24
votes
Is OpenWRT worthwhile at home?
I'm buying a WiFi router for a new house. What would we get from using a router that works with OpenWRT, versus just going with Wirecutter's top pick?
Since we upgraded to fiber, I'm pretty happy with the network speeds at our current house. We don't have WiFi 6. I'm fairly unlikely to mess with advanced networking features as long as the networking just works.
The new house will also have fiber. The previous owners left us some kind of mesh networking devices, which I need to go look at tomorrow.
If we did go with OpenWRT, is there any particular recommended hardware?
DD-WRT and its derivatives were awesome back in the day when there was a big gap between consumer and enterprise grade networking gear. They gave us nerds a bunch of "pro" features without needing to invest in expensive rackmount routing, VPN, and firewall appliances.
I think these days, if you're technical enough to install OpenWRT on a consumer router, you're technical enough to just buy prosumer/small business grade networking gear from a company like Ubiquiti or Mikrotik for a similar price. Or alternatively, build your own router/firewall with a computer and pfsense.
The cool kids tell me opnsense is the top choice these days.
Yep, the tl;dr is that pfsense made some moves that led to a lot of people questioning if they would continue supporting the community edition to the same extent they had historically. I switched to OPNsense and haven't looked back.
Looking at OPNsense, I don’t really see any features I’d need at home? (If I needed a VPN I’d use Tailscale.)
I only use it because my home network is an extension of my homelab. I like setting up vlans for different things, including a separate main and guest WiFi network.
Functionally, most people do not need an advanced router. At most, I would recommend people evaluate if they could benefit from access points instead of using an all-in-one modem+router+wifi provided by their ISP. (Especially if your ISP charges any rental fees.)
We will be using Sonic, which is why we need to buy our own router and WiFi. The previous owner used AT&T and the realtor came to take the router back.
I will second the recommendation for going with MikroTik. They are so reasonably priced and are packed with tons of features, are easy to script, etc. Unless one really wants to nerd-out, repurpose some old hardware, or has a very specific use case, I don't think the effort required to deploy OpenWRT makes sense anymore.
I used openwrt for 5-6 years to get better features out of an old tp-link router. Just upgraded to a Mikrotik and it has been great. I second this recommendation on a Mikrotik router.
One thing I like about OpenWRT is that I can mix and match my hardware without running multiple software ecosystems, and support older hardware for longer. I currently run a TP-Link Eap245v1 which TP-Link hasn't updated since 2024. A TP-Link EAP110-outdoor which was only recently updated by TP-Link after years of having none. When I was running their software controller I was stuck on v3 for years to support both of these devices. There are options like OpenWISP RADIUSdesk and others if you want a controller, but I haven't actually bothered with only 2 access points.
If I bought a MikroTik to add to my network I'd be fragmenting my software further. Most home users don't care about that, since they're just buying a new router with WIFI to replace the old one.
I bought a mikrotik router as my networks edge router then turned all my older routers into Access Points that are wired to the mikrotik. Now my user experience is only the mikrotik router and the APs are hands off more or less (they are Openwrt devices btw).
Also a home user wanting to utilize and troubleshoot openwrt is probably not too worried about some fragmentation.
The Ubiquiti stuff seems nice and I have finally committed to replacing my APs with their stuff. I haven’t been able to set it up yet, but have good hopes that it will be miles better than the Apple stuff I have currently.
I used OpenWRT, I’m guessing, between 2005 and 2007. It was a lot of fun soldering a new serial port to a device to be able to access the console. What it got me back then was a cheap, open, embedded Linux server that could also be a NAS. Now, with all the beefy embedded hardware like the Raspberry, I don’t really need OpenWRT anymore. The router can just be a router.
Apple's AirPort products were great consumer networking hardware in their heydey. They were an easy recommendation for people who wanted a quality router or access point, but didn't want to get "hacky". It's a shame Apple discontinued them.
I have Adult Money, so I just went with Ubiquiti stuff.
UDM Pro and a PoE rack switch I found used along with two PoE wifi access points. Completely overpowered, but also rock solid every for years now.
With consumer grade stuff the way I do stuff had a habit of filling up a buffer somewhere resulting in weird issues that went away with a power cycle.
Yes, a previous router we had needed to be rebooted every so often and we never figured out why.
Bittorrent specifically has a habit of filling up the buffers on consumer routers. It makes a ton of connections to different places in a short period of time. And consumer stuff is usually not very good at cleaning up routing tables etc. and they're running on minimal resources.
