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.
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.
I just got dlink c1203, but i couldn’t setup it says plug the modem to router which i already done it, and i still couldn’t proceed to the next step, what is the reason? can it be my modem outdated ?
Give D-Link a call and they will help you with it.
Hello. My unifi turbo speed is 500 mbps. Someone recommended I get the Asus RT AC580U. I noticed this router is not in your list. What is your opinion on this router? Would you recommend it?
Thanks
I recommend the RT-AC1300UHP instead. The RT-AC58U may struggle a bit.
Hi, I’m using unifi 500mbps, I’m using lan cable for ps4 gaming but I still experience high latency. May I know should I change to Asus router or it doesn’t matter if I’m using lan cable.
Asus routers are more stable especially if you have a lot of devices connected.
Planning to get Mi Router Pro for my Unifi, I do aware the Mi router doesn’t support Vlan tagging, but someone mentioned using a TPlink Smart Switch to handle the Vlan tagging would make the router works (but without HyppTV), any experience on this setup?
Not recommended as the solution is not reliable.
Edit: If you don’t use HyppTV then you can use the smart switch solution. Search my post for it. I made an article about that.
I had a 3 story house quite big actually. would you suggest a mesh system ? or one powerful router to compensate the size of my house. The router supply by TM is not enough to cover the whole house.
i generally want mesh is about the seamless transition between access point. i hate multiple SSID
Go for either AiMesh or get TP-Link Deco M9 Plus. TP-Link Deco M9 Plus is a lotbetter in the sense of roaming but AiMesh is slightly faster.
Just changed to TP Link Archer C5400x, managed to get the intended wireless speed at my living hall. But when I go to upstairs, the speed reduced like 30%, any suggestion to fix this ?
Not possible to fix this as this is how wireless work. The performance will be slower as the distance increases.
Not even by using Wifi Extender ?
WiFi extender will cut throughout by half which is worst.
Hi,
Recently got upgraded to 500mbps from 50mbps. Currently on D-Link DIR-615 and after upgrade my speed is about 10mbps (no surprise) on wifi.
Router is placed on ground floor together with the BTU. I just placed an order for TP-Link’s C9, was wondering if that is a good choice?
It is a good router but at the price range you can top up to the C2300 which is a lot better.
Any router to be recommend for 800mbps Unifi ? Will Asus RT-AC88U support for WiFi 800MBPS ? Any user use this router recently ?
Yes, the router will definitely support 800Mbps but to get the kind of speed on WiFi is almost impossible unless you got some really good receiver.
Hi, I’m a Unifi 800mbps currently using Archer C1200.. If I’m looking for an upgrade, which router do you recommend to fully utilize the 800mbps?
I think you can consider TP-Link Archer C2300 or Asus Blue Cave. Both routers are really good and of course the Asus have better firmware.
Hi there,
I’m recently turbo-ed to 500mbps by Unifi. Currently using the old silver router RG-DLINK, which clearly shows that it doesn’t supports the 500mbps turbo-ed speed..
Can u recommend me a suitable router which can cater for 4k streaming,gaming,hypptv n etc
With a budget of below RM 450-400
TQ,
HAPPY CNY
You can consider Asus RT-AC1300UHP, probably the best router in the price range.
Hi, im currently upgraded to 800mbps turbo. After i do check my speedtm.test, my download till 400mbps, but not till 800mbps. My modem is using AC1200. IS it need to change to other modem so that can get speed to 800mbps?
Are you using WiFi? The maximum speed of WiFi is limited to around 400-500Mbps due to technology limitation.
I also unifi 800Mbps user. My router is TPLink C3150 and wifi speed can achieve 600Mbps..
Most consumer devices can only reach around that speed. To reach higher speed you need a receiver like ASUS PCE-AC88.
Hi there. I just got my turbo upgrade 800Mbps . What would you recommend for this package if WLAN is not required?
I have 10 public static IP addresses .
You can consider some Mikrotik gear or if you prefer something easier to configure, the Ubiquiti series of Gateway.