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Your laptop never has enough ports—especially if it's the Macbook Air this guide was written on. You can carry around an array of dongles to plug everything in, or you can nab one of these USB hubs. Hubs expand the number and kind of ports available from one device so you can cut down on the clutter. After testing dozens over the years, these are the best USB hubs I've found for different needs.
Hunting for more home-office gizmos and gadgets? Check out our other guides, including the Ultimate Work-From-Home Gear, the Best Office Chairs, the Best USB Flash Drives, and the Best Portable External Storage Drives.
Update May 2024: Added the Monoprice 5-in-1 USB-C Hub, Satechi USB-C Multiport 8K Hub, and Ugreen Revodok Pro 211 Docking Station.
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USB hubs are small, portable devices you can plug directly into a port on your laptop to get extra USB ports, SD card readers, headphone jacks, and other extra connections. However, if you plan on regularly connecting your laptop to a full-blown workstation—with a keyboard, mouse, monitors, the whole shebang—then you might want to consider a docking station instead.
USB docking stations are larger, more expensive, and are designed to spend most of their time on your desk. They typically have a power supply to charge other devices and offer multiple monitor outputs, plus Ethernet connections. If you frequently use your laptop at a desk, we'll have a new guide soon on the best docking stations, so stay tuned.
Satechi makes some of the nicest accessories I've held, and this hub is no exception. It's built from the same aluminum as the rest of Satechi's gear with a short, braided cable leading to a USB-C connector. It's designed to feel at home next to a Macbook Pro or Surface Laptop and nails that vibe.
This hub has several USB-C ports and conveniently labels them by their maximum speed. In my testing, I consistently got speeds of 850 to 900 megabytes per second on its fastest USB-C ports, and there's a fourth that can reach over 400 MB/s. Even if you're like me and regularly need to transfer hundreds of gigabytes of 6K footage, it can handle those hefty tasks in minutes. It also has an HDMI port that supports up to 8K video at 30 frames per second (fps), though this is overkill. The real benefit of this capable port is that it's capable of 4K video at up to 120 fps or 1080p at up to a whopping 240 fps. I test gaming laptops, and this is one of the few hubs that can keep up with the frame-rate demands for powerful games when I connect them to an external monitor.
The downside is that it lacks USB-A ports. It's quite future-facing in that way, and there are enough USB-C accessories and peripherals these days that it might not be an issue, but we have more options below if the older USB-A port is a must-have.
Connects via USB-C. Ports include:
If all you need is a couple of extra USB ports, specifically USB-A, this Monoprice 5-in-1 model does the trick for a super low price. It connects via USB-C and adds three USB-A ports to your machine, each of which reached about 400 MB/s in my testing. That was more than enough for most typical work tasks, and even worked for moving around video files. You can use the USB-C port on the end to pass-through charge your laptop—the hub supports up to 100 watts, which is plenty to keep the most power-hungry laptops charged (with the right wall adapter).
It's one of the cheapest hubs I've tested, and if you're traveling with it, you might want to keep it in a padded pocket. The plastic case feels smooth and lightweight in a way that borders on flimsy.
Connects via USB-C. Ports include:
This Anker USB hub is the one I carry in my camera bag everywhere. It plugs into the USB-C port on your laptop and provides every connection you'd need to offload photos or videos from camera gear.
In my testing, the USB 3.0 ports reached transfer speeds over 400 MB/s, which isn't quite as fast as some USB hubs on this list, but it's solid for a sub-$50 device. Similarly, the SD card reader reached speeds of 80 MB/s for reading and writing, which isn't the fastest SD cards can get, but adequate for moving files back and forth.
Connects via USB-C. Ports include:
Wouldn’t it be nice if the USB hub you carry around had some storage of its own? This one from Satechi can (sort of) do that with its M.2 solid state drive enclosure. Open the panel on the back and you can slot in an internal SSD card and access it whenever you plug the hub into your computer. It's incredibly handy and I wish more USB hubs and docks had it. Just know that the M.2 SATA SSD is not included. One-terabyte drives like this one from Western Digital or this one from Samsung will do the job.
The SSD can reach up to 5 Gbps, but the USB-A 3.1 ports are even faster. In my testing, they reached speeds of 880 MB/s (or roughly 7Gbps). Put it all together and you could plug in several storage options and move all your data around incredibly fast. To top it all off, it has the same aluminum chassis as Satechi's other accessories, giving it a premium feel.
Connects via USB-C. Ports include:
Most laptop docking stations are bulky gadgets that often require a power source, but this one from Ugreen straddles the line between dock and hub. It has a small, braided cable running to a relatively large aluminum block. It's a bit hefty but still compact, and it packs a lot of extra power. It has three USB ports (one USB-C and two USB-A) that each reached up to 900 MB/s of data-transfer speeds in my testing. That was enough to move large amounts of 4K video footage in minutes.
The hub also has enough ports to connect to a full, multimonitor desktop setup, not to mention other peripherals like a keyboard and mouse, even some headphones. It's the best option before upgrading to a full docking station.
Connects via USB-C. Ports include:
The goal of USB was to make one port that could do it all. The reality is … a lot more complicated than that. There are various generations of USB, with different capabilities and speeds, plus ports that look similar but do other things. There are a few key terms you should know when shopping for a USB hub:
It would be nice if you could plug a USB 3.2 device into a USB 3.2 port using a USB 3.2 cable and trust that it all works. Unfortunately, it's way more complicated than that.
When USB 3.0 came out in 2008 it had a max speed of around 5 Gbps. However, when USB 3.1 came out in 2013 with a max speed of 10 Gbps, the 5-Gbps version was renamed to USB 3.1 Gen 1, while the new, faster spec was USB 3.1 Gen 2. Confused yet? Well, it gets worse. When USB 3.2 came out in 2019, the 5-Gbps USB was rebranded again to “USB 3.2 Gen 1,” the 10-Gbps version became “USB 3.2 Gen 2,” and the new 20-Gbps spec became—you guessed it—USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. … Wait, what? The “2x2” refers to running two 10 Gbps lanes of data simultaneously and … you don't need to know all of this. Many hub manufacturers have given up on names, labels, and symbols. They've just started printing the maximum speed next to ports directly.
What this means for you is that if you're using older storage devices or accessories, you may want to look up the specific generation of USB if speed matters to you. A device marketed as “USB 3.0” several years ago, and a device marketed as “USB 3.2” today could potentially have identical transfer speeds if the manufacturer is less than forthcoming with generation names or transfer speed ratings.
Thunderbolt is an Intel-owned standard made in collaboration with Apple that uses the same USB-C connector as typical USB devices. However, there are certain extra requirements that have to be met before a device can earn the Thunderbolt label.
Getting a hub that's capable of massive data transfer speeds won't matter much if any cables you use aren't capable of those same speeds. This is an easy thing to overlook because most cables don't have labels that tell you what speeds they support. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to ensure you're using the right cable:
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