TP Link Omada and Unifi compared 

“Their firewall is just as bad as UniFi.” I love the honesty lol.

Hopefully ubiquiti will get its sh** together now that there is a viable competitor on the market

I have a 5+ year old N300 outdoor TP-Link A that predates the Omada name, (EAP110), mixed in with newer AC1350 stuff in the house, and it still works great. I also have a bunch of small businesses running them for years, and I am about to do a 6 AP system for a scrap yard, with 2x TP-Link PHarOS 5gz CPE site to site link to there second location three lots down. Never had an issue, never had to replace an AP, but I've replaced a few Unifi APs and power injectors over the years, but I also have done allot more Unifi installs. I've only used there firewall once and that was just for a restate agent with two APS and really just needed a router, no especial rules.

Thanks for the overview. Please keep us informed about Ubiquity alternatives!

There is actually a "Show All" option on the list of devices that shows a bit more. I think you missed that one

Thanks for covering this. As a home user looking to fit out a new home in in the next 6 - 12 months with a reliable home network for POE cameras, 2.5g networking , Wifi APs and smart home systems this video and the previous one covering Omada have really helped me.

I have a manufacturing space, 32K sq foot, 12 AP's (4 eap 225 in the office, 8 eap615 on wall). 72 wired ports with PoE. The 605 FW, and OC200. The recently released controller 5.X software clearly shows their intentions to move it up market. They now have auto channel planning for the RF space and since I do a lot of NAC, their support for Private PSK is awesome. QoS, IGMP, box to box and client VPN also. I 100% cannot complain but do agree the security track record is unknown for them.

I have used TP-Link, with their hardware controller. It works great. The controller has save me in make a mistake on the PoE switch. In terms of Firewall, I went with Untangle.

Great video Tom. I haven’t done large scale for tp-link just a few homes which it works well

I've now had TP-Link EAP245 WiFi APs, with an Omada OC200 controller, for some 3 years. They have been reliable and solved all of my issues with the various consumer grade wifi routers I had struggled with for year. And TP-Link do this for a very affordable price for the geeky home/homelab crowd. I steered clear of the TP-Link firewall and built my own pfSense router instead and have been delighted with performance of the combined system.

We use DNS or DHCP options on the remote network that point the devices to our Omada controller. We set this up remotely and it’s literally plug and play on the remote network.

Interesting. Thanks Tom

I just replaced my UniFi AP AC Lite with a TP-Link Omada EAC225 because the UniFi was dying (running really really hot and some of my IOT stuff wasn't working right). So far it's been good, other than my old MacBook Pro taking down my wifi for my Roku.

What was your setup for your home? What models?

@Lawrence Systems, you should update this one with the newer TP Link V5 Firmwares...

Thanks for the video - Great primer on Omada. Can you do a review on Omada wifi devices that support mesh?

I have their APs running on 3x production sites. 3xAPs on 2 sites and 5xAPs on one site. Multiple SSIDs seperated by VLANs. One site also has a captive portal active. Haven't had any issues reported with WiFi for over a year of this running. Extremely easy to setup and manage.

I'm using TPlink Omada controller for my company about 3 years. It works well.

I would love to know how well these work in a very noisy / congested environment. I ended up seeking out Ubiquiti originally for a home environment with substantial crosstalk from dozens of routers in range of my home. With new cable/DSL modems and TV services all running on wireless and "auto" channel selection, users running additional routers without disabling wifi on their ISP devices as well as unnecessarily utilizing the widest channel settings available... my area may as well be a wifi noise testing lab. My current setup (smallish house with 2x HD nano at opposite ends on different floors - with on site PI controller and PFsense firewall) has worked very well. The range and speed isn't quite as fast as the consumer products before it - however the stability and reliability IS.

The only reason to use the Unifi security gateways is for the full traffic breakout in the management GUI. You're going to want to put something in front of it that actually has useful security features and updates. I personally like a small Palo PA-220 or Fortinet 40F between the Unifi gateway and the WAN interfaces. That way all the Unifi features work but you get a real enterprise class firewall between Unifi and the internets.

