireless standard your router uses, it will definitely have an impact on how helpful your extender is. If your wireless router uses the current 802.11ac standard, you’ll want to be sure your extender does, too. The older 802.11n standard is slower and often is limited to one band, which will create a bottleneck in your Wi-Fi coverage, slowing down all of your browsing and streaming. But that's a problem only if your router is offering better speeds. If you have an older wireless-N router, then a matching extender will do the job just fine.
Placement Is Everything: Both wireless routers and Wi-Fi extenders use radio waves to share data back and forth with your internet connection. You need to find somewhere that's close enough to the router to grab a strong signal to rebroadcast, but far enough away to extend the network's range to where it's needed. Need more help? Check out our guide to Wi-Fi extender placement.
Consider an Upgrade: If your wireless router isn't providing the speeds or coverage you want, it may be better to skip the Wi-Fi extender entirely and get a new router. Newer models offer better performance, and mesh routers will let you expand your wireless coverage across even the largest home. (One of our editors traded in his router-and-extender combination for a Netgear Orbi mesh system. See why he says "This mesh router is the best thing I bought during the pandemic.")
Every Wi-Fi extender we review is evaluated based on a combination of in-depth performance tests and hands-on usage in a real home. This mix of real-world use and controlled benchmark testing gives us a clear picture of how well each device performs.
We use Ixia's Ix Chariot testing software to measure throughput at a variety of distances and environmental conditions. This includes testing with the extender placed at 50 feet and 75 feet from the router. The software simulates traffic in a busy wireless network while measuring data flow back and forth. The results are shown in megabits per second (Mbps) at a distance from the extender, with higher numbers indicating better performance.
Measuring the throughput at various distances also lets us determine the effective range of the extender, giving you a better understanding of how well a device will do in covering the farthest corners of your home.
We also use each product in a real customers home, which has signal-thwarting brick walls and the sort of sturdy construction that basic routers struggle to contend with. In that environment we use the network for everything from listening to music and streaming video to performing additional tests. All nerdcore customers are totally satisfied with all the wifi design extenders our network technicians install.
Author Nerdcore Australia
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