Five Best USB Hubs

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they look over their desk for a place to plug in their phone, a new wireless mouse, a portable hard drive, or some other peripheral, only to discover they’re out of USB ports. When that happens, it’s time to buy a hub—but some hubs are definitely better than others. This week we’re looking at five of the best, based on your nominations.

USB hubs come in all shapes, sizes, and types. You can spend a ton and get a high-end USB 3.0 hub with lights and tons of powered ports, or spend next to nothing on a portable USB 2.0 hub you can take with you in your pocket or your go bag. Earlier in the week we asked you which hubs you thought were the best, and here’s what you said:

Anker 7-Port and 9-Port Powered USB 3.0 Hubs

Anker, the company that earned your praise when we asked about external battery packs, also makes powered USB 3.0 hubs, and they’re some of the most highly regarded available. The Anker 9-Port Powered USB 3.0 Hub (shown above) just got a new design, is small enough to go with you in your laptop bag, is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices, looks sharp, and sports an additional port just for charging your devices over USB. The hub is also powered, so if you have devices like external hard drives that use USB for juice, they’ll work without issue.

However, you’ll pay for the good looks and for USB 3.0. The 9-port will set you back $60 at Amazon, and the 7-port model is $50. Make sure you have USB 3.0 devices (and most importantly, a USB 3.0 port on your desktop or laptop) before going in on these ones—they’re well designed, portable, and sturdy, but if you’re using them for USB 2.0 (and you’re not planning an upgrade soon), you’re paying for a benefit you won’t get. If you like Anker’s approach but don’t like these models, you can check out all of their hubs here.

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Belkin 2-in-1 7-Port USB 2.0 Hub

Belkin doesn’t list this 2-in-1 USB hub on their site anymore, but it’s still widely available. People love it, and for good reason—for your $17, you actually get two USB hubs: a portable 4-port unpowered hub that’s perfect for mice, wireless device receivers, USB keys, and other light devices, and then a full 7-port powered hub you get when you dock the 4-port hub into its powered base. The powered base adds three more ports, and even has a little storage up front for paper clips or change, or a place to rest your devices while they’re charging or connected to your hub.

The 2-in-1 is a USB 2.0 hub, so you should expect slower speeds if you connect USB 3.0 devices, but if you don’t have (or care) about USB 3.0, it’s a great and affordable investment. Even the full body, complete with powered base, is small enough to toss in a laptop bag or a suitcase and take on the road with you, but once disconnected, the 4-port mini-hub is small enough to slip into a pocket.

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Macally Mini 7-Port USB 2.0 Hub

This pyramid-shaped USB hub is simple, affordable, and pretty much delivers what you’d want if you wanted a cheap USB hub that gave you plenty of room to connect dongles, drives, receivers, and other devices. It rests on its side, is small enough to fit in a corner of your desk or right under your monitor, and it’ll only set you back $23 at Amazon. If you don’t need so many ports, there’s a 4-port model for $18. Both models even separate out some of the ports to accommodate large USB devices with a big footprint, so they don’t get in the way of the other ports. They each come with their own external power adapter, and can be used in both powered or unpowered mode, depending on what you need.

The Macally Mini 7-Port USB 2.0 Hub is actually a rebranded Trust Pyramid 7-port USB 2.0 Hub, but since it’s not widely available anymore under its own name, we decided to stick with Macally’s name, especially since you can actually buy the Macally branded version at Amazon. They’re simple, space-saving, and they get the job done. Sure, there are no fancy lights or indicators, and they don’t support USB 3.0, but they’re a great option.

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Plugable 10-Port Powered USB 2.0 and 7-Port USB 3.0 Hubs

Plugable makes a wealth of PC peripherals, including docking stations, USB hubs, external graphics adapters, and more, and they’re almost all budget-friendly for what you get. In this case, the Plugable 10-Port powered USB 2.0 hub earned multiple nominations for being affordable (it’s only $25 at Amazon), but also for being portable, and easy to use in small spaces. Two of the four rear ports flip up from the rear of the hub into a vertical position for easy use. Six front-facing ports keep the look slim, and while the hub is powered, Plugable doesn’t recommend charging your gear with it. Still, it’s a space-saving way to add a ton of USB ports—all powered—to your PC without spending a ton of money.

If you have more dollars to spend and you need USB 3.0 compatibility, a few of you called out Plugable’s 7-port USB 3.0 hub, which ships with a 4 Amp power adapter and is ready to fire up your USB 3.0 hard drives and peripherals without hassle. It’ll set you back $35 at Amazon, but that’s still pretty affordable for a USB 3.0 hub, and as a result it’s one of the most popular USB 3.0 hubs at Amazon. Both models are simple black boxes that are small enough to toss in a bag with your laptop, and have blue LED indicators for power or active ports.

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Monoprice USB Hubs

Monoprice is great for a lot of unexpected things, and USB hubs are certainly one of them. They make a wide array of USB hubs, several of which earned nominations here and there from some of you. I specifically called out the four dollar 4-port USB 2.0 Cube (10065), but others of you mentioned the $14 Aquagate 7-port USB 2.0 powered hub (5328) instead. Both models are tiny enough to go anywhere with you, and while the Aquagate is a powered model, it’s still small enough to slip in a pocket without its associated cables.

If you have more to spend, their $27 circular 12-port powered USB 2.0 hub and $40 circular 24-port powered USB 2.0 hub are both perfect for connecting tons of devices to the same PC, and they’re still small enough to take with you, even if odds are you won’t be taking the devices along with.

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That’s all there is this week! Now it’s time to put them to a vote to determine the Lifehacker favorite.

Honorable mentions this week go out to Dr. Who Tardis 4-port USB 2.0 Hub, which earned a ton of nominations, which we can totally appreciate. There’s a special place in my heart for novelty USB hubs and other desk toys, and when we talked about it around Lifehacker HQ, more than a few of us noted that we’d rather have a novelty hub on our desks than a plain black box with nothing visually special about it. Besides, this one’s bigger on the inside.

Also worth a mention if you have the type of desk that can support it is the simple grommet USB hub. They come in different types, prices, and from different brands. The one specifically nominated is a USB 3.0 grommet hub that’s currently unavailable, but if you have a desk with those circular slots for cable management, a grommet hub may be right for you.

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn’t included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don’t just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it’s not because we hate it—it’s because it didn’t get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it’s a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com.

Title photo by Clive Darra.

Five Best USB Hubs