Hello MikroTik Team and Community,
I've been following MikroTik's switch lineup for a while and I’m wondering whether MikroTik has any plans to release a low-cost, low-power SwitchOS switch built around the Realtek RTL8373 - something in the same vein as the UniFi USW-Flex-2.5G-5: compact, inexpensive, 2.5G-capable on the uplink and power-efficient.
A few concrete ideas / features that would make this really compelling:
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Base chipset: Realtek RTL8373
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Ports: 5-port version (4×1G + 1×2.5G) similar to the USW-Flex-2.5G-5 - or an 8-port variant with 2×10G SFP+ / 2.5G RJ45 uplinks for small office/home office use
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Software: SwitchOS (SwOS) with VLAN, RSTP, Link aggregation, Multicats, Mirroring, Security, QOS, basic ACLs and easy Layer-2 management
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Low power consumption: emphasis on energy efficiency for always-on edge deployments
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PoE: a variant with PoE passthrough or limited PoE output would be great, but I understand cost/power limits
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Price point: target a noticeably cheaper price than current MikroTik CRS lineup — something attractive to home/small business buyers
Why this would fit the market: many small deployments want more than 1 Gbit on uplinks for NAS / Wi-Fi 6/6E APs, but don’t need the full CRS feature + power/cost. A simple, affordable 2.5G-capable SwitchOS product would fill that gap.
Questions for the MikroTik team and community:
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Does MikroTik have any roadmap or plans for a consumer/small-business SwitchOS device based on RTL-class low-power switch chips (e.g., RTL8373) ?
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If not planned, would there be technical or licensing reasons that make low-cost Realtek-based SwitchOS devices unlikely ?
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Would an 8-port model with 2×10G uplinks appeal to the MikroTik user base, or is that market already covered by CRS devices ?
Thanks for any info - and if this is a feature/request that others want, please upvote or comment with what port/uplink configuration you’d prefer.
Thanks and have a nice day,
Bence
