I'm in the same place, maybe for different reasons.
Our sites are still on the old AC87's. While these routers have served us (
and with the very able, capable, friendly and willing help of the members of the forum) exceptionally well over the last 7-years. Now it's time to move on not just for performance but primarily for security. I have not seen a FW update from ASUS since May of 2021 (3.0.0.4.382_52545-ga0245cc) and really don't expect to as the 5/21 update was very pleasantly surprising in itself!
The limits of WPA-2, VPN limited to PPTP and OpenVPN, and actual zero vendor-customer support
notwithstanding the FW updates, which have been stellar, imo, are just forcing the issue.
For us these AC87R's (the BestBuy version of the AC87) have been absolute beasts with "can't fail" hardware and performance. Oh, there have been many "issues" but by-and-large those have all been PEBKAC arising from negligence, absent-mindedness, and — well —
tweaking.
Now, after nearly 7-decades (for me), it's time to get this stuff updated and stabilized for the next soul(s) in my saddle, and I've grown very lazy (selfish) with my remaining time, and very conscientious of the time required of others based on my decisions today. So while I am very,
very fond of the Asus brand and have great respect, admiration, and appreciation for their continued FW support of such old tech as our AC87's, I too am considering jumping ship and leaving behind me installed Synology routers, probably in mesh networks.
However… the door is still open. So I'm still Asus
v Synology.
My goal is setups of good-to-excellent performance
today, with stellar support, and adequate stability to provide for
mea heredes to bring themselves up-to-speed over time during their day-to-day functions such that they can provide 95% of the support needed as it occurs, and be able to seek out the remaining 5% either through the OEM, forums such as this, or in last-ditch desperation, with a paid outside expert. It's that old saw — if you can't figure it out in blue water with the assets on-hand your options instantly go to zero.
On the Asus side I've experienced very solid devices*; great FW support & updates; excellent (for the time) built-in OEM features; a first-class UI far better than competing models in the "prosumer" or SMB class; and ASUSWRT-Merlin along with this forum.
On the Synology side is the similitude of the the UI/X side-by-side with our multi-site Synology servers UI/X in DSM 7.1; cross-platform transferable knowledge for the admin and users; single-vendor simplicity (a plus
AND a minus depending on the circumstances, e.g., CCP
v Taiwan); and
the best OEM-customer support I have ever encountered; and a more SMB-to-MNC focused team; but, it also carries limited router hardware experience; new router OS with SRM
1.3 on the RT6600ax; hardware limitations compared to the Asus; etc.
So I am torn.
If anyone has good and/or bad experience with both platforms, I for one would really appreciate your chiming-in with whatever knowledge and/or experience you care to share.
Sky
*Our AC87's are on cabinet tops, two feet of open conditioned air in five directions and elevated about 1/2" on the bottoms for additional circulation, which may have helped their longevity