Best Managed Switches of 2020

For gamers, Netgear has a viable switch option in the S8000. It's a managed switch with an easy interface to get accustomed to. There are a total of eight Gigabit ports for hooking up consoles, PCs, and other devices to the network, and it even packs a punch with traffic prioritization and QoS management. Best of all, it's rather affordable.

The T2600G-28TS from TP-Link is an excellent managed switch, coming in a variety of configurations and offering several ports. This unit has 24 ports, which is usually more than enough for a home or small office deployment, but for the price, it's an affordable, powerful, and capable hub. The Gigabit and four mini-BGIC ports allow for not only computers and laptops to be hooked up, but also printers, IP telephones, other access points, and smaller devices.

This 24-port switch from Mikrotik offers more connectivity for your buck when compared to the Cisco SG300. It even packs a punch with an excellent user interface for managing everything on the device, called SwitchOS. As well as 24 ports, this switch offers Layer 3 management, PoE functionality, and port isolation with some additional security protocols. On the front of the unit are the Gigabit port cluster and two SFP+ Ethernet ports.

TP-Link offers some killer networking equipment, and this five-port managed switch is ideal for a small office setup or in the home for connecting gaming hardware and media servers. The small unit houses some serious features usually found in more expensive switches like diagnostics, QoS, and more despite the budget price.

The Cisco 300-20 is a serious hub for small businesses and deployment. It's easy to configure, reliable, and offers high levels of network performance, but comes at a price. It's ideally suited for pairing up a bunch of devices with 20 Gigabit ports, as well as dual combo mini-GBIC.