The 8 Best Wood Routers of 2026

A digital readout on a router sounds like a gadget until you are setting up a second pass and cannot remember what speed you used for the first one. SKIL put an LCD on the RT1322-00 that suggests a speed based on the bit type and the material, and it is the detail that makes this kit feel like it belongs further up the shelf than it does.

Under the screen is a serious two-base setup: a 14-amp motor, fixed and plunge bases, 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch collets, and dust adaptors that fit either base. The 25,000 rpm top end is a step behind the Bosch, but electronic feedback holds the rpm where you set it and the soft start keeps the tool from jumping when you switch it on. We think this is the best value in the group for anyone who needs both bases and does not need to run a production shop.

The plunge action is smooth and the handles fall where your hands expect them, which matters more than a spec sheet suggests on deep cuts where you are leaning into the tool. Depth adjustment is easy to set and easy to read, and the live-tool indicator takes the guesswork out of whether the thing is still connected.

It is a bench-and-table router rather than a hand tool, and that is the honest limit of the kit: happiest bolted under a top or braced against a bench, doing the heavy shaping it was bought for. For casework and built-ins, that is exactly the brief.

If there is a stack of DEWALT 20V batteries on your shelf, the DCW600B is the least expensive way to get a router into your hand without a cord dragging across the workpiece. It is the tool-only version, so you are buying the motor, the fixed base, and a wrench, and the packs you already own do the rest.

At 4.2 pounds it is the lightest router here, and the weight is the whole point. Trim on installed cabinets, hinge mortises, a quick roundover on a shelf edge already on the wall: the jobs where you are holding the tool up and reaching around a corner are where a cordless compact stops being a compromise. The electronic brake is the detail we came to count on, because shut it off and the bit spins down fast instead of coasting while you set the tool down.

Power is not the problem. The brushless motor turns up to 25,500 rpm, the variable-speed dial covers the range small bits want, and the dual LEDs put light on the cut line where the overhead fixtures never reach. It is a 1/4-inch router, so edge profiles, flush trimming, and hinge work are its territory rather than panel raising.

Two things to weigh before ordering: the batteries and charger are not in the box, and the value only holds if you already own them. Buy packs for this router and the arithmetic stops working, which is the honest case for choosing it only when you are on the platform. On the platform, it is the one that goes to the work instead of the work coming to it.

At 3.9 pounds with a barrel slim enough to close a hand around, the RT0701C is what a trim router should feel like. It is the corded compact we reach for when the job is hinges, laminate, or a roundover on something already installed, the kind of work where the tool has to go exactly where your hand goes.

The 6.5-amp, 1.25 hp motor is the reason it earns a place rather than just being small. Wound up toward 30,000 rpm it handles light passes in hardwood without bogging down, and the dial runs down to 10,000 rpm for bigger bits and for woods that scorch. Electronic speed control holds the rpm under load, which is what makes a cut feel predictable instead of grabby.

The quick-release cam lock is the design detail we appreciate most: the whole motor lifts out of the base for bit changes, and the base comes off with a cam rather than a wrench. The short body keeps your hand close to the work, which is most of why it feels steadier than its weight suggests on a long edge.

If you already own Makita 18V packs, the XTR01Z is this same router without the cord. The corded version stays the pick when the job is a long run of edge profiles and you want constant power rather than a battery gauge to watch.

No plunge base, and that is the point. The RT1323-00 is a fixed-base router, which is how it ends up the least expensive way in this group to get a 2 hp motor and a 1/2-inch collet. If every cut you make starts at the edge of a board, you are not giving anything up.

What you get for that trade is more than we expected at this end of the range: soft start, a variable-speed dial, a live-tool indicator that lights whenever the router is connected to power, and an LED-lit clear base so you can see the cut line in a dim corner. The 10-amp motor turns to 25,000 rpm, and the die-cast housing with shaped handles gives you somewhere solid to put both hands. It is simply easy to control, which counts for more than a spec bump on a first router.

Depth sets in fine increments and the base is wide and flat, which is what makes this one a natural under a tabletop; SKIL builds a matching router table and this drops straight in. That is where we picture most of these living, and it is the job the design is best at.

Where it stops is any cut that has to start in the middle of a board. No plunge base means no mortises, no stopped grooves, and no lowering the bit in from above. For a first router that will spend most of its life upside down under a top, that is the right compromise to make.

Set it next to the DEWALT DCW600B and the Milwaukee 2723-20 is the bigger, stronger cordless compact: 4.8 pounds against 4.2, 1.25 hp, and a dial that reaches 31,000 rpm at the top and down to 10,000 at the bottom, the widest range in this group.

The low end is the useful part. Slowing a router down is how you keep a large-diameter bit from scorching an edge or grabbing, and having 10,000 rpm available on a battery tool is not something we take for granted. The macro-adjust button gives 1.5 inches of quick travel before you switch to the fine screw, which is exactly the sequence you want when you are setting up a dado and then sneaking up on the fit.

The trade-offs are real. The depth adjuster does not lock, and it is easy to nudge as you switch the tool on or off, so check depth before a pass rather than after one. It is thirsty, too: a compact cordless in hardwood empties a small pack quickly, and this one wants the bigger batteries kept within reach. The collet also grips a shank firmly enough that bit changes take a deliberate hand.

None of that changes what it is good at. If you want one cordless compact for heavier profile work and you are already invested in Milwaukee's 18V line, the speed range and the macro adjust are worth the extra weight over the lighter options.

Some routers are hand tools that occasionally go in a table. The DW616 is the other way around: it is a fixed-base router built to live under a tabletop, and that is why it is here. The quick-release motor latches let you pull the motor out for a bit change without unscrewing anything, which is the difference between a table you use and a table you avoid.

The 11-amp, 1.75 hp motor is more than any compact can offer, and the micro-fine depth ring adjusts in 1/64-inch steps, small enough to dial in a tongue-and-groove fit or a raised-panel step without guessing. We also like the sub-base concentricity gauge in the box: it lets you center the bit in the base opening, the kind of setup most routers leave you to eyeball. Both the 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch collets come with it, and the tool-free steel cam lock holds the motor solidly once seated.

The catch is that there is no variable-speed dial. One speed, full stop, and large-diameter bits want to run slower than small ones, so a panel-raising bit at full speed in hardwood is not a comfortable cut. If you want a fixed base with a speed dial, the SKIL RT1323-00 has one for less money; if you want the heavier casting and the concentricity gauge, this is the one.

Makita did not redesign the base when it cut the cord. The XTR01Z uses the same base geometry as the corded RT0701C, so the guides, offset bases, and edge accessories from that router carry straight over. That is a small thing that saves real money for anyone already invested in the corded version.

What you are buying is a compact that behaves like the corded one until the battery says otherwise. The brushless motor runs 10,000 to 30,000 rpm with electronic speed control holding the setting under load, and the on/off button has a separate lock so you cannot bump it into life by accident. In the hand it is short and balanced, which is most of why it is pleasant for hinge mortises and shelf edges.

Runtime is the honest caveat with any cordless router and this one is no exception: a 5 Ah pack carries it through a stretch of light trim work, and hardwood moulding drinks it faster. Keep a second pack charged and it stops being a thought.

The fixed base is where we ask for more. Fine depth adjustment takes fiddling compared with a rack-and-pinion knob, and the plunge base is the much happier place to do that work if you have one. For trim and hinge duty, the trade never comes up.