Ubiquiti UniFi Switches Reviews

One of the definite immediate benefits is something like the Spanning Tree Protocol, which prevents loops on the network. So, that's a definite advantage for our clients.

It also makes troubleshooting a lot quicker. If we're trying to find a port or a device, we can see which port it's connected to based on IP address, so that makes troubleshooting a lot quicker and easier.

So, all the features in Ubiquiti UniFi Switches increase our ability to troubleshoot and deploy.

I would rate the user interface a nine out of ten, with ten being the best. 

We like the centralized management of the switches. We like the fact that we can do all the management remotely on the cloud, without having to do a VPN into the client's infrastructure.

And, we found that the best solution for our typical clients, who are small to medium-sized, typically don't need the more expensive Aruba or Forti Switches, and those switches are just overkill for their environment. 

So, we find that UniFi is a happy medium between consumer-type switches and enterprise switches.

UniFi switches improved our client's network management for multiple devices.

Ubiquiti do has quite a rapid development team. For instance, up until recently, it was really frustrating because you couldn't resize a column to see the full name of a device. But that was addressed quickly. So, things get addressed with the regular new versions that roll out. 

However, one area for improvement would be having a web interface directly on the device itself. That's the one thing that makes them more difficult for less experienced technicians to configure.  Ubiquiti UniFi Switches don't have a web interface that you can use to configure them directly.

I have been with this product for ten years. 

It's stable.

UniFi switches' scalability features are useful.

Finding a device by IP address is very helpful for troubleshooting. The Spanning Tree Protocol is a definite step above managed switches.

I work with small and medium-sized business customers.

We get good support from our reseller, but I find Ubiquiti's technical support not great at all.

I've only dealt with Ubiquiti's technical support once or twice in ten years. It's difficult to get in touch and get feedback from them.

I have experience with Cisco and Fortinet switches. The advantage of Cisco and Fortinet switches is that they have a web interface for configuration.

It is very easy to deploy. The deployment time depends on the environment. A single device is a near instant. You just adopt it. Adding to an existing setup is quick. 

Doing a whole new network with VLANs and whatnot takes longer, but adding to a configured network is very easy because you don't have to set up VLANs on the switch again.

I would rate my experience with the configuration an eight out of ten, with ten being easy. 

We generally have to have a PoE switch when we've got VoIP phones on-site. I don't see that as a clear win. It's like we're buying a PoE switch no matter what brand they choose. 

Only one person is enough to install and configure it. Moreover, maintenance is easy. 

Ubiquiti is very reasonable. However, they don't position themselves as an enterprise solution, but rather as a professional solution. 

They offer something like a network layer switches. They're not as feature-rich as some competitors, but that's perfect for small to medium-sized businesses.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

We tend to use the solution when clients are not willing to spend money for Meraki or Aruba. We use them as switches.

The basic use case is going to be an office with as many as 100 users. I position them to have one access point cover 150 to 200 square feet or as much as 350 square feet - depending upon the height of the ceiling. It's usually in an office scenario. Whether circular or flat, they do really well facing down, which means you want to put them up top. If that's the use case, you put them on the ceiling. 

If I have a situation where the clients don't want to put it on the ceiling, I'll use the Access Point Flex HD, which is circular and I can place that on a desk or on a shelf or someplace and hide it. 

The value here with using the Ubiquiti products across the board is that they're almost all single-pane management and the single-pane management is included. It's a huge benefit. If you go with other brands and you have to pay extra or pay an annual fee to use it, there's a huge cost difference between let's say a Meraki Solution, which I would say for an enterprise is much better. If I have 20 sites and I'm doing hundreds of access points, I'm going to go to Meraki as already I have a budget. This is a bigger enterprise. 

This solution, however, is tailor-made to a small and medium business that may have three or four locations and you can manage it from a single point. I can either contract with a company that manages my portal for $10 a month. Or I can do it at Amazon or Google Compute, et cetera, or just in a cloud scenario. It's a really flexible solution and it's very cost-effective.

It's possible to scale the product.

