So in my new house my wifi signal is kind of weak in the main bedroom and I can't really move the router easily to a more central spot. Do wifi boosters/extenders actually help and/or how do I know if I buy one it will be strong enough to get where it needs?

1) They can be helpful.
2)Wired backhaul is preferable but wireless backhaul can work.
3)What's your current router?
4)Describe your house size and router location. Are you in a dense neighborhood where you can see a lot of SSIDs for other WiFi networks or is it more or less just yours, or your network plus a couple others you see?

Why can't you move the router? Have you considered Powerline adaptors?

Current router:
Netgear WNDR4500-100PAS N900 Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Router (about 3-4 years old).

House is 1200 square feet with router at one end of it. I live in a cul-de-sac so not a dense location. Can't move router easily since there's just a single cable jack and wife doesn't want me stringing cable throughout the house.

Reading about powerline adaptors now...seems like that could work. Thanks.

@Biggle10: What's your internet connection speed? Your choice may depend a bit on that since the general target speed is for any 1 device to hit full internet speeds over the connection at any given time. Trying to get close to gigabit is tougher than trying to match a 12Mb DSL connection or 100Mb cable internet connection.

Your speeds with powerline adapters will vary immensely, depending on the wiring topology in your home. There are also WiFi extenders that use powerline for backhaul to the router, if you need/want WiFi rather than wired coverage in the bedroom.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-e...rline-adapter/

If your home is wired with coax outlets (cableTV), MOCA adapters may be an option. MOCA speeds should be faster than powerline.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=moca+adap...nb_sb_ss_i_7_5

Since you live in a low density area, 2.4GHz coverage should be mostly adequate, so you can try a WiFi repeater with wireless backhaul if you end up not going with powerline or MOCA. Speed could be better or worse than powerline, likely slower than MOCA. You'd want to place the repeater where it has a good signal from the router but is close to the bedroom, since it needs to broadcast to devices in the bedroom and retransmit back to the router.

Current download speed is 112 Mbps down, 8 up.

Any of the options between MOCA, Powerline and wireless backhaul should be able to hit that range of speed. MOCA and Powerline will likely have slightly less latency.

i agree with headtrauma

in my 1000 sq ft apartment, i have excellent wifi with one (netgear r8000p) in the middle. With a wifi repeater, it feeds my neighbours apartment (directly above mine) very well.

For a different example from Josem, I live in a similar sized apartment (940 sq ft) and had to use 2 small business grade access points to cover more or less the full apartment with 5GHz. 2.4GHz spectrum in my apartment is super crowded. inSSIDer software scan can see between 70-100 2.4GHz access points but only a handful of 5GHz because the signal dies off quicker and is more easily obstructed. 2.4GHz speed and latency leave a lot to be desired but I leave it on for a few devices that aren't dual band and so the whole place has some coverage. I run 2 Ubiquiti Unifi UAP-AC Pros with cat5e wired backhaul and use POE to power them over the same cable. If I were buying now I'd consider Unifi Dream Machine as router and primary access point and add 1 or 2 nanoHD access points for coverage (home office 5GHz signal could be better, but I have a wired connection their for desktops and work laptop dock).

Thanks for the input guys. The powerline adaptors arrived yesterday and they work great.

Awesome, glad you're up and running.

Great! Glad to hear it.