Eero Pro 6 vs Orbi RBK752 (Best Mesh Router Review)

I'm a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Picking the best mesh router can be hard because there are so many great ones out there. Today we’re comparing two fantastic routers best known for their speed and seamless switching. Our Eero Pro 6 vs Orbi RBK752 review will compare these systems based on installation, design, software, and everything else so that you know which is best for your needs.

Picking a winner between Orbi RBK752 vs Eero Pro 6 isn’t going to be easy. They are nearly even at first glance, but we’re going to uncover all their differences. Eero is easier to install while Orbi was made for power users, but let’s really find out which one is right for your home.

Eero Pro 6	Netgear Orbi RBK752

Eero Pro 6 vs Orbi RBK752: Installation

You always want to ensure that the mesh router is easy to install. You don’t want a complicated system that takes hours, that would be insane. The best mesh routers only take a few minutes to install and Eero is easily the winner here.

Eero Pro, and all Eero mesh routers in general, are incredibly easy to install. The straightforward instructions take you through every step with ease. It even gives you placement tips to ensure you get the best signal strength.

Whether you’ve installed mesh routers before or this is your first time, Eero 6 Pro should only take 5-10 minutes to install. Even if you’re technology challenged, this will still only require a few minutes of your time. Plus, the instructions will hold your hand throughout the entire process.

Netgear Orbi RBK 752 is easier now, but not quite as easy as Eero. Originally these routers were very hard to install, but the process has gotten much easier and shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes, which isn’t bad.

Their app (while not the best) gives good enough instructions to get most people through the process. Those who have a hard time with technology might struggle a bit, but everyone should get through the installation easy enough. We also recommend installing the main router first and then the satellite ones, just to avoid error codes.

While Orbi 752 isn’t bad, the real winner here is Eero.

Check Price: Eero Pro 6 Mesh Router – >

Orbi RBK752 vs Eero Pro 6: Software

There are many different features to look at here, so we’re going to break this down into several sections. We suggest reading every part, but skim through if you are looking for something specific.

Mobile App

Eero’s app is one of the best we’ve ever seen. It’s packed with features, but simple to use.

You can make a profile for everyone, group devices together, and control individual or grouped devices with ease. For example, you can schedule access times or pause internet access as needed. It’s ideal for parents who want their kids off for dinner or bedtime.

Want advanced controls? You can also use the Eero app for port forwarding, reservations, DNS settings, and more. Orbi has more of these settings, but we were impressed nonetheless with the level of control. You can also track how much bandwidth you’re using, plus you can see if any nodes are lagging behind or not outputting any bandwidth.

Now onto the Orbi app.

We wish we could say something nice, but the Orbi app is pretty bad. You’ll commonly get an error message stating that the router isn’t installed even though it is. This usually occurs because there is a lag between the app and router communicating with each other, so expect to see this message a lot. However, you can easily close the message.

The app seems to run very slow no matter what you do. Oddly enough, it runs at a good speed when you’re not logged in, but as soon as you login to access the features the app really slows down.

To top it all off, the app’s layout is just awful. The features here are lackluster as well. You can name devices, reboot the system, and pause the internet. It also lacks parental controls or DNS editing.

In terms of apps, Eero wins by a huge margin.

Web-Based Interface

If you prefer using your desktop or laptop, then you’ll want to access the web-based system. This should, in theory, allow you to access all the same or similar features from the app, but on your computer. We say “in theory” for an important reason.

Let’s start with the Eero web-based interface.

There isn’t one. We aren’t entirely disappointed because the phone app is great, but it’d be nice to have this option as well.

Orbi’s app was awful, but their web-based interface is actually pretty good. You can customize lots of settings (even more than the Eero app). Regular users may not appreciate this level of control, but power users can’t get enough.

Another bonus is that you don’t need to rely on the cloud. Eero’s app requires the cloud and internet access, but the Orbi web-based interface doesn’t need this. That means you can easily change settings from anywhere.

