# MikroTik RouterOS

17 Hacker News commenters recommended MikroTik RouterOS and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a flexible, feature-rich network operating system whose configuration can be exported as readable text. The most common caveat is a hard-to-learn interface that makes mistakes easy.

## Why people recommend it

- Config exports to readable text (3 comments): "MT publishes markdown reference docs for LLM ingestion, the full config without secrets can be dumped to one text file" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48928794)) "On RouterOS you can just /export the configuration and read a single file." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48972521)) "the routeros supports exporting all settings directly as text file" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974575))
- Very flexible, feature-rich networking (4 comments): "They run RouterOS, which is a custom userland for Linux that is intensely flexible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46168726)) "It's a very advanced device offering countless networking features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48972690)) "Mikrotik can do preety much everything network related" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46085999))
- Training and certification available (2 comments): "Mikrotik offers training and certification for people who cant work it out." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942355)) "the support situation is better for Mikrotik's RouterOS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412539))

## What people warn about

- Hard, error-prone interface to learn (3 comments): "That feels like DOS with short character limits etc. It's attrocious." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48983044)) "I tried Mikrotik and the UI was wasting so much of my time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974257)) "they make it very easy to make a mistake" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48945641))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [OpenWrt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openwrt.md): 170 recommend
- [OPNsense](https://hackerapproved.com/p/opnsense.md): 71 recommend
- [pfSense](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pfsense.md): 26 recommend
- [DD-WRT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dd-wrt.md): 17 recommend
- [VyOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vyos.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://mikrotik.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "MikroTik RouterOS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mikrotik-routeros/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).