Do I need a managed or unmanaged switch?

Unmanaged for 99% of home and small office users. Managed switches add VLANs, QoS, port monitoring, and remote management — features needed in corporate networks. If you do not know what VLANs are, you do not need a managed switch.

Will adding a switch slow down my network?

No. Modern switches operate at wire speed — they forward packets at full bandwidth with negligible latency (microseconds). Adding a switch does not slow down your network. The bottleneck is almost always your internet connection speed, not the switch.

Best Ethernet Switches Unmanaged 2026