What's your opinion on Ubiquiti/Unifi gear?

Submitted ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨early_riser@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

I bought into the ecosystem while taking my networking cert classes back in 2017. They were much cheaper than Cisco gear for business-grade networking, and overall I’ve been happy with them.

Their security offerings are locally managed, and you can make local accounts, but I just bought a NAS from them and I had to sign in with my ubiquiti account first before I could make a local account, and it seems the cloud account has some privileges that you can’t give to local super admins.

So now I’m having second thoughts. I figure since it’s enterprise-grade stuff they can’t really make it cloud-dependent like you see on the consumer side since a lot of companies need air-gapped networks. On the other hand, on those occasions that I didn’t have internet access and hadn’t yet made a local-only account, I was locked out, so…

Regarding the NAS specifically, I use a TruNAS system at work and it works well enough on a rack server, but since it uses ZFS I don’t know it would be good for home use. What alternatives are there?

Are there any truly FOSS networking options? I figure especially on the switching side you need purpose-built hardware, right? There aren’t generic motherboards with 48 network ports you can buy.

I like my Unifi setup, I’m just scared of a rug pull.

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hydrian@twit.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
@early_riser I use #unifi for #switching and #wifi. I enjoy those products. I don't like their #NAS and #routing options.
I ran #pfsense for over a decade, but since the 2.8 release you can't do an offline install. So I switched to #opnsense.
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talkingpumpkin@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
A NAS is just a computer and TrueNAS is just Linux (ok, TrueNAS CORE is Bsd).

You can run zfs on any machine: they recommend loads of RAM for optimal performance, which you don’t need at home (or at work, unless your job is running a data center).

You can choose from a number of FOSS NAS-specific operating systems, plus all linux distros (since you post here, I’d assume you either can or aim to administer a home sever?)… why would you go with a proprietary OS?

There are several FOSS operating systems for network equipment too (keyword “NOS”), but as far as I’m aware none that work on small soho/edge switches. OpenWrt runs both my router (mikrotik) and WAPs (tplink), but the two 8-port switches I have at home (also tplink) run their proprietary firmware.

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redlemace@lemmy.world ⁨31⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I only use their WiFi because I got some in- and outdoor ap’s for free. The Wifi manager is selfhosted and has no internet access. For upgradesi downoad the deb file, trasnsfer and install. It’s not the best out there, but works for me and i’m still happy with it.

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jjlinux@lemmy.zip ⁨33⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I have a ICG-Ultra driven network infrastructure with 3 switches and 7 APs at home. I wouldn’t use their NAS options though. For NAS I just have 20TB of spinning disks sitting there attached to my ProxMox for all my data, and have all services in VMs or LXCs. I set up an UnRaid (before it was a subscription) in my brother’s house to backup off-site and sync it once per week.

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zo0@programming.dev ⁨37⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
For large networks with over 20 devices, I find them acceptable not because they are good but because other options are more expensive.

For small networks? I despise them

The UI keeps changing and moving around settings for no good reason after each update

You can’t setup devices directly if you have a device or two, you are required to setup a control center

The control center is already slow and sluggish, but the real nightmare starts when you start having 100 or more devices

Last couple of years they have been releasing batches with serious issues, software and hardware. The way they accepted recall for unfixable devices was so limited that many people are left with broken APs that will kill their network occasionally and the poor consumer has no idea why.

Honestly fuck 'em. there’s more but I don’t wanna give them any more rent space in my head on a Sunday lol
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eleitl@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I run Ubiquity AP (used to be flashed to OpenWRT but now stock) as well as Mikrotik, all local. Firewall is opnsense. NAS is FreeNAS, but not really use it at the moment. zfs is great. If you really need 48 port L3 switches, look into whitebox. I use used enterprise gear for lab, too much noise and power draw and no real use for terabit L3 at home.

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RamRabbit@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Are there any truly FOSS networking options?

PFSense falls into this category for routers. Netgate makes hardware specifically for it, but you don’t have to buy anything from them to use PFSense. I only mention them because their hardware is good and you can buy anything from a normal home router to enterprise level gear.

I had to sign in with my ubiquiti account first before I could make a local account

I used to be pretty into ubiquiti, but this requirement really put me off. I have no desire to do anything ‘cloud’ with my router. This being a requirement sent me elsewhere.

TruNAS … What alternatives are there?

TruNAS has a community edition, so you could start there. Other alternatives are a standard Debian install, and use mdadm to setup RAID, then setup a network share in the OS, etc.

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- eleitl@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Use opnsense instead.
  
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- CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Pfsense is shady on the OSS side these days. I think. I haven’t gotten into the drama. Opnsense is a popular fork.
  
