Tomato firmware
Ranked 7 of 8 router firmware by recommenders
Free router firmware that people recommend for WireGuard use and as preferred over DD-WRT. Some are wary of its track record.
Free router firmware that people recommend for WireGuard use and as preferred over DD-WRT. Some are wary of its track record.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 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
Works well with WireGuard
“I found good success with OpenWRT/Tomato and WireGuard.”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” Preferred over DD-WRT
“DDWRT and Tomato are much better”
Comment from 15 May 2026 in “RISC-V Router” Seen as a good option
“Yes, those are good options”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Doubts about its track record
“I would not trust OpenWRT or Tomato or whatever with that track record.”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Man discovers his parents' coffee machine used 1TB of data in 10 days” Only hedged praise
“maaaaaaybe one of the nicer Tomato forks”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Do you want a router that has DD-WRT pre-installed?”
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
5 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Yes, those are good options”
“maaaaaaybe one of the nicer Tomato forks”
“I would not trust OpenWRT or Tomato or whatever with that track record.”
“DDWRT and Tomato are much better”
“I found good success with OpenWRT/Tomato and WireGuard.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.