{"slug": "mikrotik", "name": "MikroTik", "category": "networking", "category_name": "Networking and VPN", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 11, "warners": 3, "score": 2.308, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2025-12-05", "latest": "2026-07-20", "why": "MikroTik has become a serious, and affordable means to power a small-to-midsize ISP in the recent years.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "MikroTik has become a serious, and affordable means to power a small-to-midsize ISP in the recent years.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "mikrotik.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://mikrotik.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["MikroTik", "Mikrotik"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783593329, "item_id": 48974583, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974583", "by": "davkan", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I moved to mikrotik for my routers (already had mikrotik switches).", "excerpt": "How are you managing updates? I absolutely loved vyos but after their repeated hostility towards non paying users I moved to mikrotik for my routers (already had mikrotik switches). First they stopped publishing LTS images, telling users to build from source. So people built gh repos you could clone and build with actions. Then they stopped making lts builds reproducible and told free users to use the preview release", "context": "home router user", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "VyOS", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783591808, "item_id": 48974488, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974488", "by": "graton", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Related they let you download the entire documentation in an LLM friendly format.", "excerpt": "Related they let you download the entire documentation in an LLM friendly format. https://manual.mikrotik.com/llms-full.txt Their front page documentation specifically mentions it: https://manual.mikrotik.com/docs/introduction#machine-readable-access-for-ai-tools", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 746002000, "item_id": 46625125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46625125", "by": "tucnak", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "MikroTik has become a serious, and affordable means to power a small-to-midsize ISP in the recent years.", "excerpt": "There are many ISP's that successfully run their networks on BGP, without VRF unless their customers specifically require it. It simply means that VRF-heavy architectures (like dense MPLS L3VPN etc.) would require additional hardware. Nobody says you have to use MikroTik for everything, and nobody says it's the ultimate solution to all ISP problems. I don't get it where this maximalist view comes from\u2014all or nothing.", "context": "", "use_case": "ISP network routing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Vxlan over WireGuard or WireGuard over Vxlan?"}, {"id": 738720672, "item_id": 46170042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170042", "by": "dmoy", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I would put mikrotik ahead of ubiquiti in terms of giving control to do stuff.", "excerpt": "I would put mikrotik ahead of ubiquiti in terms of giving control to do stuff. But.... more of a learning curve. I use both mikrotik and ubiquiti at home. The mikrotik is necessary for a few things the ubiquiti can't do, but mostly it's a wash. Incidentally mikrotik tends to be behind ubiquiti for rolling out new wifi stuff", "context": "", "use_case": "Home networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "UniFi 5G"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783656401, "item_id": 48978525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48978525", "by": "batrat", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Used MikroTik before but \"the dude\" or whatever is called now was hit and miss.", "excerpt": "I use tp-link everything. I have all of them connected to self-hosted Omada controller in docker. Works like a breeze, including notifications. Used MikroTik before but \"the dude\" or whatever is called now was hit and miss. Probably you don't need it anymore if get llm to configure it.", "context": "", "use_case": "home network management", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783656112, "item_id": 48978507, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48978507", "by": "Saris", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "a lot of things require multiple steps to set up, like adding a port forward with hairpin isn't just one click", "excerpt": "One thing that frustrates me about MikroTik and OpenWRT too, is a lot of things require multiple steps to set up, like adding a port forward with hairpin isn't just one click, adding a VLAN requires adding stuff in like 5+ different places. I really liked using Opnsense before I switched to Openwrt and I always want to go back, because it was just so much more streamlined and easy to configure from a 'geek but not a ", "context": "", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}]}], "who": [{"by": "davkan", "context": "home router user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974583", "date": "2026-07-19"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["home router", "home network management", "emergency backup router", "wi-fi router", "isp network routing", "home networking"], "compared": [{"slug": "vyos", "name": "VyOS", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "unifi", "name": "UniFi", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "opnsense", "name": "OPNsense", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48970772", "title": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157594", "title": "UniFi 5G", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48927915", "title": "LLM Networking with MikroTik", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48272763", "title": "What Is a Direct Attach Copper (DAC) Cable", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48037760", "title": "Wi is Fi: Understanding Wi-Fi 4/5/6/6E/7/8 (802.11 n/AC/ax/be/bn)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46606854", "title": "Ask HN: Vxlan over WireGuard or WireGuard over Vxlan?