The 3 Best Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) of 2025

The CyberPower CP900AVR has premium features that you typically find in units costing twice as much. It has 10 surge-protected outlets—five of which are battery-backed—and more than double the output necessary to power a household modem, router, PC, and external hard drive. It can keep a typical household modem and router running for up to four hours. It offers must-have features such as automatic voltage regulation, it’s easy to use, and it fits comfortably under most workstations.

It offers great battery life. The CP900AVR surpasses most models we tested in run time. Judging from our testing, we expect it to keep a modem and router running for up to four hours—or to keep a modem, router, PC, and external hard drive running for about 17 minutes—which gives you ample time to save any work and close any programs you have open.

Those results aren’t far behind what we got from our upgrade pick, and they’re more than twice as long as what we saw with our budget pick.

It treats your devices gently. Since this UPS has automatic voltage regulation (AVR), it doesn’t need to transition from wall-outlet power to battery power as often as models lacking that feature. AVR technology provides more-reliable power to connected devices that can’t tolerate power drops, such as hard drives, and it should extend the overall life of the unit.
It has plenty of outlets. The CP900AVR has a total of 10 outlets, including five battery-backed outlets, so you could keep a PC, monitor, NAS, modem, and router running for a while after the power goes out. Aligned in two rows, the outlets are spaced widely enough for you to fit most plugs, and two of them can accommodate even the bulkiest of plugs.

It has one of the longest cords of the UPS units we tested. This UPS has a thick, flexible 6-foot cord, and the flat, low-profile plug is oriented at a 45-degree angle so it won’t block more than one wall outlet.

It’s super powerful. In our testing, the CP900AVR achieved a higher peak power than any comparably priced competitor, and it was just as good as some pricier units we tested.

We were able to plug in 738 watts’ worth of devices—two lamps, a fan, 10 halogen bulbs, and even a KitchenAid mixer set to medium power—before its battery finally cried uncle and shut down.

Most people won’t be powering their KitchenAid mixers on a UPS during a blackout (and you probably shouldn’t, as doing so puts unnecessary strain on the battery). But our test is a good indicator that this UPS can power almost anything you need in your home office for at least a short while.

It offers ample surge protection. In our testing, the CP900AVR knocked down our 5,000-volt surges to just 540.4 volts. That result isn’t quite as good as what we saw from our favorite surge protectors—none of which let through more than 300 volts in testing with identical equipment and parameters—but it’s on a par with how our other UPS picks performed, and it indicates that this UPS can protect your devices against most household power spikes, sags, and surges.

It has a user-replaceable battery. When this UPS’s battery dies, you can swap it out yourself within minutes, rather than replacing the entire unit.

It has its own software. CyberPower’s PowerPanel Personal power-management software is available as a free download with all its UPS models. The utility alerts you when power outages occur and lets you manage automatic and scheduled shutdowns, track the power consumption of your UPS, and check the battery’s charge status and remaining run time.

It’s intuitive to use. This model is as easy to use as any UPS we’ve tested. It has a large, round button on the front to power the unit on and off, and another to mute the notification noises. When the volume is on, the unit issues a double-beep every 30 seconds after an outage, rapid beeping when the battery is about to die, a constant tone in the event of an overload or short circuit, or a beep every two seconds to indicate another internal problem.

Below those buttons is a cluster of four small LEDs that light up to indicate (clockwise from top left) when the unit is powered on, when the battery backup has kicked in, when the unit is overloaded, and when the AVR feature has kicked in. The unit has large vents on either side to prevent overheating, and all of the ports and connectors are located on the back.

It’s fairly compact. The unit has an upright design and dimensions that are about the same as a family-size box of cereal, so you can easily stash it next to a PC tower or wireless router at a workstation, or alongside the speakers and stereo receiver in a record-player setup.

It has lots of convenient extra features. The CP900AVR has a small LED on its backside to alert you if it detects a wiring fault in the outlet you plug it into. It also has a red button to reset the internal circuit breaker in the event of an overload or short circuit.

It lacks USB-A and USB-C ports, but it has a USB-B port and comes with the corresponding cable. This allows you to connect the UPS to your computer, so you can use CyberPower’s software or your computer’s operating system to set up data saving, monitoring, and other functions.

It has two coaxial connectors for hooking up a cable box or modem, as well as a serial port for a printer or other peripheral device. It also offers two network ports for you to connect the unit to a server, a Wi-Fi router, or any other device that requires a wired network connection.

It’s a safe buy. Costing $140 at this writing, the CP900AVR falls well under our $300 price cap. CyberPower backs it with a three-year warranty, which is as long as any coverage we’ve seen and gives you more than enough time to see if the unit works properly and meets your needs. Since power outages happen about once or twice per year on average in the US, you’ll likely have used it in a few real-world outages in that time frame.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• The CP900AVR has two fewer outlets than our other picks, but 10 outlets is plenty for most people—and all the models we tested with more outlets had worse peak power or run times.
• This model isn’t as easy to slide under a desk or an entertainment center as units that are flatter in shape, like our budget pick, so you need ample vertical space to accommodate it.
• Its ports are also less accessible since they’re located on the back of the unit instead of on top, but that’s a tolerable trade-off to reduce cord clutter.
• Like our other picks, this UPS has a modified sine-wave inverter, so it produces a slightly choppier electrical waveform than what you can get from the pure sine-wave inverters in some models. Those models are better for powering sensitive equipment, but none that we’ve tested excel in more critical areas, such as peak power output or run times.