Researching the Best Router under 100$? [Reviews and Buying Guide in 2024]

A wireless router is an efficient way to set up a robust Wi-Fi connection in your home. A router offers great coverage and internet signal throughout the home and lets you gain flawless connectivity for all your devices like tablets, printers, phones, gaming consoles, and others.

Since, you will be connecting various devices to a router, so it is essential you pick one that offers high speed, complete security, and is the best.

While there are routers available in varying price ranges, in this post, we list the best router under 100. Despite being available in a budget these routers offer great performance, features, and coverage.

1. TP-link AC1750 – Best Overall

Why is it Unique

It comes with the Archer A7 functionality and three high-gain antennas delivering brilliant Wi-Fi coverage throughout your house. The strong amplifiers connect all devices even between walls.

It offers stable wireless performance even when numerous devices are connected simultaneously. The powerful CPU offers high-speed processing while the durable hardware is supported with bandwidth prioritization and advanced technology. Having compatibility with Alexa, you can turn off and on Wi-Fi access for guests with Alexa’s voice control.

Buyer’s Experiences

The buyer’s loved its ultra-fast speed ensuring a smooth 4K streaming and gaming experience. The dual band allowed them to connect more gadgets with fewer disruptions. The inbuilt WPA/WPA2 encryption, guest access, and parental controls offered them complete safety for the network.

Ideal For

The router delivers smart roaming functionality ideal for uninterrupted streaming throughout the house. It is supported with a Tether app, which makes it perfect for those who want absolute control over their network even when they are away.

2. ASUS RT-N12 N300 – Most Versatile

In addition to complete customization, it comes with Privacy control functionality for each user account restricting access to particular websites. Also, you can establish a maximum bandwidth limit for each user account, which is highly useful when you have kids in your home.

Why is it Unique

The best thing about this router is its multiple account control feature, which lets you establish and customize around 4 wireless networking accounts. The router specializes in offering great signal range for reliability and speed on the wireless network.

It is integrated with advanced High Power technology that enhances the signal strength and almost doubles the range for users. It is integrated with Software EZ switch that quickly and conveniently switches between repeater, access point, and router modes, hence, offering 3 in 1 functionality. By using the ASUSWRT user interface, it is very easy to switch modes from the browser without experiencing any hassles or delays.

Buyer’s Experiences

Most of the buyers found its setup a breeze. They only had to power and connect the router and start using a Wi-Fi enable device. The other thing that buyers liked is that despite being in a budget it offered them an exceptional performance. It was very easy to configure and highly durable.

Ideal For

The router is a perfect pick for the users who want a reliable performer to meet their everyday Wi-Fi needs like downloading, checking emails, making conference calls, and more. It serves most of the activities with ease, but is not a great pick for gamers or ones who practice hefty HD streaming on a regular basis.

3. Securifi Almond – Touchscreen Router

This 1^st generation device is highly intuitive and comes with a convenient user setup allowing easy maintenance and usability. It is a multi-purpose device that can be used as a repeater, access point, or range extender. So, even if you already have a router but are not happy with its range you can use this as an extender.

Why is it Unique

It is a feature-packed router offering speed up to 300Mbps. It takes security highly and is fully secured with a SSID and password. Being compatible with Alexa, it lets you have control over smart devices at your home with voice commands. Also, you can manage the Wi-Fi device with features such as voice activated Guest Networks and parental controls.

No matter where you are, it gives network notifications on your mobile to let you know who is using your Wi-Fi. If, in case, you want to block unwanted devices off your network, you can reset the password in just a few seconds using the Almond app and it will instantly block them.

Buyer’s Experiences

It seems a perfect fit to most of the buyers who have kids at home. The parental control feature allowed them to easily keep a check on surfing habits of their children. The users were able to manage and schedule the time they spent on the internet. It is supported with an Almond app, which makes it very easy for the users to use this router.

Ideal For

This router is ideal for the users who want a highly sophisticated, technologically advanced, and great performing device for their home. Even those who already have a router can consider buying it as it works as an exceptional range extender. The router is backed with great customer service, which made the overall experience wonderful for the users.

