Router recommendations - Ubiquiti or Mikrotik

powermzii

powermzii

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Looking to upgrade from my hAP AC lite with something beefier that would be able to handle gigabit on the WAN once we get fibre. WiFi is managed separate from the router so device would specifically be for routing and firewall for the home LAN. Which of these 2 would you recommend and why?

Mikrotik hAP AC2
772222

Ubiquiti Edgerouter X

772224
 
Hmmm, are you a networking person, or just a normal IT type person?

If you are networking focused in your work life, I'd suggest the Mikrotik due to the power it presents you but you kind of need to know what you're doing. If you're just a normal IT type person the Ubiquiti might be a better bet since the UI is better (as far as I know)
 
I don't think you can wrong with either of them, but as Toxic said above the Mikrotiks can do really powerful things if you take the time to learn it.

Just don't buy a Ubiquiti USG, it's crap and the Edge series is better.
 
Currently have a hAP lite so the learning curve for the Tik will actually be smaller compared to the Edge series :ROFL: Am hoping to move to Unifi ACs in time (6-12 months) so maybe the Edge might be better suited? I know its not the same UI as Unifi though

Whats most important is VPN and VLAN support, decent throughput with Firewall rules and QoS - am certain both can do the job - just keen to hear personal experiences

Oh and am in IT but not networking in my day job though I do understand (at a moderately intermediate level) what needs to happen
 
Since you have a AP AC Lite, I assume you are familiar with the Mikrotik OS and as your WiFi is handled separately, consider something without WiFi built in, as you get better spec'd hardware for the same price.

Example: The MikroTik RB-HEXS

R111 more
Double the RAM
Better CPU
SFP Port

Ubiquiti is awesome, but limited, especially if you are familiar with Mikrotik's capabilities.

Ubiquiti is even better when you buy into their complete ecosystem, think Unifi.
 
Using the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X on a CISP 1000/100 package and it runs great. Incredibly powerful for the price. Just need to enable hardware offloading to make full use of the 1Gbps connection.

Fast.com test result:
181776712ffab080deb9e2e56e7965b8.jpg


On Steam and Origin, I average 80MBps, Battle.net is all over the show, and the Rockstar and Star Citizen launchers both hit a stable 120MBps.

Setup was easy, and management is a breeze. Just be aware that with hardware offloading enables, it doesn’t track data usage so you can’t see how much you’ve used.
 
Just a caveat with the Ubiquiti device - the EdgerouterX cannot do full gigabit speeds on the WAN port unless you enable hardware offloading, which has some drawbacks:

help.ubnt.com

EdgeRouter - Hardware Offloading

Overview This article explains the function, benefits, and implementation of hardware offloading. As of EdgeOS firmware version v1.9.1, all EdgeRouter models support some type of hardware offloadin...
help.ubnt.com help.ubnt.com

EDIT: @DuckKnuckle beat me to it :)
 
Would be pretty surprised if the hAP could do gigabit routed
 
powermzii said:
Whats most important is VPN and VLAN support, decent throughput with Firewall rules and QoS - am certain both can do the job - just keen to hear personal experiences
Click to expand...
I have an ERx so I will provide my findings:

ERx supports L2TP/IPsec and you can even run Wireguard VPN on it, so for example if you wanted to make your entire network run over VPN with Cloudflare Warp, it can be done with a simple script as the router runs EdgeOS which is based on Vyatta/VyOS. The CLI is very powerful but the GUI is also quite neat for 99% of users.

It has support for VLAN tagging although I only use a flat network at home. There are others that have run bigger networks on it and it's a very decent prosumer device for the price. Just a head's up, it is a little cheaper over at Rebel Tech right now - R909 excl shipping.

The ERx can do QoS (old-fashioned QoS and newer FQ-coDel method) but not with HW offloading enabled, so you won't get your full line speeds with QoS enabled. Also, there is a bug where it crashes the router on a reboot if you have QoS assigned to a physical port that is added to the virtual switch0 group - this caused me two weeks of grief to figure out.

You can power it using PoE on eth0 and then it will also passthrough the PoE to eth4 to power for example an Ubiquiti AP, which is quite nice and declutters your network cabinet/rack/shelf.

These are just some thoughts off the top of my head, if you want more details just ask and I will try assist.
 
I would go for Mikrotik it's really powerful and can to lots of fancy things with it eg, email backups, host monitoring (send email when hosts/pcs/any device with an IP loses connectivity) gre tunnels, throttling users in your network, layer application filtering to mention a few.

Even though my router is Mikrotik RB750GR3(Perfect for my 200Mbps Openserve line on Afrihost), my AP's are Ubiquiti, so I am not totally against ubiquiti just feel there edge router pricing is a bit high.
 
powermzii said:
In a standard setup or with QoS + Firewalls turned on as well?
Click to expand...
Check the benchmarks in Mbps,put the RB3011 for comparison

PACKET SIZE ->1518 byte512 byte64 byte
RB3011Routingnone (fast path)3,946.83,849.4736.1
HAP ACRoutingnone (fast path)1,966.11,368.9203.7
AP AC LITERoutingnone (fast path)493.0480.9102.8
 
Some great feedback and input on here, thanks guys. Would there possibility of using Unifi APs in the future away you one way or the other or is it a non issue?

For guys with Mikrotiks, how have you found setting up VPNs for outbound traffic, e.g. Nord or Wireguard ?
 
if you getting Unifi APs I would suggest getting a Unifi router. I have three UniFi AP AC LR, gen2 cloudkey and USG and they all working very well. Will be getting the cameras too soon
 
I've had both Mikrotik and Unifi. Mikrotik kit is solid, especially if you go for one of the beefier models with more processing power. It has a learning curve and it can be tricky to do things that might be easier on a normal router.
Currently I'm on a Unifi setup with a Cloudkey Gen2+, USG, couple of APs and cameras. It's been pretty flawless, easy to set up and in general just works. It kinda feels like a Mac vs PC scenario. The Mikrotik is probably the more capable of the two, but the Unifi is slick and easier to use.
 
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