Wi-Fi Mesh Systems Compared: eero, Orbi, AmpliFi

The future of home Wi-Fi is mesh networking, a new approach to consumer wireless networks that includes smart management and multiple radios designed to handle the load of today’s gadgets. Combine that with the fact that many homes require multiple access points for coverage in different locations and mesh makes the most sense.

With 802.11ac we do finally have some range extenders that actually work now. Even when used at a distance, 802.11ac often gives you enough bandwidth to make an extender worthwhile. It’s never perfect, though, unless you’re using Ethernet (or Powerline or MoCA) for the backhaul between your router and extender. Even a workable situation like this takes a true geek to build and manage it. And when things break, it’s not just the geek who’s upset: the whole family has an opinion on the urgency of fixing these issues.

On top of that, the router/extender scenario isn’t a true mesh—it’s a quasi-mesh. None of the access points knows about the other ones. Yes, they can all be named the same and my client devices can connect to whichever one they deem best, but they do that on their own with no guidance from the router or extender. Client devices have no idea how overloaded a given access point might be nor do they have an idea as to what other devices on the network exist.

eero’s mesh – like others – blankets your home in glorious Wi-Fi everywhere

Mesh routing completes that puzzle because the access points act as one. They are all aware of each other and can work with client devices to decide which access point is best for that client at that time, not just which one is closest or has the strongest signal. If one device starts streaming a ton of Netflix, for example, the mesh can identify this and either tell that client to move or start moving other clients to free up that radio for the video stream.

This kind of setup is simply not possible to build yourself with off-the-shelf routers.

The good news is that as we’ve often said on Mac Geek Gab, 2016 is the “Year of the Router.” A large part of that has to do with how many mesh products we have.

TL;DR

I’ve tested three currently-available mesh offerings: eero, Netgear’s Orbi and Ubiquiti’s AmpliFi. While they all solve the same problem in basically the same way, they each have strengths and weaknesses. If you’re finished reading and just want to buy, my TL;DR advice is that, at this very moment, I feel like eero is the best product to recommend to most users. That said, it’s worth watching what Netgear does with Orbi over the next six months. If they keep adding features to it, Orbi could easily take the lead due to its tri-band Wi-Fi hardware. Still, even today Orbi or AmpliFi might be right for you, and I’ve listed more than a few points of comparison to help you make your choice. For those details… read on!

Table of Contents

1. Intro to Mesh Wi-Fi


2. Single SSID Mesh, Range, Speed, Setup and Radios


3. Ethernet, User Interface, and Form Factor


4. USB, QoS, and VPN


5. Apple, Google, Luma, The Prices and The Verdict

Next up: Single SSID Mesh, Range, Speed, Setup and Radios

Page 2: Single SSID Mesh, Range, Speed, Setup and Radios

eero’s units look right-at-home in your home

Single SSID Mesh

Before we get into the differences between the systems, let’s talk about where they’re all the same. Every one of these offers single SSID mesh, which means you choose a single network and enter a single password, and the mesh and devices take it from there. They might move you to the 2.4GHz radio or back to 5GHz. They might move you from the access point in your living room to the one in your bedroom. You don’t have to think about any of these things because the system does it for you. What you get is great coverage everywhere in your home without having to think much about anything at all.

Range

The range on every one of these systems that I tested has been stellar. All have outperformed even the most powerful standalone routers that I’ve (also) tested. Every setup is different, but not only has coverage been stellar indoors in the houses where I’ve tested, in some circumstances I’ve had coverage outdoors up to several hundred feet away from the closest access point. The engineering here is top notch, and will likely be better than anything you’ve ever experienced at home before.

Speed

Again, lots of variables to consider so my results are only one set of data, but speeds across all devices have been fantastic. Because you’re associating with the best access point for your location, it becomes very easy to get this right indoors. Even outdoors several hundred feet away I’ve gotten speeds of 10Mbps. Not great, but hey… I was several hundred feet away!

Setup

The setup of all three of the systems that I tested were quite simple and I was up and running within 10 minutes with each. The only hitch is that eero requires your phone be able to make a quick mobile data connection in order to begin the setup process. This means if your cable modem is in the basement or you have no cell service at your house you’ll need to keep your old router running until you get your eero setup. Both Orbi and AmpliFi employed more traditional setup procedures that involved connecting directly to the devices via the local network.

Radios and Streams

Most single access point/router solutions increase your effective speed and device concurrency by increasing the number of radios available on each device. This technology is called Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) and involves nomenclature like 2×2, 3×3 and 4×4 to describe the number of input and output radios in each device.

The thing is, even though our routers have lots of available radios and streams, most of our client devices do not. And, since none of our Apple devices support Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) yet, those extra radios on our routers aren’t simultaneously made available for other devices to connect. The router waits for one client to finish, then moves on to the next in a round-robin fashion.

