Business Choice 2021: Routers, Servers, and Network Attached Storage

Whether you're working from home or back in the office, the last thing you want to worry about is whether you have a reliable internet connection and data backup. The best networking products just work, and these are the router, server, and network attached storage (NAS) brands that our readers recommend for staying secure and connected at work.

Business Choice Routers for 2021

Asus and Cisco. Cisco and Asus. The combo doesn't roll off the tongue exactly, but the two are in lock-step together at the top of their game—at least as far as PCMag readers are concerned. This is the third year the two have topped the Business Choice awards for routers. CiscoCisco is the winner for enterprise-level routers, and AsusAsus remains the leader among the router vendors targeting small office/home office (SOHO) and small-to-midsized business (SMB) setups.

Asus scores an 8.6 on a scale from 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied) for overall satisfaction. Cisco's 8.4 is the same as last year.

As in previous years, the simple-to-use Asus routers score well ahead of the rest when it comes to installation and setup, shooting up to 8.9 from last year's 8.7. Value is an Asus strong suit, though it tied with Linksys at 8.3. Value is Cisco's only downfall, as its 7.2 isn't stellar, but Cisco doesn't exactly sell low-cost (or low-end) routers, which accounts for much of the expense. Perhaps most importantly, when it comes to keeping the work network alive, both Asus and Cisco tie for reliability with an exceptional 9.0.

Last year, we saw entries here from Linksys, Netgear, and TP-Link, but TP-Link doesn't make it for the business side in 2021. Linksys and Netgear do, but their overall scores drop to a tie of 8.1. Not a great trend.

For more, read The Best Wireless Routers.

Servers/Network Attached Storage for 2021

PCMag readers have put SynologySynology and its network attached storage (NAS) devices on top of the Business Choice awards eight times now, and for 2021, it earns an 8.9 for overall satisfaction.

If your business needs are a little more high-end—meaning you've got an enterprise full of employees who need storage and other back-office functions—you need a server from CiscoCisco, which finally takes over the number one slot for high-end servers, earning an 8.5 overall.

To be clear, a NAS device and a server both store data, but that's where the similarities end. A NAS device is a sub-class of a server better suited to homes and small businesses, where users are getting software mainly from the cloud. A server has a lot more smarts, supports client/server applications, and works best for a larger number of users. We do compare the two categories head to head in our survey results, but it should be noted that Synology and Western Digital (WD) are primarily NAS vendors, while Cisco and Dell make servers.

Dell ties Cisco for satisfaction with servers, but couldn't keep ahead of it on most other measures. The exception is Dell being a tenth of a point ahead of Cisco in value. As with the win it has above for routers, Cisco's core strength is amazing reliability. That 9.1 is fantastic (even if it comes in behind Synology's 9.4).

Also note Synology's impressive take for readers' likelihood to recommend. An 8.9 out of 10 is not a score we see often in that metric. That said, it still didn't translate to much of a Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is the measure of how users talk about a company's products. Its 64 NPS (out of 100) is enough to make Synology the highest praised brand in this survey, but that number still falls in the "detractors" option in the definition of NPS. It's better to be a "passive" with a score between 70 and 89. (Read more about that in our Best Brands of 2020.)

For more, read Things Business Owners Should Know Before Buying NAS Devices.

Full Results

The PCMag Business Choice survey for Routers and Network Attached Storage was in the field from March 15, 2021, to April 5, 2021. For more information on how our surveys are conducted, read the survey methodologysurvey methodology.

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About Our Expert

Eric Griffith

Senior Editor, Features

My Experience

I've been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazine as a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).

I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it's not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I'd have a future.

In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale," according to Publishers' Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.

I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.

The Technology I Use

My first computer was a Laser 128, an Apple II-compatible clone with an integrated keyboard, matched with an eye-straining monochrome green monitor. I used it to type papers in college for other people for money...until I discovered the Mac SE in the college computer room. That changed my life. My first cellphone was a Samsung Uproar—the silver one with the built-in MP3 player from the Napster days (the pre-iPod era).

I use an iPhone 15 Pro hourly and an iPad Air infrequently (but I'm always in the market for a cheap Android tablet). I have a PlayStation 5 just to play Spider-Man, and several Windows machines, including a work-issued Lenovo ThinkPad. I talk to Alexa and Siri all day long. I do the majority of my computing on a 15-inch LG Gram laptop attached to a Thunderbolt hub to run a multi-monitor setup—I overdid it on the power needed to simply work from home.

I'm most at home in Microsoft Word after decades of writing there. More and more, I turn to services like Google Docs, using tools like Grammarly. I use Google's Chrome browser due to an addiction to several extensions I think I can't live without, but probably could. I use Excel extensively on data-intensive stories, but for chart creation, we've switched over entirely to using Infogram for interactive features that are hard to find elsewhere. I do a lot of graphics work for my stories, but limit myself to the free and amazing Paint.NET software to edit images.

I'm a firm evangelist for using the cloud for backup and syncing of files; I'm primarily using Dropbox, which has never failed me, but I also have redundant setups on Microsoft OneDrive, plus extra picture backups on Amazon Photos and iCloud. Why take chances? For entertainment, mine is a streaming-only household—my kid has never seen network TV and barely been exposed to commercials, thanks to Roku and Amazon Music. The house is peppered with smart speakers from Amazon for instant gratification and control of smart home devices like multiple Wyze cameras and Nest Protect smoke detectors. I've got accounts on all the major social networks, to my horror. I have a robot vacuum for each floor of the house. I want a 3D printer, but not sure what I'd use it for.

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