The one bad thing we have to say is that the Orbi interface is confusing when it comes to tracking bandwidth. You can’t filter the data and it’s hard to read, but overall it’s still a good interface that many people will like.

Check Price: Orbi RBK752 Mesh Router – >

Premium Plans

When it comes to Eero Pro 6 vs Orbi RBK752, you will find that both have premium plans. These are plans that you pay for monthly or yearly that give you access to extra features. You don’t need them, but you might find the features to be essential for your particular situation.

Amazon Eero

Eero has two plans: Secure and Secure+.

Eero Secure is $3/month and it gives you extra security, activities, filtering, parental controls, and ad blocking. You’ll also get an improved bandwidth interface that really breaks down your usage. This isn’t quite as useful as the other features, but it’s still nice to have.

You’ll love this if you’re a parent. It gives you lots of advanced features to keep your kids safe as they browse online. However, we don’t see it being quite as useful if you’re not a parent.

Eero Secure+ is $10/month and it gives you all the Secure features plus some extra perks. You will get a VPN service from encrypt.me, a password manager through 1Password, and the MalwareBytes antivirus protection plan.

Overall, it’s not a bad package. It may not be essential, but it’s not bad either.

Netgear Orbi

What does Netgear Orbi RBK752 offer? They also have two premium plans. Technically there’s only one directly offered by Orbi and the other offered by Disney, but we’ll get into that.

Netgear Armor is $70/year and provides you with advanced protection. You’ll get phishing protection along with warnings when you try to visit unsafe websites. Unfortunately we weren’t happy with the service.

First of all, you are forced into the free trial whether you want it or not. You can turn the trial off, but this seems very strange. Also, there are lots of ads whenever you open the app to access Netgear Armor.

Second, the website blocking is too active. It will block lots of good websites, which gets very annoying. We don’t mind the occasional website here and that, that happens, but it blocks much more than that.

The other plan you can choose from Circle, provided by Disney. This is $5/month and it gives you parental controls. These are the exact same as the free parental controls you get with Eero (not the ones from Eero Secure, those are more advanced). Honestly, we don’t see this upgrade as being worth it unless you’re nervous about what your children are doing online.

These are all optional plans, so you don’t need any of them. Eero’s plans are pretty good, but the Netgear plans really pale in comparison.

Check Price: Eero Pro 6 Mesh Router – >

Performance

We are going to break performance down into two sections: speed and reliability. Both of these sections are very close, but Eero narrowly wins both of them. It’s nearly a tie in both sections, but Eero is better.

Read on to find out more.

Speed

When it comes to Netgear Orbi RBK752 vs Eero Pro 6, you’ll find that both have the exact same speed and hardware ratings. They both have AX4200 ratings. That means they are both able to produce speeds higher than 1Gbps (though in a mesh router setup that’s not feasible), though you can expect these high speeds when connected directly with an Ethernet cable.

Both are also able to cover around 5,000sqft in a two-node configuration (closer to 7,500sqft for three-node configurations).

Oddly enough, speed ratings for Eero tend to be higher. Realistic speed ratings tend to be around 500-750Mbps vs Orbi’s 450-650Mbps. The speed decreases as you get further away from the nodes.

This isn’t a huge difference and the similar hardware suggests that they both should output the same speeds. Eero wins, but just slightly. They functioned nearly identically, and you won’t even notice the difference unless you have an internet service provider with higher speeds.

We will say that if you have gigabit speeds, then you may want to consider Netgear Orbi RBK852. This blows both of these out of the water, so check it out.

Reliability and Stability

Every mesh router has its signature strength. Some are known for having amazing speed while others have incredibly advanced controls.

Eero is known for their seamless switching. We would definitely classify this as Eero’s best strength.

For those who don’t know, “switching” refers to going from one node to another. Let’s say that you’re walking through your house and browsing on your phone. If you keep walking, then you’ll be out of range of one node and another will take over. This is called “switching.” It means another node is providing you with internet access.

