Networking · pricing
MikroTik RouterOS pricing
MikroTik RouterOS publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 1 September 2026, MikroTik RouterOS pricing is on request across 2 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- On request
- Model
- One-time purchase, per licence level
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Not on record
MikroTik RouterOS plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| RouterOS (bundled with hardware) | On request | 2 | Entry tier |
| Cloud Hosted Router (CHR) | On request | 3 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
RouterOS (bundled with hardware)
On requestThe entry tier. It covers licence level included with the router purchase price, perpetual, does not expire.
Cloud Hosted Router (CHR)
On requestOver RouterOS (bundled with hardware), this tier adds:
- Free tier available with throughput limits
- P1, P10 and P-Unlimited perpetual licence levels
- 60-day trial on paid levels
What the product covers
The full MikroTik RouterOS feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Full routing and firewall stack
- Perpetual licensing
- Cloud Hosted Router (CHR)
- Winbox and CLI management
- Wireless and VLAN support
People bring MikroTik RouterOS in for a network engineer or small isp wanting capable bgp and firewall routing hardware at a lower total cost than cisco or juniper equivalents, an organisation that specifically wants to avoid ongoing recurring licence dependency for core routing hardware, a team wanting to run routeros as a virtual router in the cloud (chr) with its own separate perpetual licensing tiers, a hobbyist or small business self-managing network infrastructure without a vendor support contract. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to MikroTik RouterOS are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Networking
Too few networking tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MikroTik RouterOS (this page) | On request | One-time purchase, per licence level | - | |
| Cisco Meraki | On request | quote, hardware plus mandatory recurring licence | - | vs MikroTik RouterOS |
| PRTG Network Monitor | On request | Per sensor tier, billed monthly on an annual contract | - | vs MikroTik RouterOS |
| OpenVPN | Free | Open source core is free; Access Server billed per simultaneous connection | - | vs MikroTik RouterOS |
| Icinga | Free | Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately | - | vs MikroTik RouterOS |
| pfSense | Free | Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate | - | vs MikroTik RouterOS |
| Auvik | On request | quote, per managed device | - | vs MikroTik RouterOS |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the MikroTik RouterOS badges page.
Before you pay for MikroTik RouterOS
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between On request and On request, with the jump itemised above. With no free tier on record, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to compare MikroTik RouterOS against the tools that do have one before committing.
MikroTik RouterOS runs on web, and is published by MikroTik of Riga, Latvia. The full record is on the MikroTik RouterOS review, and the rest of the category is under best networking tools.
MikroTik RouterOS pricing questions
- How much does MikroTik RouterOS cost?
- MikroTik RouterOS publishes 2 tiers, from On request for RouterOS (bundled with hardware) up to On request for Cloud Hosted Router (CHR). The cheapest paid tier is On request.
- Does MikroTik RouterOS have a free plan?
- Not on the record we hold: MikroTik RouterOS is listed as One-time purchase, per licence level. Whether a free trial is offered is not something this record captures, so check the vendor's site.
- What is the difference between RouterOS (bundled with hardware) and Cloud Hosted Router (CHR) on MikroTik RouterOS?
- Cloud Hosted Router (CHR) costs On request against On request, and adds free tier available with throughput limits, p1, p10 and p-unlimited perpetual licence levels, 60-day trial on paid levels.
- Which networking tools can I use without paying?
- 4 of the 8 networking tools listed alongside MikroTik RouterOS have a free tier: OpenVPN, Icinga, pfSense, ZeroTier.
- What am I actually paying for with MikroTik RouterOS?
- The record lists 5 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for a network engineer or small isp wanting capable bgp and firewall routing hardware at a lower total cost than cisco or juniper equivalents, an organisation that specifically wants to avoid ongoing recurring licence dependency for core routing hardware, a team wanting to run routeros as a virtual router in the cloud (chr) with its own separate perpetual licensing tiers.
- Does MikroTik RouterOS charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these MikroTik RouterOS prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare MikroTik RouterOS against before paying?
- The closest networking tools in this directory are Cisco Meraki, PRTG Network Monitor, OpenVPN, Icinga. Each has a side-by-side comparison with MikroTik RouterOS covering price, platforms and features.