Hello and thank you for that detailed video but i am still confused. I am not that advanced but getting there . I have a house that i am letting and internet comes with the price. i need to install an access point to the center of the house for better coverage. Since tenants come and go i want to reconfigure the wifi passwords remotely cause i live very far. Is there a standalone ? AP devise that can give me the cloud access to configure the AP ? I have in my house a modem router from tp link the archer 600 that has the tether app and its great but its not AP and i dont know if it will work as an AP since it is a modem and thus no wan port that will be plugged on another modem . MAny thanks

Hi. Please make a video reviewing the wireless mesh of eap660hd with another and comparing their speed tests with the wired backhaul. Thank you

Thanks for finally being clear about why you don't recommend using Unifi's and now TP Links firewalls. Please remember to say this whenever you make that statement. I say this because if a home user (not a super techie) is watching your videos for the first time, they may not choose Unifi or TP-Link because of your firewall statement. They may think they have to have a separate firewall device which may be adding a level of complexity they don't want to deal with.

I setup a TP-Link system in my home lab alongside my Pfsense/Unifi system. Setup Pfsense as the firewall with a TP link 2008P switch, EAP660HD, and OC200 controller. System initially worked very well. After about 3 weeks OC200 went offline. Had power but no network response at all. Wouldn't reset. Had to be returned. Switch and AP continued to work well.

Hi there, which one is better with most features for a Hotspot and Captive Portal?

Is Unifi's Firewall any better now, two years later?

I've had two EAP 245 v1's running for years and they have been rock solid for me. Looking at the gigantic EAP610 now to take advantage of Wifi6

So a year on how have you found the system. Is it still installed at your home.

Great to hear your opinion on tp-link products. As I am taking a good look at my network I'm looking at what products are available and what to use when I go fiber in the future. Right now I'm on DSL and want a fiber capable router. Can you tell us what DSL only modems are out there. What I found so far are only combo routers.

Can I use the unifi mobile app if my mobile phone is connected locally LAN with access to the WAN BUT if the IP Cams and NVR does NOT have access to the WAN?

I love TP-Links firewall. I was able to block all sorts of stuff based IP groups. It's tricky but once you get the process down it can be a pretty little powerful stateful firewall. And of Syslog Server is a Admins best friend.

It is always bad to copy another company's work, but for the consumer it has the benefit of minimizing the learning curve when switching from one product to another.

I hope this helps soneon. I bought TP Link wifi access points, diffrent models over a 1 yeasr period and returned every single one as when you ty and open up the web admin page from a hard wired connection, you couldn't; pings would be dropping a lot and frequently. I tired another one and had the same issue but did find a solution in that you have to install the omada SDN software, that fixed the issue. Also, running wireshark when I was trying to fix the constant ping packet drops, I saw the TP links were constantly calling for the cloud controller even though that option is off. These are cheap, and they show it, but do have decent wifi range and are cheap which is why I ultimately stuck with them

hello thanks for the video. i have a small guest house .6 acre land, now i have a modem, that i connect to a switch, this switch i take it to 2 other switches, each one of these switches has a loco m2 to create the wifi network and they have different devices, one has cameras, pc, printer, the other has, pc, printer, bose audio, now we are going to have starlink and that means more internet speed, so all the equipment has to be changed, do you recommend me omada? or what do you recommend me to do?

Hi there I have a home with 3 floors and a lot of wifi iot devices lights and stuff (50 devices connected to wifi) and I use mikrotik hap ac as router 3 gigabyte cheap switch (from ali express) and mesh network tp-link deco m4 as AP 3 of them( 1 at each floor) and 1 tp-link (m3r) since last update is impossible to wifi my network tp link deco is allways at 100% cpu load. Should I migrate to omada or should I go to ubiquiti (price performance wise).

I just still find it amazing that people that are security-conscious enough to use products like this are OK with using an internet-based hub external from where the gear actually resides to manage it. I wish a vendor actually touted not being "in the cloud" and stored things locally and gave tips on how to set up a VPN server so you could connect that way to view your gear / cameras / network remotely.

Lawrence its maybe nice that you don't need to register for the controller from TP-Link but on de Deco line its needed so far i know, and on the smart plug they updated the firmware so you being forced to work with there cloud solutions. Its a matter of time until you need an account for the omada controller.... I put my money on it that this eventually will happen.

the bigger question I how scalable is this with a multi port wan switch Using a mix of external fois, , air fiber, sat and/or 5g, 4g-lte powered from POE switch ? and whether or not battery monitor cold be attached to it? Noting 5g/4g-lte as a secondary fall over connection with primary fall over being sat and airfiber???

what is you are though of Ruckus Wirreless ??

