# OpenWrt One

34 Hacker News commenters recommended OpenWrt One and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 0.25 years (3 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as fully supported open hardware that runs OpenWrt well out of the box. Main caveat: dual-band only, with no 6GHz and few ports.

## Why people recommend it

- Runs OpenWrt well out of the box (4 comments): "I'm seeing what appears to be A-OK roaming with my Linux laptop and Pixel 5a." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48317431)) "having openwrt with all features working and no tinkering out of the box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809741)) "required only a little bit of fussing with the configs I copied over" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48317722))
- Fully supported open-source hardware (3 comments): "It is the best device to run OpenWrt on as it is fully supported hardware that has great images/packages for it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809302)) "I would rather buy an open-hardware device at ~10x the price of an equivalent proprietary device" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809180)) "The value of open-source hardware is not limited to repairability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809820))
- Stable, handles heavy throughput (3 comments): "found it to be just as stable, but with better range/signal strength" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808751)) "In my stress tests, I've not seen any issues with overheating." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828556)) "it handles my 1.2gbps without any drama" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48810173))
- Cheap for an open router (3 comments): "There are no cheap commodity routers that can run OpenWrt, have modern Wi-Fi features, and are reasonably available" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809157)) "You've been able to buy the OpenWrt One from China and ship it anywhere in the world for a reasonable price" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48810469)) "buying an OpenWrt One for a time $100 investment give or take." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46560096))

## What people warn about

- Few ports, one 2.5GbE LAN (5 comments): "that's where the "One" was a bit limited and an extra switch would have been required in the setup" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48433026)) "OpenWRT One adds strange connectors but for some reason removes R2/3/4's cellular-focused PCIe-but-actually-USB slot, M.2 slot, and leaves just one LAN port." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48879168)) "No 6GHz, and only two Ethernet ports, one of which is only 1Gbit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50050372))
- Better alternatives exist at this price (3 comments): "While the openwrt one was a decent experiment, it was far from the only hardware in the price range" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809621)) "There is far better hardware you can get that runs OpenWRT." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808839)) "I dont see what the One offers me at all tbh." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48812224))
- No 6GHz or tri-band Wi-Fi (3 comments): "lack of 802.11be tri band is a non starter in mid 2026 for this price" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48815652)) "No 6GHz, and only two Ethernet ports, one of which is only 1Gbit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50050372)) "Just two Ethernet ports (1+2.5GbE), and it’s dual-band (no 6GHz)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808762))
- Only 1GB RAM, no storage (2 comments): "No storage or ram though, but it was cheap at the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48810691)) "That’s a solid price. Wish it had more than 1gb ram" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808786))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [MikroTik router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mikrotik-router.md): 59 recommend
- [GL.iNet travel router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gl-inet-travel-router.md): 54 recommend
- [Ubiquiti UniFi Travel Router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unifi-travel-router.md): 35 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=OpenWrt+One+router&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://openwrt.org/toh/openwrt/one)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "OpenWrt One", https://hackerapproved.com/p/openwrt-one/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).