If you're a hobbyist and like to tinker with networking stuff Unifi is a very good choice, it has a pretty UI and very good integration with mobile applications etc.
I’m apparently in the minority, but I’ve been happily running OpenWRT on a wee SBC router for a few years. Main reason to do so IMO is that I have some peace of mind that the manufacturer won’t brick my hardware because they want to push a new, AI enabled router or something, and don’t want people putzing around on a decade old device. I really hate throwaway products, so I go a smidge militant when it comes to these things.
I was still stuck getting a TP Link AP, though, as I couldn’t find a reasonable open alternative.
Yeah, I agree with this take. I use and am very happy with OpenWRT on my home LAN. It's not so much these days because it's way more powerful than stock firmware on high-end consumer network equipment¹; rather:
It's way less involved than running OPNSense or building something bespoke. And I'm not a Ubiquiti customer, so take this with a grain of salt, but my impression of the gestalt is that Ubiquiti has fallen far the highs of the 2010s as a purveyor of pro-quality equipment to consumer users.
¹ Although I assert that it is in fact more powerful than almost all OEM firmwares. For example, it was very straightforward for me to plug an
old cell phone5G modem into the USB port on my router, share network through it, and configure uplink failover. Can you do that on, like, a stock TP-Link? Maybe, I don't actually know, but I kind of doubt it. But it's obviously possible on OpenWRT, because it's just a Linux box.² I actually have two, lol. One is the router, the other one sits at the far end of the house and is just a "dumb" WAP. Both run OpenWRT. Turns out the cheapest, easiest option for a consumer-grade WAP is just a consumer-grade wifi router configured not to do any routing. =P
I'm in the minority too. I've been running DD-WRT for almost a decade now. Very happy with it. Also like you, I enjoy repurposing older hardware. I like SOHO products but some of the price premiums are a bit much for me. Plus, I like have control over my hardware and the software I run on it.
The community is...well not so great.
I've never been able to use OpenWRT because of their lack of support for routers based on Broadcom SoCs, which is purportedly Broadcom's fault (no open source support). Unfortunately when I last purchased a router none of the OpenWRT supported devices that would have suited my needs were easy to procure around these parts. Looks like the list of supported hardware is currently in this link.
TP-Link consumer routers are fine for lightweight use but can be underpowered for heavy duty use. I have TP-Link routers here that still function just fine (probably) but I have them unplugged because they struggle to handle high bandwidth loads. According to the Virtual Desktop (the VR one) Discord, the Wirecutter top pick is not recommended because it doesn't support the 6ghz band.
I'm currently using Asus routers with asus-merlin .
I wonder what "heavy duty use" consists of for networking nowadays? At one time, video conferencing (or just plain video) was considered pretty heavy duty and now even the cheapest system could probably handle it.
Maybe people are using them for work?
Why should we care about 6 ghz if 2.4 and 5 ghz seem to be working fine?
By heavy duty I meant the router's ability to actually handle the bandwidth it's specced for. If you're happy with your current router, is there a reason to upgrade ahead of time?
Ultimately if your use cases aren't going to change you may just have to wait and see how things work out in your new place since the situation will be different with regard to walls, layout, neighborhood radio noise, etc.
I’m buying a new router because we haven’t moved yet, so the old router will stay where it is.
Edit: I am a dumbass and read that the previous owners used mesh WiFi (i.e. big enough space to need it), but not that they’d left it for you (woo $300 bonus!). Everything below stands but is probably a lot less relevant with that detail!
I think being able to choose the router and WiFi access point(s) separately is a worthwhile path to go down, and proper Ubiquiti APs tend to be a better quality and more cost effective approach than most consumer-oriented mesh WiFi setups if you’re technical enough to be asking about OpenWRT at all. That’s partly a statement on how expensive consumer grade mesh WiFi is - once you’re paying enough in an absolute sense to buy Ubiquiti or Mikrotik at all, their entry level value for money is way better than the high end options from cheaper brands.
On the actual router side, you get vastly more for your money with a cheap N100 box running OPNsense compared to anything marketed as a router in the same price range, but we’re past the days of the consumer hardware being an actual bottleneck unless you’re getting a >1Gbps connection, so you could very reasonably argue that the extra capability is going unused either way unless you’re interested in running Pi-hole or similar on it as well. I find VLAN support and guest networks both nice to have, so I’d be looking for those on a non-OSS router if I were going for one, but I don’t think there’s a particular killer application there for OPNsense or OpenWRT if you don’t already have one in mind.
