{"slug": "unifi", "name": "UniFi", "category": "networking", "category_name": "Networking and VPN", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 7, "warners": 2, "score": 2.48, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2025-12-05", "latest": "2026-10-31", "why": "Mikrotik router and unifi everything else has kind of been my go-to for at least 10 or 12y now.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Mikrotik router and unifi everything else has kind of been my go-to for at least 10 or 12y now.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://ui.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["UniFi", "Ubiquiti UniFi", "Unifi"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 805003792, "item_id": 50312737, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50312737", "by": "gonight", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "\"thank god I use unifi\"", "excerpt": "Never thought I'd say this, but, \"thank god I use unifi\".", "context": "", "use_case": "networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cisco gives engineer unlimited AI tokens to rewrite legacy code"}, {"id": 786430434, "item_id": 49151902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49151902", "by": "TeMPOraL", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "True of UniFi stuff.", "excerpt": "Yup. Powerful features are removed to \"streamline experience\". Sometimes in bulk, because product migrated from e.g. bespoke native app to multiplatform webshit in an embedded browser, which automatically halved the performance and removed most ergonomics. And then new features are released as MVPs - meaning, they do the absolute minimum to check the box (almost a literal box: close the feature ticket internally), an", "context": "", "use_case": "networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Developers are attached to tools because tools encode trust"}, {"id": 783544544, "item_id": 48971534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971534", "by": "esseph", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mikrotik router and unifi everything else has kind of been my go-to for at least 10 or 12y now.", "excerpt": "Ubiquiti unifi has struggled to integrate routing as reliably and as well as the wireless and switching piece. Mikrotik router and unifi everything else has kind of been my go-to for at least 10 or 12y now.", "context": "", "use_case": "wireless and switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783543472, "item_id": 48971467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971467", "by": "hendry", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to Ubiquiti, I'm quite happy except for their lack of a sane MCP.", "excerpt": "Switched to Ubiquiti, I'm quite happy except for their lack of a sane MCP.", "context": "", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "MikroTik RouterOS", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 742042432, "item_id": 46377652, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46377652", "by": "fmajid", "date": "2025-12-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ubiquiti lost my trust when they started running telemetry without consent", "excerpt": "I used to have a UniFi gateway for the nice traffic visualization but Ubiquiti lost my trust when they started running telemetry without consent and I\u2019ve gone back to an OpenBSD\u2019s box as router, thus this device does little for me. I\u2019m looking forward to the GL.Inet MUDI 7, their first 5G hotspot, which should be running an open-source and hackable OS unlike most hotspots: https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-e5800/", "context": "", "use_case": "home gateway/router", "switched_from": "", "story": "Unifi Travel Router"}, {"id": 738686784, "item_id": 46167924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46167924", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "than any UniFi stuff constantly phoning home for \"updates.\"", "excerpt": "Why are people paying what seems obscene prices for UniFi stuff? You probably all have spare hardware lying around that can be repurposed as a router; it does not need to be modern. I use a Ryzen 5 as a general purpose home server/router/firewall running Linux and no ISP plastic box or expensive \"prosumer\" gear can't touch its performance. I can push 25Gbps through it (saturating my SFP28 LAN), or north of 4Gbps thro", "context": "runs a Ryzen 5 Linux home server/router", "use_case": "home networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "UniFi 5G"}]}], "who": [{"by": "MayeulC", "context": "runs a VPS plus multiple physical servers", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50025593", "date": "2026-10-09"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["networking", "network controller", "wireless and switching", "home router", "home gateway/router", "home networking"], "compared": [{"slug": "mikrotik-routeros", "name": "MikroTik RouterOS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "openbsd", "name": "OpenBSD", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "wireguard", "name": "WireGuard", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48970772", "title": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50304122", "title": "Cisco gives engineer unlimited AI tokens to rewrite legacy code", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49985548", "title": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49097961", "title": "Developers are attached to tools because tools encode trust", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46371135", "title": "Unifi Travel Router", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157594", "title": "UniFi 5G", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"warn": 2}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 805003792, "item_id": 50312737, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50312737", "by": "gonight", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "\"thank god I use unifi\"", "excerpt": "Never thought I'd say this, but, \"thank god I use unifi\".", "context": "", "use_case": "networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cisco gives engineer unlimited AI tokens to rewrite legacy code"}, {"id": 800409488, "item_id": 50025593, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50025593", "by": "MayeulC", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Unifi controller, though I appreciate Unifi less and less.", "excerpt": "Well, I have a VPS, plus multiple physical servers in different locations (parents, etc). The VPS is useful for: - sending e-mails (hard to improve your reputation on residential IPs and get a reverse DNS record) - Unifi controller, though I appreciate Unifi less and less. - Uptime monitoring / status page - I think I'll move my headscale node there, since it has the highest availability -- Internet was out for a wee", "context": "runs a VPS plus multiple physical servers", "use_case": "network controller", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?"}, {"id": 786430434, "item_id": 49151902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49151902", "by": "TeMPOraL", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "True of UniFi stuff.", "excerpt": "Yup. Powerful features are removed to \"streamline experience\". Sometimes in bulk, because product migrated from e.g. bespoke native app to multiplatform webshit in an embedded browser, which automatically halved the performance and removed most ergonomics. And then new features are released as MVPs - meaning, they do the absolute minimum to check the box (almost a literal box: close the feature ticket internally), an", "context": "", "use_case": "networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Developers are attached to tools because tools encode trust"}, {"id": 783544544, "item_id": 48971534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971534", "by": "esseph", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mikrotik router and unifi everything else has kind of been my go-to for at least 10 or 12y now.", "excerpt": "Ubiquiti unifi has struggled to integrate routing as reliably and as well as the wireless and switching piece. Mikrotik router and unifi everything else has kind of been my go-to for at least 10 or 12y now.", "context": "", "use_case": "wireless and switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 783543472, "item_id": 48971467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971467", "by": "hendry", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to Ubiquiti, I'm quite happy except for their lack of a sane MCP.", "excerpt": "Switched to Ubiquiti, I'm quite happy except for their lack of a sane MCP.", "context": "", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "MikroTik RouterOS", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 742042432, "item_id": 46377652, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46377652", "by": "fmajid", "date": "2025-12-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ubiquiti lost my trust when they started running telemetry without consent", "excerpt": "I used to have a UniFi gateway for the nice traffic visualization but Ubiquiti lost my trust when they started running telemetry without consent and I\u2019ve gone back to an OpenBSD\u2019s box as router, thus this device does little for me. I\u2019m looking forward to the GL.Inet MUDI 7, their first 5G hotspot, which should be running an open-source and hackable OS unlike most hotspots: https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-e5800/", "context": "", "use_case": "home gateway/router", "switched_from": "", "story": "Unifi Travel Router"}, {"id": 738686784, "item_id": 46167924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46167924", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "than any UniFi stuff constantly phoning home for \"updates.\"", "excerpt": "Why are people paying what seems obscene prices for UniFi stuff? You probably all have spare hardware lying around that can be repurposed as a router; it does not need to be modern. I use a Ryzen 5 as a general purpose home server/router/firewall running Linux and no ISP plastic box or expensive \"prosumer\" gear can't touch its performance. I can push 25Gbps through it (saturating my SFP28 LAN), or north of 4Gbps thro", "context": "runs a Ryzen 5 Linux home server/router", "use_case": "home networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "UniFi 5G"}]}