Nice video! Did you try to use the external hotspot server feature?

Thanks for your videos! With reference to firewall do you have any videos on opnsense?

If omada has complete feature parity compared to unifi switches and APs, that would be bomb.

Hello I'm interested in this product because I already have some TP-Link Deco Mash APs, but do these two products work together? Best regards :)

Tom I presume that you are self-hosting the Unifi controller (which makes it easy to adopt locally and send the unit out to the field with the correct inform URL set). I'm using a cloud hosted controller and I SSH into each unit to set the inform URL. Any better way of doing that with a cloud hosted controller ?

I was looking at TP-Link but there is just no equivalent to the USW-Lite-16-PoE, a nice small 16 port switch that will do everything I want. TP-Link do have a 16 port switch that works with Omada, the SG2218, but it doesn't have PoE, which is annoying. It would be cheaper, even with buying a PoE adapter to power an AP, but that's just messy and annoying.

Since the firewall seems to be the weak point in both of these products, would adding something like a Firewalla be a good option?

Just look carefully at the TP-LINK manual.. only very specific versions of the apperent same product support the omada interface... The rest just uses the regular gui/web interface.

We only install the TP-Link Omada, we fitted the Unifi system twice and never again, both times the APs disconnected and we (along with their slow tech support) couldn't get them to reconnect. We ended up sending them back and replacing both systems with the Omada system. Unifi is very costly, constant issues and the tech support is slow and unhelpful. TP-link Omada on the other hand is great. A breeze to set up, great value for money and the APs combined with OC200 are great and very very rarely get an issue and when you do get an issue, its easy to sort out.

New emerging option that isn't expensive might be Grandstream. They recently added switches (very small selection so far) but their WiFi AP was a very good alternative with local, in device, and cloud controller options. TP-Link EOL always seems nebulous at best and the hardware revisions constantly change with older revisions getting silently declared end of life at random. I wish TP-link had a solid policy on firmware support timeframes and hardware support timeframes. I tend to only end up with these devices when it's the only thing in stock as a result.

Thank you for the great comparison! I was wondering if I can use the tplink switch to power up my unifi access point. Would that work fine?

Thank you for great work! What do you think about compare Unifi and Zyxel? May be you already used Zyxel APs, if yes please give any response. Thanks!

Would love to see an update on this if you have been using it at home for a few months now

Not sure if that was mentioned earlier but seems like Omada does not support stateful ACLs (and it does exist in Unifi). What that means is you cannot easily block for example IoT vlan initiating communication to your main Lan vlan with preserving the option to contact IoT from Lan. In this scenario omada blocks responses from IoT to your main Lan. The only option is to open up either some specific ports or IP range for two way conversation.

I don't have the extensive knowledge that you do obviously with the advanced setup of these units. But when you were talking about the ER605 (I think it was) I have been using one of these as a standalone fail over. Now at first like you stated, I was having weirdness with it working properly, sometimes even randomly failing over when not needed. Apparently load balancing needs to be off. If I understand the process, that probably works best with multiple WANs that are essentially the same speed and potentially even the same ISP, (like multiple DSL connections) rather than completely different ISPs. For example, with Starlink and a slow DSL connection setup they will act goofy with load balancing features enabled. As for the actual settings, I simply disabled all of the options under the Load Balancing page\General tab, setup a link backup rule and it now works pretty well. Not sure of the delay, but its pretty short. Tested, it usually swaps over in 30 seconds or less, and back again about as fast. But I use it setup as just a fail over. The DSL is not used at all, unless Starlink goes offline for a long enough period. Additionally I have the outgoing LANs connected to both an in-house TP Link AX6000 router here, and using the outdoor Omada EAP-225 to provide access for two outdoor CPE710s to be directed at it from remote buildings (under 1000ft away that both have their own routers). The only reason I'm using that equipment is due to they are the only outdoor equipment that I could find from TP-Link that actually have 1GB ports. Most of the rest all are limited to 100MB. Which is dumb as hell when they have wireless speeds up to 900MB? Like having a racecar that can't go over 55 due to how its transmission is geared. lol I haven't installed the new outdoor components yet; Currently running a KU-WiFi bridge (100mb ports but 300MB wireless, ugh) between the two farthest buildings and a CPE-210 for the closer building linked to the KU-WiFi bridge as well. As you can imagine, top speeds are around 60-65MB thanks to the low speed ports. To get the full speed out of the Starlink at all buildings, I have to swap those out for the new ones, which I will have next week. Any thoughts, or am I thinking about it wrong? This is just a personal setup, providing internet for relatives that live near, and no need for cloud integration, though I was impressed by its advantages. And since I do network and camera installs for people, something for me to consider depending on the situation.