+1 for Ubiquity if it's within your budget. If you don't particularly care about having open source firmware, UniFi's configuration is super nice and feature reach, and their APs and routers work really well
Here’s a Reddit post by someone who installed Ubiquity gear at home and then uninstalled it again.
I have no professional reason for learning this stuff and I’d like my wife to be able to manage it, so I think I’d better stick to home networking gear, rather than Ubiquity or Microtek.
I just bought 2 APs without realizing I would still need a router of some sort. Then to also find out it needs to be a Ubiquiti one to be able to use all the Unifi features. It seems this should also be possible with an Linux server on the network, instead of using a Cloud Gateway. Have any experience with that?
You can download and run their network server from here for Windows, Mac or Linux for managing the Unifi devices.
https://www.ui.com/download
The Dream Router has that functionality built in along with a bunch of other features.
https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/all-cloud-gateways/products/udr7
With the APs I already have, the house is already covered. Ideally a router would be as bare bones as possible. The Cloud Gateway Ultra instead of the Dream Router would do this, no?
I did exactly this. Already had sufficient coverage with a UAP-LR, so I added a Cloud Gateway Ultra in December of last year. Before that I had been running the network server when needed on a laptop. Still very happy with the UCG and UAP-LR combo.
That’s good to hear! I’m moving house today, so I might just pry open that box full of network toys if I still have some oomph left tonight.
You can install the Unifi Controller on a local computer. Linux and Windows for sure, maybe even Mac. It provides the web interface for managing everything, and also allows for management from the cloud, for free. I did this for a few years when I had an old Unifi Secure Gateway, before I upgraded to a Cloud Gateway Ultra, and then last month, to a UDM Pro.
But you would still need one of their routers, as you mentioned. Has to be in their Unifi line, not in their Edge line.Nope, you don't need a router, just a controller.So Unifi Controller on a local machine to manage the APs, but does that router really need to be from Ubiquiti? I was planning to use the router from the ISP to do DNS, DHCP, etc.
I lied. You're right. I forgot that you don't need a Unifi router. I worked at a place that only had Unifi APs, but was using a non-Unifi router. And the controller was just installed on Windows Sever 2008.
Hehe, you lied 🤥 But that’s good news, thanks for helping me on my way!
I tried AmpliFi stuff from Ubiquity on the strength of the name and it was a terrible experience. Just to be aware that not everything from Ubiquity is good.
My priority isn't to have a home network that I just plug in and never alter. If that is your goal, then I wouldn't use OpenWRT.
I have been using OpenWRT at home for decades. I enjoy using Linux, I am familiar with it, I am cheap, I like to know I have the latest security updates, and I link to tinker. I also get frustrated when a device doesn't work in the way I want it to, but I don't have the access to change it how I want/fix the bugs I run into. I want to customize my SQM/QoS setup. I want to use custom dns adblocking. I want to be sure I have dns over tls working on my LAN. I want to have it run as a local NTP server and sync all of my home devices to that. I want to use it as a Snapcast reciever to stream music to my basement speakers without a separate device. I want to use it as an SMB and NFS service with a USB hard drive. There are other ways I could accomplish each of these tasks, either with my proxmox server, or other hardware. But I want to save my mini PC's resources for other things, and my Raspberry Pi running OpenWRT has enough resources to spare to accomplish each of these tasks.
If I wasn't cheap I would probably go with OPNsense in some sort of rack mounted device. But the networking hardware I have doesn't support it, and I'm not about to buy new hardware when what I have works fine.
Getting security updates might be a good reason to get something running OpenWRT or OPNSense? Or at least going with a company that has a reputation for doing security updates.
We are not planning to get rack-mounted anything. Though, since the networking gear is in a closet under the stairs, it doesn’t matter what it looks like.
It's fun to play with. Full confession, though- my day job is IT, and I fight with Ubiquiti, Mikrotik, and dozens of others throughout the day. They all have their pros and cons.
But at home? F all of it. I use an eero mesh that Just Works™, I have for years, and zero regrets. The defaults are all chosen for the home user in mind, and there is very little config to be done after plugging it in. I love'em.
I'm using openwrt since some years mainly for the vlan support to create a DMZ for my servers as the built in software didn't support that. Other than that there some niceties for the dns lookup and some added stats. But if it wasn't for the servers/DMZ I wouldn't have bothered.
I think this thread has mostly run its course, but my 2¢: figure out what openwrt compatible router + ap(s) are properly sized for your connection (and are easy to flash) and just run them stock until such a time that switching to openwrt either adds a feature or fixes a problem you have with the stock firmware. That way they're working out of the box, and you don't have to do tinker until there's value in it.
