Scored on 78 verified owner verdicts, from 152 comments read across 1 community
TL;DR
Owners mostly buy the Flint 2 for the price relative to its hardware, praising how it shrugs off heavy loads like AdGuard Home, WireGuard, and SQM Cake running together, and many say it settles into rock-solid, fast operation once left alone on a stable build. A meaningful minority push back hard on firmware updates: 4.8.4 and the 4.9.x line show up again and again as the point where Wi-Fi speed and range collapse, tied to a TX power or country-code bug, sending people scrambling back to 4.8.3. A smaller group finds GL.iNet's OpenWRT customization gets in the way of VLANs and other advanced configuration, with a few saying support could not help them through it. Coverage in larger or multi-floor homes also comes up as a letdown for some, separate from the firmware issues.
44% of 78 verified owners recommend the GL.iNet Flint 2, based on real owner verdicts aggregated from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
152 comments reviewed · scored on the 78 clearest verdicts
44%
Recommend
34 owners
50%
Neutral
39 owners
6%
Don't recommend
5 owners
Last 6 months:31% recommend(48 recent verdicts)↓ trending down 32pts vs older reviews
Source
Breakdown
Score
N
Counted in the score
Reddit
44%
78
Reviewed, but not counted — and why
No clear verdictiGood-to-know notes — setup, tips, and things to watch for. We use them for the pros, cons, and who it's for, but they don't reflect a definitive opinion on the product, so they're never counted in the score. See the 'Good to know' section below the quotes.Setup, tips & quirks
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46
The headline score reflects owners (Reddit, enthusiast forums), independent lab tests, blogs with no affiliate links, and YouTube owner-comments when they line up with owners. is shown for perspective but kept out here — hover the i for why.
What owners like
Strong value for the hardware you get, often called unbeatable for the price compared to bigger-name routers · 5 · 6%
Fast and rock-solid once settled on a stable firmware build, with owners reporting no issues for months · 5 · 6%
Handles demanding setups like WireGuard/OpenVPN, AdGuard Home, and SQM Cake QoS simultaneously without strain · 4 · 5%
Owners can drop GL.iNet's firmware for vanilla OpenWRT if official support disappoints, keeping the router future-proof · 4 · 5%
Good overall coverage and 2.5Gbps/Wi-Fi 6 throughput for typical home setups · 3 · 4%
What owners flag
Firmware updates, especially 4.8.4 and 4.9.x, repeatedly cut Wi-Fi speed and range in half or more, often traced to a TX power or wrong country-code bug that forces owners back to 4.8.3 · 14 · 18%
GL.iNet's OpenWRT customization makes configuration harder than stock OpenWRT, with VLANs especially difficult and support unable to resolve some cases · 5 · 6%
Wi-Fi coverage falls short in parts of the home for some owners even outside of firmware bugs, with dead spots on far walls or floors · 4 · 5%
Who it's for
A great fit if
Home networkers who want OpenWRT flexibility without buying a bare board
VPN users running WireGuard or OpenVPN client and server duty at full speed
Enthusiasts running AdGuard Home, SQM/QoS, or VLANs on one box
Buyers who want vendor firmware now but a fallback to vanilla OpenWRT later
Look elsewhere if
Anyone wanting set-and-forget firmware updates without WiFi range or speed regressions
Users needing straightforward VLAN configuration without fighting GL.iNet customization
Buyers unwilling to troubleshoot country-code and firmware-version quirks after updates
Synthesized from what GL.iNet Flint 2 owners say — not a spec sheet.
Top quotes, sourced
152 reviewed · 78 shown
Sentiment
Sort
Reddit— neutral
“the one I bought defaults to Germany and obviously it needs Luci to be installed to change to GB which is where I am from however that did not work for me on 4.8.4 as some suggested”
Reddit▲ recommend
“For the hardware you get, the price is unbeatable. It’s been very stable on version 4.8.3 for me, even while running WireGuard VPN (it is client), SQM Cake, and AdGuard Home all at once.”