The support is pretty much email-based and that's horrible for an enterprise product. I can't call anybody right away. I have to go back and forth with emails if I have a problem. The guys that work for me when we have to return them, generally speaking, we don't have issues, however, at $179 each, at some point, we don't waste time, we just buy another one. Then we'll get a few of them together and then we'll send them back due to the fact that it's easier to do it that way.

Overall, they are hard to source.

They don't play nice with vendors. They want you to buy it off their website. The website is often out of stock. It's really bad from that perspective. If I'm doing a project, I don't want to have to maintain a stock of equipment. I want to be able to buy it from a vendor right away.

The stability is not the greatest.

I've used the solution for more than 12 months. I've used the product for a while. 

I've had stability issues. It's not the most stable solution. Meraki is better.

The scalability is there. For example, if the company has five warehouses across the country and I want to deploy long-range access points, across the different warehouses, I can have them delivered, installed, and boom, I'm done. We just do that and it's great. If I want to manage them, I add them all to my portal. I can update them all in one shot. I can apply the security, I can do WPA and if I'm doing WPA2, I can change it to Radius. There are so many features there and it's easy to manage. If I want to replicate the installation, it's really easy. I just copy. The site's easy to build and it takes 10 minutes. It's much easier than Aruba, which has more steps.

They only offer email support. They need to have real phone support to avoid having to go back and forth over long amounts of time.

I'm also familiar with Meraki and Aruba, which are a bit more expensive, and may be better for larger setups. With Aruba, you do get better coverage than Meraki, however, it is on the more expensive side. 

The initial setup is easy, however, it's not enterprise-grade.

The pricing is very good and it's a great option for small or medium-sized organizations. It's around $179 a device. 

The issue is you can't buy them easily. That's the biggest downfall of Ubiquiti is they don't have a good supply chain and maybe that's indicative of the times. However, even prior to the coronavirus, the pandemic, we still had trouble getting them.

Most of the time I'm going to go with the Pro switches - the PoE 48 port switches, or, if it's a smaller branch office and they only have a few users, I do the 24 ports. I use the long-range Wifi 6 ones, or the short, the regular Wifi 6 ones, which they call the Wifi 6 Light, as well. 

Some of the time, depending upon the aesthetic, or the type of office, they don't want to put anything on the wall or in the ceiling. Therefore, I put there what they call the APUI. It's not the Wifi 6, however, it's pretty good. I'm trying to stick with Wifi 6 as I'm getting the best throughput pretty much throughout whenever I use it. There's an access point called the Access Point Flex HD which is the one I really like.

I'm neither a reseller or a partner with Ubiquiti. When I represent my clients, I give the clients some options. Sometimes they say, "We want to go with Ubiquiti." Or they want to go with Meraki. I don't make money on the sale of the equipment for the simple reason I don't want to be connected to one vendor. If I represent that vendor, that means I'm going to basically push that vendor. I don't want to do that. I want to give the client the best solution for them.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

I use Ubiquiti UniFi Switches. I like the Ubiquiti PoE EdgeSwitches, but I have to use their switches in certain cases because I have 24-volt and 48-volt PoE. Ubiquiti runs 24-volt PoE in a lot of their radios. We use our switches to have programmable voltages. Our day-to-day use cases with Ubiquiti UniFi Switches is basically internal LAN switches for routing WiFi by normal LAN traffic and telephony. We also have to worry about load balancing, because of our telephony in cameras on the same networks.

For the world where you have to balance traffic and traffic loads and bandwidth, their GUI makes it really easy because the switches, though they are enterprise grade level two or level three switches, the GUI is designed so that it's easy to set up VLANs where you need to control your traffic so that your phones don't break up and get choppy because of other people loading the network down too heavily. Telephony is pretty tricky to get right on a heavily loaded network.

When working with doing pedals and things like that, you have to go down underneath the hood, into the Linux occasionally, which is unfortunate. They have great papers on how to do it and the documentation online is wonderful. They've got lots of guides. Plus, these guys that do videos all the time, they have tons and tons of videos on Ubiquiti that are excellent guides. But, you do have to once in a while go under the hood and people don't like that. If you have Cisco, you don't care. You're always underneath the hood of the Cisco. They have a GUI but no one uses it. With newer stuff nowadays, everybody tries to stay in the GUI. 50% of the time, after I once set the unit app fixed for the time, I'm probably down in the GUI, in the CLI. Like setting up a VPN, instead of a VPN, there's a point-to-point VPN. You can get most of it in the GUI, but there's always a little tweak here, a tweak there in a VPN to a client. In your own system it always matches up. But going to a class, there's always a tweak. You have to go underneath the hood and tweak it.

