Wireless networking, aka wifi, revolutionised home computing. It’s the tech that enables you to walk from room to room with a phone or laptop, browsing the internet or updating Instagram without trailing a network cable behind you. It’s become so much a part of our lives that we really notice when it’s not present, which is why the best wifi extenders can be so indispensable.
Wifi extenders or boosters help avoid network dead spots in our homes. As wifi depends on a central hub (or router) to work, and the further you go away from the router the weaker the signal is, it’s possible to find areas hidden behind walls or doors into which the wifi signal doesn’t permeate strongly, causing your internet connection to fade away and perhaps drop altogether. This isn’t helped by the fact that newer versions of wifi, particularly 6E and 7, use a higher-frequency band for some of their signals that doesn’t penetrate brickwork as well as waves from lower down the spectrum.
However, the best wifi extenders – little boxes that plug directly into power sockets – act as repeaters, taking the signal from your router and rebroadcasting it. They need to be positioned about halfway between the router and the dead spot you’re trying to eradicate, as they won’t be able to work if they don’t have a strong signal to extend. However, you’ll be limited by the positions of your power sockets, and extenders without pass-through will stop that socket being used for anything else. Get them in the right place and they can extend your wireless network into just the right place for not very much money, and can be a viable alternative to buying and setting up a full mesh router system.
With all this in mind, I put several wifi extenders to the test. My top choice is the TP-Link RE705X (£59.99, Argos.co.uk) but I’ve also found a range of decent options for different needs and budgets. Keep scrolling to find out which models impressed.
How I tested
I tested each of the wifi extenders featured here under real-world conditions in my suburban house. During testing, I considered the following criteria...
- Speeds: No wifi extender is perfect, and the speeds quoted by the manufacturers are often all of its potential networks and streams combined, so to test real-world usage, I connected the extenders to a wifi 6 access point on a 600Mbps fibre-optic internet connection, and tested how much of that speed was achieved when using the extenders up-close in a suburban house.
- Distance: As a tougher challenge, I tested to see if the extenders could make themselves heard at a greater distance and through walls, putting approximately 10m between the extender and the laptop used to measure speeds.
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Ian Evenden is a writer and editor specialising in gaming, computing, science and technology. He has been contributing to IndyBest since 2021, recommending the best Cloud storage platforms, VPN services and more. For this review, he used each wifi extender and scrutinised the performance of each, to bring you his honest options and verdict.
The best wifi extenders for 2025 are:
- Best overall – TP-Link RE705X: £59.99, Argos.co.uk
- Best budget buy – Mercusys ME60X: £28.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for family life – Netgear EAX12: £49.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for speed – Devolo wifi 6 repeater 5400: £89.99, Amazon.co.uk
TP-Link RE705X
Best: Wifi extender overall
Wifi version: 6
Max wifi speed: 2.4Gbps
Ethernet: 1Gbps
Dimensions: 97mm x 46mm x 158mm
Why we love it
- Excellent speed
- Reliable at range
Take note
- Antenna position matters
The antennas of the TP-Link extenders are their most distinctive features, but even the white plastic body of this unit seems to have been made with an eye for design that’s rare in something most people will hide behind a cabinet and rarely look at. It’s a plain rectangle when seen from the front, but heading around the side reveals a stepped construction that’s easy to get hold of when you want to pull it out of a plug socket.
The decision to place the WPS (wifi protected setup) button and Ethernet port on opposite sides of the main body means it’s going to need some space around it if you're going to use those features, say if you’re adding a network printer without its own wifi. The antennas need some height as well, unless you’re going to leave them folded against the sides of the extender’s body (but this has a detrimental effect on reach).
The position of these antennas really does make a difference to how fast it can transfer data. With them flipped up, I saw speeds in the 350Mbps range, with the router, extender and laptop in the same room. With the antennas folded down, speeds dropped to 200Mbps. At a distance, the speeds dropped (as you’d expect) but, with the antennas up, it still managed 200Mbps at a 10m range.
Setup, achieved through TP-Link’s Tether smartphone app, is quick and easy. You connect to the extender, create a password, then tell it the ID and password of the wifi network you want to extend. It then rebroadcasts it, adding ‘ext’ to the end of the network name, so you know when you’re connected to the extender.
The TP-Link RE705X isn’t the cheapest extender, but if you’ve got the kind of internet connection that could max out its capabilities, especially at a distance, it makes for an excellent choice, as long as you have space to put the antennas in their most effective position.
