MikroTik RouterOS
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 4 of 8 router firmware by recommenders
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.
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.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Config exports to readable text
“MT publishes markdown reference docs for LLM ingestion, the full config without secrets can be dumped to one text file”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “LLM Networking with MikroTik” “On RouterOS you can just /export the configuration and read a single file.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router” “the routeros supports exporting all settings directly as text file”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router” Very flexible, feature-rich networking
“They run RouterOS, which is a custom userland for Linux that is intensely flexible.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “UniFi 5G” “It's a very advanced device offering countless networking features”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router” “Mikrotik can do preety much everything network related”
Comment from 29 Nov 2025 in “Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network” - Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “IPv6 just turned 30 and still hasn't taken over the world”
Training and certification available
“Mikrotik offers training and certification for people who cant work it out.”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “LLM Networking with MikroTik” “the support situation is better for Mikrotik's RouterOS”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Slate AX: Wi-Fi 6 Gigabit travel router”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard, error-prone interface to learn
“That feels like DOS with short character limits etc. It's attrocious.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router” “I tried Mikrotik and the UI was wasting so much of my time”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router” “they make it very easy to make a mistake”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “LLM Networking with MikroTik”
Other router firmware people recommend
The four most recommended other router firmware, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 8 router firmware, rankedWhat people said
25 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Mikrotik's "fastpath" stateful connection tracking feature is also fast in my experience”
“I also heard a horror story about RouterOS coming with an insecure configuration by default, lots of open ports and services running”
“RouterOS seems good alternate for me”
“you'll find routeros comfortable if different”
“Rolling release has zero issues for me and is completely free.”
“That feels like DOS with short character limits etc. It's attrocious.”
“You can enable safe mode, mess around, and with a reboot you are back to known-good state.”
“the routeros supports exporting all settings directly as text file”
“I tried Mikrotik and the UI was wasting so much of my time”
“He sadly did very much believe in Mikrotik scripting, and so had scripts setup to disable/enable static routes based on very broad (often external) reachability criteria.”
“It's a very advanced device offering countless networking features”
“On RouterOS you can just /export the configuration and read a single file.”
“It should be doable by most software engineers.”
“they make it very easy to make a mistake”
“Mikrotik offers training and certification for people who cant work it out.”
“The mikrotik gui is an abstraction of the CLI. Its really good that way”
“Diffs are a pain as the order of the export changes in a version by version basis”
“MT publishes markdown reference docs for LLM ingestion, the full config without secrets can be dumped to one text file”
“Used RouterOS at home since and have been replacing aged out Cisco switches”
“I found its use of color to be helpful both when attempting to learn the basic syntax of the shell”
“RouterOS supports none of the features required for a service provider.”
“my RouterOS gear happily doing the EVPN-VXLAN dance”
“the support situation is better for Mikrotik's RouterOS”
“They run RouterOS, which is a custom userland for Linux that is intensely flexible.”
“Mikrotik can do preety much everything network related”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.