Quick tip, before buying a new router try this one setting first

[Outlaw]

If your WiFi has been getting slower or dropping out more lately, before spending money on new hardware, check whether your router is still broadcasting on the 2.4GHz band as the primary connection for most devices. Log into your router settings and look for the band steering or WiFi channel settings

Older routers and a lot of default configurations lean heavily on 2.4GHz for compatibility, but that band gets crowded fast in apartment buildings or dense neighborhoods since every neighbor's router, microwave, and even some baby monitors compete for the same limited channels. Switching your main devices over to 5GHz, or splitting your network into separate 2.4 and 5GHz names so you can manually choose which band each device connects to, often fixes congestion issues without spending a cent

While you're in there, check what channel your router is actually set to. Auto channel selection sounds convenient but it doesn't always pick the least congested option in dense areas, manually setting it to a channel your neighbors aren't already using can meaningfully cut down on interference

If you've done all that and things are still rough, only then is it worth looking at mesh systems or a hardware upgrade, since a lot of what feels like a dead router is actually just channel congestion that a five minute settings change can resolve