Ubiquiti Networks UniFi vs. WatchGuard Network Security

In the past few months we purchased thousands of dollars in brand new networking equipment from Ubiquiti. IT DOES NOT WORK CORRECTLY We bought 2 sets of hardware. 1 for home office and 1 for work. They both have the same issue (internet stops working). We have emailed literally dozens of times with customer service and they have not been able to resolve the issue. We have requested escalation to more trained technicians and have asked them to log into our system to assess. None of this has happened and our internet continues to intermittently work.

Generally speaking, our customers have standard requirements and the WatchGuard Network Security Firebox is there to ensure they stay protected. We've never had a successful breach on a customer's on-premise setup with a WatchGuard Network Security Firebox installed. 3rd parties (like CCTV, Printers, Login Systems, etc.) do not know which port their devices work over, so we have to identify that with them and there are often delays when this occurs.

Incentivized

• AP's are very affordable.
• Most of the AP's are highly reliable and can be used indoors or in covered outdoor spaces.
• Outdoor Mesh AP's with an external directional antenna can effectively cover outdoor spaces with dual band wifi better than much more expensive APs.
• Unifi Protect via the Cloud Key Gen2+ is probably the slickest, most affordable IP camera system on the market right now.
• Unifi controller is powerful yet simple to administrate.
• Remote management of entire networks through a single pane of glass is easy to accomplish with the Unifi controller.
• Cloud Key Gen2 solves problems with the first Cloud Key wiht a built-in battery backup.
• When you are "full stack" Unifi with wifi, network switches and gateways, the control you can wield over a network in just a few clicks and the amount of data you can glean from a quick glance in the controller is incredibly impressive. It makes an IT guy wish every product/service could be so tightly and well-integrated.
• Community support is excellent, Unifi staff monitors their official forums and responds to almost every thread.

Incentivized

• Incoming Torrent attempts were blocked, but outgoing (by a user) were permitted. Similarly, other direct attempts were summarily blocked.
• provides full administrative support for analysis of usage and scope.
• strong Wi-Fi support and security - area wi-fi maps
• They think of all the things secure and I don't have to worry about it.
• I have not identified anything else that needs improvement - I am well satisfied.

Incentivized

• VLANs: They can make these work more smoothly. Setup can be more intuitive.
• Cloud Key: These need to be stabilized; they lose their programming a little too easily.
• Stop selling the Gen-1 cloud key: No battery means you need an external power source or you must be onsite to power it off before updating.
• Portal can be modernized.

Incentivized

• Bridging ports, after the firewall is setup, isn't as easy as it could be.
• Cloud integration for management requires recreating the entire device. It should just convert the current config.
• Adding a Proxy policy should be on a different page from the other policy creation page.

Incentivized

I'm giving this note to WatchGuard Network Security due to its ease of daily support (after acquiring necessary knowledge in the solution), which allows agility in configuration changes, its integration of several reliable security features (such as SSL VPN, VPN Virtual Interfaces between companies, and others) and functional and stability in operation, with no downtime in the equipment due to problems or malfunctions

Incentivized

UniFi's system is intuitive in how options are placed and explained throughout the interface. What is not directly explainable within the interface, Ubiquiti does provide several knowledgebase documents explaining best practices and methods of troubleshooting when things don't go exactly right. We've been using them for over three years, and the benefits vastly outweigh any negatives we could come up with on the equipment and system.

Incentivized

Although it might take some time to figure out, we have been able to use WatchGuard's online reference library and tech support to create/implement/modify all of our filtering rules and exceptions needed. There really has not been a shortcoming other than perhaps a learning curve.

Incentivized

Applications errors should always be expected in any kind of technology. What matters most is the way you find to resolve it.

Incentivized

WatchGuard works seemlessly and so in the background you don't realize it's there until you need it!

Incentivized

Support tickets can be proactively created within the dashboard with full detailed documentation. The Ubiquiti website provides detailed documentation on support. Forum and user groups also provide the interested community with information that covers all aspects of issues or questions users can encounter with the latest and most updated information.

Incentivized

We have only had to contact them once during the initial set up to help bring the internet back on line. After that for the most part our systems have been automated, and could easily be checked form their online FAQ and Knowledge base that they provide. Everything else is easily handled from their browser based interface

Incentivized

We participate to a in person training and the three days of learning was really useful and complete to gain skill to solve the major part of the problem we encounter during our life. And more the in person training give us the opportunity to create a network with other WatchGuard partner.

Incentivized

Online training is good for learning how to use the product. It does not teach security strategy because that is not its intent.

Incentivized

I had my key information for setting up the firewall, and they assisted me in finding the settings and appropriate places to enter data. They also helped troubleshoot when I didn't understand some of their feature concepts, and we got it running.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti is overall easier to work with. There is no special training needed to accomplish many of the things required with a Cisco product. Since my time is stretched thin, I need something that I can manage without being weighed down by command-line communications. Also, I am able to use my wireless devices to maintain every Ubiquiti device on my network.

Incentivized

At 3 of my locations I use both a Sonic Wall and a watch guard. In my experience, the sonic wall has a much better interface. I feel it was much easier for someone that has never accessed a fire wall to be able to make changes and learn very quickly. I feel the Watchguard has better built in applications and the VPN was easier to use and access.

Incentivized

We scaled it exactly as we needed it to be! Easy, money-saving, and we didn't end up with features or options that we'd never use or worry about.

Incentivized

• The access points and switch were extremely affordable and we've had minimal downtime over the life of the products.
• The switch was in our main rack and there was a bug in the firmware that would reboot the switch if you made a change to one of the switch ports (that was not in use at the time). This caused our entire organization to have a network outage, in the middle of the day. Fortunately we didn't have any customer refunds to issue. We've had to purchase different switches for the main racks, and place the UniFi switch in a better suited place.

Incentivized

• The VPNs are very easy to configure, less time to loose at new implementation.
• The traffic monitor can be improved, I can't see the ISO layers to do a faster diagnosis.
• Having an ADDS authentication is a plus, can use it with rules and vpn for remote access. Very useful.
• The dimension feature can be developed as a website + database for NGINX, Apache2, IIS, etc., I feel traped on that linux vm only.
• Most of the customers doesn't like to pay for a solution like this. They will accept only after beign attacked. WatchGuard can improve the sales with a demo (hacking, active security, etc.).