Reddit▼ don’t recommend
“It is a nightmare, I've run into roadblocks at every stage because of their customisation - and even their own support staff failed. I won't be buying Gl.Inet again.”
Reddit▼ don’t recommend
“So my conclusion has to change - 4.9 is reducing real world WiFi signal on the Flint 2 despite TX power logs showing identical values.”
Reddit▲ recommend
“I did change the region to US from Luci Ui and now the range seems to be fine. 4.9 has considerable improvement to VPN UI and a seperate IoT network which is a nice upgrade.”
Reddit— neutral
“we are basically either stuck on older firmware, or upgrade to newer but chop the legs off the wifi performance or have to go to vanilla openwrt and deal with the unfriendly luci interface”
Reddit▼ don’t recommend
“my Flint 2 arrived yesterday and was totally dead (no lights, power) out the sealed box, so I had to return for replacement”
Reddit▲ recommend
“Flint 2 was my best bang for buck option, given the specs and that I could replace the inevitably lacklustre OEM firmware support with continuing OpenWRT updates.”
Reddit— neutral
“I get 1200mbps on devices not even in the same room as my flint 2 with the 4.8.3. When I updated to 4.8.4 it halved that or worse, even when selecting Germany or Panama.”
Reddit▼ don’t recommend
“I had the flint 2 and had moved to the flint 3 because of instability.”
Reddit▲ recommend
“The Flint 2 is an excellent router. I used to run Asus but switched to the Flint 2. I like that is a highly configured Openwrt router that is very user friendly.”
Reddit— neutral
“I love it and have it configured how I like it (Ethernet + repeater with a very good open VPN installed directly for all traffic) but my biggest hang up is it cuts my speeds in half at least.”
Reddit▼ don’t recommend
“I am done with GliNet.....”
Reddit▲ recommend
“I changed it to my European country, and it worked like before. 4.9.0 and still works great, I get Wi-Fi signal from the street again haha”
Reddit— neutral
“I had DNS issues on 4.8.3, going strong on 4.8.4 so far. Probably won'tupdate to 4.9 given they've removed VPN failover and there are so many issues getting reported”
Reddit— neutral
“my download speeds sat next to the router went from 700+, including through a VPN to barely 100 with the VPN disabled when I upgraded to 4.8.4. Magically when I downgraded back to 4.8.3, problem solved.”
Reddit▲ recommend
“I bought it over other bigger names because you can always install plain old openwrt on it if the company drops official support.”
Reddit▲ recommend
“the Flint 2's 2.5 Gbps ports and Wi‑Fi 6 bands are more than enough to handle everything I throw at it without breaking a sweat”
Reddit— neutral
“Running 4.9.0 here and noticed that when the VPN in enabled for other devices on the router, my computer which run through the VPN (Locally only), my computer download speeds dropped from 1gpbs to 560 Mbps”
Reddit— neutral
“I was on 4.9.0 which was giving me slow speeds than my Linksys WiFi 7 router. So I downgraded to 4.8.3 and can confirm the speed is definitely better.”
Reddit▲ recommend
“Andan de maravilla! Tengo streaming de plataformas de video, audio, navegación, todo sin cortes, sin ningun problema!”
Reddit— neutral
“Ive had my Flint 2 for all of 3 days amd had a lot of issues right out of the gate when I upgraded to 4.9.0. Yesterday morning I manually pushed 4.8.3 and it basically solved all my issues immediately after reboot”
Reddit▲ recommend
“the Flint 2 can run AdGuard Home without even breathing more heavily, even if you have an advanced config”
Reddit▲ recommend
“So glad I chose F2 recently when I was debating between 2 & 3. The range is superb with just one router.”
Practical notes owners raise — setup, quirks, and issues to watch for. They don't say whether the person likes the product, so they're not counted in the score, but they inform the pros, cons, and who it's for.
