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"What router should I even buy?"

Not all routers are created equal. Some are expensive, some are cheap. Some support open firmware, some don't. Some can handle a mesh network, some can barely keep a single room online. Walk into any electronics shop and you'll find a wall of boxes promising "gigabit speeds" and "whole-home coverage" — and almost none of the information you actually need to make a good decision for a community network.

The problem is that the router market is built around a different customer than you. It's built around a household that buys one device, plugs it in, and never thinks about it again. You are buying several devices, you intend to control them completely, and you need them to keep running for years in conditions that a suburban living room never sees. That changes what "good" means.

What actually matters

When you're building a community network on a budget, four things matter far more than marketing speed ratings:

  • It must be supported by OpenWrt. This is non-negotiable. If you can't replace the firmware, you don't really own the device — you're renting it from the manufacturer, with all the limitations and abandonment that implies. Before buying anything, check the OpenWrt Table of Hardware to confirm the exact model and revision is supported.
  • Enough RAM and flash. This is where cheap routers betray you. A device with 8 MB of flash and 64 MB of RAM might run a stock OpenWrt build, but the moment you want a VPN client, a monitoring agent, and a captive portal, you run out of room. Aim for at least 128 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash, more if you can afford it.
  • Affordable, because you'll need several. A community center, a library, and a workshop is already three or four routers. Spending €200 per unit doesn't scale. The sweet spot is reliable hardware in the €30–60 range.
  • Available in your region. A router you can buy locally and replace next week beats a slightly better model that takes a month to ship and gets stuck in customs. Repairability and availability are features.

Watch the revision number

A frustrating trap: manufacturers reuse a model name across completely different hardware. A "v1" and a "v2" of the same router can have different chipsets, and one may be perfectly supported by OpenWrt while the other isn't supported at all. Always match the exact revision printed on the label against the Table of Hardware before you pay.

What we recommend

For most community deployments we lean toward two families of devices:

  • Cudy routers — inexpensive, widely available, and well supported by OpenWrt. A good default for access points and small sites where you just need solid WiFi coverage without fuss.
  • NanoPi boards (and similar single-board computers) — when you want a small, low-power device that can do more than route packets: act as a lightweight server, run extra services, or anchor a site. They cost a little more but give you headroom.

Guide reference

Once you've picked your hardware, head to Guide — Flash OpenWrt for model-specific flashing instructions.

Next steps: