Best-of guide
Three options: a portable bus-powered hub for occasional expansion, and two powered Thunderbolt docks for a permanent desk.
This shortlist answers a specific question: how do you expand a laptop that has too few ports. The answer depends on whether you need a portable hub or a permanent desk dock, so both are represented.
Prices, firmware and port behaviour change. Treat everything here as a starting point for your own research, and confirm the current specification on the manufacturer page before buying.
Methodology
How the products below were evaluated and chosen.
Bandwidth
Whether the product provides Thunderbolt bandwidth or shares USB bandwidth across its ports.
Power delivery
How much wattage reaches the laptop after the hub draws its own power and the power used by attached devices.
Port mix
Whether the ports you need exist and can be used at the same time.
Power source
Bus powered for portability, externally powered for a fixed desk.
Display support
How many displays the product drives, and at which resolution and refresh rate.
Shortlist
Each entry states why it was selected. Top picks are scoped to a use case.
Why it is here: Best portable option. Bus powered, covers the essential ports, and travels easily. Accepts shared bandwidth and limited laptop charging.
Port count: 8-in-1
Why it is here: The cheaper powered dock. A Thunderbolt 3 generation dock with fifteen ports, up to 87 W of charging and dual 4K output, for a desk where Thunderbolt 4 bandwidth is not needed.
Protocol: Thunderbolt 3
Why it is here: Best for a permanent desk. Powered Thunderbolt dock with more bandwidth, more ports and high-wattage laptop charging, at a higher cost and no portability.
Protocol: Thunderbolt 4
Notes
Two different jobs
The portable hub and the desk dock are not competitors. They solve the same problem in different situations, which is why both appear rather than one being ranked above the other.FAQ
It depends on what you connect. If you need one display, a card reader and a few peripherals, a bus-powered USB hub is adequate. If you need two displays, fast storage and high-wattage charging at once, Thunderbolt is the practical option.
Source:CalDigit official site
A hub consumes some of the delivered power for itself and for attached devices. The wattage the laptop receives is lower than the input rating, so a high-wattage charger may still leave the laptop charging slowly under load.
Source:Anker official site
Keep researching
How bandwidth, power delivery, display support and power sources actually work in hubs and docks.
The recorded alternative to the Anker 555 is the CalDigit TS4, a Thunderbolt 4 dock with 18 ports, 2.5 GbE and up to 98 W of laptop charging, which.
The recorded alternative to the CalDigit TS4 is the Anker 555, a bus powered 8 in 1 USB-C hub with 1 GbE and up to 85 W of power pass through that.
The Anker 555 is a bus-powered 8-in-1 USB-C hub with 1 GbE Ethernet and 85 W pass-through power. The CalDigit TS4 is an externally powered Thunderbolt 4 dock with 18 ports and 98 W of laptop charging. How the recorded specifications differ.
The TS3 Plus records Thunderbolt 3, 15 ports, up to 87 W of charging and 1 GbE. The TS4 records Thunderbolt 4, 18 ports, up to 98 W and 2.5 GbE Ethernet.
The CalDigit TS3 Plus is a powered Thunderbolt 3 dock with 15 ports, up to 87 W of laptop charging, 1 GbE Ethernet and support for two 4K displays.
