Speed has always been the main selling point for routers. Today's flagship models, like Netgear's Nighthawk RS700S, are rated for up to 19Gbps, come with two 10Gbps ports and eight antennas and sell for more than $500. For most households, that's money spent on a ceiling you'll never touch.

A budget router from a more affordable brand like Netgear or TP-Link, coming in at under $100, will handle the vast majority of what a typical home throws at it. Here's why you don't need a high-end router, and the few cases where spending more makes sense.

A router can't make your internet faster than your plan. The router takes the connection your provider delivers and shares it around your home, and that's the whole job. The FCC's benchmark for what is considered 'broadband' is 100Mbps down and 20Mbps up, so a budget broadband router only has to carry that to your devices without choking.

Before you shop, check what you're paying for. There is no sense in buying a router that transfers more data per second than what is coming in through your wall socket. A router rated far above your plan gives you nothing extra, because the bottleneck is the provider, not the box on your shelf.

Wired connections are still the most reliable way to hook up a desktop, a console or even a smart TV. Gigabit ports mean the router won't slow down anything plugged into it.

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