Looking for a home router to replace an ERX

The UniFi routers have most of the features you're looking for: port-forwarding, geo-filtering, vlans and wireguard. They do not currently support tailscale.

$129 The Cloud Gateway Ultra has 1 GB LAN ports.

$199 The Cloud Gateway Max has 2.5 GB LAN ports. It also includes the full application suite, including Protect if you wanted to do security cameras in the future.

I've thought about building my own box and if perhaps I was a single man I might (the wife hates downtime). I just don't know that I trust the combination of arbitrary hardware and a network stack I built myself to keep the core of my network running. I've actually built one as a VM as a NAT to a virtual/test environment once before so I have some experience with it. As much as i love rolling my own and building things myself, there are a few things that I just want to be rock solid. My NAS and my gateway fit in that category.

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ERX $59

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Hard to beat the devil you know

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ER4 $199

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Not sure you’re winning anything that you wouldn’t win by swapping from ER—> Unifi. This isn’t a “UnIfI iS aWeSoMe” post, but it’s clearly the prize child of the two. It’s sad that both product lines have advantages the other doesn’t (you can’t use MAC to isolate a client to a VLAN on Unifi gear for one but can on the Edgerouter/switch gear. Unifi, on the other hand, has most things you’ll need easily integrated, including Wireguard (you still have to manually install the server and client on Edge gear, no? When talking about what you can SSH into gear and make work, it becomes difficult to compare them. But sticking with basic feature sets!). The Network app is easy to use/configure all your firewall stuff that you’ll want to do it seems.

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Unifi Express $149

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Unifi Cloud Gateway Ultra $129

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Of the UI gear, I would probably avoid the Express. Its hardware is slightly less robust, and it sounds like adding an AP isn’t really a priority for you. The CGU has the Network app embedded on it, so you don’t need a cloud key or external controller. The Express limits you to 5 total Unifi devices. For home, this may be adequate. In my home, it would not be (I have 2x in-wall AP (more for the ports/on-wall switch than the AP function) and 2x “standard” ceiling AP (UAP-AC Pro) as well as a switch 48 with PoE and 3 or 4 of their switch flex mini. While they tend to underestimate their hardware capability (I have 6x 4k cameras and 3x 1080p cameras + 2 doorbells running on a UDMP that calls 5x 4k cameras the limit in addition to Network and (as a test bench) Talk without any real problems/complaints in performance), they mark essentially all routing functions reduced vs the others, and you’re going cheaper to get better hardware (since the AP isn’t a real improvement for you). Of note, load balancing/failover is useless without multiple service providers UNLESS you have a port failure as you’ve experienced, but you should be able to use WAN2 as primary if you experience port failure again, however rare that likelihood maybe be. As the guy below you/above me posted, there’s a $200 router that is NVME-capable that will give you a hard drive for cameras or recording conversations on VOIP, but you really shouldn’t consider this a plus unless you were looking at those things already. The 2.5gbps ports are potentially beneficial. I definitely watched the difference between 100mbps and 1000mbps unfold and will always buy the 1gbps product. I’m not certain that I’ll ever see real-world improvement from 1–>2.5gbps. Maybe I’ll eat those words one day. But I’m just not doing anything that really justifies it. I do want to eventually move into ripping UHD locally and serving them up within the home network. But 1gbps is more than sufficient for that.

So, if it were me, thus far I’d definitely mix the ER4 and express but probably add the Cloud Gateway Max ($199) to the list.

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Firewalla Purple SE $229
Content filtering, VLANs, geofencing, VPN support, ad blocking/container support, parental controls, bandwidth tracking and graphing. There's a lot here, but I just wonder how much of it is snake oil and how much is legit.

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So, again, in the most non-pro-Unifi way to say it, I don’t know what of those features that isn’t just as simple AND cheaper in Unifi gear, which is more than adequate AND simplifies your management. For me, I would cross it out for that reason.

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I've heard (relatively) good things about Mikkrotik routers

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I own one. Without looking it up, something that’s got “Hex” and maybe “960” in the name. It’s got PoE ports + the ability to be run by PoE (and pass it through which is a very unusual ability. The only other product I know of that passes through PoE in the “reasonable price” range is the Unifi Flex. Probably irrelevant in your use case. Irreplaceable if you need it though.

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Synology Router RT2600ac $149

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I understand their router to be wildly basic (well, like DD-WRT or Tomato. More than a basic of the shelf router but in comparison to everything else on this list, practically useless). Their NAS is wildly overpriced hardware that has proprietary software that truly And honestly justifies the price of the hardware, if the software does what you want it to.

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What router are you using at home? What have you been eyeing?

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As alluded to, I’ve got a UDMP at home. And a Cloud Gateway Max at the office. And whatever the 2-port gateway that needs a cloud controller at my father in law’s house. And a UDMP-SE at his camp. His camp and home share traffic rules so that he can use his streaming TV while away. I use their Teleport (based on wireguard) to VNC/Remote Desktop into a couple computers at the office when I’m not there occasionally. I’ve got a couple servers (Plex, Emby, Channels) that have openings to the outside world in my firewall. I haven’t gone far enough to put them behind a domain or even a DNS finding service because my IP at home has changed one time in 6 years. Unifi does have ad-blocking, but I have an Adguard Home server on a virtual Ubuntu machine and forward all my DNS there for it. You can manually manage DNS blocklists right on Unifi gear if you feel like it. I’m not scared by it. CLI isn’t hard. But updating from a phone by navigating to a URL is much easier as someone who can’t really use his desktop for longer than 7 minutes before being mauled by tiny people, and the Time To Crying is even less on a laptop.


The two other things that would interest me in your situation are
1) PFsense. I’ve never used it at all, but I understand it to be somewhere between Unifi (basic/easy/most features) and Mikrotik (get good at reading man pages and googling, but every feature you can think of is there).
2) TP-Link Omada. You already have Unifi APs. It’s essentially a competitor to the Unifi network eco system, so adding a second one wouldn’t really improve a whole lot, but if you dive deep enough to fine that you want a specific “easy GUI-enabled” feature that isn’t offered by Unifi and not worth Pfsense/mikrotik configuration, it is possible that they have it (but realistically you shouldn’t consider it unless you want to change your AP to theirs, and the Omada APs are much uglier, slower to refresh, so I really probably just wasted time by bringing it up).



Just get a Cloud Gateway Ultra and call it a day. If you want to add cameras, the NVR is cheap enough that it’s the smarter buy than a UDMP(SE) or CG-Max, and you could use Unifi Talk at home, but no one really wants or needs a home phone anymore. Access is a good way to spend $500+ to open a gate or a garage door at home that you could buy a $20-100 accessory to do just as well (or better)

I just replaced a TPLink 6600? With a synology WRX560 (as my primary, not a satellite.) I’ve owned two of their NAS devices with the DSM software and was very happy. Worth a look.

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Y'all in this thread are definitely making me think hard about the cloud gateway max though.

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If you go this route, I would probably wait for the "no storage" option available this coming Friday I believe, then add your own nvme drive later if you need it.

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there are a few things that I just want to be rock solid

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You cant get more rock solid than freebsd

https://protectli.com/