Mesh addresses this problem by having multiple access points. This alleviates the need for MU-MIMO in our client devices because different devices can connect to different access points. With the mesh being an intelligent partner in the decision process, that means if you’ve got two devices streaming video at the same time, the mesh and the clients can identify this and move one device to a different access point.

• Orbi: Each unit has three separate radios. Two 2×2 radios for client access, one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz. Then there’s a third, 4×4 5GHz radio that is dedicated only to Orbi-to-Orbi backhaul. This supports MU-MIMO between the Orbis, allowing for unencumbered mesh connectivity that stays out of the way of the client devices.


• AmpliFi: The router base station has two 3×3 radios, one each for 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The regular and LR models’ mesh points each have two 2×2 radios in them whereas the HD mesh points each have two 3×3 radios for longer range and greater throughput.


• eero: Each device has two 2×2 radios, one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz. Both radios are used for mesh backhaul and client devices.

Next up: Ethernet, User Interface, and Form Factor

Page 3 – Ethernet, User Interface, and Form Factor

NETGEAR’s Orbi has more ports than any other mesh Wi-Fi system we tested

Ethernet

Even with a wireless network Ethernet still plays a role. In addition to using Ethernet to connect to your Cable Modem or other internet device, many times you’ll have several Ethernet-capable devices near your various access points. You can limit the number of wireless devices competing for your mesh’s attention by simply plugging in the Ethernet ones where that’s possible and convenient.

Additionally, if you do happen to have Ethernet in your walls, that will often be a better option for the backhaul connections between your mesh devices… if your mesh supports it.

• Orbi: With four Ethernet ports on each of the devices, Orbi allows the most flexibility of any of the currently-available mesh products I’ve tested. The Router unit dedicates one port for WAN/Internet, while the Satellites each have four for any devices you might want to plug in. At the moment Orbi does not support Ethernet for bridging the mesh Satellites, which is unfortunate. They say it’s being considered for a future software update, and I currently hold out hope.


• eero: Each eero device is exactly the same, and each has two Ethernet ports. The eero that you plug into your cable modem will provision one of its Ethernet ports for WAN/Internet, and the other will be part of the local network. Many users – especially those with their routers near their TVs and other home entertainment devices that use Ethernet – will likely require a small 4- or 8-port Ethernet switch to connect all their wired devices. All satellite eeros will bridge both of their Ethernet ports to the local network. Additionally, eero allows for Ethernet backhaul between eero devices. Consistent with the rest of the eero experience, this happens automatically when eero detects it, making your wireless mesh even more efficient.


• AmpliFi: The AmpliFi’s router base station has 5 Ethernet ports, one for Internet/WAN and the other four for internal devices on your network. The mesh points, though, have no Ethernet at all and are only able to connect to one another via Wi-Fi, limiting Ethernet devices to only your main router’s location.

User Interface

• Orbi: Web interface accessible from both local and, if enabled, from remote. Web interface is standard for NETGEAR with Basic and Advanced modes.


• eero: iOS and Android app only, no web interface. That said, the UI is clean and, with version 2.0, even more full-featured. All access is done through eero’s servers, which means that configuration and status are equally accessible locally and remotely.


• AmpliFi: iOS and Android app are main configuration paths and both only connect locally. AmpliFi has a limited web interface available in a pinch.

Form Factor

• AmpliFi: The cube-shaped AmpliFi base station looks like a very sleek and modern bedside alarm clock. True to form, it has a touch-screen LCD display that can show you the time, network status, speed, setup information and more. You can even configure a Night Mode to keep the device from illuminating your room at night.The AmpliFi mesh points are a completely different design, built to plug directly into an outlet and stay there. Their antennas are connected with a magnetic ball joint, allowing both angling flexibility as well as limiting the possibility of one breaking off if too much pressure is applied.


• eero: All the eero devices are small, Apple TV-sized white square pucks. Very subtle and understated, they can hide in plain sight or even complement your home’s design. No controls are available on the devices themselves.


• Orbi: Also elegant, the Orbi’s router and satellites are all tall, white pieces. They’re the largest of the devices we tested by a factor of three. Presumably the existence of the third radio and extra ports is partially responsible for the larger size.

Next up: USB, QoS, and VPN

Page 4 – USB, QoS, and VPN

Amplifi’s Base Station and Mesh Points have a very distinctive look.

USB

All of the Orbi and eero devices as well as the AmpliFi router each have a single USB 2.0 port on them. Orbi and AmpliFi have both said the port is currently reserved for future use, while eero has said the port is “strictly used for diagnostic purposes at this time.” Here’s to hoping someone adds printer and hard drive support. My money’s on Orbi leading the charge here simply because NETGEAR has already done this with most of their other routers.

Quality of Service (QoS)

For this we’re looking for QoS on the WAN (Internet) port. This helps avoid things like Buffer Bloat where a single device that wants all the available downstream or upstream bandwidth can cause connections to lag on your other devices. A router that properly supports WAN-based QoS can help alleviate or avoid this.