We have been using the Ubiquity UniFi Switches for about eight years.

The Ubiquiti is a rock and that's why we use them. It's the same as their WiFi equipment. The Ubiquiti hardware, though they're software, they don't bill you for it and their software is not as pretty as others. Their Iron is our rock which is more important than anything else to me. I can remotely fix software. I've got to go on site to fix hardware.

Ubiquiti has had a bad rep for the support. I don't see that the best because I work with lots of people. I am a guy that gets up in the middle of the night to contact support. So, I'm working with a support guy that I know works at a particular shift. I know when to get ahold of them and we talk. I think the Ubiquiti service is actually pretty darn good. Some people complain that they're hard to get ahold of. They're a little busy in the daytime. I have learned to work with them. I think it's fabulous. Sometimes, they get a new guy. I have to take a little bit of time to get past him, but they're pretty good at filtering entry level guys and upper level guys through their support structure. Their chat's pretty good. So, I don't have any problems at all with them as far as support. But, I've read lots of complaints that in the daytime, it takes 15, 20 minutes. I've adjusted my ways to work well with Ubiquiti because it's a partnership. I know they're 24 hours. And so, I just grab them when it's a little bit slower in the evenings. Their support is good. But in the daytime, it could be a little sluggish to get to them. But, I haven't experienced that problem because I've adjusted my ways. The answers are accurate, which is a big deal.

Before using Ubiquiti UniFi Switches we were kind of a Netgear house. I'm Cisco licensed, but I don't like Cisco. I don't like Cisco engineers. They're kind of uppity. And so, I'm kind of an anti-Cisco guy. So, it was Netgear. And then, it was basically Ubiquiti. 

I've been using Ubiquiti UniFi Switches for a long time, so I just slap them in. I would say they're a little bit harder than most for the initial install if you are a pro-consumer. For an IT guy that has at least a little bit of background in networking and things like that, they slap right in. But if you are faint of heart, I would have to say that they're a little trickier than just buying a Netgear and slapping it in. It is a level two, level three switch. So, you can't just expect to slap it in. It's smart.

Like I said, it's a rock. The big deal is that a lot of the other companies charge you for software and Ubiquiti doesn't. You buy the gear. You don't ever pay for software. When it comes to software, it comes with updates and it made a huge difference in our ROI because of that. Now, I'm infringing other areas because the real expenses for the software like is in the WiFi and the access points and things like that. With Cisco, you pay money for all that. Cisco is a rip off. I'm sorry, I'm so down with Cisco.

The price performance is amazing, but it's a little bit of faint of heart for somebody who's brand new. But, they can get past it. The videos are really great with it. Physically, they use this turnkey. But for experienced person, if they're doing networking and don't know Linux, I don't know what they're doing in the IT business. So, I think they're doing just fine. I like them to continue to focus on great hardware. If the software's a little bit harder, I can live with that because, to me, it's all about the Iron, high-performance Iron, that this runs.

I would give Ubiquiti UniFi Switches a rate of Nine on a scale of ten. I just really do like them. Having programmable voltages is fabulous on the ports. Nobody's got programmable voltages on the ports. Ubiquiti have to be because of the gear, but it makes it really slick. That's one place where the GUI is kind of cool, is that you can toggle a port on and off. You can toggle a group of ports off. You can say, "Hey, kill my cameras." It toggles all my cameras for me and bring them back online.

The most valuable features of the solution include its ease of setting up VLANs and port management.

The routing capabilities of Layer 3 should be made easier to implement.

I have been using Ubiquiti UniFi Switches for six to eight months. I use the solution's latest version. My company has a reseller agreement with Ubiquiti.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

It is a very scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

In my company, five people use the solution.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

On a scale of one to ten, where one is easy and ten is difficult, I rate the initial setup of Ubiquiti UniFi Switches as a ten.

The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises.

The deployment phase takes fifteen minutes and requires the help of minimal staff.

