Best High-Speed Network Switches 2024

A network switch is a standalone device that adds more Ethernet ports to your home or office network.

Standalone Wi-Fi routers include four or eight Ethernet ports to support all your wired devices, and in most cases that’s plenty. Mesh systems like the TP-Link Deco X55 only have one Ethernet port per unit, which can be a real pain if you prefer wired over wireless.

A network switch plugs into an open Ethernet port on your router, gateway, or mesh router/node device so you can connect more wired devices to your network, like computers and game consoles. Wired connections have fast, stable speeds and low latency.

A network switch will reduce your home network speed if you choose the wrong one.

For example, nearly all routers have Gigabit Ethernet ports with speeds up to 1,000Mbps each. If you plug a network switch into one of those ports and the switch is only capable of 100Mbps, then 100Mbps is all you get from that switch, even if your tethered wired devices have Gigabit Ethernet ports. The switch is now your speed bottleneck.

Here’s another example. You pay for a 1,000Mbps fiber plan, but the switch you use has Gigabit Ethernet ports. Wired connections have overhead, so the most you’ll get from Gigabit Ethernet is 940–980Mbps. To get the full 1,000Mbps from your internet connection, you need a switch with Multi-Gig Ethernet ports with real-world speeds of around 2,300Mbps or more.

Finally, a faulty switch will cause speed woes on your network. But they’re cheap to replace, so the speed fix can be quick and painless.

A network switch is a complement to your router, not a replacement.

Most routers have a built-in network switch, which is why they have multiple Ethernet output ports. But routers perform a ton of network management tasks that no network switch—even a high-end managed switch—can do, including creating a Wi-Fi network and securing your home network.

Network switches and network hubs look similar, and they perform a similar function in your home network. But you want a switch, not a hub.

An Ethernet hub isn’t as smart as a network switch. A hub doesn’t know where each piece of information is supposed to go, so it sends every piece of information in your network to every connected device. This creates a bunch of problems that result in poor network performance.

Hubs used to be popular, cheap alternatives to network switches. But switches are now so inexpensive that it makes absolutely zero sense to buy a hub instead of a switch.

The network switches listed above are unmanaged, aka “plug and play.” There’s no configuration involved. Just connect your wired devices to it, connect it to a router or gateway, and forget about it. That’s it.

Managed network switches are generally more expensive. They include a web interface or mobile app you can use to manage each port. Some even allow you to create virtual networks, so you can isolate some devices from others. But their speeds can be slower than unmanaged switches since your data passes through a stricter firewall.

You may see specifications mention half-duplex and full-duplex and wonder why you’re not getting 2Gbps speeds out of a 1Gbps Ethernet port. Half-duplex means only one wired device in a two-device exchange can transmit or receive data at a time—up to 1Gbps. Full-duplex sees both devices transmitting and receiving data simultaneously at 1Gbps each way.