Ubiquiti UniFi Reviews

Ubiquiti UniFi is the most cost-effective network (wired and wireless) solution on the market. I think the reason they are so cost effective is that their support model is community driven. If your needs are rather basic and you are willing to dig in and learn the solution, it will pay dividends for years to come. The advanced feature sets are lacking, but for small businesses, Ubiquiti UniFi checks most of the boxes for features required. Ubiquiti UniFi offers a lot of enhancements through software (which is free) as time goes on making the hardware a better value all the time. No support contracts required.

For switching and wireless, Ubiquiti UniFi is a hit, and as long as your requirements are pretty basic, Ubiquiti UniFi will make you look like a star with the bean counters. It's enterprise hardware for the price of happy homeowner equipment. We've deployed Unifi solutions in numerous small and medium sized businesses without and problems. With the cloud management each network can be managed from the same logon but different sites. Ubiquiti has two factor Authentication (2FA) to secure the cloud management.

The software developers at Ubiquiti are awesome. I think of Ubiquiti as a software company as much as a hardware solution. Ubiquiti offers a cloud-managed solution connecting to your controller that can be hosted locally, in the cloud, or on Ubiquiti's Cloud Key controller. 

The Cloud Key Gen2 is a huge improvement over the Gen1 solution mainly because it offers battery backup to keep the onboard MongoDB from getting corrupted when a power failure is experienced. You can manage multiple networks (sites) from the same cloud logon.

The weak link to Ubiquiti UniFi's solution is the USG (gateway/firewall appliance). While the USG offers basic features, it doesn't have much above basic. It's also underpowered to handle the advanced features that it does offer at Internet connection speeds above 250 Mbps. This could (and probably will be resolved) in a future hardware/software upgrade. At most sites, we have installed alternate security appliance solutions to the USG.

Some end users will miss the advanced features and technical support. But considering the cost, this can be seen as a plus once you get your bearings on how to configure the equipment. For large enterprises used to the feature set of Cisco, Juniper, and the other big names, this is not a good solution. There are simply too many feature shortcomings for most large enterprises. 

If you need more advanced features, Ubiquiti offers another product line called EdgeMAX. It's not as advanced as Cisco and Juniper, but it is much closer. Ubiquiti has not released any new Edgemax products in a while. The lines future is unclear.

More than nine years.

Carrier-class stability. RMA is available while under warranty. The product is cheap enough to be able to afford cold spares.

Can be scaled out to large networks as long as your requirements are basic.

The community forums are very populated with others that are more than willing to help. The biggest concern with this is if you run into something that is a show stopper there is no one to call to get a fast resolution. The equipment is so cost effective you can afford to keep cold spares on a nearby shelf though.

Neutral

Previously we used Cisco small business solutions. The cloud management and price brought Ubiquiti to the front runner position.

Pretty straightforward. If you have network experience, the quick start guide will have you off and running and impressed in no time.

In-house. Ubiquiti was very simple to learn for me. If you are familiar with network systems you will be up and running in no time.

Ubiquiti is a value leader for those looking to dig in and learn a network solution that is pretty unique in the industry with regard to value and bang for the buck.

It's very cost effective! There is no licensing required with the Unifi product line.

Cisco small business equipment, Netgear.

Purchase one of each device (switch, AP, USG) and try them out in a lab environment with a PC based controller. They are so cost effective you will find them impressive. Ubiquiti was founded by a former Apple employee, Robert Pera, who was a wifi engineer at Apple. 

Provide WiFi and Networking to School and Business Campuses that are Clients of our MSP, because we manage the networks too we can't just install some equipment and walk away, we need to be able to quickly make changes. The UniFi line gives us that ability through the Cloud Management feature. We host our own cloud management server so we are not tied to the manufacture's whims, schedules, and changes. The software easily resides on other cloud-based servers we already had so the additional monthly cost is minimal. 

The cloud management has revolutionized the way we provide services to clients, onsite trips have almost ceased and once complicated changes are made in minutes.