I rate the pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

There are no licensing fees, which is amazing and contributes to big cost savings.

I considered TP-Link Omada as one of the options before choosing Ubiquiti UniFi Switches. I chose Ubiquiti UniFi Switches because of its ecosystem.

To those planning to use the product, I would suggest they use SFP+ ports.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches is a simple and reliable tool that is costly.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

All we have is WiFi extenders and ceiling signal extenders. They likely bear another name. I think they function extremely well.

We use internet signals for our TV almost daily and have TV all across the place. Behind the counter, we have a system.

We occasionally live-stream some of the events that take place here, therefore a reliable system is definitely required. 

We use social media frequently, and a large number of people who come and go really use our wifi.

It was recommended to me by an IT professional, so I went with it. He said, "It's a bit pricey, but it won't let you down." And it didn't, it's been working.

I would like to see the pricing improved.

I have a price for the system in Poland, which is expressed in Polish zlotys. 

The quote is for seven of those routers, a switch, and all related hardware that goes with it. 

The quoted amount of 18,000 Polish Zlotys, which is in euros is approximately 4.8. Therefore, the system in Poland is more than $3,700 USD.

I believe it will be the solution to our difficulties in Poland.

The pricing is the only thing I have a problem with. We still haven't finalized what we are going to do in that case.

I have been working with Ubiquiti UniFi Switches for three or four years.

We are not working with the latest version, it is three or four years old.

We have not had any issues with the stability of this solution.

I have no issues with the performance of Ubiquiti UniFi Switches.

The equipment, in my opinion, is really good.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches are scalable.

It performs all of its stated functions exactly as promised.

There may have been as many as 20 at one time. While it's not a lot, we use a lot of it. 

We consume a lot of bandwidth ourselves and upload a lot of streaming and other content while working here. 

At any given moment, we may have up to 10 of our own appliances running. It isn't a lot, but we need stability, the assurance that it won't fail us, and that it is reliable.

I have not contacted technical support. I have read through the documentation.

That's what the person who gave me the recommendation here does. He knew what he was doing. The initial setup was easy for him.

We haven't had any issues at all since he put it. Now, I'm impressed as I learn more about it and read. It's an excellent system.

It doesn't require any maintenance.

I have not seen a return on investment.

It is expensive.

I am in Ireland. I run a business in Ireland. Additionally, I run a business in Poland. I wanted to look and see what the history of the Ubiquiti system was because the company in Poland is a hostel and we need to run a WiFi system.

I was conducting some research since I run a hostel in Poland where we frequently experience issues with our visitors' access to the internet. 

We require a wireless mesh solution that will enable numerous users to enter the facility simultaneously, provide decent access to all areas of the building, and allow us to exert a little bit more control than we now can.

If someone is interested in something, I would definitely recommend it. It is a little more expensive, but it will do the job. It is a high-quality product, and it won't let you down. 

I would rate Ubiquiti UniFi Switches a nine out of ten.

UniFi products have a good graphical user interface. I work for a system integrator company, where we provide solutions to customers and resellers of these products. Ubiquiti offers competitive price. The products, including the controller and access points, are comfortable to use and of decent quality. 

I encountered a problem with Ubiquiti’s wireless solution. Local user authentication isn’t supported, and we’re limited to using vouchers. The problem seems to involve integration with an external RADIUS server. It might be that my current knowledge or experience with configuration isn’t sufficient. However, we still face challenges regarding more advanced features like combining wireless solutions with RADIUS servers.

For advanced needs like VXLAN or creating trunking or tunnels, especially in large-scale environments like data centers, UniFi Switches are not suitable. They work well for small to medium networks and are very easy to deploy. The documentation is also thorough and easy to find online, making deployment straightforward with no major issues. Basic installations take around 5 to 15 minutes. We've noticed that if the firmware isn't updated regularly, the switches can lose connection with the controller, rendering them unmanageable. Updating the switch and other UniFi devices, such as the controller or security gateway, is important. If one device is upgraded but not the switch, the switch can disconnect from the controller.

I have been using Ubiquiti UniFi Switches for  three to five years.

It is stable. Thanks to their detailed documentation, I've never had to expand a UniFi switch, which requires minimal maintenance, and I've never needed to contact support.

