The network is the foundation under every Home Assistant install: if the Wi-Fi drops, so do your Wi-Fi plugs, cameras and voice assistants. This page covers routers, mesh systems, powerline adapters, switches and NAS boxes that suit a smart home, with UK prices and honest notes on which ones have a Home Assistant integration and which are simply good, dependable plumbing.
Netgear
The no-thought option: eight unmanaged gigabit ports, no setup, nothing to misconfigure, and under GBP 20. It cannot do VLANs, so if you want IoT isolation at the switch pick the GS308E for about GBP 12 more. No PoE either. Fine behind a TV or on a desk.
Netgear
The sweet spot for a home lab: eight gigabit ports and enough VLAN and port-mirroring features to separate IoT devices, without a managed-switch learning curve. It is configured from a browser or Netgear's utility rather than a full CLI, so do not expect enterprise depth. It does nothing for Home Assistant on its own and cannot supply PoE, so cameras and access points need injectors.
Netgear
Four PoE ports and one uplink, unmanaged, for under GBP 40. That is the cheapest tidy way to power one or two cameras or an access point. No VLANs, no monitoring and a small power budget, so it suits a small install only.
TP-Link
Five gigabit ports, four of them PoE+, with Easy Smart VLAN support for about GBP 40. It is a small switch that does enough for a couple of cameras and an access point, and the VLAN support is the reason to choose it over the unmanaged alternatives.
TP-Link
The cheap one: a HomePlug AV2 pair with a single gigabit port per adapter and a passthrough socket, about GBP 45. Plenty for 4K streaming, a smart TV or a Home Assistant hub in another room. Only one port each, so add a small switch if you want more devices. Real speed depends on your household wiring, so keep the receipt and test in the actual rooms.
TP-Link
Eight gigabit ports with four PoE+ ports and Easy Smart (web UI) VLAN support. It is a neat way to power a couple of PoE cameras or an access point and still segment the network. The PoE budget is modest (64W per the listing, 30W per port), so it will not drive a rack of cameras, and it is not controllable from Home Assistant.
TP-Link
An AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 extender with a gigabit port, at about GBP 60. Extenders always lose speed since they repeat the signal, so wire it back if you can, or use a proper mesh. It is the better option if you already have a TP-Link OneMesh-compatible router.
A G.hn powerline pair with two gigabit ports per adapter and a passthrough socket, at about GBP 85. Newer G.hn technology copes better with noisy mains than older HomePlug AV2, but it will not talk to HomePlug adapters, so it is a whole new pair or nothing. Powerline speed depends entirely on your household wiring, and both adapters need to be on the same electrical circuit. Good for wiring a Home Assistant box or NAS where Wi-Fi is flaky; test it before you commit to running cable.
The long-running HomePlug AV2 pair: two gigabit ports per adapter, a passthrough socket and a pair button, for about GBP 88. It is compatible with older AV-class adapters, which makes it easy to add to an existing powerline network. The 2000 Mbps is a theoretical figure; expect a fraction of it, and how much depends on your wiring. Pick the G.hn PG2400PKIT for a fresh start, this if you need backward compatibility.
TP-Link
Sixteen gigabit ports with eight PoE+ (150W total) and Easy Smart management. It is the sensible size for a house with several cameras and access points. At about GBP 130 it is not cheap, and there is no Home Assistant control of the PoE ports.
The expensive all-in-one: powerline backhaul plus a Wi-Fi 6 mesh node, about GBP 250 for the pair. It makes sense if the problem is Wi-Fi coverage in a brick or stone house and you do not want to run cable. If you only need a wired port, a plain TP-Link kit costs a third as much. This is the newer 'next' generation, not the original Magic 2 WiFi 6. Powerline performance still depends on your wiring.
Huawei
A 4G Cat 7 home router that has been around a long time and is very easy to find unlocked. It is cheap, takes external antennas and works well as a failover or a rural primary. It is an older design, so check the specific variant: Amazon lists several B535 versions at very different prices.
ASUS
Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 at a sensible price, with a 2.5G WAN/LAN port and four gigabit ports. It is a good first Wi-Fi 7 router for a flat or small house and the AiMesh support means you can add ASUS nodes later. It lacks the tri-band backhaul of dearer models, so do not expect big-house mesh performance from it.
QNAP
QNAP's cheap 2-bay ARM NAS, and a fair alternative to the DS223 if you want a lower price and don't mind QTS. It is sold on Amazon UK directly by QNAP UK at £238 diskless, which is more reassuring than a marketplace seller on a product that holds your data. Home Assistant support exists but is thinner than Synology's: system, CPU, memory, volume, drive and network sensors only, no cameras or backup location. QTS has had a rougher security record than DSM, so keep it off the open internet and update it.
Netgear
A tri-band Wi-Fi 7 mesh at a more reasonable price than the Orbi 970, around GBP 450 for a 2-pack. Orbi costs more than Deco for similar tri-band performance, so the case for it is the dedicated backhaul and Netgear's app. Good if you want a proper wired-backhaul-capable system, less so if you are watching the budget.
A quad-band Wi-Fi 7 mesh with dual 10G ports, built for people who actually have multi-gig broadband and a wired backhaul. For almost everyone in the UK it is overkill: a single node is about GBP 480 and a 2-pack nearly GBP 880. It has the full ASUSWRT feature set, which is the reason to pay for it over eero or Deco.
