To current eero owners, how did you get here? What competing products did you test? Will you stay with eero?

I tried Orbi too, and after hours and hours through one week of tormented network setup hell, I returned it for a refund.  Yes, I too have a CS background and know enough to be dangerous.  Still, I really really like Eero 2nd Gen.  I have two eeros, and two beacons, to cover a 3 story house (not too big, just tall).  After Orbi, this was a piece of cake and the speeds are really good and reliable.  Sometimes older devices (like my old raspberrypi) picks the wrong Eero if one is updating or rebooting, and I have to reboot the server to make it chose wisely.  But then it stays there, so that's probably a old wifi adapter/linux thing.  

So, for a week of Eero, I love it and have decided to use Eero plus for better filtering for my 6 year old and the extra features (security, malware).  I like it so much that my parents recently needed a new router, and I immediately sold them on a Eero+beacon for their house.  

For Eero, I have added my ideas to the feature request section.  But more info on utilization between Eeros would be nice, and maybe the ability to anchor old devices to one AP would also be handy when the device will not moving around.  Better, fine grained parental controls would be nice. too.  

Add me to the list of ex-Orbi-ites.  Orbi was my first "mesh" (but not really) system; I excitedly bought the RBK50 system, but the first day was hellish - I kept losing internet, satellites would crash, web page would lock up, etc.  I literally reset the thing at least 30 times the first day.  Took it back to the store out of frustration, exchanged up for the RBK43 system, and had similar issues.  Finally got it working, after Netgear support told me to leave the SSID and all of the configuration in default form.  Worked OK for awhile, and then satellites would start randomly dropping while I traveled, and I couldn't see my cameras.  I'd have to have someone go to the house and reboot them manually.  The system was brilliant when it performed, but too often, it just didn't.  What a mess.  It replaced an Apple Extreme router + extender that was terrifically stable, but aging technologically and which you couldn't manage remotely.  The Orbi, by the same token, can technically be rebooted through the Genie app, but the satellites would never re-sync.  I was SOOO frustrated with it.  Orbi's firmware updates seem to make things worse, not better.

I then tried Amplifi HD with three routers.  Very slick app, nicely designed, similar to eero in many ways, but it just couldn't handle my very heavy device load (60+ at the time), and the system slowed to about 1/3 of my paid internet speed at the satellites.

Tried Zyxel Multy X, which is actually pretty good - but it had some hiccups with Google Home devices causing the router to be overwhelmed and drop all wireless clients every few days.  Still, the Multy's backhaul connection is much more reliable than the Orbi's was and the satellite nearly never drops.  The Multy, however, has no web configuration page and its app is slow and horrible, and you really can't do much with it.  Performance though is similar to Orbi's.  Even when the Multy had issues, I could always access it remotely through the app and reboot it, and rebooting always corrected the issue, with the satellite syncing properly.

I bought three eero + Beacon two-packs on eBay.  I set the three eeros up in an "Eero Pro" configuration and added one Beacon, for a total of four units.  Eero's app is the best I have seen - fluid, fast, and stable.  Firmware updates are seamless and never seem to cause issues.  Great remote management, just like you're at home.  Eero also has, far and away, the most reliable and dependable service I have seen in a mesh system.  The thing just NEVER crashes or goes off-line, or if it does, it quickly fixes itself.  It's not as fast as Orbi or Multy X, but much faster than Amplifi HD.  I get 200-230 mb/s internet connectivity at remote computers connected to satellites from my 300 Mb/s service.  Eero claims it can handle 128 devices per node (seems accurate based on my experience) and I did read that Velop, which I considered, can only handle 32 per node.  It's very Apple-esque in its minimalism, user friendliness, reliability, and simplicity.  Eero is the only system that easily and with stability handles my heavy device load (now sometimes 80+) with no stability impact, no compatibility issues, and little speed degradation relative to the other systems.

ONLY thing I don't like is that I wish they'd vent the units.  I hear what eero is saying about comparing it to a warm laptop, but the things get HOT - especially the gateway unit - hotter than any router I have ever used.  All in all, a clear winner from the perspective of speed balanced with stability, specs, and app quality.

I have both eero and Orbi. I got Orbi first, and then had some difficulties with it with auto-update for firmware that insisted on putting me on firmware that didn't work well for me. I figured out how to block Orbi  firmware auto-update, but got tired of that, so switched to eero. My problem with eero is that I have to be able to reach the internet to be able to do anything with the app other than re-build the whole network, and I have to be able to reach the internet to delete the eero network, which I've been able to work around mostly. But I feel at this point that I have to have eero in AP (bridge) mode so that there is an internet connection to be able to do stuff with the eero. Eero could deal with that by providing a local admin facility that would allow me to do a few things with the network that doesn't require being on the internet. Like I couldn't switch from bridge to automatic modes because the eero app couldn't reach the internet, so I had to delete the whole eero network and re-build it to switch from bridge mode to automatic which is much more time-consuming than just being able to switch it and reboot my cable modem.

So what I'm feeling right now is that the eero (and Orbi, for that matter) make great wireless AP's, but I need another router as a "main router" that's connected to the internet so that I can connect to the eero or Orbi via ethernet cable and do what I need to do without having to re-build everything from the ground up when I decide to change the configuration.

Not sure if I'm staying with either one, I am enjoying having the choice. And I would jump on a third realistic choice that had the wireless mesh functionality, yet allowed me to change things without an internet connection. Haven't found that one yet.

nice post!

I share some of the same concerns too.

I bought the eero 3 pack. Previously had 3 Apple Airport Extreme (latest gen, the tall ones).

All are connected to ethernet. 

Both setups were pretty easy. I don't really see an upgrade in performance with the eero. 

2) eero+ costs $10 a month; whereas competitors offer this service for free

I second that. All I want eero+ is monitoring/advanced settings. I don't care about the bundled software. Could we make an Eero+ subscription without any extra software addon? It seems like the price could drop by 10 fold.

6) Lack of utilization data

this would be great!

Just wanted to post our results from business use. We bought 3 eero pro packs (9 eeros total) and so far everything has been fantastic! We use it in a large warehouse + office environment with a fairly complex network and 100+ devices including a LAN operated VoIP sip trunk. All of the eeros are connected via Ethernet backhaul.

Even though the eero is sold and advertised as a "whole home" WiFi solution, I think it could definitely be advertised as an easy to manage small business solution too. The only thing that would be a nice addition is PPPoE but we were able to get a workaround for our static IP.

We initially looked at upgrading our old router + access points to the Orbi Pro system but soon discovered that it only supports a maximum of 3 additional "satellites". Since eero does not have this limitation we went with this system and haven't looked back since!

Well done to the eero team at making fantastic WiFi hardware!

Well I'm no pro. All my previous routers (at least 5) were all the best rated for their times and it seemed I was ALWAYS having to do the unplug-replug modem first then router....blah blah routine. I caught wind of the eero project and got in on their pre-order offer (when was that 2015?). I have never looked back, just set it and forget it. I never have to think about connecting anymore.