Unifi Router Buyer's Guide in 2021
If you use Unifi at your home, you are probably not so happy with the speed and stability of the WiFi network. That’s because TM is still a business and they cannot give an expensive router while remain profitable. But, luckily, TM doesn’t stop you from buying your own router.
While the router provided by TM isn’t too bad, they have slower CPU and weaker WiFi coverage. This means they aren’t very good if you stay in a bigger home or if you have more WiFi devices at home. Thus, in this article, I will show you some WiFi routers that I’ve tested that will recommend for you to upgrade your home WiFi router.
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⚠️ This guide is only intended for Unifi Fibre users!
Table of Contents
Unifi Fibre Equipment Overview
All Unifi Fibre installation come with 2 devices which is the fibre modem and WiFi router. The Fibre modem comes with lifetime warranty from TM and it is non-user replaceable. But, don’t worry as the WiFi router rarely breaks down and it performs well. What we will be focussing is the WiFi router part which will impact all your home networking performance.
Unifi Router Brands
Once you purchased the new router, please request your Unifi login ID and Password from TM. You will need them when configuring your new router. Once you got everything ready, remove your old wireless router and connect the new router to the ONU. You have to reconfigure your new wireless router. The process depends on the brand of the router but generally, you just need to insert the PPPOE ID and password and select the Unifi profile on the router.
TP-Link Unifi Router
TP-Link routers are fully compatible with Unifi. TP-Link offers really good value for money as their routers are usually cheaper while delivering the same level of performance compared to their competitors. They offer a 3 years warranty on all their networking products.
You can refer to my guide on how to setup TP-Link Unifi router here.
Model WiFi Specification Suggested Plan Beamforming MU-MIMO Maximum NAT speed Retail Price Archer C5400X Gaming AC5400 800Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM1499 Archer C5400 AC5400 800Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM949 Archer C4000 AC4000 800Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM999 Archer C3150 AC3150 800Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM799 Archer C2300 AC2300 800Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM639 Deco M9 Plus Mesh AC2200 500Mbps ✔ ✔ 800Mbps RM999 Archer A10 AC2600 800Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM639 Archer A9 AC1900 500Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM439 Archer C9 AC1900 500Mbps ✔ – 941Mbps RM469 Deco M5 Mesh AC1300 500Mbps ✔ ✔ 800Mbps RM439 Deco M4 Mesh AC1200 300Mbps ✔ ✔ 800Mbps RM399 Archer C7/ A7 AC1750 500Mbps – – 800Mbps RM312 Archer C6/ A6 AC1200 300Mbps ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM209 Archer C1200 AC1200 300Mbps – – TBD RM279
Do note that HyppTV do not work on their Deco mesh series of products but Internet is working properly.
Asus Unifi Router
Asus is another well known brand in the wireless router industry. They are slightly more expensive but they have really solid performance and the AsusWRT firmware offers the most comprehensive set of features. Asus also pioneer their AiMesh technology which allows you to use several compatible Asus routers to form a high performance mesh network. Asus routers come with 3 years of warranty in Malaysia.
You can refer to my guide on how to setup Asus Unifi router here.
Model WiFi Specs Suggested Plan AiMesh BF MU-MIMO Maximum Internet Speed Price Range RT-AX88U AX6000 800Mbps ✔ ✔ ✔ 941Mbps Unreleased Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 Gaming AC5300 800Mbps ✔ ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM2489 RT-AC5300 AC5300 800Mbps ✔ ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM2209 RT-AC88U AC3100 800Mbps ✔ ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM1809 Asus Blue Cave AC2600 800Mbps ✔ ✔ ✔ 941Mbps RM1099 RT-AC68U AC1900 500Mbps ✔ ✔ – 850Mbps RM1039 Lyra Trio Mesh AC1750 500Mbps ✔ ✔ ✔ 850Mbps RM1579 Lyra Mesh AC2200 500Mbps ✔ ✔ ✔ 850Mbps RM999 RT-AC66U B1 AC1750 300Mbps ✔ ✔ – 941Mbps RM859 RT-AC1300UHP AC1300 300Mbps ✔ ✔ ~500Mbps RM569 RT-AC58U AC1300 300Mbps ✔ ✔ ~500Mbps RM479 RT-AC1200G+ AC1200 100Mbps – – ~400Mbps RM449
D-Link Unifi Router
You probably heard of D-Link before as they are one of the oldest brand selling networking gear in Malaysia. They also produce some really great networking equipment. New D-Link routers are fully compatible with Unifi. They are also rather affordable while delivering good performance.
You can refer to my guide on how to setup D-Link Unifi router here.
