I can't speak for the parent, but from my perspective:
+ Very secure, with ongoing, regular software and firmware updates (this is big for me, after ASUS, DLink, et al)
+ Extremely feature-rich (both hardware and software)
+ Relatively affordable for what you get (much cheaper than Eero)
+ Modular (upgrade WAP separate from router, etc)
- Complex to setup (requires a VPS, dedicated dongle sold separately, or monthly fee)
- Not many people are set up for PoE; injectors are annoying.
It was worth it for me, as I happen to enjoy playing with VPSes. Plus, it makes it exponentially easier for me to troubleshoot my parents' WiFi when they have a problem, as it's designed to be managed remotely.
- Complex to setup (requires a VPS, dedicated dongle sold separately, or monthly fee)
I just set up Ubiquti here at home and while it wasn't super easy, I didn't find it all that bad. What required a VPS/Dongle/Fee for you? I didn't need any of that. (I have a security gateway, edge routers, and 3 pro aps.)
I bet he’s referring to having a controller but I think you can run it on your laptop, configure everything and then turn off the controller. I don’t think the controller is needed after initial configuration unless you want the stats collection.
I have the cloud key (the dongle) so I could be wrong.
It is easy but it’s still slightly harder than the average consumer would want.
You just have to make sure you turn off the feature in the APs that keeps checking if the controller is there, otherwise they stop working. Or at least that was the case when I got mine.
While I figure most of us using Ubiquiti Networks gear in our home have local VM servers that can host the controller, there are some houses where this is not the case. But in those cases, you can still run the controller in a VM on your main workstation, configure the gear, and then shut down the VM. I don't think it needs to keep running to operate the gear once it's booted. I think if you power-cycle the gear, you'd need the VM up.
I really appreciate Ubiquiti going to such lengths to allow one to install the controller locally, which in turn means you can configure and manage your gear without any cloud meddling.
That caused me to broaden my search. I recalled hearing about Ubiquiti from another group of friends/colleagues who I also respected. When the sr most network guy at my company confirmed he ran Ubiquiti Unifi APs at his home, I started looking at the price as well as trying to figure out how complex the physical setup would be (as contrasted with a mesh).
I then realized I could support my entire home with a single AP and wire the rest of the devices. This made me chose a wired+Unifi solution over a mesh one like eero.
Big fan of ubiquity APs myself, but you may still want more than one AP depending on how many clients you have. I am at about 13-15 clients once you add everything together and I find my spectrum a little crowded. The range on the LR is fantastic though, it reaches to a block away from my home when turned on high (I lowered the signal strength), not that my devices have a strong enough chip to talk back to it though.
I bought the most likely overkill UAP AC HD to solve for the density problem. https://unifi-hd.ubnt.com/ At the time, I was under the delusion I'd be building a smart home. I have since dialed back my requirements but have (hopefully) excess wi-fi capacity.
One thing to consider with true mesh networking is that each meshed hop halves the available throughput. Wifi is already half duplex so with a large network this can cause noticeable latency and throughput degradation.
