Banana Pi - BPI-R3

I've been pretty happy with my Banana Pi R3. Maybe take a look at that and the newer bpi 4 options.

BPI-R3 ends up costing more with a case, heatsink and antennas. You also have to buy 2.5GbE transceivers which adds to the cost if you want 2.5GbE WAN/LAN. Also, highly unlikely some dev board will have better range, shielding and RF front end modules compared to a proper consumer router. BPI-R4's Wi-Fi is particularly bad due to interference and integrated low power FEM.

Flint 2. Don't need to use the Wi-Fi if it's not needed. BPI-R3 an BPI-R4 are fine too if you don't intend on using them for Wi-Fi. The negative stuff is when it is used for Wi-Fi (since proper routers have higher power and better antennas). The SFP ports have some quirks (if you get the SFP version) but that is about it. x86 is overkill and wasteful for your usage. Some of the used x86 stuff might be cheaper than a Flint 2 (specifically in the US due to the abundance of used electronics) but will rack up more in power bills and dump more heat - not great if you pay 30c per kWh like in California which would be ~$35/yr extra for every 10W more than an ARM based consumer router.

Really good router, but would prefer a banana pi r3 instead. Same cpu if I remember correctly, double the RAM, 5 1G ports, 2 SFP plus a pcie m2 slot. All at the same time price point.

At least in Europe it doesn’t cost more with a case, not even close, it’s like 60% cheaper than the GL-MT6000. I can get the SFPs and still come under the price. “Dev board”? So, the GL isn’t a dev board just because it has a plastic case and it isn’t sold barebones? What are your sources for the R4 complaints? Really I want to see data or feedback on that.

I've tested a R3 vs a Netgear R7000 and a R7800 and the R3 is the clear winner when it comes to wifi range. Can't speak about the R4. The thing that I really dislike about the Flint line, even the Flint 3, is that they're doing 1GB of RAM. For the CPU that the router has I was expecting at least 2GB.