ASUS - ZenWiFi BT8

Asus ZenWiFi BT8 Ai mesh system will do what you want. I doubt anything is specifically optimised for Homebridge which works on any LAN, wireless or wired.

Add another. I have 3 zenwifi bt8s, plus 2 old ax92u. 

With aimesh, getting them properly placed is key. If at all possible, they should all be connected to your single main router. I have 5 - 3 zen Wi-Fi bt8s and two old rt-ax92. I may add a third ax92, but I'm not sure yet.

I just upgraded my Asus system to zen WiFi bt8 and it's worked flawlessly ever since. Well, except for yesterday morning when the chickens knocked the main router down...

I'm here because I'm trying to figure out if a unifi system is worth it. We've had an Asus aimesh system for years. A couple of the routers are starting to fail, requiring regular restarts. I'm debating getting new Asus routers, vs upgrading to unifi. What I can't figure out is if unifi even offers a mesh system - all the ap, whether "wired" or "wifi" seem to require Ethernet. And there's just no way we're going to run cable here. 

Thanks. This is helpful. Theoretically we could run cable, but it's probably not going to happen. Especially since the aimesh just works. Also, as our internet is fairly slow to begin with (50x10mbps), I just don't think it's worth it. 

Asus is stable now that they’ve updated the firmware - https://dongknows.com/asus-zenwifi-bt8-review/

Have just bought a ZenWifi BT 8. Was also worried about support forum reports regarding dropped connections. But the system is super fast and after 3 days using perfectly stable. Not a single issue. Connections dropping can have a multitude of reasons. We placed the second box in a place where it has good connection to the main router but still serves our previous dead spots well and it works perfectly as promised. Just buy somewhere with a good return window, test it and return if necessary. But our worries were unfounded.

In your situation the answer is definitely yes. Anything is going to be an upgrade over one WiFi router and a EOP adapter with old wiring. I recently upgraded to an ASUS BE14000 WiFi7 mesh for cheap. I also upgraded my ISP to 2.5Gbps and upgraded my switch to 2.5/10Gbps for relatively cheap since I have more and more devices using WiFi7 and 2.5Gbps or faster. I was coming from a dead-end LinkSys Velop system that had served me well but has no upgrade path with a mix of WiFi6/6E nodes. After some initial issues with WAN dropping off, the ASUS mesh has been great. I reset and swapped a new node as primary, wired 2.5Gbps backhaul via unmanaged switch to each of the other 2 nodes. WiFi 7 try speeds in the same room are over gigabit speeds. Whole home WiFi coverage and speeds are better with half the nodes. IoT devices (especially dumber 2.4ghz devices like smart lights and power switches) are handled better with same SSID across all bands. I want to add a more robust primary mode at some point with more 2.5/5/10Gbps ports so I don’t have to rely on the unmanaged switch so much but that can wait. The BE14000 is also limited as it has only 4 total ports and just 1x2.5Gbps WAN port and rest gigabit which is more limiting than I would like especially if you have a lot of wired devices local to the mesh node.

I just purchased the Asus BT8 WiFi 7 mesh router. That thing is fast! You can purchase it as a single router or multiple nodes up to 3.

Both the BT6 and BT8 are good with the BT8 offering double speed on the 5Ghz and 6Ghz band. So either would work for a 1gig plan and just depends on budget. If you can afford BT8 then push for that else settling with BT6 is also good

I’ll pick BT8. My experience over wireless backhaul has been great and I still get my full bandwidth via either wired or 6ghz band from the 2nd node.

I do t know which is the best bit I sure know that Asus AI Mesh is terrible. The backhaul will start great and then about 20 minutes later drop to 50% or less. It's quite common, Google it

That's exactly what I do. I started with an Asus BT10 and then later added 2 BT8's, all hardwired in Mesh mode.

If you want an easy setup, nice user interface and ability to tweak options/configurations down the road, ASUS ZenWiFi is a good option. Another bonus with ASUS is you can use a mobile phone app \*or\* a web interface on a laptop/computer to manage the system. Many other mesh systems from TP-Link, Netgear, Eero only let you manage them with a mobile phone app. That is fine if you have basic needs but if you want to get more control over settings, often not an option. For example TP-Link may not let you select WiFi channels for its wireless networks. With ASUS you have control over a multitude of settings. Or just leave it on the defaults and if you ever wish to dive into the config, it will be ready and waiting for you. I asked Google Gemini for some thoughts too (another poster used Ai so I gave it a try too). I see ASUS ZenWiFi is in the list along with others. Since your needs don't seem very complex any of these should work pretty well. Unfamiliar with Eero, but you stated they are "difficult" to move into AP mode, no idea why but if you know that to be true then I suppose you could remove Eero from your consideration list. Have fun! Click below image to make it larger... https://preview.redd.it/q9mu50skxxrf1.png?width=925&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fb6721ce7d5fb1ded5fee09f45ed12ce365b752