Buy now £59.99, Argos.co.uk
Mercusys ME60X
Best: Budget wifi extender
Wifi version: 6
Max wifi speed: 1.2Gbps
Ethernet: 1Gbps
Dimensions: 84.7mm x 39mm x 112mm
Why we love it
- Good performance for the price
- Easy setup
Take note
- No smartphone app
- Not great at a distance
There's no WPS and no smartphone app for setting up the ME60X, but it’s still not particularly difficult to get it working. Plug it in, connect to its wifi network, and input a URL to enter its web interface. Set a password, and you’re in. The ME60X can act as a classic extender, which rebroadcasts an existing SSID (service set identifier), or as an access point with its own name and password, and this is useful for knowing exactly what you’re connected to.
The whole setup process isn’t as slick as that of the TP-Link RE705X (see above), as it needs to restart when given a new host network to connect to as well as when switching from extender to access point mode. Also, the web interface text is very small when scaled to a phone screen, which makes things a bit fiddly. However, this is the sort of thing you’ll only have to do once or twice.
Once set up and connected to my wifi 6 network, I saw about 200Mbps coming from the extender when close up. However, at the edge of the 10m test area, it was unable to provide a connection, running at less than 10Mbps after I moved it a little closer. As such, while this extender would work well to pipe an internet connection into indoor dead spots, it’s not the best for sending it over longer distances.
The design sees two antennas pivot upwards, which means it isn’t going to fit in the most cramped spaces. The Ethernet port is sensibly placed at the bottom, alongside the reset button, so it can be accessed even when there are other plugs nearby.
Buy now £28.99, Amazon.co.uk
Netgear EAX12
Best: Wifi extender for family life
Wifi version: 6
Max wifi speed: 1.6Gbps
Ethernet: 1Gbps
Dimensions: 149mm x 68.4mm x 52.3mm
Why we love it
- Easy setup
- Decent speeds at close range
Take note
- Drops off quickly with distance
While this is not the lowest priced extender on test, it offers a solid wireless connection and is easy enough to set up. Using the Nighthawk app on your phone or a web interface, or the WPS button if your router supports it, you can quickly set it up to rebroadcast your current network, or assign it its own SSID and password. Although, after plugging it in, you may have to unplug it again to check what the twinkly lights on the front mean, as the key to them is printed on the back.
The EAX12’s 5GHz network managed to send through about 200Mbps of my 600Mbps internet connection when the router, extender and the test laptop were in the same room, but it dropped off with distance. However, getting a useful 30Mbps of that connection at the bottom of the garden, where previously it had been intermittent at best, was a definite improvement. With four simultaneous wifi streams available, this extender could make a good choice to sit at the top of the stairs, piping the internet into bedrooms for use with tablets and phones.
The downside is that the WPS button, reset switch and Ethernet port are on the left-hand side of the unit as you look at it. This means you’ll need to keep this side of the extender clear if you intend to use them, especially the Ethernet port, which will have a cable sticking out of it, all of which means thinking a little harder about where you place it.
Buy now £49.99, Amazon.co.uk
Devolo wifi 6 repeater 5400
Best: Wifi extender for speed
Wifi version: 6
Max wifi speed: 4.8Gbps
Ethernet: 2 x 1Gbps
Dimensions: 115mm x 140mm x 37mm
Why we love it
- Shares fast wifi well
- Two Ethernet ports
Take note
- Expensive
This white box is unusual for a wifi extender, in that it doesn’t plug directly into a socket. Instead, it comes with a small AC adapter. This means it’s easier to position, though you’re still restricted to placing it somewhere near a wall outlet. Two small feet slide out from the base of the unit, to help keep it upright.
Setup is simple, achieved completely through the Home Network smartphone app. You’ll be asked to create a Devolo account, but if you don’t fancy this, there's a ‘guest’ mode that will take you through the setup of your new extender without needing to create a password. You then give it the SSID and password of the network you want to extend, and there's a short countdown before it’s finished setting itself up. By default, the 5400 purely repeats the network, but you can delve into the settings to change the name it broadcasts if you want. There's WPS functionality, too, so you can attach it to your network with just a few button presses, if your router supports it.
Close up to the 5400, I saw speeds of 350Mbps from my laptop. At a 10m distance, speeds dropped to about 100Mbps, which isn’t a bad result. There are no external antennas to adjust for a better signal, but the 5400 is notable for having two gigabit Ethernet ports, instead of just one, so it can handle a printer and perhaps a networked hard drive. There are multiple antennas within the casing, however, which give the 5400 the capability to handle six simultaneous streams, making it a good choice for busy households or even small office environments where many people may be trying to use the internet at once.
The main downside of the 5400 is its price – at twice the cost of other solutions, its undoubtedly strong feature-set will need to align with your needs for you to consider it.
Buy now £130.00, Currys.co.uk
TP-Link RE815XE
Best: Wifi extender for wifi 6E
Wifi version: 6E
Max wifi speed: 2.4Gbps
Ethernet: 1Gbps
Dimensions: 106.6mm x 39.7mm x 348.2mm
Why we love it
- Very fast
- Can use 6GHz band
Take note
- Takes up a lot of space
At the higher end of the price range on test, the RE815XE has four arms that extend to the top and bottom, meaning if your plug sockets are particularly close to the ground you’ll need to reconsider where you place it. Most of body extends upwards from the socket, but the lower arms require about 10cm clearance. If folded up, the arms can also cover the Ethernet port.