• eero: Yes, and it works very well without requiring any configuration from the user. Enabled automatically, eero speed-tests your Internet connection every day to ensure that it’s managing your traffic properly. Not only is this the best QoS I’ve seen in a mesh router, it’s the best QoS implementation I’ve seen in any consumer-focused router at all.


• Orbi: No WAN-based QoS.


• AmpliFi: No WAN-based QoS.

VPN

Having a VPN server running at home can be helpful in a number of ways, most commonly either as a very robust way of having remote access to all your home devices or as a way of securing your internet traffic when you’re out-and-about at a coffee shop or an airport.

At this point only one of the currently-available mesh solutions that we tested has a built-in VPN server, and that’s Netgear’s Orbi. As with many of their other routers, Netgear supports OpenVPN on Orbi. Unfortunately, neither macOS nor iOS have native support for OpenVPN, but Orbi’s user interface provides simple walk-through instructions for getting your Mac, iOS, Windows or Android device configured to connect remotely to your router’s VPN. This is where Netgear’s long history of making routers shines through.

Final page: Apple, Google, Luma, The Prices and The Verdict

Page 5 – Apple, Google, Luma, The Prices and The Verdict

eero’s mesh – like others – blankets your home in Wi-Fi

What about Apple? Google? Luma?

Just yesterday we saw the news that Apple has reassigned their Wi-Fi engineers away from the AirPort-related teams and doesn’t plan to continue developing standalone routers. My guess is that Apple knew they either needed to develop their own mesh product or get out of the way for others. Seems they chose the latter, which makes sense. Apple is not a “me too” company, they’re a “here’s a better way company.” My guess is they took a look at current mesh offerings and decided they had nothing to add to this particular conversation. Based on my recent tests, I can see why.

Google Wifi looks very interesting but was not yet available for us to actually test. Google’s internal tests have shown it to beat the eero, but that was likely done before eero released their TrueMesh upgrade last week which, for many, doubled wireless throughput. There will be more to say here shortly.

Luma, too, was something we tried to test but they went radio silent during the process. There could be any number of reasons for that, including their PR team just being plain busy, so we’ll revisit that when they circle back around. Keep on eye on Mac Geek Gab for that discussion.

In fact, one guarantee is that all of these things will change. While mesh Wi-Fi has been available in the enterprise for years it is brand new to the home this year. Software updates are happening at the pace of several-times-per-month for these devices, and some of those updates bring major enhancements. We’re router geeks, though, so this will remain an ongoing conversation here at TMO and MGG.

The Prices

• eero: 3-pack US$499. 2-pack US$349. Individual eero US$199. Full disclosure: eero is currently a sponsor of our Mac Geek Gab podcast. While that sponsorship had no influence on my findings here it does offer you, dear reader, a deal. This weekend only (11/24-11/28/2016) you can take $100 off the 3-pack or $50 off the 2- or 1-pack. On top of that if you use coupon code MGG at eero’s online store you qualify for free overnight shipping.


• Orbi: 2-pack US$399. Add-on Satellite US$249.99. 3-Pack pricing unavailable at press time.


• AmpliFi: Standard system: US$199.00. AmpliFi LR $299. AmpliFi HD (the unit we tested) $349. All three come with the same base station. The differences are in the number of radios and power of the mesh points.

The Verdict

As I mentioned in the intro, given all this I feel like the eero is the best product to recommend to most people today. WAN-Based QoS is a must-have in my opinion and experience, and eero is the only one currently offering that for the mesh. Additionally, eero’s support for Ethernet backhaul is something I find many larger homes will use because they already have it, and that makes the mesh far more efficient.

Netgear’s Orbi, however, is very close behind. In addition to the fact that they likely will support Ethernet backhaul via firmware update sometime soon, theirs is the only mesh to have a third radio dedicated only to wireless backhaul between mesh devices. This frees up the other two radios for client communications.

If your home can already benefit from Ethernet backhaul, the eero is at the top of my list. If you don’t need that right now, the Orbi is a serious contender and perhaps the best option because of its third radio dedicated to wireless backhaul. Just be aware that Orbi is missing WAN-based QoS. With lots of devices wanting to upload pictures and backups all the time, that can become an issue very quickly.

AmpliFi continues to intrigue me, if only because it comes from Ubiquiti, the enterprise-networking and Wi-Fi powerhouse. I feel like they’ve missed a bit not including support for any remotely-connected Ethernet devices, but there’s nothing stopping them from releasing additional mesh points with that capability.

If your home’s layout is small enough and you don’t have many wireless devices, mesh may not yet be for you. But if you’ve been fighting with range extenders and other solutions to broaden your Wi-Fi coverage and keep your streams alive, you can now stop all that silliness and blanket your home with Wi-Fi. The future is here, and that future is mesh networking.

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