D-Link Ethernet Switches vs. UniFi WiFi Access Points

In our head office where there is a low dust environment, it best suits this use. But in a plant where there is a dusty environment, you may face in and outs and the Network team may be in a bit of a hurdle.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti is well suited to not just indoor WLAN access, but also outdoors. In fact, the range of the outdoor applications, while maintaining throughput is astonishing. I would say this is not a solution for a 1-5 person small office, due to the costs.

Incentivized

• Pricing for sure. You get leading industry equipment but affordable prices.
• Warranty. Even tho it is affordable Dlink does not skimp on your warranty.
• Performance. Again even tho it is affordable you are getting a top performing network.

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

• VLAN's management could be easier if POS for management were available.
• Configuration in CMD mode like Cisco.
• There are issues when configurations are complex. A little network monitoring tool (GUI based) must be used.

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

Overall, the product is great and we have configured it at our plant and head offices. It is a great product to use and can be configured with minimal efforts and minimal qualifications required. The network engineer doesn't;t need to be a specialized person but needs to be a well aware person so that he may configure it.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti makes great Access points at various tiers provided far better coverage and throughput than consumer-grade wireless repeaters and routers. We have not had any performance complaints from guests or from the administration who use the wifi on a daily basis.

Incentivized

We have never used D-Link support services for our ethernet switches. We only looked for new firmware from their website, which was available for most of the models that are being used in our environment. Other than that, the official blogs and community pages of D-Link support were very helpful for small issues related to different features like NTP, stp, etc.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti support is minimal, which is said to help decrease the cost of the equipment. However, with many reports of emails going directly to the Ubiquiti support line taking days to hear a response, you're better off either engaging with the community forums for help from fellow UniFi users or reaching out to a reseller that has training on the equipment that can assist.

Incentivized

For the use we have proposed for DE-Links (use in locations with difficult access, or for expanding the network inside rooms), its main advantage is its low price. It has a large part of the competitors' functionalities, of course, in a simpler way, but serving efficiently and at a lower price.

Incentivized

I've used Meraki AP and switches in a large-scale organization and Ubiquiti on a smaller scale. There is a big cost difference, and due to the different sizes and scope of the projects, it's difficult to compare or contrast. Both have worked great for each organization.

Incentivized

• It has low impact on budget.
• It has caused loops in the network.
• Sometimes the GUI hangs and switch becomes unavailable.

Incentivized

• The solid reliability means we hardly ever have to solve 'Wi-Fi issues'. It's now just one of those things we used to have to do, and now have more time to devote to other tasks.
• The relatively long life support for Ubiquiti products, in terms of firmware updates, etc, has resulted in us not having to replace access points half as often as we used to. The Ubiquiti gear in our offices is approximately three years old now and the APs and the Controller keep getting regular updates with useful new features and bug fixes.
• Great overall coverage and seamless handover between APs keeps productivity high and allows people to stay connected no matter where they are in the building.

Incentivized