
Running these analyses costs money. Buy through my links to help keep lights on! I may get a small commission.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Reddit Reviews
You do not need the RS300 for what you will be using it for. The Netgear Nighthawk RS200 will serve your purposes just fine since you only have a 1 gig fiber and a few devices. Look at the TP Link Archer AX73 router instead, its performance and price point will suit you well. Your current wired configuration takes care of your gaming requirements.
I have a nighthawk rs pending order on Amazon waiting to be shipped it has 2.5gbps wan and 2.5gbps lands and wifi 7 claims up to 9gigps over wifi course I won't get that cause only on gig plan but future proof lol
The night hawk RS180 I ordered finally shipped says delivery tomorrow it's wifi 7 with 6ghz up to 5.5gbps wifi and has 2.5gbps wan and 2.5gbps lan so I should get full 1gig
Recently setup a Netgear RS200 and am very happy. Replaced an old Apple router. Just 2 of us in a small house, not gamers. Set up was easy using the app. Had small issue with updating device passwords which customer service talked me through no the phone.
Between those two, the ASUS RT-BE92U is better: It has a 10GB WAN port (Netgear only 2.5GB WAN port). ASUS, all 4 LAN ports are 2.5GB (Netgear only has a single 2.5GB LAN, with other 3 being 1GB ports). And the most crucial difference: The RT-BE92U is a tri-band WiFi 7 router with 2.4, 5 and 6ghz bands. The Netgear claims to be WiFi 7 but is only dual band.. 2.4 and 5ghz. It has no 6ghz band! Ripoff! ASUS also comes with free security software (AiProtection Pro). Netgear has a 30 day free “Netgear ARMOR” security plan, then you need to pay $ forever for the security plan. So ASUS wins on this metric too. And ASUS firmware is more complex, gives you more configurability. You can use the web UI to configure things the precise way you like it. Netgear seems to be moving to using a phone app for configuration, which means you won’t have as much control over the config. I don’t know 100% if the Netgear RS180 has a web UI or if you must use a phone app, but I’m confident the ASUS will have a better feature set for configuation than the Netgear. Unfortunately where they are both tied is customer service. Both will not win any awards in that department. Buy the router you like, try it and if it is terrible I wouldn’t even bother calling tech support.. just return it and try something else. Good luck!
Just did this - 7 people, 3 floors. Went through a few mesh systems (tplink be4800, be5000, XE75). Hated the way mesh worked, walked to another room device would hang on the further node and online games were choppier (higher ping and latency) than a single nighthawk (even had wired backhaul from main to second of the 3 nodes). Then went through multiple Netgear Nighthawks (rs200, rs300, rs500, axe3000). Ordered a refurbed RS700S for $349, its a beast but better coverage, better speeds, lower pings, less latency than any of the Mesh systems. Dead spots where we got 5-10mb/sec now getting 550mb. Using the nighthawk app I could see with the RS500 60% signal level in some of the dead spot areas, now getting 90+%. I've got a 1GB connection from Spectrum and they overprovision so wirelessly with iphone 17 getting over 1gb a floor above or under the router and up to a room away still. Wired to PCs getting 1.1-1.2 gb too. I tested speeds in every room of my house with each system to record speeds. I found a single, more powerful router to be a much better and consistent solution for 3 floors and 7 people.
Netgear nighthawk. Spend what you can afford for the coverage you need.
Not everyone wants to shell out $500 for a wifi-7 nighthawk though. Seems redundant when the one provided for free runs the same frequencies and allows full wifi control with 250 simultaneous devices compared to nighthawks 50 devices.
ASUS, got better UI on the app as well. I used to have Netgear
Almost went with this but the WIFI 7 Netgear Nighthawk was less than half the price so I went with that. 1 2.5gig port for desktop, one for laptop. It's awesome
Rankings by Use Case
Top recommendations from others in the same boat







