The Ultimate Cheap Fanless 2.5GbE Switch Buyers Guide

1. I don’t see the QNAP QSW-2104-2T in the 10Gbase-T category. Is there a reason for that? I feel like that one is a very compelling option given the $150 price point, plus it probably uses the same controller as the TEG-S762.

2. The QSW-2104-2T is identical to the QSW-2104-2S that was reviewed, except the SFP+ was swapped with 10GbaseT?

3. Mike and Dory. That is the thought. The QSW-2104-2T is a switch we have for a future update. We also have 1-2 other switches that have arrived, but did not make the cut-off for publishing the buyer’s guide and video. We did not get it in time. Watch this space as we will keep updating as we do more reviews.

4. Where can you get the ms108up for $149?

5. The Trendnet TEG-3102WS with 8ports 2,5 Gbe and 2 SFP+ is interesting too at 259 $ it has been released in past january

6. Was a bit disappointed by the “Larger Fanless 2.5GbE Switches” section. I’ve got my eye on the qnap QSW-M2116P-2T2S. Nice PoE (90 watts 10GBe PoE++ and 30 watt 2.5Gbe PoE+), 4 10Gbe ports, 16 2.5GBe ports, managed, and you can buy it in the USA without waiting for shipping from Alibaba or similar.

   Looks like just what I need to run some PoE cameras, 10G NAS, 10G desktop, and a small home lab.

7. BillB and flo – Thank you for the recommendations. We will put those on the list to take a look at. We have ordered several more switches already today. The hope is that we add to this one over time.

8. BillB – I have the M2116P. It’s very basic as far as web management goes, but does have a command line with more advanced options. QNAP is promising a 2.0 firmware update “soon” that exposes more.

   I use it basically unmanaged, but I’ve been very happen with it!

9. QNAP QSW-2104-2S-A is the only decent entry in the entire list; the others are way too expensive for what they bring to the table.

10. I have another on Amazon to add to your list: ALFA AGS05-2.5GL, 5-Port Unmanaged 2.5G Switch, 5 x 2.5GBASE-T Ports, Loop Detection and Fanless Design. Currently $104, but I grabbed one a few weeks back for $70. So far, it works exactly as it should. Alph Networks is known more for their wireless products, but happy with this switch

11. I was looking to replace my 16 port 1gbe with something that had 10gb sfp as I’ve had two machines directly connected for years but didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I settled on the Zyxel XGS1010-12 because it had enough ports for my usage I could just swap the two. I figured should I need more 2.5gbe or 10gb sfp I could add more hardware with this. It has worked really well for me, but I’d love to see some testing on it or other similar devices.

12. I would love to find a 2.5 Gig Managed Switch that has port mirroring for things like Corelight. With home internet speeds increasing, having a 2.5 gig connection is almost mandatory. Having the capability to send a copy of all traffic to a Zeek/Bro Sensor would be wonderful.

13. I bought the QNAP QSW-1105-5T to use at my desk and for some reason I just couldn’t consistently get internet to my desktop through it. Have no idea why. WoL to my desktop would work just fine, but then when the computer booted up it would say no internet and pfsense wouldn’t see it on the network. Remove the switch and the computer works just fine again. Tried different patch cables and even ordered a second unit in case it was defective, same issue. If I kept restarting the switch and plugging the cables in in a different order eventually the computer would get onto the network, but it would break again the next time I restarted the computer.

    I ended up getting the MokerLink unit instead (which had an $8 coupon at the time) and it is working flawlessly so far.

14. A little warning if you use vlans anywhere in your network, you want to have a switch that supports 802.1p. After buying the above TRENDnet TEG-S380 and found out my tagged vlans stopped working. So returned it and got the above netgear MS305 that does support 802.1p.

15. Great review as usual. Y’all covered a lot of 2.5GB switches. Keep up the fine work. Thanks

16. A little surprised MicroTik isn’t on the list. I have several CRS305-1G-4S+IN and they all work great.

17. Are there 2.5GbE switches that can be powered via PoE? I couldn’t seem to find any…

18. I just aquired a zyxel XGS1210-12 which has been around a little while but is 8gig ports 2 x 2.5 and 2×10. it has management up to a point but seemingly what passed for management these days doesn’t get you counters that you can export via snmp/prometheus or some other mechanism.

    It does support link aggregation
    up to 32 tagged or untaged vlans
    igmp snooping
    loop detection and blocking
    802.1p priotity queing

    which makes it kind of wonderful and terrible at the same time.

    It looks mechanicially very similar to the haviso.

    I am definitely curious the extent to which these low cost devices have or can be coaxed into having some manageability features with respect to remote monitoring or observability.

