Wi-Fi or Ethernet

Networking

Wired Ethernet connections are faster, more reliable, and have lower latency than wireless connections. You should use a wired connection whenever it is practical if performance is a priority, although newer Wi-Fi standards like Wi-Fi 6 have narrowed the performance gap significantly.

Wi-Fi is extremely convenient for small, portable devices, but when performance is required, you cannot beat an Ethernet connection. Ethernet connections are several times faster than most Wi-Fi networks, and typically have a fraction of the latency.

Is Ethernet Faster Than Wi-Fi?

Ethernet is typically faster than Wi-Fi. The better type of Ethernet cable commonly used is Cat6A, rated for data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps (gigabits per second). Wi-Fi 6E, which is currently the fastest Wi-Fi officially available, can only reach speeds of a few gigabits per second. Ethernet connections are also less prone to interference and have lower latency than even the best Wi-Fi networks. If reliability and speed are the priority, Ethernet cables cannot be beat.

How Much Faster Is Ethernet?

Ethernet is just plain faster than Wi-Fi --- there's no getting around that fact. But the real-world differences are smaller than you might think. Wi-Fi has gotten significantly faster over the last few years, thanks to new standards like Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), which offers a maximum speed of about 9.6 gigabits per second. Even though this is a maximum speed for all your wireless devices to share (and you likely won't get those speeds in the real world), Wi-Fi has become good enough to handle most of our daily tasks.