Is it posible to do a video on Netgear Insight productline, WAX610 and WAX620?

It seems you don't really recommend either platforms as a firewall. What would you recommend as a home/home lab firewall device?

Thanks.

What firewall would you get instead if you want for home lab? If I wanted to get the tp-link system for other components.

The multi wan IPs feature is not in beta since the release 1.9.0 (udm pro firmware) two months ago. I have no ideia if it works with UGSs.

I'd love to know how the Omada stuff is working a year later. Firewall firmware updates added anything useful? Cloud controller added newer/better features? I've used Meraki and Engenius so far, and I'm really looking for an SMB focused alternative.

Are you still using this in your house?

Tp link needs to work on physical design.

When I look at the compatibility list from the UK it has quite a few more devices that will work with Omada in controller mode, all the way back to the EAP110 (V4). Perhaps you didn't get those in the US?

The Omada discovery tool now works with routers V5. Still Java though :(

TP-Link firewall max port speed is 1Gb because they only have SPF. Unifi has SPF+ on the Dream Machine Pro. WiFi6 requires 2.5G or better 1.2G internet from some carriers requires 2.5G or better.

The problem with TP is that they come out with updated versions of the same model and cripple the "old" one with no update support. I've seen it happen in under a year

I see TP-Link is targeting the hospitality market. Have they provided a zero-operator-touch method for guests to register devices? The use case I never had satisfied (Packet fence could do this, but I just never had the time to set it up and test it when I had the need) was to have customers in a coffee shop hit a splash screen on connecting to open wifi, and be redirected to a short signup process that would allow them to use any email address to create an account, agree to the AUP, be granted temp access to check their email and click a confirmation link. The need for this was driven by having regular customers doing things they were not supposed to do - repeatedly. What I wanted to do is have the system automatically email a warning, then a ban with instructions on how to remediate, and regain access. A vendor who can bake this in as a point n click wizard process with a decent way to integrate outside triggers - like snort alerts, or av alarms, would have huge sales. Cisco can do it, but only at a scale the doesn't work in the smb market.

explain something about - TP-Link TL-SG3428 | 24 Port Gigabit Switch

#sorrynotsorry I find it funny how they crapped out on their routers too. The unified (I use Unifi) controller is nice, if just wish either/both would find a way to integrate with a good firewall like Pfsense. That would make for an excellent solution as far as I'm concerned.

Unifi disappointed me that once their devices reach EOL they mark them as obsolete and you cannot even manage /configure them. Another $$ eyes company. Good enterprise-level product but useless after end of support.

does the omada support dynamic vlans?

I manage a TP-Link site, 20 eap225, with mesh turned on it will find a new device if no lan cable is connected, both local to controller and remote. I have had them order a new eap225, connect the poe supply to the device within range of another working AP and in a few minutes it shows pending. They also have a standalone java based batch adoption tool that you can config a url or ip of the controller.

In your opinion, Er605 or Edgerouter X, which one to buy? Thanks

While a good recommendation for home users, especially with the price... The lack of mDNS/multicast solution with TP-Link is a huge negative. Casting devices on one vlan and masters on another just doesnt work. At least Unifi has a repeater. I understand business not necessarily needing that but home its getting more important.

Also, adopting a usg is a royal pita just in general.

Hey, pal. I just want to ask why is it that my configured (voucher feature enabled) EAP-110, when unplug to the AC, it loses the settings like the voucher service system, and I need to re-set up again and again. I hope you could give time to this issue of mine. Thanks in advance!

I have an existing network (none-unifi) that broadcasts 2 Wifi SIDs over old Cisco APs. One of these APs is dead, and I want to replace it with a Unifi UAP-AC HD device. Is there a way to replace the dead Cisco AP and have the Unifi AP Broadcast the 2 WiFi SIDs?