19. I figured out what’s wrong with the DHCP settings on the S600WP: The page’s javascript checks whether the value of the ipv6 fields — which are messily commented out in the HTML — are valid strings. So it tries to check if undefined.length == 0.

    Looks like somebody tried to chop ipv6 support out of the firmware, but did it wrong in such a way that it broke ipv4, too.

    I was able to get it to at least *try* to save the values by using the Chrome dev tools to inspect other parts of the table, then find the commented-out part and uncomment it.

    They need to fix that in their firmware: either re-add the ipv6 support, or remove it properly!

20. I found more problems with the S600WP’s firmware:
    * SSH doesn’t work, it complains about invalid username even if the username is correct. If you supply a command for ssh to run (ssh admin@s600wp /bin/sh), it acts like you’re using telnet (“press any key” and then a username prompt), then asks for the password (showing it in plain text), then goes right back to the username prompt.
    * Speaking of telnet, telnet is the only way to reliably enable ipv4 DHCP and ipv6 SLAAC and/or DHCP.
    * The remote syslog web page is broken too, had to use Telnet to set that.

21. I have a big problem with the firmware of the S600WP after reboot all settings get lost. I contacted the seller, and they sent me a new firmware but it didn’t work. I’m thinking of asking for a refund

22. Any plans to test TRENDnet TPE-TG380 Unmanaged 2.5G PoE+ Switch? It has 8 Ports, Fanless and 100W PoE Budget. But some people complain that it’s getting too hot.

23. Could you please add this one on the suggestion list (couldn’t find it in search):

    QSW-IM1200-8C
    – 8p 10GbE SFP+/RJ45 Combo Ports
    – 4x 10GbE SFP+
    – Fanless

    Any other have experience with this one?

24. Hi Wes – That is not exactly “cheap” at over $1000, but we will see if we can get one. We do have several more options coming in the next week or so.

25. So many switches and yet so little manageable ones…
    I have a few VLANs at home and I would like a small manged 2.5Gb/10Gb switch but it seems that there are only exotic models…

26. Why isn’t the “Insane 48-Port 2.5GbE 2x 25GbE 2x 10GbE Managed Chinese e-Sports Cafe and Hotel Switch” listed here? I’d love to see more info on that switch and sourcing.

27. There is now a managed version of the Horaco 8×2.5+1xSFP+ switch for about the same price. It arrived today from AliExpress.

28. @Patrick – The QNAP QSW-2104-2S-A and the similar Broadcom BCM53162XMB1 switches are actually managed switches and run Robo-OS. Broadcom has published the source code robo2-sdk on GitHub, so it should be pretty straightforward. The manufacturers only disable the web interface after xx seconds, but you can change this.

    Obviously this isn’t for everybody, but for me those cheap managed switches have bad web implementations anyway.

29. Does anyone know of a budget-friendly, non-China product with 2.5G, PoE+, and fanless capabilities? I’m aware that Qnap(from Taiwan) and Netgear are not China brands; are there any others worth considering?

30. Yeah, people reviewing/recommending network gear need to stop recommending insecure Chinese brand equipment. I cringed going through this list seeing all of them. The only mention should be a footnote telling people to whatever they do don’t buy or use the Chinese stuff no matter how good it looks.

31. NICGIGA 8x 2.5GbE + 1x SFP+ Is £88 with a coupon automatically there to apply from your basket before checkout on Amazon UK today.

32. Maybe the Grandstream GWN7700M belongs on this list. I haven’t used it but I’ve used one of their other switches so I’m curious.

33. The Sodola was a big disappointment. It didn’t play well with my QNAP NAS. When plugged directly into the the switch or plugged into an old 3Com switch which was plugged into the Sodola, the NAS’s ethernet ports crashed after a few minutes. This did not happen without the Sodola in the mix.

    I wouldnt trust this or any of its rebranded siblings in my network. It gets returned today.

34. not sure if these will fit in the cheap category but in my research for 2.5G switches I found these:
    * TP-LINK SG2210XMP-M2 (8-Port 2.5GBASE-T w/ POE+ and 2-Port 10GE SFP+, Smart Switch)
    * TP-LINK SG3210XHP-M2 (8-Port 2.5GBASE-T w/ POE+ and 2-Port 10GE SFP+, L2+ Managed Switch)
    * TP-LINK SG3218XP-M2 similar with SG3210XHP-M2 but adds 8x 2.5GBASE-T w/o POE

35. @Steven has a good point, you plan to keep you existing hardware and later opgrade with managed switches and vlans.

