(Credit: René Ramos; xpixel/Shutterstock.com)
Fast and reliable internet service is an essential element of any modern office, and networking equipment like routers, access points, and network attached storage (NAS) is what makes those speedy, stable internet connections possible. But which equipment providers should you trust with your business?
To get an answer, we asked work-from-home users and IT professionals alike to share the router, access point, and NAS brands they prefer—or at least rate the ones they're stuck deploying and managing. We emailed surveys to thousands of our most tech-savvy readers and had them rate their overall satisfaction with their networking equipment's speed, reliability, service, support, and value.
So which ones are best? Keep scrolling to see this year's Business Choice winners.
If you're more interested in network tech for non-business purposes, check out our Readers' Choice Awards for routers, modems, and NAS devices.
The Top Work from Home Routers and Mesh Systems 2024
While we've given out Business Choice router awards many times in the past—usually to Asus, a seven-time winner—last year, we broke things down even more. We handed awards to routers used for work at home and those managed by IT in the office.
For the work-from-home set this year, we go even further. We offer you winners for both standalone routers and whole-home mesh systems.
In both cases, the winner this year is clear. TP-Link, which offers products under the Deco brand name for mesh systems, wins in both work-from-home networking device categories. Click the arrows in the chart below to see the different categories, and click below to jump between standard routers and mesh systems.
In standalone routers, TP-Link's overall satisfaction score—our most important measure—tops Asus and last year's winner, Google Nest. The same applies to mesh, where TP-Link tops Asus, Eero, and Netgear. Asus bests it by a modest number in categories like mesh coverage, Wi-Fi speed, and network management. If those areas are more important to you than cost/value, reliability, and ease of use, Asus is a worthy second choice.
Netgear, a venerable name in the networking space, doesn't fare well next to the names above. That said, as a standalone router brand for working at home, it's very middle-of-the-road, as it bests brands that usually come from ISPs (Verizon, Xfinity, Spectrum) and its equally venerable competitor Linksys.
The mesh systems also get a breakout for working from home this time around. TP-Link again steals all the award. The thievery is from Asus, which scored dangerously close and, in fact, equals or surpasses TP-Link's mesh networks in some areas, such as reliability, mesh coverage, Wi-Fi speed and connection quality, and network management. But TP-Link's little edge is enough for another award.
For our in-depth reviews, read The Best Wi-Fi Routers and The Best Wi-Fi Mesh Network Systems.
The Top Work from Home NAS Devices 2024
It's difficult to come up with more superlatives for Synology after so many years of wins. This is the company's tenth Business Choice award for work storage/servers, counting all the wins before we broke out the work-based network storage category to celebrate the storage when working from home versus that used by IT (see below).
These results show a major return to form for Synology when it comes to the overall satisfaction score. While it's always dominated the competition, that number hasn't hit 9.2 since 2017. Work-from-home types appear to have an all-new appreciation for Synology storage. Not to mention the high scores it merits in all the other categories; it literally has all the high scores.
If there was a reason you wouldn't consider Synology, Western Digital would be the runner-up. At a full point behind on overall satisfaction, it's not a strong second place. It comes closest to Synology on backup ability. The rest of the pack of names has little, if anything, worth mentioning that makes them stand out.
A special note must be made of Synology's true competition: Self-built NAS devices. The PCMag audience naturally has quite a few people rolling their own. They score the self-builds well ahead of every single brand (except Synology) for overall satisfaction and the likelihood of a recommendation. Self-built NAS devices for work equal or outright beat Synology for value, media storage, file storage, and media access. If you have the builder bug, consider it.
For our in-depth reviews, read The Best NAS (Network Attached Storage) Devices.
The Top IT-Managed Routers 2024
Last year was our first stab at picking a brand as the top router for the big offices; Ubiquiti won that inaugural effort quite handily, against a handful of big names like Cisco, SonicWall, and Fortinet.
Fortinet now has the same overall satisfaction score Ubiquiti won with last year, while Ubiquiti has the score that Fortinet took home second with. The two have flip-flopped. The tables have been turned.
It's not that Ubiquiti doesn't put up a valiant fight. It has the top numbers in categories like cost/value, ease of use, network management, and the likelihood of recommendation. But Fortinet's overall satisfaction, reliability, and Wi-Fi speed push it to the top for the first time.
Also notable this year is Cisco, which had a terrible showing last year but improved enough that its overall score is just a tenth of a point behind Ubiquiti. Next year could be an interesting fight.
The Top IT-Managed Network Storage 2024
If you thought Synology had a good showing as the network storage of choice for people working from home, you might be even more impressed with it as a vendor of storage and servers controlled by IT staff. With a startling amount of consistency, Synology is again the winner.
Synology's overall satisfaction is not a full point ahead of the second-place finisher (Dell) like it was in the work-from-home NAS category. But it's close. Synology is a full point ahead of Dell for setup, cost, reliability, ease of use, repairs, performance, and likelihood of being recommended. Synology particularly stands out for reliability and performance.
As before, the other network storage vendors on our list quickly fall from OK to mediocre status. Buffalo, Western Digital, and Cisco (in the lowest rung) share many of the worst numbers in the chart.
It underscores that any IT person would be derelict in their duty not to consider Synology first.
The Top IT-Managed Access Points 2024
Access points were another new category for us last year, not just for being IT-managed but also because APs aren't something we cover regularly. But they're a tried-and-true part of any major Wi-Fi installation. They offer wired backhaul to a network's backbone or even easily placed mesh coverage.
The winner in 2023 was Ubiquiti, and here in 2024, the winner is Ubiquiti yet again. The win is even more impressive this time. Last year, the brand was only up against two other vendors (Aruba and Cisco); this time it battles ten. Aruba again places a close second, but the other names listed as AP vendors don't come close.
There are a couple more consumer-oriented companies in this AP mix, such as Asus and TP-Link, which may indicate that some IT people in our mix have very small offices. However, in this arena, even those popular names cannot compete with enterprise-level brands like Ubiquiti, Aruba, and third-place Meraki (which is owned by Cisco).
Full Results
The PCMag Business Choice survey for Routers and Network Storage was in the field from April 15 to May 12, 2024. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read our survey methodology.