The big thing I hate. You have to use a cloud and mostly the devices are dumb. No don't get me wrong. I can totally see the uptick of management in the cloud for a large remote management. As for unifi. The only problem I had was at some times. I had to wait hours on chat. Can't say anything on TP-Link wireless. But I have not had any issues on switches. One final note. I have okay luck with Engenius but all have been point to point and just this year did on access point. Seems to be working great. Oh and yes I Know you can run a unifi server on site.

Hello Lawrence systems team, I have been planning for months now(watching your videos) about networking in my home. Rather than going with traditional mesh network, I wanted to go with Unifi or TP Link. Finally I started the purchase of TP Link gear and did a 1st test and wanted to get your feedback or videos you would recommend to improve or is this the best we can get out of the gear. Gear Purchased: Router: TL-R605 (Router - thinking to do link aggregating between the switch and POE to increase the bandwidth) POE Switch: TL-SG1005P (Power the AP's) Switch: TL-SG116 (Wired connection to all the rooms) APs: EAP 620 HD (Qty 3 - each per floor wired to POE Switch) In my test, I have a 750 Mbps connection and when wired I am getting 740 Mbps constantly. But when connected to the AP's the max I get out is only 400Mbps(did test with laptop and Iphone) ... can you please suggest if this is the best or are there fine tuning that can be performed to improve ? I was hoping with this huge investment I would build a robust .. but little disappointing results from my initial test. Any feedback is appreciated.

Will the controller be able to detect devices that already have static IP addresses already associated with them? Also, will the VPN router be able to detect other switches (as well as switches piggybacking off other switches) already connected on the network?

How are they compare in 2023?

i've had more problems with TP link garbage failing for random reasons then any other manufacture. Recently upgraded to unifi, and have never looked back!

I just went Omada because… you can actually buy them.

What were the UniFi mis-steps?

Why Unifi shoot themselves in the foot by requiring online registration.

TP Link Omada Review ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VJkV4qlzPsU.html Hostifi Review ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1EJ2_gf-Avc.html UnFi Playlist ru-vid.com/group/PLjGQNuuUzvmvxayWV93dbBleXzt6RCvXP ⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️ 0:00 TP Link Omada VS UniFi SDN 1:08 Product Offerings 2:49 Free SDN Software UnIFi and Omada 4:07 Multisite Hosting 5:16 Wireless Management 5:40 VLAN Management 7:30 TP Link VS UniFi Adoption Processes Differences 10:30 UnFi & TP Link Omada Firewalls 13:18 Final thoughts

Had to laugh at the 'pwnage' VLAN 1337 - I'm guessing that's for the company LAN parties?

Ubiquti is not interested in the home user. And they want all the profit, so no break for resellers. Still hard pass doe me.

I like the idea of this, as I don't want to be all Unifi. But damn, that AP is ugly and huge and definitely not wife approved for installation in a home. Might have to settle with a hybrid approach using the TP-Link switch ( SG2210MP ) with some nicer looking Unifi AP's.

Using Omada on one site for a few years but its always been a "Unifi was too expensive" system, up until the last update it was like Unifi from 8 or 9 years ago, its almost like they got sold the old source code as its not just a copy, its pretty much a white label clone, Unifi is still a product that needs work but we wont be pushing the TPlink kit to our clients as they change products quicker than Ubiquiti, Unifi is cheap to be disruptive, TPlink is cheap.....because its cheap

I wonder how he ended up hiding the omada ap.

I know I'm late to the party pal, but it's laughingly bad how much of a rip off the TP Link software is of Unifi. That being said, I'm all for the competition to get UBNT back on track.

Unifi has been trying to come up with platforms that lock you in.

Wait... Open Telnet? Why Telnet?

You keep saying you haven't tried it yet. So stop giving comments.

It's great to finally see some competition so we can get away from Ubiquiti rules. Call me tinfoil hat man but using Chinese written software is crazy. We may be forced to use their products but using software on your network is insanity IMO.

Like this type of company plug rather than the canned statement.

Omada controller can be a vm, not needed to buy hardware

I am surprised Ubiquiti doesn't have a simple Unify Gateway akin to the Omada TL-R605 or TL-ER7206.

Unifi APs can be standalone managed by a smartphone app directly