Ubiquiti has been on a roll for new products so far this year, right at the start of the year the AmpliFi Alien Mesh kit was launched, then at the end of January the new LTU PtMP platform was released, then the UniFi Smart Plug and then a new mount for the NanoStation AC Loco and NanoBeam AC. In February already, a major update to airOS 8 for airMAX AC was released with airOS 8.7.0, a new 60GHz airFiber was released last week and now the latest addition, the new UniFi Dream Machine Pro.

What is the UniFi Dream Machine Pro?

To understand what the new UDM-Pro is, it is first best to get a concept of what UniFi has been, and what UniFi is. To learn more about what UniFi is, please read our Ubiquiti UniFi Product Line Guide 2019 we published last year.

Essentially, it is a modular system with a main controller which allows the user to administer all of the network equipment in the home or office. The main controller can be ran on one of Ubiquiti’s CloudKey devices, on a PC or Mac, Raspberry Pi, AWS server, Digital Ocean or HostiFi. HostiFi is a dedicated service which allows users to pay a small subscription per month and get a fully managed and backed up system to run UniFi or UNMS.

Each device you add, be it security gateways, switches and access points, they are all separate and all talk back to the main controller.

The UniFi Dream Machine was launched at the tail end of last year and encompasses all of the separate devices into one unit, with a firewall which is actually more powerful than the USG, four port gigabit switch, access point and a cloud key.

UniFi Dream Machine
UniFi Dream Machine

The UniFi Dream Machine Pro takes this concept a bit further. While the standard UDM is more suited in homes, the UDM-Pro is probably better suited in a small office or medium sized business. It’s a more powerful device than the UDM and can handle up to 8Gbps on the WAN without IDS or DPI activated and up to 3Gbps with IDS and DPI turned on. It has an 8 port gigabit switch and a built in hard drive tray for use with UniFi Protect.

It has also two WAN ports, one gigabit ethernet port and one SFP+ port for up to 10Gbps. The UDM-Pro can fail over to a secondary WAN connection if the main internet feed goes offline.

Pricing and avaiblity

In the US, the official Ubiquiti Store has the UDM-Pro for $379 and here in the UK, MS Distribution is the best place to get it for £424.44