Ubiquiti Networks and Mikrotik were the rising stars in telecom field for the past year and a half, I have heard various fiber optic technicians telling me that Ubiquiti is better suited wireless applications while Mikrotik is excellent at what it does best—routers. As the cheap and reliable alternative to Cisco expensive equipment, Mikrotik has a learning curve not many can endure and Uniquiti, famous for its 1G/10G Unifi Switches, also has its limits. So, how to make a choice between them? This article will offer detailed information about Ubiquiti and Mikrotik in terms of target markets, price point as well as their pros and cons, from the perspective of a long-time Ubiquiti and Mikrotik user.
Target Markets
After looking around at their website, You must admit the Ubiquiti website is a bit better than the Mikrotik site. But, there is no way to say witch one is better? Each of them are making some unique products.
Founded in 1996, MikroTik is a Latvian company aimed to develop routers and wireless ISP systems. Mikrotik offers a complete solution for wireless connectivity needs from the mANTBox, SXT, LHG, DynaDish to hAP AC. And they are also famous for their router devices. Mikrotik even launch the Mikrotik academy by expanding RouterOS learning possibilities for educational institutions.
While Ubiquiti Networks is offering Unifi series devices and its wireless accessories. UBNT has Unifi series, setting up WIFI network could not be easier, range and performance is superior. For detailed information about Unifi switches and its compatible optical transceivers, please see this article.
All in all, in noisy environment, UBNT is more stable and reliable due to its good antenna design, where Mikrotik devices are reconnecting constantly. Mikrotik have CCR routers, they are performing great, there was DDoS attack targeted to my customers network, CCR12G CPU where running at 80%, but did not crashed.
Unifi Switches Or Mirotik Routers
UBNT Unifi Switches and Mirotik Routers are the hot selling products. Both of the two hardware providers are widely deployed in WISP networks, and their switches and routers are software based which are 1/10 or less of the cost of the equivalent Cisco/Juniper products.
- UBNT Unifi Switches
Ubiquiti offers an amazing price for wired speed switching, especially their Edgeswitch, Unifi switches, and Edgerouter. Their Edgerouter solutions seem to be faster than Mikrotiks solutions. UBNT are no longer providing the Edgeswitch series switches.
Ubiquiti UniFi Switch is available with either 8, 16, 24 or 48 RJ45 Gigabit ports at either 250 or 750 watts. The UniFi Switch delivers robust performance, PoE+ support, and intelligent switching for growing networks. The UniFi switch targets the Enterprise / SMB market, which is designed for a wider IT audience, and therefore, tend to be simpler, and easier to use. For its total, non-blocking throughput, the 24port model supports up to 26 Gbps, while the 48-port model supports up to 70 Gbps. The above image shows the US-8 8-port managed Gigabit switches with PoE Passthrough.
- Mirotik Routers
Mikrotik also makes routers and switches and supports advanced features such as MPLS. Ubiquiti routers use Cavium chips so they are not 100% software solutions, having a bit of programmable hardware support. Although most Mikrotik products are 100% software-based, their flagship router nowadays, CCR, also has similar hardware acceleration from Tilera.
CCR1016 is an industrial grade router with a cutting edge 16 core Tilera CPU. The CCR1016-12S-1S+ seen in the below image, comes with redundant power supplies and one RJ45 SFP 10/100/1000M copper module. It has 12 SFP Ports and one SFP+ port for 10G connectivity.
Wireless and BRAS-type solutions under RouterOS work fine, but routing has been a challenge since they moved from Quagga to XORP due to licensing issues; Mikrotik uses a lot of open source but published very little code, drawing extensive criticism from the open-source community. Although it's unknown to me if they are still using XORP, whatever they use still has flaws.
FS.COM Enterprise Network Solution
FS.COM, as an optical solution expert, provides Ethernet switches, enterprise WiFi, power cords, and video converters, etc. Our Ethernet switches are ranging from 1G to 100G. Just take S3800 series switches as an example, This switch features 24 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 4, 32 or 48 SFP+ ports and 40G/100G ports, which provides smooth upgrading to high-speed network. FS.COM S5850-48S2Q4C switch is equipped with 48 SFP+ ports, 2 QSFP+ ports and 4 QSFP28 ports providing 960Gbps non-blocking bandwidth and 1200Mpps L2/L3 throughput.
Not only the Ethernet switches, they also supplies 100G QSFP28 transceivers, QSFP optical transceivers, SFP+ optics and data center jumpers with great variety and 100% assured tested. Customers can buy a whole series of devices in our online store.
Conclusion
There is no winner between Mikrotik and Ubiquiti Networks, none of them are better or worse, there is different tasks and problems, and different solutions for them. Choose product according your needs, not by brand! Besides FS.COM would be a great option,too. Thank you for your reading, if you are interested in this topic, please leave your comment here.
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