SonicWall TZ vs. UniFi WiFi Access Points

Good price for scope of functionality Challenge for those that are not highly technical Many options within Firewall Setting that need to understood to maximize use of the device. Would be nice to see some sort of configuration wizard to assist in configuring unit.

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

• If you have multiple sites and you want the connect the sites through secure medium this is best firewall for you.
• There are very advanced features helps you to connect the device easily and securely.
• Easy to connect the sites through advanced routing protocols.

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

• management is confusing has many items that could be improved to facilitate the work to the network administrator
• in the diagnostic tool I would improve the response times, that is, if a ping test is required, it should be quick, since in cases of failures it is sought to minimize the impact as much as possible.
• each function has a different license item, I would place a single license package for all team functions

• 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 new interface is very logical and easy to navigate. We did struggle at first coming from the older interface and finding our way around the new. But our new users found it very simple to find what they were looking for. One negative we do all struggle with is packet cpature not always being clear how its set/what is being monitored. this could do with more information on teh intial page instead of having to look for 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

Once you get to a competent technician the support experience is better. But I have found that the lower tiers of support are very slow to respond (like 1 email per day) and you typically have to re-explain yourself a couple times before they get it. I have not used Phone support, and that may be a better experience.

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

SonicWall and WatchGuard are both fine appliances, but I am accustomed to the Barracuda NG. The Barracuda Control Center is so powerful and useful that it beats out the other two. SonicWall does a great job of dividing up firewall rules and NAT policies, but this is a preference among engineers.

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

• We have three SonicWall TZ devices and they are very helpful in a VPN set up.
• The subscription costs for the different features has a great return on investment. It is very well worth the money.
• The antivirus component has been very effective on the computers and servers the SonicWall TZ device protects.

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