Update 2025: Ubiquiti has focused more development effort on their UniFi line for a number of years; a confluence of needs eventually drove me to replace my UISP gear with UniFi. It’s been nearly a year and I’m happy with the decision. UniFi bought me two things I needed: reasonably priced managed 2.5GbE infrastructure and superior WiFi. I ultimately deployed a UCG Max, a bunch of 2.5GbE managed switches mainly 8-port Flex 2.5G and 5-port Flex Mini 2.5G, and two WiFi access points (a U6+ and U6 Pro).
They all work together seamlessly and the network management system is built into the UCG Max and is a joy to use. The WiFi in particular is a blessing; the access points do not need to be configured individually; you set up what wifi networks you want and the network management system configures the APs to do what they need to do; I can see why enterprise folks are so taken with UI gear. The main place where 2.5GbE matters (and the reason I upgraded) is between the servers and the NAS – and it really does make a difference. UI gear is a little pricier, but the reliability and high level of integration and easy management make it worthwhile. If you’re considering UI these days, I’d go with the UniFi line.
Ubiqiuti is a well known manufacturer of pro-sumer/small-business networking gear. They make two main lines of equipment: UniFi and UISP. The former aims for centralized control only (you can only manage devices through their management software); the latter is more traditional and allows for both direct device management (via command line and web interface) as well as centralized management through their free network management software UNMS. I’m old fashioned so I use the latter.
I use three primary types of gear: an EdgeRouter-X serves as the primary gateway into my network, a variety of EdgeMAX intelligent (layer 2) switches form the wired backbone of the network, and AirCubes provide wireless access.
The EdgeRouter is a particularly remarkable value; at $59, it provides a very full-featured comprehensive router + 4-port GbE switch. With hardware acceleration enabled, it delivers roughly 107MB/s (i.e. it routes at full gigabit speeds) while providing extensive support for features like VLAN, ipsec, dhcp management, NAT routing, etc. It has many more advanced features that I don’t presently use.
The EdgeMax switches work well and although they cost more than some other layer 2 switches, they work well and are fully supported by UNMS. One of the main advantages of this is managing firmware updates which is handled for all of the UI devices from the UNMS management console.
The UNMS network management package can be run locally (that’s how I use it) or, if you have at least 10 Ubiquiti devices, can be run on Ubiquiti’s cloud NMS. Although I have more than 10 Ubiquiti devices, I run UNMS locally (on a proxmox VM) for better security/control.