Ubiquiti vs tp-link

[don256us]

I've been slowly getting into the Ubiquiti world but their industry breaking prices are getting to be much closer to industry standard. tp-link, on the other hand is looking to be the new Ubiquiti in terms of industry disrupters.

tp-link has Omada which looks to be like Ubiquiti's Unifi.

The Omada hardware controller is similar to the Ubiquiti Cloud Key but limited to 100 devices for $100. I don't come near that so do I care about the limitation? For $150 I can manage up to 500 devices so....

The more I look, the major difference seems to be that tp-link is availible for purchase at retail price where Ubiquiti isn't. I want to get a dream machine pro but $350 seems rich, they can be found after some digging but the camera products from Ubiquiti are priced way high on a good day compared to better products.

 

[Woomack]

My experience with Ubiquiti is that their WiFi products are good but they release devices in new standards much later than other brands. Their WiFi 6 devices are available for barely a few months while I have had Netgear at home for two years. Ubiquiti USG devices are a total fail. Routers are below average and many people pick brands like MikroTik or Netgear or anything else from known brands.
Availability is also limited for some devices and their support is not existing. You are left to yourself if there are problems with anything. It's like if you won't find answers on the web then you won't find them at all.

TP-Link is cheaper but there are problems with some of their devices so it's good to read some more about any solution before you buy it. They release multiple revisions of similar products that are called the same but have different specs. For example, VPN routers were in 3-4 versions and their performance was much different. Sometimes, even the distribution can't tell what revision they have on stock.
There are not any big problems with TP-Link, but smaller problems are happening quite often with various devices. Many things are fixed with firmware but not all. In case of any problems their support reacts quite fast and can ask the manufacturer directly.

If the price difference is significant then I would go with TP-Link. However, one thing is the price and another is compatibility with various devices. I have no idea what about TP-Link solutions and if everything works fine together. Tbh I don't know anyone who is building anything larger only on TP-Link. Their devices are popular in homes or small offices.