Eero Pro 6 tri-band routers have a dedicated channel specifically for connecting the nodes. This ensures that they are fast, reliable, and switch without you even noticing. Some routers will lag for a few seconds, but that will never happen with Eero.

Plus, Eero 6 Pro will update its firmware at late times to ensure you are rarely inconvenienced. This ensures that you have the latest updates, plus, the updates are very stable. The only bad thing we can say is that you can’t change the automatic updates, nor can you change the time. However, very few people will actually be inconvenienced during this time.

Orbi RBK 752 is similar, but (like most of the other sections) not quite as good. We hyped up how good Eero is at switching. Orbi RBK752 is actually quite good at switching. There is the noticeable lag here and there, but nothing too substantial. You might notice a movie stops streaming for a few seconds, but that’s about it.

This is also a tri-band router, but it’s a little different. One of the channels is still for specific node-to-node communication, but it’s specifically for a backhaul connection. This is when you directly connect the nodes via an Ethernet cable. It’s not quite as good as Eero, but it’s not bad either.

The worst thing would be the firmware updates. They aren’t nearly as stable as the Eero updates. In fact, we recommend holding off on any updates for at least a week or two. That should give Netgear enough time to iron out the (inevitable) problems.

It’s nearly a tie, but we think you can see the real winner here.

Check Price: Orbi RBK752 Mesh Router – >

Design

In general with our Eero vs Orbi review, Eero has the better design, but Orbi does excel in one area.

The Eero mesh routers are smaller, sleeker, and have a nice glossy white finish that is simply beautiful. Plus, you can easily store them anywhere due to their small size. You get two Ethernet ports on each node. That’s not bad, but Orbi might be a little better here.

A unique and functional design choice was to make the nodes interchangeable. While you’ll have to set one as the gateway node and the others as satellite nodes, any node can function as the gateway. This is just the one that you connect to the modem cable. That makes the installation even easier, and it’s helpful if anything happens to the gateway node.

Orbi is poorly designed by comparison. The nodes are larger, bulkier, and not nearly as easy to store. Also, the nodes aren’t interchangeable. There’s a specific gateway node and satellite nodes. However, that’s really not that bad and tends to be common.

The one area where Orbi excels is Ethernet ports. Each satellite comes with two Ethernet ports and the gateway node has three extra ports. This ensures that you have more to play around with.

What is the Difference Between Eero Pro 6 and Orbi RBK752?

What are the differences between Orbi RBK752 and Eero Pro 6, and more importantly, which is better for you?

In general, you have probably noticed that they are nearly tied, but Eero comes out on top in nearly every category. The only clear section where Orbi won was the web-based interface section, and that’s only because Eero doesn’t have one!

Eero Pro is ideal for switching. This is one of the most reliable routers when it comes to this. Plus, while the speeds aren’t top-of-the-line compared to premium mesh routers, you’ll find that the speed is great overall. Only those with gigabit speeds will notice that the routers are a tiny bit slow, but everyone else will think they’re fast.

This also happens to be one of the easiest systems to install, which makes it great as a first-time mesh router.

Orbi on the other hand looks big and bulky, plus it wasn’t as good overall. However, it has a very feature-rich web-based interface with tons of customizations and options. It also comes with more Ethernet ports and the backhaul channel is a tiny bit more reliable.

Eero Pro 6	Netgear Orbi RBK752

Final Thoughts

Honestly, with the two being so close, it’s hard to recommend Orbi over Eero. Amazon Eero Pro 6 was better in nearly every way, plus it even looks better. In general, we recommend this for anyone who wants a mesh router system that is fast, easy to install, and that simply works great.

Orbi WiFi 6 does excel in a few areas. It’s also fairly easy to install, reasonably fast, and has a good web-based interface (though its app is awful). It also has more ports and might be better for power users.

Overall though, it’s safe to say that most people would prefer Eero.