4. ASUS Dual Band AC1300 – Exceptional Coverage

The intuitive and easy setup along with complete network management makes it very easy to manage the network. The router comes with a dual band based on the advanced 2 x 2 MU-MIMO technology offering a combined speed of up to 1267 Mbps.

Why is it Unique

With 4 external 5dBi antennas, this router offers enhanced Wi-Fi coverage. Its multi-device performance allows connecting numerous devices at once and still delivering the best performance.

The router is supported with an ASUS router app that lets you manage and monitor the network conveniently from the mobile. It comes with WPS and WPA encryption offering complete protection to your network from unauthorized access or use. With a web based interface, using this router is very easy.

Buyer’s Experiences

In addition to convenient setup and access to excellent functionality, the router allowed the users to avail of superfast speed. It comes with various Gigabit ports that make it easy for the users to connect various devices. It delivered consistently smooth performance making it a great addition to their homes.

Ideal For

It is a wonderful router proven to deliver great performance. The router comes with convenient setup and easy to use interface and serves the needs of small to large families.

5. NETGEAR R6080 Dual Band – Fast Streaming

The router intelligently chooses between duals bands to reduce interference and enhance speed for all smart wireless devices in your home. Using this router ensures you have absolute safety as the network is protected with WPA2/WPA encryption.

Why is it Unique

Using this router lets you create a separate network for your home and guests. This way, you can always protect your private information from getting shared. It is supported with the Nighthawk app that conveniently manages web filtering, website access and pause internet for family members and individual devices.

With its 4 Ethernet ports, you can gain quick internet connections for all your devices like game console, computer, and more. The Nighthawk app lets you set up the router easily. You just have to connect the Ethernet cable to this device and it will make the set up process much simpler.

Buyer’s Experiences

The buyers find it as a great router that offers them excellent network range. It gives great combined speed and is very easy to configure and setup. Using the web interface, you could use it to configure a 2.4 GHz radio.

Ideal for

This router is an ideal pick for those who want seamless network connection in their medium or large homes. The router comes with dual band streaming and powerful antennas making it ideal for activities like HD streaming, gaming, and others.

6. TP – Link AC1200 Dual Band MU-MIMO – Best Gaming Router

With its internal antenna and 4 external antennas, you can gain extended network coverage across your house. It holds a robust chipset work transmitting strong Wi-Fi signals to your home. No matter where you are in your home, you will always enjoy excellent connectivity.

Why is it Unique

The router comes with advanced encryption technology offering you complete safety from malware and hackers with fast browsing. It is a MU-MIMO enabled device that serves numerous devices at once. When using this router, you will never experience bandwidth lag or congestion and will gain a more efficient network throughout the home.

The router ensures you always have a safe browsing time for your kids. It comes with parental controls that block unwanted items on the network and prevent devices from internet access. Also, you can conveniently create a separate network for the guests without compromising on safety.

Buyer’s Experiences

The router allows convenient switching between various modes to share the wired network with other Wi-Fi enabled devices. It eliminated all dead zones and offered them stable and consistent connectivity across the house. The Gigabit wired connections allowed them to easily connect their smart TVs, gaming consoles, and reliable speed connections.

Ideal For

It is a versatile router packed with numerous features. It comes with convenient setup and is an ideal choice for those who want a rich entertainment experience from their network.

7. NETGEAR R6120 Dual Band – Smart Parental Control

You can easily select between dual bands to reduce interference and enhance speed for your smart wireless devices. The router offers secured connectivity ensuring your network is safeguarded with high level WPA 2/WPA wireless security.

Why is it Unique

The router comes with parental controls and allows to effortlessly manage the web filtering, website access, and pauses wireless for varied devices. With its Nighthawk App support, it is convenient to establish the set up in just a few minutes.

The router comes with 4 Ethernet ports offering fast internet connectivity to various devices like game consoles, computers, and more. There is also a single USB port, which can be used to connect printers or storage devices across the network.

Buyer’s Experiences

The buyers find it as an excellent router that is supported with an app and offers them great coverage throughout the house. It delivered excellent speed but failed to deliver smooth connection between floors.

