So true. Started with a couple AC AP PRO (incredible by the way). Ended up with an edgerouter poe and a poe unifi switch. I'm running the control on a vm on qemu/kvm and the seamless integration is wonderful. Once I plugged in the switch it popped up in the devices section and I could perform a one-click software upgrade, just like the WAP.

I will say that the features in the controller software rivals serious commercial offerings that I've used (Cisco, Meraki, Aerohive).

I agree. I purchased some Ubiquity gear a few months back after a condo purchase, and ran into few problems:

- UniFi brand works well for setup, but the cloud controller is necessary for command/control management outside of iOS/Android app.

- EdgeRouter is not a UniFi product and does not act as a cloud controller.

- EdgeRouter X does not deliver 48V PoE; upgrade was needed to power the AC-PRO.

- EdgeRouter UI is horrid and it’s much easier to manage over SSH.

- Cloud Controller is easy to setup, but doesn’t work with all product lines.

tl;dr The hardware is really good, but software is lacking, especially because not all hardware is UniFi compatible.

My response was tongue in cheek but seriously I recommend budgeting a VM or Raspberry PI to run their controller software which offers the most configuration options.

https://www.ubnt.com/download/unifi/

The Unifi cloud stick isn't that much more expensive than a PI, and is probably the least amount of work to set up a dedicated controller.

I use an Atom based PC stick that I had lying around to run the controller (on Windows) and it works great.

I mistakenly thought the cloud key ran a lesser version of unifi than the distribution found on their website, however googling around implies it's the same version. So I suppose budget for a cloud key or a pi. A raspberry Pi 3 is 64 bit, runs Fedora natively and can serve up other functions beyond the key. So I lean towards the Pi but if they're functionally equivalent I suppose it's down to personal preference.

I tried putting it into a docker container, but in the end didn't want to deal with the complexity -- bought a key. Does the VM/Raspberry PI get you anything the key doesn't?

A Raspberry Pi probably won't do. The controller requires MongoDB which itself is no longer supports the 32 bit architecture which most RPis are running on.

Pi 3 is 64 bit and natively supported in Fedora.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/Raspberry_P...

You mean these UniFi APs don't run a built-in web server to allow configuring them?

Basically all your objections boil down to the fact that the UniFi's are not very easy to manage.

I'd say none of this matters if you just want to have a few access points around the house for a WiFi network that currently runs on a single standalone router. Nobody said configuring the UniFi's is easy or convenient, but the premise is that you only do it once, using whatever computer you have that you can install the cloud controller on. You don't absolutely need to buy anything besides the AP's, it's only for convenience if your network changes a lot.