Wi-Fi Internet Radios: What to Buy, and What to Avoid

Published 12 September 2026

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A Wi-Fi internet radio is a radio-shaped box that plays station streams over your home network instead of FM or DAB. You press a button and a station from Lisbon, Lagos or Seoul comes out of the speaker, with no phone to unlock, no laptop to open and no app to update. For a kitchen, a bedside table or an older relative who just wants the radio on, that simplicity is the whole point.

It is also a category where the cheapest mistake is invisible on the box. This guide covers what actually matters, the kinds of radio worth considering, and when you are better off without one.

How a Wi-Fi radio finds its stations

Most internet radios do not search the internet by themselves. They read a station list from a directory service run by the manufacturer or the maker of the radio's chipset, and that list is what you scroll through on the little screen.

That is convenient, and it is also the biggest risk in the category. When the Reciva directory service shut down in 2021, radios from several brands that depended on it lost their station lists overnight — the hardware still worked, but there was nothing left to play. A radio is only as long-lived as the service behind it, so two things matter more than anything on the spec sheet:

• A directory that is still maintained — a brand still selling current models and still releasing firmware updates.
• The ability to add stations by URL. If the directory ever goes, a radio that accepts a stream address directly keeps working. How to find a station's stream URL explains where to get one.

What to look for

Custom station URLs. Through a web page on your network, a companion app or the radio's own menu. This is the single best piece of future-proofing.

Physical preset buttons. Four to ten stations one press away is what makes a radio better than a phone. Menus on a two-line screen get old quickly.

DAB+ or FM as well. A combination radio still plays local stations when the broadband is down, and on battery it keeps working when the power is too. If you live somewhere with good DAB coverage, internet radio vs DAB covers the trade-off.

Other ways in. Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, Chromecast built-in or AirPlay 2 let you send anything from a phone — including a station you found on 72FM — to the radio's speaker.

A battery, if it moves. A radio that follows you from the kitchen to the garden needs one, and the Wi-Fi signal needs to reach the garden too.

Outputs. A headphone socket for late listening, and a line output if you might one day connect it to a hi-fi.

An alarm that wakes to a station, if it is going on a bedside table — ideally with a fallback tone for when the stream does not start. Radio alarm clocks covers that in detail.

The kinds worth considering

Kitchen and portable radios. The traditional radio brands have Wi-Fi models that look like radios and behave like them: the Roberts Revival iStream range, Pure internet radios, and Sangean's Wi-Fi models. Most combine internet radio with DAB+ or FM, and many take batteries. Check the current model's specification for custom URLs and for the streaming services you use.

Living-room radios with better sound. Tabletop systems from brands such as Como Audio and Ruark put internet radio in a proper wooden cabinet with stereo or a larger driver. They sound noticeably fuller in a big room — which matters more for music than for speech.

A streamer for the hi-fi you already have. If there is a good amplifier and speakers in the house, a small network streamer such as the WiiM range adds internet radio, AirPlay and Chromecast to them for less than a new radio, and will sound better than any tabletop box. Playing radio through a TV or hi-fi covers the other routes.

Radios for older relatives. Look for big physical buttons, clear presets, a radio that switches on to the last station, and a screen readable from across the room. Set up the presets yourself before handing it over, and check whether the radio needs an account or an app — the best ones do not. Radio for older listeners goes further.

Or skip the radio

If you already own a Bluetooth speaker, a smart speaker or a decent pair of desk speakers, a phone or laptop playing 72FM does most of what a Wi-Fi radio does. The dedicated box wins on simplicity — one button, nothing to unlock — not on sound. Speakers for radio and radio on a smart speaker cover those set-ups.

The mistakes worth avoiding

• Buying a radio that only works through one small company's app. When the app goes, so does the radio.
• Paying for "hi-res". Radio streams arrive at 64 to 320kbps; what 320kbps actually sounds like explains why a better speaker helps more than a better certificate.
• Forgetting the Wi-Fi signal. Kitchens and garden sheds are often where the router does not reach. Try your phone's streaming in that exact spot first.
• Assuming every station is in the list. Built-in directories miss plenty, especially small and international stations. Custom URLs solve that.

How 72FM fits in

72FM plays in any browser, so it works on the phone or laptop next to the radio. To put a 72FM station on the radio itself, open the station's page, copy its stream address and add it to a radio that accepts custom URLs — or cast from your phone if the radio supports Chromecast or AirPlay. Either way, the audio comes straight from the broadcaster's own stream.