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teawrecks@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I have an edge router and switch, and two unifi APs. All accounts running locally. Works fine for my uses, though I think if I had it to do over again I’d investigate pfsense or opnsense. Not sure about hardware tho.

since it uses ZFS I don’t know it would be good for home use

TrueNAS is all I’ve used for my home for the better part of a decade. It’s been fine, what is your concern?

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- early_riser@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  ZFS seems pretty RAM hungry and I don’t believe you can add new drives to an existing volume.
  
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  - Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    
    ZFS seems pretty RAM hungry
    
    This is a common misunderstanding.
    
    Short version; ZFS isn’t RAM hungry, it’s RAM aware. If your system has unused memory lying around, ZFS will use it to improve read performance. But it will give up that memory the moment anything else needs it. Like many other Linux processes, it’s just making the best use of the resources that are available.
    
    and I don’t believe you can add new drives to an existing volume.
    
    No longer true
    
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SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I am quite satisfied with the unifi ecosystem so far as networking and CCTV systems go. They are cloud enabled without being cloud dependent. Since the early 2025 networking update, their routers are pretty good now. The UDM SE is a pretty compelling router/POEswitch/NVR in the home context.

Their NAS ecosystem is still very new and I would not it a viable option yet. They are also leaning towards the vendor lock-in direction with drives. Its the same reason I would stay away from Synology and QNAP.

Personally, I run a old desktop as a NAS/homelab running Proxmox(FOSS based hypervisor). I run ZFS on it and its “fine”. It performs fine even with a mixed bunch of disks, provided you have them in pairs or groups of 3 that perform close to identically. I just run a Debian container on the Proxmox as my fileserver and a few VMs for homelabbing.

One player that works well in a home environment is UnRAID. It a Linux distor that runs on commodity hardware and handles redundancy with “just a bunch of disks” better than most. The UI is friendly to non technical users. The catch is that UI is commercial software. Many consider it a fair exchange for the convenience it brings.

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- early_riser@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  I have a QNAP NAS in addition to the unas2 mentioned in the OP. Both have WD red drives. I also run Proxmox on an ancient laptop. How does virtualizing a file server work?
  
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rimu@piefed.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
OpenWRT is basically Linux for routers and can be installed on a variety of devices - https://openwrt.org/

There is also https://www.gargoyle-router.com/

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tophneal@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Opinion wise: love unifi for networking equipment. Especially since that equipment doesn’t require the web account. For a Nas, I’m in too deep already, I’ll only use equipment I fully control. I wouldn’t buy a Unifi NAS just like I wouldn’t buy a Synology, but I’ll keep leaning on my Unifi stuff as long as it keeps doing its job well.

As for using TrueNAS w/ZFS at home, go for it if you know and like it! I actually was recently given my boss’s old home NAS that used to run his Plex server. When I got it it was still on FreeNAS (same thing, just a few versions behind) and it’s using ZFS. Worked for him, and now works for me, no problem. Both of us also use Unifi equipment for our networks. The only problems we’ve ever had were our own doings.

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Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
NAS	Network-Attached Storage
NUC	Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
PCIe	Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
Plex	Brand of media server package
RAID	Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage
SSD	Solid State Drive mass storage
Unifi	Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand
ZFS	Solaris/Linux filesystem focusing on data integrity

[Thread #73 for this comm, first seen 8th Feb 2026, 03:10] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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hperrin@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
My whole work and home networks are all Unifi stuff. I absolutely love them. Way more reliable than anything else I’ve ever tried.

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avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I use their WiFi access points. They’re great. That’s about it.

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Brkdncr@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Tplink Omada doesn’t need a cloud connection. There’s plenty of other reasons to not like Omada but it’s something to consider. It’s also dirt cheap.

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- AbidanYre@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  TPlink Kasa smart gear didn’t used to need a TPlink account until they made an app update. I would be very wary of anything from them.
  
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  - grue@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I buy TPLink gear, but only because I check to make sure it can be flashed with OpenWRT beforehand. I may not actually do that (my router is running it, but my PoE access points aren’t yet), but I make damn sure I can.
    
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  - Brkdncr@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    True but it’s designed to be on networks that don’t have internet.
    
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ccunix@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Just use switches and APs and I’m happy. Had 2 generations of AP and will eventually upgrade to the current ones, but am not in a rush.

I have no desire to expand beyond that, but the networking gear works well.

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probable_possum@leminal.space ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I use them for wifi because they make them really easy to configure and manage. But the management interface stays locked in a vlan without access to the internets. Because I don’t trust their cloud affinity.

