# OpenWrt 170 Hacker News commenters recommended OpenWrt and 34 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 7 years (9 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Open-source router firmware that is highly flexible and seen as more secure than vendor firmware, though upgrades and finding exactly supported hardware revisions can be a headache. ## Why people recommend it - Extremely flexible and customizable (8 comments): "You can actually ditch the GUI and go to the command line with OpenWrt and do custom/weird/power-user stuff to your heart's content." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974432)) "OpenWRT is amazing. Other than the usual security stuff one of the most overlooked use cases was scheduling other devices." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828720)) "it presents a very usable GUI straight away these days and it has a ton of flexibility for getting creative later" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50049828)) - Safer than stock vendor firmware (4 comments): "put OpenWRT on it and bam! High performance, high quality router built from trustworthy parts running open source operating system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501094)) "Linux and OpenWrt have an incredibly good security record compared to what ships on typical consumer devices." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48962628)) "the firmware is going to be (relatively) top-notch and free of major bugs and major security exploits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882078)) - Key criterion when buying routers (4 comments): "use their hardware list to pick a consumer router with the feature set you need that can be flashed to use openWrt" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48827656)) "If it's a "router" and you can't install a OpenWRT on it, then it's an absolute no-brainer to not to buy it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48430322)) "shop for devices that support OpenWRT or DD-WRT to help future proof your firmware experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45895111)) - Great for travel routers with Tailscale (3 comments): "I stick with things like Latvian-built Mikrotik hardware or something running OpenWRT for my own travel router uses." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372705)) "I travel with a OpenWRT router runnning a Tailscale pipe to my basement. Get to travel with US media access." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48370913)) "suggested enlisting an IT person to stick a cheap OpenWRT router with Tailscale in front to protect it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50065752)) ## What people warn about - Upgrades are painful and risky (5 comments): "OpenWRT updates are very much discouraged on an ongoing basis primarily because most devices running it use very cheap flash chips" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47915674)) "I agree on the upgrade story, though supposedly the recent move to apk will help in that regard." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809128)) "This is a real pain point with OpenWRT, made worse by the developers' concept that there are "proper" ways to do it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072453)) - Must match exact hardware revision (3 comments): "Whereas OpenWrt I have to look at their list of supported machines, and buy exactly that one, even down to the hardware rev." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47503463)) "I got fed up of finding the correct hardware revision of a particular router that supports OpenWRT" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104167)) "OpenWRT has been in deep woes, has been having incredibly hard time supporting routers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48500695)) - Overwhelming settings, steep learning curve (3 comments): "optimizing coverage by adjusting signal strength and channels is left for experienced users to deal with manually" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47320797)) "There are too many settings. Feels like Gimp (vs paintbrush). But once figured out, it works well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48813090)) "OpenWRT has the default of WiFi off for security, which means that if the config is somehow hosed and you have to hard reset the router, you now have an inaccessible brick" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45945790)) ## Alternatives hackers 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 - [MikroTik RouterOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mikrotik-routeros.md): 17 recommend - [VyOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vyos.md): 13 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "OpenWrt", https://hackerapproved.com/p/openwrt/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).