TP-Link’s setup procedure is as smooth here as it is for the RE705X (also included in this roundup). The main difference with the RE815XE is that it supports wifi 6E instead of plain old wifi 6, which means it extends its wireless networks into a third, 6GHz channel. You’ll need a device that supports this in order to use it, otherwise you’ll be stuck at 5GHz with everyone else. With new smartphones such as the Google Pixel 10 Pro and Apple iPhone 17 featuring wifi 7 chips on-board, which are backwards compatible with 6E, they’re well-placed to take advantage.
The 6GHz channels can carry more data than the lower frequencies, but their main advantage is that they’re less congested. You’ll need to be using a wifi 6E or 7 router to get the best out of this extender, but even ordinary wifi 6, at its top frequency of 5GHz, managed 300Mbps in the same room, and 180Mbps at a distance of 10m during testing.
While using the 6GHz band can potentially provide greater speeds up close, the higher-frequency waves don’t penetrate barriers as well, and lose power over distance more quickly, making 5GHz a better choice unless you’re right next to the extender. The 2.4GHz band, which all the extenders on test here support, doesn’t carry so much data (usually topping out at about 150Mbps) and is congested through use by smarthome gadgets and older devices, so won’t give you the best experience, though it can reach further through walls and across lawns.
Buy now £119.71, Amazon.co.uk
Devolo wifi 6 repeater 3000
Best: Wifi extender for a step above the basics
Wifi version: 6
Max wifi speed: 2.4Gbps
Ethernet: 1Gbps
Dimensions: 149mm x 71mm x 45mm
Why we love it
- Excellent connection speeds
- Compact build
Take note
- More expensive than others with similar features
This simple and affordable extender has four internal antennas and is set up with the same Home Network app from Devolo as the Repeater 5400 (see above). It’s a product from lower down the hierarchy, however, offering a single Ethernet port and a lower combined top speed. What you get is a simple white box reminiscent of the Netgear extender (also included in this roundup), with Devolo’s neat wifi-symbol-shaped LEDs on the front to convey information about power and connection status.
If you’re not planning on using it to spread your internet connection around a lot of people over a larger area, but instead erase an internet deadspot from your home, then it will do the job admirably if placed about halfway between you and your router. During testing, it provided 300Mbps up close, while heading further away to the limits of the testing area saw the 5GHz connection speed drop to 50Mbps.
You’re able to change the name of the network it’s broadcasting, and while there's an option to set up a guest wifi network that you can share with visitors, when I opened this setting in the app I was greeted with a message that it couldn't be configured. The 3000 offers a step up in terms of speed than other extenders tested, but the cost means it’s only one to go for if every last megabit of speed counts.
Buy now £89.99, Amazon.co.uk
Your questions on wifi extenders answered
What is the best wifi extender?
Buying a wifi extender is a balancing act between being able to extend your internet coverage into areas it couldn’t previously reach, and not spending a fortune to do so. The TP-Link RE705X walks this line admirably, providing a speedy connection while not breaking the bank. As with all wifi extenders, the position of the unit matters – a spot about halfway between your router and the place you’re trying to work is ideal, but you’ll be guided by the position of plug sockets. The TP-Link extenders complicate this slightly, by having antenna arrays that can be swiveled into position to improve signal quality, but once they’re set up there's rarely any reason to move them. If you’re looking to spend less, the Mercusys ME60X offers good performance for the price, but it isn’t the best over long distances.
What is a wifi extender?
A wifi extender is a small device (similar to a wifi router) that acts as a booster for your home’s wifi signal. Put simply, it connects wirelessly to your main wifi source and amplifies the signal to reach corners of your home that your wifi router can’t reach by itself. This is especially useful in large homes with multiple storeys or homes with thick walls made of stone or brick.
The stronger signal gives you faster internet speeds and reduces the dropped connections. Multiple extenders can be linked together to cover even more of your home. Most modern wifi extenders operate on mesh network technology, meaning your phone, laptop, TV and other devices will still recognise your home’s wifi connection as a single access point rather than a collection of individual boosters. Mesh networks also enable you to move from room to room without your device having to disconnect and reconnect to different wifi extenders.
How does a wifi extender work?
Your main wifi router sends and receives data using radio waves, which get exponentially weaker the farther from the wifi router they travel. A wifi booster can be positioned near enough to the wifi hub to pick up the data connection clearly, which it then amplifies and sends out again. By relaying your wifi connection through these boosters, it’s possible to cover your entire home with a fast and reliable internet connection.
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