Netgear
A very expensive quad-band Wi-Fi 7 mesh: GBP 1,699.99 for the 3-pack at the time of checking, with a satellite alone at about GBP 700. It is only worth considering for a very large home with a wired backhaul and multi-gig broadband. Most people will get better value from the Orbi 770 or TP-Link and ASUS alternatives.
ASUS
An older AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 router with eight gigabit LAN ports that people still buy for the stock ASUSWRT firmware and the third-party Merlin build. It is no longer a bargain: the Amazon listing I checked was close to GBP 320 with one unit left, which is silly money for a Wi-Fi 6 router now. If you already own one it is a great Home Assistant and VPN-client box; if you are buying new, look at the newer ASUS models first.
Synology
The sensible first NAS for a Home Assistant house: two bays, quiet, and DSM is the most polished NAS software going. Home Assistant has a first-party Synology DSM integration that pulls drive health, temperatures and volume usage, exposes Surveillance Station cameras and can even store HA backups on the box. It is a modest ARM machine, so don't expect it to transcode 4K or run heavy Docker stacks, and DSM is a closed ecosystem: you are buying into Synology's software and, increasingly, its drive preferences. Amazon UK stock of the bare diskless unit is patchy, so check the buying options before assuming the price.
TP-Link
The budget Wi-Fi 6 pick: AX3000 dual band and gigabit ports for under GBP 80. Fine for a flat full of Wi-Fi smart devices. Not a Home Assistant router: no official integration, so tracking depends on a community add-on. Do not confuse it with the AX55 Pro, which has a 2.5G port.
GL.iNet
A pocket-sized Wi-Fi 6 router with a 2.5G WAN port, OpenWrt underneath and built-in WireGuard and OpenVPN clients, for about GBP 89. It is the easy way to get a VPN router without flashing anything, and it travels well. It is not a whole-home Wi-Fi box: expect flat-sized coverage and no mesh.
TP-Link
A cheap AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 mesh with gigabit ports that is fine for a typical terraced or semi. It is dual band so backhaul is shared with client traffic, which limits it in bigger houses. Home Assistant coverage is via a community add-on, not an official integration.
Amazon eero
The easy-mode mesh: plug in, use the app, forget it. The Pro 6E is tri-band with a 2.5Gbps port and costs less than the Wi-Fi 7 eeros, which is why it keeps coming up as the value pick. The trade-off is control: setup and settings live in Amazon's app and cloud account, so there is no local admin page to tune. For Home Assistant you are limited to community trackers and I would not build presence automations on them without testing.
TP-Link
A tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router with five 2.5G ports, so wired multi-gig is covered without paying for a 10G model. It is the mid-range Archer I would shortlist in the UK, though the Amazon price moves around: I saw it at GBP 189 on one listing and GBP 159.99 on another. The Home Assistant side is weak, so treat it as a Wi-Fi box and not a smart home hub.
TP-Link
A tri-band Wi-Fi 6E mesh that is now sensibly priced in the UK, and still the Deco I would point a normal house at. The catch is the ports: the XE75 has gigabit only, while the XE75 Pro has a 2.5G port, so check which one you are buying before you spend on a multi-gig line. There is no proper Home Assistant story: presence tracking relies on a community HACS add-on, so choose it for the Wi-Fi, not the smart home hooks.
TP-Link
The Wi-Fi 7 Deco that makes sense for most UK homes: tri-band BE9300 with 2.5G ports at roughly GBP 350 for a 2-pack. It undercuts the BE85 considerably and the extra headroom of the flagship is rarely used. Home Assistant support relies on community add-ons, so the draw is the Wi-Fi.
Amazon eero
The top eero, with 10Gbps Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7. At about GBP 600 for one unit it is the priciest way to get the eero experience, and you buy it for the 10G port and simple management, not value. Like all eeros it is run from Amazon's app, so you give up the detailed controls ASUS and TP-Link offer.
TP-Link
TP-Link's showpiece Wi-Fi 7 router with a front LED display and 10G ports. At around GBP 640 it is a status symbol more than a sensible buy, and the Amazon listing showed 3 to 4 days dispatch. The BE550 does the job for a quarter of the money for most homes.
TP-Link
TP-Link's flagship Wi-Fi 7 mesh with 10Gbps ports. It is an expensive buy at nearly GBP 790 for a 2-pack, and only sensible if you have multi-gig internet or a wired backhaul to use it. For a normal UK house the BE65 does most of the job for well under half the price.
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Reset filtersNo. Home Assistant only needs your router to hand out reliable IP addresses and keep devices on the same network. Some routers (ASUS, UniFi, TP-Link Deco, Fritz!Box) also have an integration that exposes device presence and bandwidth as sensors, which is a nice extra but not a requirement.
Wired backhaul wins every time. Ethernet or powerline between nodes keeps latency low and leaves the radio free for your devices. Wireless mesh works, but a single-radio node loses throughput on each wireless hop, and a congested radio is a common reason Wi-Fi devices drop off.
Not to start. An unmanaged gigabit switch is enough for a handful of wired devices. A managed or PoE switch is worth it once you add wired cameras or want to separate IoT devices onto their own VLAN.