Comparison Of Linksys Velop vs Netgear Orbi

I'm not going into huge details, just my observation. I have used a 3 node Velop as well as a 3 node Orbi. Both have worked for my purposes providing single SSID coverage of a widely spaced home floorplan. Both were fast enough and generally reliable.

The big difference was in their apps and management web pages when used in combination with the Firewalla Blue+ in DHCP mode. On the Velop, once the Firewalla created the overlay network, there was no longer any way to manage the Velop mesh. By that I mean, you had no idea what devices were connected, what part of the network devices connected to or status of backhaul, etc. With the Orbi, both the app and the management web pages continue to function the same as running the network without the Firewalla overlay. ie, the app's network map shows the node connections, each of the devices connected to the nodes and the link speeds of each device as well as the backhaul status and bandwidth. The Orbi also allows you to log into the router or any of the nodes' management pages. In my house this difference led me to return the Velop because some connection and performance issues couldn't be resolved without management visibility.

One often overlooked difference is that the Velop didn't provide any method for backing up its configuration. Any reset or firmware update would force setting the network up all over again. The Orbi allows the network config files to be backed up and restored. Also very handy when tweaking some settings and reverting to a prior state.

The Velop would be great for typical set and forget users but if you need to maintain the performance of the network, the Orbi has much more granular capabilities.