Ideal For

This router is perfect for those who want a robust router with strong build and delivering great performance. Using this router is very easy and it allows great connectivity for multiple devices. It is perfect for medium to large homes.

8. TP – Link N450 – Best Customization

This router lets you set limits on how and when devices connect to the internet ensuring you get the desired usability. It comes with parental controls that let you set a defined internet limit for your children. Using this router lets you offer every device the bandwidth it requires. Also, you can set limits and regulate traffic with IP-Based QoS, which makes it a customized solution for your home.

Why is it Unique

Delivering a wireless speed of up to 450 Mbps, it is an excellent router to perform bandwidth related tasks such as VoIP, HD video streaming, online gaming, and others. The router is based on 802.11n technology and delivers 15 times faster speed than the 802 router.

The three external antennas offer maximum stability and coverage to cater to multiple devices in your home. With its IP based bandwidth control, you can determine the volume of bandwidth to allot to each device.

Buyer’s Experiences

The smart parent control feature allowed buyers to keep a track of internet usage by their kids. Along with fast internet performance, it allowed buyers to conveniently share files, videos, music, and images over the network. The router also has four Ethernet ports, which enabled buyers to easily connect their various external devices.

Ideal For

You can go for this router if you are looking for a great performing device with advanced security and great built. It comes from a trusted brand and is backed with reliable technical support, which makes it easy to set up and use. Since, it offers complete control over network usage, so it is an ideal choice for those who want to take care of all their essentials as per their choice.

9. Medialink AC1200 – Best Compatibility

Setting up this router is very convenient and even if you are not tech-savvy, you can easily set it up. The router comes with easy to follow instructions in simple language. In addition to high-end security, it comes with sound technical support that ensures you always stay at ease while using this device.

Why is it Unique

The best thing about this router is its excellent compatibility with all internet service providers and modems such as Time Warner, Verizon Fios, Comcast Xfinity, others. You can connect almost 20 devices at once without experiencing any lags or troubles. It is equipped with fast Ethernet ports that deliver speed up to 1000 Mbps making it an ideal choice for streaming and gaming.

This router also works as a range extender to extend the coverage of your existing Wi-Fi. With its beamforming technology, you can gain larger coverage for your home by focusing the Wi-Fi signal directly to your devices.

Buyer’s Experiences

The buyers find it very easy to set up and use this router. It comes with a VPN too, which makes it a great router for most of the users. It offered users an extended range coverage and complete network security.

Ideal For

This router is a budget-friendly solution for those who are looking for a reliable product that is packed with advanced features. It is very convenient to install and offers excellent range. Hence, you can go for it even if you have a big family. It is very easy to use this router, which makes it a great pick for non-tech individuals.

10. Tenda AC18 Wireless – AC1900

It offers a robust Wi-Fi signal connectivity in the entire house by using Beamforming technology. Not only its performance but even its design is very impressive. You can play games, download files, and listen to music without experiencing buffering or lag. The MU-MIMO technology enhances network efficiency and offers fast connectivity to multiple Wi-Fi enabled devices at once.

Why is it Unique

It offers a dual band Wi-Fi speed to let you gain better experience always. The device comes with a powerful processor allowing you easy access to all home network devices. It comes with 4 Gigabit LAN ports and 1 Gigabit WAN port that enhance speed up to 10 times faster than Ethernet connections.

The router offers a fast and robust wired network connection. It is supported with a Tenda App that allows upgrading online and conveniently managing the network. With the app, you can also manage devices remotely and gain real-time understanding of network usage. As a result, you can avail of easy and simple life.

Buyer’s Experiences

Most of the users find the Tenda router a great solution for their multiple devices. It offered them a convenient setup and let them perform downloads and streaming easily. The buyers were impressed with its features that are available to them at good price.

Ideal For

It is a decent router with limited features but offers great functionality and performance. The router comes in a pleasing design. It is an ideal pick for those who want a fast performing router with attractive design and at an affordable price.

