Any recommendations, personal experiences for a WiFi extender I could connect to my Uverse gateway?

I don't know that I want to pay them $10 a month for a device I can purchase that would pay for itself after a few months.

(edited to add)

I may have posted to soon.

Should I be looking searching for thread on installing a mesh?

Thanks all

Mesh is the way I would go though I do use an extender with the mesh in my shop building.

Yes go mesh. I dumped Uverse recently but kept the AT&T internet. I turned off the WiFi in the gateway settings and went with a Netgear Orbi with satellites. Much better and not having the drop offs I was having with the gateway.