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The Ultimate UniFi list of tools and resources

PoweredLocal
WHAT THE FI. BY POWEREDLOCAL

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We’ve been planning this one for a while and thought it’s a new decade, so here is the ultimate list of tools and resources as a UniFi users.

It’s no secret that we are big fans of Ubiquiti and have crowdsourced this list of tools.

We have tried to note if each is Free, Paid or somewhere in-between.

🆓 = Free or Free Plan
⚖️ = Free Trial or tier, then paid plans
💰 = Fully paid service only

This list is constantly growing, so bookmark it. You can also let us know of new ones to include by emailing us.

Forums / Message Boards / Groups

These are all free, but some require you to be vetted before they will let you in ;)

Forums

  • 🆓 The OG is the official Ubiquiti Forum — some of the content is moderated and is also highly represented by UI staff — so a great place to get some answers.
  • 🆓 The biggest SubReddit forum is r/Ubiquiti — be warned, ask a dumb question and you will be laughed at. This is a place for more advanced users rather than beginners.
  • 🆓 One of the smaller ones, but still on topic is r/UNIFI
  • 🆓 There are also more obscure, but useful ones like this one on Whirlpool
  • 🆓 LazyAdmin is not exactly a forum, but there are some immensely helpful Ubiquiti/UniFi articles.

Facebook Groups

There are a whole stack of different facebook groups, some are corporate controlled others are not. In general, the name of the group will be the best descriptor of the type of conversations had. For some more and the most recent ones, use this link to search your Facebook for them — https://www.facebook.com/search/groups/?q=ubiquiti

These ones are more localized Facebook groups

Slack Channels

Slack.com is an invite controlled forum — generally much smaller communities. These can be really great for building solid relationships.
There is just the one we know about right now :)

LinkedIn Groups

Less prolific than the Facebook groups above, but more business chat can be had on LinkedIn. There is the one main one and then a handful of localized.

Applications & Tools

Mobile Apps

Your phone is the ultimate toolbox and here are just a few of the applications you should have. Android is a more open platform than iOS, so some apps or features will only run on Android.

  • 🆓 Ubiquiti’s WiFi Man App provides a suite of tools to monitor, analyze, and improve Wi-Fi performance.
  • 🆓 The UniFi app is an absolute must have— connect it to your controllers and monitor and manage your UniFi networks and devices. Change settings, heaps of cool features.
  • 🆓 There is also the UNMS app from UniFi — this one is more for ISPs and larger installs.
  • 🆓 Android users only: IP Tools WiFi Analyzer — It allows quick detection of network problems, ip address detection and network performance analysis.
  • 🆓 Android users only: LanDroid is another option or complimentary app as IP Tools above.

Web Apps

These fit into a category of add-ons that are not specifically designed as a native phone app.

  • 🆓 uicontroller.com — we built this one. It gives you a free SSL and public hostname for your UniFi controller.
  • ⚖️ Uptime Robot — free monitoring of your controller uptime — get an alert if your controller is no longer accessible from the internet. We use this across our customer base to make sure controllers are up and that we can successfully login to the controller to use the API for our Guest WiFI solution. There are a while bunch of these sorts of sites, but this one is free for the first 50.
  • 🆓 backifi.com — This is a really useful one for backups. There is a problem where you can only backup the settings and logs of your controller to the device itself — backifi is an off-site or cloud based service that is free.
  • 🆓 Not quite a webapp — but available on the web :) If you have a 3D printer, there are stacks of free-to-use print files for your Ubiquiti and UniFi gear. Start here.

Erik Sloof A.K.A the Art of WiFi is a prolific supporter of the UniFi community and has built a number of resources for the community.

Controllers

On premises

Of course the default is the Ubiquiti manufactured Cloud Key (G1 and G2) and the Dream Machine. but below are some options for other DIY solutions. The Cloud Keys are purpose built and we are believers in these for on-premises solutions. Well the G2, not the older G1.

  • You can run the controller on a laptop/desktop — just download the controller software from Ubiquiti. But this is only a solution for intermittent use of a controller. It is not an efficient way to run a controller full-time.
  • There are lots of DIYers building their own version of a CloudKey with Raspberry Pi. This is one example, but you can google for many options.
  • You can also build a controller running in Docker on a Synology NAS — check out this great article.

Cloud Hosted Controller options

If you don’t have a Cloud Key or on-site server or device running your UniFi controller software, then there are a bunch of managed and DIY solutions for cloud controllers that allow you to remotely monitor and manage UniFi devices.

  • 🆓 UNMS Cloud — The Ubiquiti Network Management System (UNMS) is for ISPs that allows you to monitor, configure, upgrade and manage all UBNT devices (except for the UniFi range)
  • 🆓 DIY Cloud Hosting
  • 🆓 https://serversideup.net/deploy-unifi-cloud-controller-5-10-minutes/ — another DIY solution
  • 💰 $15-$40/month — Controllific has built a platform that is much like us, make the basics simple and powers the users with integrations. Emails, Slack, Zapier, etc. We are power users of slack, so having an integration that can fire event-based notifications right into it is ace.
  • 💰 $49-$199/month- hostifi.net — one of the more popular across all the forums is HostiFi — Rather than a free trial, they offer a money back guarantee.
  • ⚖️ 30 day trial then $21-$54/month — https://www.msp-host.net/ from £19/month — Secure, accessible and transparent hosting Environment
  • ⚖️ https://hubox.co/ — free for up to 10 devices then from $2/month
  • 💰 $15-$25/month — https://www.cloudunifi.com/ — Simple, private hotsted UniFi Controllers.
  • 💰 30 day trial then $18.50-$45.50/month — https://www.mozwifi.com/ — this platform is geared to support resellers and MSPs with white-label branding and group accounts.
  • 💰 $9-$45/month — https://cloudbit.io/ simple straightforward service
  • 💰 $5-$49/month — https://unifi-hosting.com/ Claims that you can launch Unifi in the cloud in just 53 seconds! Includes automated backups in three different places.

Some YouTube Channels worth subscribing to

  • Crosstalk Solutions is the biggest by subscriber count and includes plenty of UniFi and Ubiquiti demos. Also includes a variety of best practice network, WiFi, VoIP, and PBX demos and instructional videos
  • Willie Howe’s channel is also huge by subscriber numbers and includes stacks of tips, tricks, demos and tear-downs of UniFi and Ubiquiti gear as well as other networking, VoIP, Security, and Storage videos.
  • Lawrence Systems / PC Pickup includes a handful of informative videos
  • Toasty Answers is an up and coming channel with some great content in there already

This post is from the team at PoweredLocal — we’re Guest WiFi providers, and huge fans of UniFi.

If you found this post useful, we’d love if you give us a clap.

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