Banana Pi BPI-R4 vs FriendlyElec NanoPi R6S
Side-by-side facts with the differences marked. A spec advantage is not a verdict: what matters depends on your connection, your space and what you run on the router.
Fully supported
Photo: OpenWrt wiki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized
Fully supported
Photo: OpenWrt wiki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized
| Factual data | Banana Pi BPI-R4 Advanced Users Only | FriendlyElec NanoPi R6S Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OpenWrt | ||
| Support | Fully supported | Fully supported |
| Status | Current stable release | Current stable release |
| Supported since | 24.10.0 | 24.10.0 |
| Latest release | 25.12.6 | 25.12.6 |
| Installation | Moderate | Moderate |
| Warnings | None | None |
| Hardware | ||
| SoC | MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880) | Rockchip RK3588S |
| Architecture | ARM 64-bit (aarch64) | ARM 64-bit (aarch64) |
| CPUBased on core count × clock speed within the same architecture, not a benchmark. | 4 cores @ 1.8 GHz | 8 cores @ 2.4 GHzmore CPU |
| RAM | 4 GB | 8 GBmore RAM |
| Flash | 8 GB | 32 GBmore flash |
| USB | 1× USB 3.2 | 2× USB 3.0 + 2.0more USB |
| Network | ||
| Fastest port | 10 GbEfaster Ethernet | 2.5 GbE |
| Multi-gig ports | 2× 10 GbE | 2× 2.5 GbE |
| Ethernet ports | 6 | 3 |
| Wi-Fi | No Wi-Fi | No Wi-Fi |
| Max wireless (theoretical) | — | — |
| VLAN | Yes | Yes |
| Suitability (our estimate) | ||
| WireGuard | Excellent | Excellent |
| OpenVPN | Good | Excellent |
| SQM | Excellent | Excellent |
| Travel router | No | No |
| Editorial | ||
| Overall score | 7.8 | 8.2 |
| Typical price | ~$110 | ~$130 |
| Where to buy | Retailers → | Retailers → |
▲ marks the router with the advantage on that line. Prices are editorial references, not live prices.
We have not written an editorial comparison for this pair. Read each router’s full page for our opinion: Banana Pi BPI-R4 · FriendlyElec NanoPi R6S.