36. Generally, it seems as if many of the switches and chips in the SOHO class are a couple of years old? Are there any new chipsets from Realtech or others coming out this spring?
    I’m trying to find one for a condo, upgrading from 8x1Gb to 2.5/10 and at least a managed switch. I’d like 8X 2,5 and at least 2 or better 4x 10GbE TBase-T, as I rather not want to deal with fiber and clutter or the heat or price of adaptors. It should also support VLANs from another switch if it is unmanaged. Like tp-link tl-sx105.

37. Wonderful article,
    I have a proposal tho: can you please add a table, so that we can directly compare the ‘interesting’ features? Idle Power, Additional power per 2.5Gb port used, additional power per 10G port used, (I’d add an “additional power for DAC cable used) etc.
    That would be VERY useful!
    Many thanks!

38. It’s strange that those 2.5G only switches use more power in idle (~4W) than 2.5G switches with SFP+ (~1W).

    Also I wonder how much of the idle power consumption is caused by the power adapter itself – would be quite interesting to take multiple switches which had different results and measure them again while using the same power adapter.

39. It’s time to make an update of this great post!

40. When was this last updated and if it has been in 2024 (This year), please, reflect so at the start or end of this guide somewhere?

41. The commonest problems in the Amazon reviews are that most of these switches lose connection and have to be power-cycled every couple of weeks or they run too hot and fail after several months. A report on how the ones you have are faring after a year would make an informed choice much easier.

42. Please review the TL-SG3428X-M2.

43. Lil feedback to this page… would be great if the categories under “We are going to introduce a few main categories” would be links which get me right to the for me relevant section

44. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of reliability testing here.. most of the complaints on Amazon reviews say the switches hang and have to be power cycled so I haven’t bought one yet.

45. Greg, that is not the case. Just to give you an idea, before publishing the 2024 MEGA guide, we logged around 5000 days of uptime https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/mega-2-5gbe-switch-guide-update-with-21-new-models-added.43986/post-422961

    At the same time, these are small sample sizes.

46. I recently picked up the Mokerlink 2G08110GSM from Amazon for 86.11. Next day Prime shipping.
    8x 2.5G and 1 10G SPF+. Managed, Metal Case.
    It is the managed version of the 2G08110GS you have listed above.
    I picked it up based on your review of the non-managed one.
    So far it is running well.

    If you don’t have one yet for review, you may consider getting one.

47. I am not sure why anyone is considering any of these brands when the Grandstream GWN7701M is cheaper than all of these options, has the same chipset, and is an American based company. Its list price is MSRP: $85.00 for the 8 port model, and that is list!

48. Of the Grandstream GWN7700M 5 port with 1 SFP+ for MSRP 65 list. Can STH review both of these?

49. Any chance you’ll get in an even lower cost unit (5 ports POE at time of posting says $69.00) like this one?

    If it actually works I think we’ve finally officially reached the 2.5GB desktop metal case era.

50. Do any of these accept POE power rather that require a nearby AC Outlet?

51. Really MikroTik would be the one to look at for that kind of capability in the lower price band.

52. Hisource 4 8 Port 2.5G Ethernet Switch None POE Network Switch with 1*10G SFP Port for IP Camera/CCTV Security

    $38

    Cheapest I’ve seen.

53. There are 2 newer D-Link 2.5GbE switches
    DMS-108 8-Port, max power consumption 8.6W
    DMS-105 5-Port, max power consumption 4.9W
    and both smaller than the other switches

54. Ubiquiti released the 5 port Flex Mini 2.5G (sold out). It was listed for $49, but is now listed for $65. You can manage just like any of their other switches. VLAN support may be lacking for now. They’ve essentially taken market unless you’re looking for ultra cheap. The USB-C port is on the same side as the ethernet devices.

    I had been planning to buy the cheap TP-Link unmanaged 5 port 2.5G switch, but not anymore.

55. You should check out this one: XikeStor SKS7300-8GPY4XGS-P

56. What would you suggest for this scenario?

    – 1Gbps fios internet connect
    – Ideally want one device for routing that also has at least (3) 2.5Gbe ports on it to connect to a NAS and 2 miniPC’s for local file copy. Those ports could also be SFP or better for local switching.
    – High quality SQM/IDS
    – No need for wireless, I’ll keep a separate access point and swap to wi-fi 7 later

    Obviously I could use a separate router and 2.5gbe+ switch, but it just adds clutter and I don’t really need more. Fortunately the router is located near the NAS and miniPCs so I can tie them all together.

    Looked at:

    – Ubiquity Gateway Max ($200) – but limited to 1.5Gbps IDS it seems
    – Ubiquity Gateway Ultra – only 1gbps ports
    – TPLink ER707-M2: only 1 port can be 2.5Gbe, not sure about IDS/SQM quality

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