In the old days, if I client needed a change we had to find a PC or Server we could use to access the switch, worse is if they were having problems you couldn't even tell if the switch was up, and you had to track all those IPs. With the Ubiquiti Unifi line the switch checks into the server, so if it has any ways of reaching the internet we can see what is going on.

Definitely Cloud management, to be able to monitor and work on remote equipment has saved us a fortune in travel and diagnostic time. And not just making changes, but being able to remotely power cycle and individual POE port has helped us troubleshoot issues that had nothing to do with the switches themselves. So say an AP or VOIP Phone is completely locked up, a quick search for the mac address, if the port isn't already labeled, lets us find the device and power cycle it without affecting any other devices.

Documentation could be improved, especially regarding known issues or new features. It relies heavily on the user community to provide support and info. There is a vast user group with support groups on both the dedicated forums as well as most social media platforms. So far we have been able to find solutions to all our issues but there is always the fear an issue will come up we can't resolve and we won't be able to reach out to the company directly. They do offer a subscription support service, but it doesn't make sense for the large number of devices we have.

We have been using the UniFi line of Ubiquiti products for the past few years, we moved over when Cloudtrax was purchased and closed the free cloud service offering.

We use this in sites from 6 ports to over 600 and have had no issues.

The one bad part, it is almost nonexistent and relies on a user community.

Negative

We came from the OpenMesh CloudTrax system, we liked it a lot but they were bought by Datto and the free cloud service went to $10 per device/month and that wasn't something we felt our clients would accept.

Very Simple once you get the cloud controller working.

In-House, support with Unifi is very minimal so you will need to know how to set it up yourself.

Well looking at other options at $10 per device a month our ROI is in the $1000s.

Take the time to read through the forums and groups first and you will learn some neat tricks, pricing is straight forward with no hidden costs so no surprises there. Play with it first before your first install, we actually build the whole network before a single piece of equipment goes onsite.

We came from OpenMesh so we kind of knew what we wanted, we looked at a few other options like Datto and Cisco but they were too expensive. We also looked at the ZyXEL cloud line but we found the command link was blocked by some of the firewalls we used.

Try it, you will be pleasantly surprised at all it does for such a low price.

We use the UniFi Security Gateway (USG) and the access points.

Normally, we use it to set up small scale networks. I have not implemented any large-scale corporate networks with it. Rather, they have been small to medium-sized. It is useful if they want to configure VLAN or implement VPN connectivity between two sites. The VPN can also be configuring using UniFi Wireless.

I like the centralized management console, where we can add all of the devices to the UniFi controller and then management them from a single point. When we are setting up a VLAN, we have to define a network and then add the ports to the particular profiles. After that, the configuration is finished. 

Security-wise, it has a lot of features.

The UniFi controller is user-friendly and it is very easy to manage.

This product is regularly updated, including firmware updates, which is something that I like. 

I don't like the concept of the QoS, Quality of Service configuration because it doesn't give very granular configuration access to prioritize network traffic. I am a Cisco CCNP and I know that in Cisco, we have more granular ways to define a quality of service, but I have found it quite difficult to do so in UniFi.

Some of the networking features are not very easy to configure.

I have been fully engaged with UniFi for the past year, although I have been working with it for almost two years.

UniFi is a stable solution.

This is product is scalable, although I haven't worked in a large-scale network.

I have eight clients who are using UniFi.

I have not had the opportunity to speak with the technical people, although the UniFi knowledge base is a very good reference. Initially, I read through the knowledge base and I consult it when I encounter issues. 

I have experience with a similar product by Cisco.

It is very easy to deploy UniFi, especially compared to other products. Setting up the whole network might take a couple of days, or if you have all of the products and work continuously, it might be done in a couple of hours.

When it comes to wireless access points, it is normally cloud-based.

When clients purchase this product, I normally help them to configure it.

UniFi is a product that I can recommend if it is a small or medium-sized network. Personally, with a medium-level network, I would definitely purchase UniFi for that.

I have not used the command-line option, but instead, I use the graphical interface. My understanding is that if you are good with the command line then it is easy to install.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.