Redditⓘ good to know
“But they never mentioned that in the release notes of 4.8.4. Mine is set to US out of the box. But I am holding off upgrading from 4.8.3 until 4.9.0 is released and tested properly.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“https://preview.redd.it/l8cwvu132kwg1.png?width=1152&format=png&auto=webp&s=675cbe66d8eb5b2ba81cfcc166d559bcfe7004ae It seems pretty limited, only switched over an hour ago to be fair.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Since wifi strength was the main reason I got my new Flint 2, I have left it on 4.8.3 given I heard 4.8.4 was worse so presumed 4.9.0 might be too until I heard differently.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“4.8.3 working fine, also with tailscale enabled! 🔥🔥🔥 https://preview.redd.it/vp19bazmpzcg1.jpeg?width=1078&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2dcf91166f65972326765dce317a2d11e8862a06”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Just be aware that the beta DPI features like their new QoS and traffic data statistics stopped working at the end of December so you will need to wait for a new version.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I just received and contacted the Flint 2 I can see speeds are different on 5g and 2.4 my connection is 500 only getting like 100 on 2.4. Any setting I need to change I got the Load Ratio on 4”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Had the key set to never expire :/ Claude is saying the router “locked up” but not sure how common or likely that is. Also not sure if it’ll eventually reboot itself or something else happened.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“v4.8.99 Beta working perfectly for me. This was happening to me on the stable version but has been resolved with the beta https://www.reddit.com/r/GlInet/s/howFK9OeKO”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I'm running 4.8.3 on Flint 2. I did not have to go beyond step G or mess up with Luci. If you set up "Allow WAN access" in GUI, it configures the firewall for you.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I got my Flint 2 yesterday but haven't set it up. Does OpenWRT have weaker WiFi signal than stock? The 4.8.3 firmware, does it only apply to stock or OpenWRT?”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Maybe they did the market research and decided the enthusiast crowd isn't worth it, but if so, it’s a shame to see them push away people who genuinely want to build their network around GL.iNet hardware.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Many thanks for this, I saw the update and decided to stick to 4.8.3 because of the range issue with 4.8.4. I will test this out and see what happens.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Sounds really good, but I will wait a couple of months after it is released out of beta for my Flint 2, hopefully all bugs will be fixed by then.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Pre ordering a router? Huh? I just received a Flint 2 but have not configured it yet. I could not wait for the 4 release for prices to drop, I need a working device pretty quickly (tplink router keeps dropping its configuration)”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Guys I can’t downgrade it seems. Can you help me of this. Can do upgrade/downgrade of all variants but can’t downgrade to 4.8.3.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“After a completely clean reset with zero config carried over, TX power is still 20 dBm on both bands, 5GHz still at 4803 Mbps bitrate, noise floor at -59 dBm. Identical to both the 4.8.3 baseline and the settings-kept 4.9.0 results.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I just changed from DE to GB Country Code and after a restart its amazing again on 4.9.0 op21. Don't need to do anything more”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I upgraded to v4.9 and even 4.9.1 snapshot and was still on US country code no issue. So this is probably targeted to the European market customers but would be good if someone could comment and verify including your source of purchase.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I wanted to improve my 2.4GHz reach and Flint 2 has 4x4 MIMO (Flint 3 does not). I don't care about 6GHz, so Flint 2 it was!”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I can confirm. Had it on my flint 2 for a good day now and I’ve forgot about it. Changed WiFi to GB Country and all good. https://preview.redd.it/lw35qcrrjkih1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c04ab5cf166f7d206a114f811f136b2a4aa87ec1”
Redditⓘ good to know
“besides everything else mentioned ... no stock vanilla openwrt support. Yeah nothanks, I'll stick with the Flint 2”
Redditⓘ good to know
“I had problems with WIFI connections when I switched to this. Did you upgrade with settings, or clean install?”
Redditⓘ good to know
“The wifi range thing is what is keeping me from upgrading from 4.8.3 so I am also interested to see impact.”
Redditⓘ good to know
“Just got the flint 2 from reading all the positive reviews on it. Anyone have a video of how to utilize all the features? I'm a noob with these things and would like to know how to use openwrt and vpn and all the other features this router has to offer.”