Edit: this is assuming what they left you with isn't sufficient
I used to run OpenWRT for years (and DD-WRT before it on the original WRT54G router 20 years ago) on various Linksys/Cisco home routers (always trying to pick hardware that had good OpenWRT support and compatibility), but eventually switched to pfSense on a dedicated Celeron J3455 based fanless mini-PC for routing, and a few used Ruckus R710 WiFi APs from eBay for WiFi around the house. I have to say, the Ruckus APs were a revelation - they work SO MUCH better than the consumer Linksys/Cisco stuff ever did for me - I have almost 2 year uptime on one of them right now - as in it has been running without a single reboot for almost 2 years, and the others have only had to be rebooted due to moving power plugs around, never due to any issues. I paid less than $50 for each of them, and just run them with the standalone AP firmware (not even the Unleashed firmware) and have had absolutely rock solid WiFi all through the house for all kinds of WiFi devices, old and new. With the Linksys/Cisco units running OpenWRT there would always be WiFi issues, that often required reboots to clear, which just isn't the case with Ruckus - I had no idea WiFi can even be this good.
The R710s are only WiFi 5, although that has not been an issue for me, and they can be had for $30-$40 on eBay right now. They are supposed to get security updates until 2027 I believe, although the standalone firmware has not been updated in 2 years (hence my 2 year uptime) but the Unleashed firmware is still getting updates. I would like to upgrade to more modern ones at some point, but the WiFi 6 ones are still $200+ on used market, and the R710s have been so solid that I don't have much reason to mess with my setup right now.
I am generally a big proponent of open source software and open hardware (run Linux on my main desktop even) but whatever proprietary secret hardware and software sauce Ruckus cooked up with their antennas and beamforming, MU-MIMO and what not really does work. It's been a while since I went with my setup, but at the time the consensus was that OpenWRT compatible hardware does not really match up in terms of WiFi performance and reliability - not sure if things have changed much since.
I got so frustrated with Ubiquiti breaking things that I switched to Mikrotik and Ruckus several years ago. Mikrotik has a steep learning curve but is rock solid, and Ruckus just works. I've installed it for my friends and it eliminated their wifi woes entirely. Ruckus Unleashed is incredible for multi-AP setups as well, with truly seamless roaming. I never ran OpenWRT but I did use DD-WRT back when I had an Asus router/AC combo, and Ruckus beats it by a mile.
Update: it turns out I don’t need to buy a router at all. The mesh network consists of two Google WiFi units, ac-1304 I believe. It’s from 2016 and somewhat outdated (no WiFi 5 or 6e), but it should do the job.
There’s an ethernet cable going to one of them that I can connect to the modem, and a spare ethernet port that could be connected to an unmanaged switch for more ports, so that’s what we will get.
Amusingly, it looks like you can install OpenWRT on it, but I don’t think I will unless I see a need.
My OpenWRT setup was just fine back when I had fiber.
These days I need a cron job to bounce the DNS service every day, probably due to all the extra DNS shennanigans with cloud providers. And the secondary is showing signs of hardware wonk.
I'm back on a cycle of trying to consolidate devices again, so my next router will probably be an old desktop with a wifi and a 4-port ethernet card running OPNSense or a Linux server doing the same and a second OpenWRT router or raspberry pi serving as an AP.
All of that to say: If you're not using OpenWRT for ideological reasons, and don't need any network setup more complex than some port forwards, you might as well use what's there or something mentioned in other comments.
I still use an old Airport router at home, mostly because the Time Machine backup is seamless, the AP management is totally offline, and it meets all my needs for advanced features like static DNS/DHCP and port forwarding just fine. But it is ultimately an unsupported device that doesn't get security updates any more, so I've been considering some options:
A lot of people swear by Ubiquiti products but I haven't had a chance to try them out personally. And honestly, despite running my own home server and managing everything myself, I have literally no desire to separate my router and wi-fi access points into distinct devices. Hell, I would probably combine my home server, router, and Wi-Fi into a single device if I found a convenient way to do it!
If running OpenVPN on the router is of interest to you, I'll add that I appreciate the ease of switching between VPN connections/profiles in OpenWRT vs. the approach in DD-WRT.
I’ve been running openWRT on a belkin router for ~3 years. I feel like I actually own the router, versus stock firmware that’s locked down and untrustworthy. I use it for peace of mind and dns filtering.
In the future I would rather purchase a “prosumer” router whose stock firmware is reputable. I like to tinker, but I would rather my router just work than manage updates and debug broken configs.