Ubiquiti Switches are easily integrated with other switches, though they are more suitable for small to medium-sized networks.

I have more experience with FortiGate than Meraki. I prefer proposing FortiGate for SD-WAN solutions to my customers, as it doesn't require a license, unlike Meraki, where the license is crucial for continued operation. I haven't worked with FortiGate Cloud but have experience with FortiGate, FortiWeb, FortiMail, FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, and FortiAuthenticator, among others. However, I lack experience with Fortinet products like FortiSandbox and FortiCASB.

An active license is required to maintain access to the controller. When the license expires, you lose control, which has been an issue for some customers. In comparison, UniFi products don't require a license, which makes them easier to manage. Meraki is more expensive and sometimes difficult to source in my region, where purchasing requires a lengthy process.

I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

UniFi Switches make it easier, so you don't have to move devices around. 

The central management is provided by the UniFi management system. You can manage everything from a single interface. The SDN mode that the entire unified system uses is a software-defined network format.

UniFi lacks the granularity.

UniFi could fit small to medium-sized networks or branch offices well.

I rate the solution’s scalability a four out of ten.

The initial setup is easy.

I rate the initial setup as four out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

UniFi switches are pretty cost-effective and perform excellently, especially considering their price. If you are evaluating a small—to medium-sized deployment, UniFi switches are typically a great choice. UniFi products provide sufficient bandwidth and perform well in such implementations.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches are highly capable and reliable. It's important to note that each switch can support only a limited number of PoE devices. While the switches are stable and easy to use, users must be aware that additional ports will not provide power once the PoE power budget is reached.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches offer a robust and cost-effective solution with accessible deployment features. While other brands like Cisco provide comprehensive MDM solutions, UniFi's intuitive setup and affordability make it popular among small to medium enterprises. UniFi's comprehensive management capabilities enhance its convenience and appeal for various networking needs.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches offer the ability to perform more advanced and creative switching tasks, such as traffic partitioning, traffic orchestration, and load balancing across multiple links. While some of these features are achievable with UniFi, they cannot be implemented at a very granular level. To achieve more detailed control, additional or different devices may be required.

The solution is not so difficult to integrate.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

The best use cases for the unmanned or the Layer two Ubiquiti UniFi Switches have been in small businesses, which are companies with less than 50 employees.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches typically stay up and running when they're up and running. The most valuable feature of Ubiquiti UniFi Switches is that once you buy them, you own them. This feature is valuable, especially for smaller businesses or companies looking to save money. You don't need to pay a monthly fee to Cisco, HP, Aruba, or any other vendors. Ubiquiti UniFi Switches are really easy to do firmware updates.

I'd be willing to pay more for Ubiquiti UniFi Switches if they had some better support options behind them. When something goes wrong in an enterprise application, you need to be able to get a hold of someone. If Ubiquiti UniFi Switches had some live support instead of community support, that would go a long way.

I have used Ubiquiti UniFi Switches on and off for the last eight years.

I rate Ubiquiti UniFi Switches a nine out of ten for stability.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches' scalability for layer two switches is as good as Cisco or HP switches.

I rate Ubiquiti UniFi Switches a seven out of ten for scalability.

I rate Ubiquiti UniFi Switches a seven out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches' deployment is pretty quick. Having two people is helpful, but typically, a single person is enough to deploy the solution. The people deploying the solution would have to be at least above entry-level network engineers. Anyone can plug a network cable into a device, but configuring and working it within UniFi's scope, the LAN setup, and security would require above-entry-level network engineers.

The solution's pricing in the marketplace would probably be about three out of ten. There are some cheaper products out there, but they're definitely cheaper. Also, there are more expensive products that aren't better than Ubiquity.

You pay for the name when you get beyond the UniFi product line into products like Cisco and Aruba. Users choose the other products for their live person support, but most of it is the name.

I've used Ubiquiti's layer two switches. They have an enterprise version layer three that I've not gotten my hands on yet.

The same people who set up the solution are needed to monitor it. It doesn't require a lot of maintenance once they're up and running.

Overall, I rate Ubiquiti UniFi Switches a nine out of ten.