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"warn": 3, "recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 783656401, "item_id": 48978525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48978525", "by": "batrat", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Used MikroTik before but \"the dude\" or whatever is called now was hit and miss.", "excerpt": "I use tp-link everything. I have all of them connected to self-hosted Omada controller in docker. Works like a breeze, including notifications. Used MikroTik before but \"the dude\" or whatever is called now was hit and miss. Probably you don't need it anymore if get llm to configure it.", "context": "", "use_case": "home network management", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783656112, "item_id": 48978507, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48978507", "by": "Saris", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "a lot of things require multiple steps to set up, like adding a port forward with hairpin isn't just one click", "excerpt": "One thing that frustrates me about MikroTik and OpenWRT too, is a lot of things require multiple steps to set up, like adding a port forward with hairpin isn't just one click, adding a VLAN requires adding stuff in like 5+ different places. I really liked using Opnsense before I switched to Openwrt and I always want to go back, because it was just so much more streamlined and easy to configure from a 'geek but not a ", "context": "", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783618065, "item_id": 48976129, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48976129", "by": "sp0ck", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I love Mikrotik products but they are lacking what I need at home.", "excerpt": "I love Mikrotik products but they are lacking what I need at home. I need basic IPS/IDS, notification when something is wrong without writing mikrotik scripts, easy backup failover, etc not VxLAN, QinQ and BGP extensive filtering :) I moved to Unifi Cloud Gateways as home/small soho routers and can't be happier. But Mikrotik stays as emergency hardware backup ..", "context": "", "use_case": "emergency backup router", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783593329, "item_id": 48974583, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974583", "by": "davkan", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I moved to mikrotik for my routers (already had mikrotik switches).", "excerpt": "How are you managing updates? I absolutely loved vyos but after their repeated hostility towards non paying users I moved to mikrotik for my routers (already had mikrotik switches). First they stopped publishing LTS images, telling users to build from source. So people built gh repos you could clone and build with actions. Then they stopped making lts builds reproducible and told free users to use the preview release", "context": "home router user", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "VyOS", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783591808, "item_id": 48974488, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974488", "by": "graton", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Related they let you download the entire documentation in an LLM friendly format.", "excerpt": "Related they let you download the entire documentation in an LLM friendly format. https://manual.mikrotik.com/llms-full.txt Their front page documentation specifically mentions it: https://manual.mikrotik.com/docs/introduction#machine-readable-access-for-ai-tools", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783319216, "item_id": 48957451, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48957451", "by": "justinclift", "date": "2026-07-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Also on the LLM + Mikrotik front: https://github.com/2GT-Media-Group-LLC/mikrotik-manager It's an alternative webUI for Mikrotik routers, coded with LLM assistance.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "LLM Networking with MikroTik"}, {"id": 772716065, "item_id": 48294754, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48294754", "by": "mwpmaybe", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I've thought about mixing in Mikrotik", "excerpt": "I use UniFi for most of my home network so It Just Works\u2122, but I've thought about mixing in Mikrotik for e.g. the compute rack so I can play around with 100G+ links and more esoteric stuff like VXLAN.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What Is a Direct Attach Copper (DAC) Cable"}, {"id": 769201936, "item_id": 48075121, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48075121", "by": "Normal_gaussian", "date": "2026-05-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "That is really interesting! (https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_be3_media for others). Its coming in at a decent price as well.", "context": "", "use_case": "Wi-Fi router", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wi is Fi: Understanding Wi-Fi 4/5/6/6E/7/8 (802.11 n/AC/ax/be/bn)"}, {"id": 746002000, "item_id": 46625125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46625125", "by": "tucnak", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "MikroTik has become a serious, and affordable means to power a small-to-midsize ISP in the recent years.", "excerpt": "There are many ISP's that successfully run their networks on BGP, without VRF unless their customers specifically require it. It simply means that VRF-heavy architectures (like dense MPLS L3VPN etc.) would require additional hardware. Nobody says you have to use MikroTik for everything, and nobody says it's the ultimate solution to all ISP problems. I don't get it where this maximalist view comes from\u2014all or nothing.", "context": "", "use_case": "ISP network routing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Vxlan over WireGuard or WireGuard over Vxlan?"}, {"id": 738720672, "item_id": 46170042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170042", "by": "dmoy", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I would put mikrotik ahead of ubiquiti in terms of giving control to do stuff.", "excerpt": "I would put mikrotik ahead of ubiquiti in terms of giving control to do stuff. But.... more of a learning curve. I use both mikrotik and ubiquiti at home. The mikrotik is necessary for a few things the ubiquiti can't do, but mostly it's a wash. Incidentally mikrotik tends to be behind ubiquiti for rolling out new wifi stuff", "context": "", "use_case": "Home networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "UniFi 5G"}, {"id": 738603473, "item_id": 46162717, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162717", "by": "kllrnohj", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I loved my mikrotik switches when I was just messing around", "excerpt": "Netgear 5 port managed switch: $30 https://www.netgear.com/business/wired/switches/easy-smart/gs305e/ Ubiquiti 5 port managed switch: $30 https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/all-switching/products/usw-flex-mini Netgear 24 port managed switch: $260 (with a 1 year subscription included!) https://www.netgear.com/business/wired/switches/smart-cloud/gs724t/ Ubiquiti 24 port managed switch: $225 https://store.ui.com/us/en/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "UniFi 5G"}]}