What is the best mesh router for Apple HomeKit and devices?

Which is “best” depends on requirements and budget not yet in evidence.

Ubiquiti offers pro-sumer gear, with fiber and copper ISP connections, UPS and NAS options, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, cameras, sensors and relays, and a plethora of other options all available.

Here’s the small-deployment intro: https://ui.com/us/en/how-it-works

At the low-end (and 10 Gb copper capable), Express 7, or other options including fiber Cloud Gateway Fiber, or Cloud Gateway Max, among others, and all sorts of other gateway options higher up. (Express 7 review from NAS Compares)

Express 7 is very much a building block, with Wi-Fi 7, and multiple Express 7 boxes can be meshed.

Ubiquiti has a (free) design center available, allowing you to view the likely coverage for your particular installation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NlODq6D-p0

If you eventually want to add cameras, you will probably want a gateway with NVR video storage integrated and with what Ubiquiti calls Protect app support, or you’ll be adding a separate NVR, or a gateway upgrade.

Ubiquiti doesn’t have subscriptions for most services, and allows the whole installation to be (optionally) remotely accessible (if you want that), but with control and security video storage and the rest all residing entirely locally, and not cloud-hosted.

While you can operate Matter and Thread (HomeKit, etc) devices with Ubiquiti (and I do), the controls and access and video storage are all local, though can also and optionally be remotely accessible. Not via HomeKit, though.

Ubiquiti gear absolutely assumes you have some familiarity with networking.

As for using mesh itself (and this entirely generally, and not at all specific to Ubiquiti!), that requires twice the Wi-Fi channels, and accordingly wired backhaul is preferable when feasible. Using mesh uses more Wi-Fi channels and can mean more exposure to local interference, and can also mean slower network throughput.

Mesh is not a panacea for coverage issues, and particularly for interference issues.

Or For a seamless Apple HomeKit setup the Amazon eero Pro 7 (or Max 7) is the best overall choice because it flawlessly handles the multicast traffic Apple devices rely on and includes built in Thread and Matter support.

https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Amazon-eero-tri-band-router/dp/B0C6RBS846192

Any modern/new mesh router should work better than non-mesh routers. I use a Linksys mesh router (older WiFi 6) with one additional node, and the coverage is excellent. The speeds and throughput on newer WiFi 7 are awesome. Linksys also has a pretty decent phone app for configuring your network.

https://www.linksys.com/pages/velop-micro-7-mesh-system

You may want to do some extra research if you are looking at TP-Link routers.

any one but you can go for a speedport smart 7, with a 3 or 4 lan portal, also you can optd for smart 6 which have also a good speed and excellent performance. And the one i have worked on,

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Telekom-Speedport-Connection-Technology-Integrated/dp/B0FXY1ZTMY/ ***

[Edited by Moderator]

I have a TP-Link Deco BE3600 Pro. It does not work well with Apple products. We have had trouble with connection on several Macbooks and Iphone 14 and 15PRO.

We have tried all the tricks of turning off Private mode and changing settings on the Mesh system. Still trouble with dropouts that are really annoying...

TheTadpole wrote:

My TP Deco M9 is also hopeless with Apple devices. Hence my presence on this chat!

If you are in the US, new versions of routers from many (most?) vendors are banned.

Might accordingly want to acquire what you need before things get (more?) disrupted.

My TP Deco M9 is also hopeless with Apple devices. Hence my presence on this chat!