Apple recommended replacement for Time Capsule?
Does Apple have a recommended replacement now that Time Capsule has been deleted from the Apple product suite?
Airport Time Capsule 802.11ac Gen1
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No.. they do sell the Linksys Velop as a wireless mesh router but it does not support Time Machine at all. Nor do Apple support it. It is purely a product to fill a missing shelf item.
There are two parts to Time Capsule.. a wireless router and a backup hard drive designed specifically for Time Machine and not much else.
Nothing on the market matches TC exactly of course.
But you can get a router and USB drive fairly cheaply to work.
You can plug a USB drive into some routers. The best in my testing is Synology RT2600AC. It is a fairly good router.. and of course Synology have a good reputation in NAS field being one of the two heavy weights.. QNAP being the other.
As a router I prefer the Asus high end models like RT-AC68U and up.. the AC86U is the more modern replacement. In Australia where I am guessing the Syd part of your nom de plume comes from.. they cost about $360 .. in MSY and a few select stores. It used to be HN exclusive which made it about $100 more. Don't buy grey imports of which there are heaps on eBay.
I think the Asus is the better router.. better wireless.. but not as good for Time Machine. Try it out but if it fails on 8 week interval that is no surprise. Try using a better software like Carbon Copy Cloner.
The alternative is to buy a NAS for the backup plus file sharing etc.
Synology are excellent but will cost you a pretty penny.. or two!!
Apple has made computer to computer backup available if you have a desktop Mac of recent vintage. And running High Sierra or later.
For the DIYer..
You can also use a TC plugged into the network, bridged, wireless off just to do backups. Assuming your current TC still works you can replace the disk and with some manipulation make it last a bit longer.
Overall and long term I think NAS is the best way if you wish to stick to network backups.
Some people are going Cloud but IMHO that is unsuitable for lots of reasons.
Or just plug a USB drive directly to the computer. This is better, faster and more reliable with Time Machine as well as considerably cheaper. Fine for desktops but perhaps a major pain for laptops.
If you go for a NAS then just about any wireless router will work.. although I always do a google if a particular model you are interested in does airplay, AirPrint, bonjour, etc etc well. Not all routers handle Apple networking protocols.