If you want a WiFi 7 mesh system, you'll need to roll the dice and hope you get lucky. WiFi 7 routers/mesh systems are relatively new so I think there are still bugs and firmware is not as battle-tested. Another negative against WiFi 7 is you'll pay a price premium, as it's the newest standard. Sounds like you're not interested in Netgear (Orbi), eero or TP-Link. The only major vendors left I can think of are Linksys and Asus. I'm not very familiar with Linksys so can't make any recommendations, but for Asus I have some ideas. WiFi 7 mesh systems for Asus: You could consider the **BT8**. I see u/OopsAnonymouse already advised of issues with a similar system in the product line (the higher-range BT10) but it still think the **BT8** might be worth a try. You really don't know until you test for yourself. The BT8 is appealing as it has two 2.5GB ports & two 1 GB ports on each router/node, so you will be able to fully utilize your 2GB internet speed and have extra ports to connect to. A 3 pack is $599.99 on Amazon (reduced from $849.99) - Black Friday pricing for the win! I don't recommend any other WiFi 7 mesh system by Asus. The BQ10 Pro is way too expensive, and the BT6 is too underspec'd for your internet speed (has only a 2.5GB WAN and three 1GB LAN ports). If you are OK with the slower LAN ports (anything using those will get max 1GB) then a 3 pack of the BT6 is $328.80 right now on Amazon. For WiFi 6/WiFi 6E - Asus mesh offerings have a max of 2.5GB WAN and 1GB LAN ports, so it will throttle your speeds for connected clients. Probably not something you are interested in. If you have any interest I could provide some recommendations though.

Between those two I would pick the ASUS ZenWiFi BT10, because it includes Ai Protection Pro for free (security features). With the Orbi you'll pay an additional monthly subscription fee for security features that, quite honestly, should be included in the product purchase price. However, I suggest considering the BT8 as well, if you haven't looked at it yet. So you need 3 units in total from what you wrote in your original post. Where are you seeing a 3-pack of the BT10 for $850? Checking Amazon, I see a 3 pack of the BT10 set would be $689 for a 2-pack and a single add-on is $359. $689+$359=$1,048. It's $999-ish at Best Buy for a 3-pack, not much less. I reviewed your requirements (1 gig internet speed; 2300 square foot house; 2 units in basement connected with ethernet (wired) and a 3rd unit upstairs). Is your internet equipment (cable modem, fiber, etc.) installed in the basement? Which mesh unit (in which location) connects to the internet equipment? I'm asking because I'd like to confirm that your internet equipment is in the basement, with 1st mesh unit connected directly to the internet equipment there, and the 2nd mesh unit in the basement connected via ethernet to the 1st mesh unit. I think then the 3rd mesh unit would then be upstairs, wirelessly connected to the rest of the Asus network via AiMesh. Is that correct? Based on all that, I think the BT10 may be excessive. I think the BT8 could serve your needs while saving you some cost. A three-pack of BT8 on Amazon = $799, about $249 less than the BT10. The BT10 is a must-buy if you need 10gig ports (for very fast internet) or you must have the most spatial streams available (it has a bit more capacity than the BT8 but I doubt you would notice any difference). The BT8 also has 1GB of RAM compared to 2GB on the BT10, but in everyday use that shouldn't matter, especially if you have less than 100 devices using WiFi. Hence I think the BT8 would be more than enough for a gigabit internet plan, and could support up to 2.5 gigabit internet speed if you upgrade your internet plan later. Here's the ASUS website link which compares the BT6, BT8 and BT10 so you could check for yourself: [https://www.asus.com/product-compare?ProductID=29666,28635,25167&LevelId=networking-iot-servers-whole-home-mesh-wifi-system](https://www.asus.com/product-compare?ProductID=29666,28635,25167&LevelId=networking-iot-servers-whole-home-mesh-wifi-system) I don't recommend the BT6 as it's the bottom tier and only has a max supported LAN speed of 1gbps. When buying network gear in 2025 I think it's reasonable to aim for a minimum port speed of 2.5gbps for LAN and WAN, to include some support for faster speeds in the future (especially when paying multiple hundreds of dollars for the system). You mentioned Dong Ngo, so you're familiar with his website. He reviewed the BT8 favorably (8.3 out of 10): [https://dongknows.com/asus-zenwifi-bt8-review/](https://dongknows.com/asus-zenwifi-bt8-review/) That compares to a rating of 8.8 out of 10 for the BT10. Dong also noted the BT8 is "terrible" for NAS performance but if you aren't hooking a hard drive or ssd up to the USB port for NAS performance, that's not an issue. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the BT8. Perhaps you already did your research and dismissed it for some reason? If not, I think it's another potential option to consider and would save you some money as well.

I think 3 of the ASUS units should work, especially since they are BT10 (each unit has 8 antennas). BT8 is no slouch either, 7 antennas per unit. According to the product specs 2 units = 6000sq ft coverage. You probably only need 1 per floor if each floor is less than 3000 square feet. But if you put 2 in the basement I think that could give you broader coverage upstairs as the WiFi signal will radiate out, and could help out the 3rd unit upstairs which you are putting in the middle of the level. So the 2 basement-level BT10s could provide a bit more WiFi coverage on the edges of the upstairs level. Dong’s Top 5 WiFi 7 systems round-up ranked the BT10 2nd place and 870 as 5th place. https://dongknows.com/best-five-wi-fi-7-mesh-systems/ So he likes the BT10 a lot. If it doesn’t work out, you could always return it and get the Orbi 870. I know you just want to “get one set and be done” but until you try it, you just don’t know how it will perform. It took me a couple of tries before I landed on my ASUS XT8 mesh system, and it’s been working well for about 4.5 years so far. Good luck and let us know how it works out!

I will be the one to actually answer what he is asking I guess, if you don't know a lot about networking, I would say eero Pro 7 or Max 7, either of those depending on your budget, it's set and forget. The ASUS BT8 system is really good if you like to customize all parts of you network.