Routers are either wired or wireless. A wireless router is equipment designed to offer fast internet access to your computer, smartphone, tablet, or other devices. You can plug it into a phone line and a power source for transmitting wireless signals as radio waves on a particular frequency band. The wireless device then transmits radio waves back to the router to establish a robust wireless router for seamless internet connectivity.

Routers have been around for a while, and hence, they are available in different technologies. Earlier 802.11n routers were considered the best, but with the introduction of 802.11ac routers, the demands for the previous ones are decreasing. But you can always go for routers based on 802.11n standards as they are more affordable than the routers based on 802.11ac and also offer decent performance.

So, here is a brief explanation of the two to let you have a clear understanding.

1. 802.11n Routers – These routers were introduced in 2007 and have been delivering decent speed at low cost. They offer a speed up to 450Mbps and come with external antennas meant to deliver extended network coverage throughout an area.

2. 802.11ac Routers – These are the latest routers in the market based on advanced technology. They offer a higher speed than 802.11n routers and can support 8 antennas, which means higher efficiency and enhanced capability. These routers can determine Wi-Fi enabled devices using Beamforming technology, and hence, deliver focused Wi-Fi signals to that device leading to better signal connectivity.

Beamforming is one of the newest technologies in a router. While a basic wireless router transmits signal in multiple directions, a beamforming router scans the approachable area for active devices and delivers strong and stable signal range on those devices. Hence, users can avail of a better bandwidth even when they are at a distance.

If there are various obstacles in your house, like walls that limit your Wi-Fi range, it is worth buying a router with beamforming technology.

The full form of VPN is Virtual Private Network. The Internet contains numerous small networks, a few of them are public and others are private. The home network is a private network and a router with VPN feature lets you extend the private network of your home to remote locations using secure encrypted functionalities. Also, VPN allows users to connect to the internet in a secured manner and using a remote IP address.

MU-MIMO is a technology having full form as Multiple User Multiple Input Multiple Output. It works with the beamforming technology and intends to offer enhanced network connectivity when multiple devices are connected to a single router at once. For this, a router is designed with numerous external and internal antennas. Routers with MU-MIMO technology are proven to deliver better signal range and coverage.

There are numerous routers available in the market, which can make it slightly difficult for you to pick the best one. Though the ultimate decision is yours, there are a few factors that you must look into a router to determine whether it would be a great pick or not.

1.   Range

You want a router to get extended network coverage in your home. Hence, pick a router that offers maximum network range. If your home is too big, you need to install more than one router.

2.   Advanced Features

Beamforming and Mu-MIMO are some of the advanced features that a modern router must have. A router with such features delivers improved performance and allows connecting multiple devices easily without resulting in lags or signal issues.

3.   Speed

To make sure you are able to connect multiple devices with ease it is necessary to pick a router delivering fast speed.

4.   Dual Band or Single Band

Single band routers are ideal for individuals requiring minimum connections of up to five devices. But if your network requirement is more and you want to connect multiple devices, a dual band router is the best one to go with. A dual band router comes with 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency offering combined higher speed.

5.   Standards

Most modern devices today work on 802.11ac standard. Routers with 802.11n standards also deliver rich performance, but it is best to pick the advanced version to gain compatibility and smooth connectivity.

6.   Number of Ports

Routers can have LAN ports, USB ports, Ethernet Ports, and Gigabit ports. If you get a router with all such ports, then there is nothing better than this as it will let you connect all external devices with ease.

7.   Security

Routers with WPA2 security encryption are an ideal choice. Such routers protect your network from malware and unauthorized access ensuring complete safety of your private data network.

8.   Lifespan

It is best to pick a router that is durable and offers longer lifespan. The hardware of your router must be highly qualitative as it saves you from a lot of hassles.

9.   Price

Before picking a router you must consider your requirements as well as budget. A router under $100 will offer you great performance and will serve most of your requirements.

There is no best router as each router has its own pros and cons. Hence, it is best to pick a router that meets the specific needs of your home. It is best to review and compare the features of each router to pick one that offers maximum numbers of functionalities within your budget. You can always consider our buying guide as it will help you make a well-informed decision.

Last update on 2024-04-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API