This also disqualifies their routers and firewalls for me. How can I trust a device which tries to phone home? So that area is covered by opnsense on a device with a sufficient amount of Ethernet ports.

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TheDrunkard@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
New Report Slams Ubiquiti for Products That Keep Showing Up on the Front Lines of the Russia-Ukraine War: What Investors Should Know share.google/sWqGa20oIyiMA51ne

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- femtek@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This sounds like a good thing for consumers.
  
  According to Hunterbrook, Ukrainian military sources and Russian vendors interviewed for the story say Ubiquiti devices are favored because they are inexpensive, easy to deploy, and difficult to disable remotely.
  
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  - early_riser@lemmy.world ⁨50⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    Semi-related: companies advertising “military grade” like it means something other than “made by the lowest bidder”.
    
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mongojarle@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Mikrotik for switches. Grandstream for APs. All been just working, and easy to set up. Good price as well.

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- xep@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Came here to say same thing. Mikrotik is great, although RouterOS doesn’t support Ipv6 Neighbour Discovery in a highly useable manner yet. Fantastic otherwise.
  
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lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve been running the original Unifi Dream Machine since it released in 2019. Been pretty solid, no complaints.

I like my Unifi setup, I’m just scared of a rug pull.

Same here.

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rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
At home, I have a shit ton of in-wall HD’s behind TVs, a Dream Machine SE Pro. A 16 port and an 8 port POE switch.

At work, I have a Pro Max, a 24 port enterprise switch, and a handful of access points. I also have one of their door controllers with its attached video doorbell.

Their cameras aren’t bad, but they’re overpriced. I went full reolink and haven’t regretted any of that. I use their protect nvr stuff at work, and while it works, it’s not great. If you just want something easy to set up and go, it’s good enough. If you want to do some really complicated, complex things, you’re better off with frigate or blue iris.

Their VPNs a little bit light duty. I don’t know if it’s still the case, but when I did my setups there was no local DNS option. But that’s easy enough to take care of.

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non_burglar@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This is an opinion on the WiFi access points.

I took the unifi pill in 2018 on the advice of my devops coworkers that ubiquiti is set-and-forget. I also was sold on the unifi network controller I deployed and used until last month being easy to use and local only.

The single pane of glass to control and update the access points is nice. Wifi works OK. There are, however, several downsides:

channel and power management are not automatic and tweaking WiFi settings with unifi is not intuitive.

similar to your nas experience unifi advanced metrics are locked behind paying for other unifi equipment or an official controller.

network appliance is built on mongodb and its performance is pretty abysmal (Up to 2.5GB memory to run it)

the network appliance is now discontinued and self-hosting the network appliance can no longer happen software-only, you have to use their “server os”, which can’t be run in a container.

After the unifi Debian repo stopped updating properly, I decided to install openwrt on my APs.

Not only did it work well, but performance is now much better with openwrt.

I’m personally stepping away from brands that have their own ecosystems from now on, if I can help it. The enshitification is just too tempting for them, it seems, and it it’s always at our expense.
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- suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  the network appliance is now discontinued and self-hosting the network appliance can no longer happen software-only, you have to use their “server os”, which can’t be run in a container.
  
  Of course it can, they just don’t provide a containerized version but other people do. I use the linuxserver version, it’s regularly updated and works without issue. It uses about 1.2 GB of RAM, so a little heavy, but nothing crazy.
  
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  - non_burglar@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Ah, good catch, thanks.
    
    It’s moot point for me because I’m sick of unifi so I’m not going back to worse performance and locked-away features.
    
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cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve been using their access points for a long time. They have been working quite well. I do have an old WiFi 5 AP that’s starting to fail, but that’s not too surprising considering the age.

I’ve just been running the controller with a local account. Hopefully they won’t try to force me into using a cloud account.

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tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Can’t say anything on unify, but what’s wrong with ZFS in the homelab, especially if you know it already? I use ZFS on my Proxmox hosts and my TrueNAS.

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PumpkinEscobar@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Not so much to the content of your post but to your title:

Their web interface is nice, reasonably priced (not cheap) prosumer sort of gear. I have 2 APs and 1 router, 1 AP is flaky, it’s the 7 XGS which should be a high end AP. It gets pretty bad coverage with it and it’s flaky, randomly going offline once a week. RMAed it, replaced Ethernet cable, poe injector (ubiquity branded) and tried tweaking settings. Still happening

So to the subject, some good in the web interface but I will not buy again. That said, most network gear has some sort of jank in my experience, flaky, or just bad management interface, etc…

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- KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’d say they offer prosumer options for sure, but they also have what I would consider enterprise offerings as well. Even a large campus can easily be run off their enterprise gear.
  
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