# GL.iNet travel router

54 Hacker News commenters recommended GL.iNet travel router and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Small travel router that handles hotel captive portals, runs OpenWrt and reaches home services remotely; critics prefer re-flashing stock OpenWrt.

## Why people recommend it

- Handles hotel captive portals easily (6 comments): "makes connecting to strange hotel and other captive portal networks pretty straightforward" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50056447)) "GL.iNet routers don't even need this. It has an option to pass through captive portals." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372642)) "all devices are automatically connected, without captive portal on each one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372216))
- Ships with OpenWrt preinstalled (5 comments): "they are not prohibitively expensive and have a version of openwrt installed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058978)) "I find it satisfying that these routers run OpenWRT out of the box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47403030)) "So I buy GL.iNet routers, which come with OpenWrt pre-installed." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50050303))
- Remote access to home services (5 comments): "It's incredibly useful, with the added bonus that you don't need to install tailscale client in any of your travel devices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372162)) "with something like a GL.iNet travel router + Tailscale, you can watch Jellyfin from anywhere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48988905)) "Good use of space in my opinion, since I can access all the services I host" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46378568))
- Reliable and good value (4 comments): "It's easily paid for itself by avoiding ludicrous per-device daily charges." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46371532)) "been using a gl.inet axt1800 for travel and it's been amazing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46379842)) "I never travel without my GL-AXT1800. Saved me so many times" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46371338))

## What people warn about

- Vendor firmware; stock OpenWrt preferred (4 comments): "cURL was broken in this application with some inscrutable error that went away when I used stock openwrt." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50054046)) "I consider it an untrusted device except when I have stock OpenWRT on it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850954)) "Gl.iNet has been OK for the price but re-flash it with vanilla OpenWRT" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50103915))
- No SIM slot or some wired uses (2 comments): "Still a great travel router, but had to buy a BerylAX for what I wanted to do with the usb gps." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411349)) "Cute but without sim capabilities. The router is decent but not for hard wired things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411233))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [MikroTik router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mikrotik-router.md): 59 recommend
- [Ubiquiti UniFi Travel Router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unifi-travel-router.md): 35 recommend
- [OpenWrt One](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openwrt-one.md): 34 recommend
- [Ubiquiti UniFi 5G](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unifi-5g.md): 17 recommend
- [AVM Fritz!Box](https://hackerapproved.com/p/avm-fritz-box.md): 15 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=GL.iNet+travel+router&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.gl-inet.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "GL.iNet travel router", https://hackerapproved.com/p/gl-inet-travel-router/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).