Unifi's BIG Mistake | Is this the end?

*UPDATE* Ubiqiti listened and there will now be a "free" version of UI for access.. They will be rolling it out soon and details are in the unifi reddit channel..

are you shocked UniFi roped everyone in got to big. the pandemic aka the get rich agenda they went and used the excuse hey we need to get rid of free shipping even tho they never had stock so they weren't shipping anything, then they went and took old tech aka the g3 and raised it from 29 to 79 right at the time they released the g5... see the issue.... then they decided to secretly raise prices on cat6 cable without saying anything among other things, YET they allowed the abuse of the early release program until everything started balancing out then poof its gone... UNIFI granted mane cool stuff and I use it but their business practice is money and screwing the end users.

My company stopped using their stuff as we saw what was coming...

A lot of companies EOL products like this. Installing Unfi Video any time in the last 12 to 24 months would be asking for issues as it was notified it would be EOL'd . Unfortunately Protect is not yet feature comparable, and I have mainly gone over to Synology Surveillance Station now.
Unifi make amazingly good hardware, but the software side really lets them down badly. Going subscription is the way a lot of companies are going unforutnately, and a lot do just change policies mid stream. I guess the companies need to make money, and if hardware is lasting 10 or so years, then subscription is the only way to have a reliable income

The promised update arrived today, see UDM 3.2.5 change log: UniFi Identity is the new on-premise UniFi user management system. It is a lightweight, single-site, unlimited-user, subscription free option delivering user access to doors, VPN, WiFi, and EV charging — all with a simple tap on the Identity mobile app for iOS and Android. Please note that previous UID options are now named UniFi Identity Enterprise.

I literally bought this system for the door access using phones .... only to have purchased it and having them drop the free users from 50 to 5!!!! unbelievable ...

Our problem has been overall system stability. We have Unifi protect servers that just go offline for no reason. I can switch ports from wired to fiber of vice versa and it goes back online. Same with switches and APs. They can just be offline for no reason. Overall I am considering not doing a full rip replace but over time transition to something else. What does everyone else use? I am demoing an Engineus AP but looks like their cloud has pro things that are around $50 a month per device and I do not want to get into per month fees.

Great points!

Ubiquiti, get your shit together, seriously. If you're going to charge something outrageous like $5/user just to be able to open their doors, then you need to charge that ridiculous price from the get-go. Enough of this bait and switch bullshit.

Company's do this, example is starlink. Went from no limit to a set limit

Left Ubiqiti and went to Fortinet products, best move we made.

I stopped buying when the camera thing happened then quit the brand after they kept acting maliciously by with the repeated attempts to drop support in Controller for otherwise perfectly good "legacy" APs, or by removing the UniFi Video apps from the stores, knowing well these devices would become unmanageable for most, the branding was changed, there was no need to remove the apps. When you use UI products behind a non-UI firewall, you noticed a lot of communication to some very shady servers, the hacks, and the required UI account for management don't help the case of the company who's attempting to get you to buy security products from it.

I asked about UID, why did it feel like it was appropriate to charge a fee if from what I gather no service is provided. Are you paying for a license, they've made it a key selling point how others, Cisco, do this and how they don't and here we are. That's unless you go for the higher tiers where there's bundle an Identity Provider. I guess that could be a reason to charge a fee, but Azure AD does the same thing, it's device agnostic and includes thousands of accounts in the free tier, Azure B2C is something like 500,000users on the free. ADFS/Keycloak do the same thing for free, and being an open standard, why can't you use your own?

UI, has behaved horribly. It was suing companies putting better firmware on its hardware at some point, but, I don't think UI's to blame (that much) because it was, with all due respect, your continuing being a customer after all this time that might've emboldened UI to not give a ****. Question is, it is enough yet?

in Australia the short life span is great, companies are incentivised to ensure their products are new and have the latest software available. Anything older than 5 years old is junk.

congratulations, this video exemplifies all reasoning, doubts based on true facts.

*Also this "fast fashion" IT is really destructive for the environment!* Like we have 1 life.. we have 1 earth too!
I hope that lobbyists will stand up to lobby really really hard for enivornmental software-hardware lifespan laws for the EU, US and as an conditional framework for Asian import.
Also with phones it is totally out of bounds.
Glad that ubiqiti are listening to your channel!

Only use APs and switches (and cloudkey). Happy so far

I experienced the end-of-life issues with UniFi right at the end of a new installation with their EDU-APs that had a central loud speaker system that because completely unusable by the time the install was completed. Very disappointing and the client ended up overpaying for the AP part of the device that still worked. Since then I only use their networking components without any bells and whistles until I see better consistency. I think the issue is primarily with their development teams that don’t want to take the time to properly upgrade things, say from a firmware and controller compatibility perspective.

I agree, they have made some great improvements to their network and Protect gear, and the Access application looked promising. I like the idea of the Unifi Identity where you can control access to everything under one user, but the costs they want per user can add up quickly. Should just be a site fee. I noticed the change with the UDM line, putting cloud keys and forcing to use them over us managing the sites. I have transitioned all my clients of the USG's, but I fear that one day they'll drop the hammer saying if I want to keep using the Unifi Cloud for network and Protect it will be X amount per month.

It appears the link to the capture card in your description takes you to the LED light link.

I'm getting ever more frustrated with UniFi regarding decisions like this. I already migrated my network control off my multiple CKG2+ to a cloud Ubuntu setup due to the fact that the CKG2+ units kept losing all their Network settings every time it updated. I honestly wish that Mikrotik had expanded their range like UniFi did as the Mikrotik stuff is rock solid - fit and forget! With UniFi you are already paying a substantial premium for cameras that are higher priced and poorer quality than the competition. Couple this with the lack of dedicated support and it's time to plan a different route. If I have to go down a subscription path that is this expensive compare to the others then even TP-Link/Omada seems a better bet. A pity because the product lineup is starting to look quite nice.