Model WiFi Specification Beamforming MU-MIMO Ethernet Port Price DIR-895L AC5300 ✔ ✔ 4 x Gigabit RM1599 DIR-882 AC2600 ✔ ✔ 4 x Gigabit RM698 DIR-878 AC1900 ✔ ✔ 4 x Gigabit RM518 DIR-867 AC1750 ✔ ✔ 4 x Gigabit RM399 DIR-868L AC1750 ✔ – 4 x Gigabit – DIR-842 AC1200 ✔ ✔ 4 x Gigabit RM289
Other Brands (Tenda, Netgear and etc)
There are also other brands in the market and most if not all Enterprise level gear can be configured to support Unifi. But, we do not include them in this list as they may be harder to configure for most users.
Netgear is known for requiring manual setup of VLAN for it to work with Unifi.
Which router can support up to 800mbp? Just upgraded to Unifi Turbo 800mbp.
Asus RT-AC86U or TP-Link Archer C2300.
Mine had been upgraded to 300mbps.
For WiFi which brand router model is as good as Asus Rt ac 58u?
TP-Link Archer C6.
Hi bro, my UNIFI just got turbo-ed to 100mbps. Right now my current router is TL-WR841HP.
But when I check the speed with wired connection, I’m only getting max around 45-55mbps download & 60mbps upload.
Do you know what caused this issue? Is it because router does not support 100mbps? I believe TL-WR841HP
support up to 300mbps right
This router cannot handle higher speed due to the old CPU.
Hi,
Im looking at the next gen wifi 6 routers.
Asus ROG-Rapture-GT-AX11000
TP linkArcher AX11000
will these be unifi compatible?
The Asus one is Unifi compatible and we already have it on our desk .
Hi Alvyn Ong
Just upgraded to unifi 800mbps. I can only get 120mbps.
TM said to changed the wifi usb device. Before upgrade I can get 100mbps. Using Archer T4U Huawei modem and Dlink AC 1200 DIR 842 supplied by TM. I have checked same as my old router also supplied by TM 5GHz 867Mbps and 2.4GHz 300Mbps is there any difference besides the antenna? TM said only can get around 300mbps when using wifi. I mean is it true for technology today. If I need to change the wifi usb device can you recommend a device. Thank you.
John
The signal need to be good in order to get 300Mbps with a good USB WiFi receiver. The router need to be good as well.
Hi there,
I just got turbo-ed to 500mbps….but I’m still using the old silver router RG-DLINK one..
Which is the cheapest n suitable router for me???TM suggested an RM 188.95 router. do have any idea wat router is that??
But I’m looking forward on D-Link DIR-867,D-Link DIR-842,Archer C7…..
Wat do u think?
Thanks,
Ruthra
Get either the Archer C6, DIR-867 or Archer C2300. These 3 are my favorite budget router
hi, my unifi has been turbo to 500mbps and im using the archer c7 and the problem is i did the speedtest and it only shows 50mbps…..so how do i get it till 500mbps?
Use wired LAN to test instead of WiFi.
Dear alvyn,
Right now i used tp link archer C1200 after turbo upgrade 800mbps..i cannot get the speed..should i upgrade my router? Can u suggest for me..
Get either the Archer C6, DIR-867 or Archer C2300. These 3 are my favorite budget router.
Hi. Mine is upgraded to 800mbps. I bought asus rt ac86u as my main router. I’m planning to buy another aimesh compatible router soon. My question is if i buy ac68u, will it downgrade my overall internet speed to 500mbps because using a lower spec aimesh node?
Well, do not expect to get the full 800Mbps or even 500Mbps at your AiMesh node. It will be around 300Mbps at best. This is expected.
Just upgraded to 800mbps. Changed router by TM to Dlink AC1200. Using wifi adaper TPLink Archer T4U. Only get 130mbps. Before upgrade can get 100mbps. TM guy said change the wifi adapter. The old router same speed for 2.4ghz 300Mbps and 5ghz 867Mbps as the new one. TM guy said I can only get around 300mbps using wifi connection. Is it true? Any suggestion? Thank you.
Yup, it is totally normal. 300Mbps on Wireless is decent
Hi alvyn ,
My TM upgrade my package to 800mbps and currently I’m using ASUS AC1300UHP , can this router support to 800mbps ? Or should I upgrade my router ? Any recommend router ?
You can consider an upgrade to Asus RT-AC86U.
Hi Alvyn, I’ve speed stability issues since day one. I’ve upgraded to Asus RT-N12hp 2 years ago and notice faster downloads but still suffer from drastic inconsistency in speed. Could it be a faulty ONU unit or lousy unifi cable
RT-N12HP is a slow router as well.