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.
Feel free to share this with your friend or bookmark this if you find this is useful. Blacktubi.com is a non-profit ad-free independent website.
⚠️ 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.
Hi Blacktubi,
Wonderful website with a lot of info.
I was wondering if RT-AC55UHP is good enough for the following purpose.
3 storey high building, with the router being placed at the ground floor. (It is a must)
Will be sharing the connection with a relative that is 4 units away (Only guest account for their kids)
No, it is definitely not enough to penetrate that layers of wall between the units.
Hi Mr Blacktubi, I am using Unifi 30Mbps package, may I know the following router compatible ?
D-LINK ROUTER WIFI GIGABIT N450 DUAL BAND AC1750 HIGH POWER DIR-859
Yes, it is compatible.
Hi . The router given by unifi is N or AC? What brand and model?
TM provide a range of routers now.
hi, can u recommend me a router that can support unifi 100 bmps, support port forwarding and unifi Voip gateway (Dlink DVG-5008s) through Vlan 400.
currently unifi default router only can link with the voip gateway by disable the port forwarding feature.
but i realy need the port forwarding and the voip gateway . cause we having 3 phone number + 1 fax number using unify due to my area TM no more pull copper line for telephone.
You can get an enterprise grade router and configure that. You can consider Asus router as they allow manual VLAN tagging as well. However, I have no idea will it work with your VOIP gateway.
Hi blacktubi. I’m a current user of unifi50. And i jz bought e house next door. So if i want to flash signals from my router to both my house(double storey), which router u will recommend?
It depends on your budget. Do not expect full coverage on both house if the house are big. You need to position the router at the middle as well. I recommend RT-AC55UHP.
Hello. My office using 100mbps unifi, and we already change the router to TPLink TL-WR1043ND, but we frequently facing disconnection on wireless. I suspect that happened whenever the router get hang, because everytime it hang, I cannot access the configuration page of the router. For additional info, on normal usage, we would having around 25-30 device connected to the router, and up to 60-70 device whenever we have some occasion or event. But I think the large number of client is not the culprit, because even when all the staff are back home, I sometimes experiencing the disconnection (around 5… Read more »
A TL-WR1043ND is not designed to deal with that level of office traffic. Get something like the Asus RT-AC68U or get a proper enterprise level hardware.
Hi, does Linksys EA6900 support unifi
Yes but not recommended as manual VLAN configuration is required.
Juz want to confirm if tp link wdr6500 are compatible with unifi or not
No
Hi. I just subscribed to unifi 30mbps. Currently use Asus rtn14uhp as range extender. Is necessary for me to swap the router (free from TM) with Asus? tq
The Asus is better.
Hi Blacktubi,
Can I buy Asus RT-AC66U from China and configure Unifi setup? China and Malaysia using the same firmware?
Yes
Any reliable router for me to replace existing L7-N-R2000 router given by Telekom?
My unifi at home only 10mbps, using it with two IP camera so i need a reliable router and extended wireless coverage as upstair signal reception very weak. Budget less than RM300.Thanks.
Your choice is rather limited at this price range. Maybe Asus RT-N14UHP.
hi bro, i’m living in single storey house.currently using stock TM router i can still get full wifi signal strength with 30mb speed. but i’m planning to change the router due to stability issue. My daily usage is only browsing, streaming, not heavy downloading. Can you recommend between tplink wr1043nd, asus rt-n12hp and asus rt-n14uhp, which one suit the purpose. One of the guy from comp shop advice to buy rt-n14uhp.he said n12hp hard to reach 30mb when do the speedtest.is it true?
N14UHP will be better. Both router will have issue with getting the full speed when the signal is poor. The signal on the N14 is stronger.