I’m shopping for a new router and I would prefer something from a company that isn’t stealing my data and spying on me at every opportunity.
I live in a small house, 1100ish square feet. I have 8 wifi cameras, 6 computers (two are for work), a handful of phones and tablets, nearly 50 lights and other smart devices, and lastly I have 10 Sonos wifi speakers. I would also strongly prefer something that is wall or ceiling mountable.
My current router is buckling and can’t handle the load. I would very much appreciate any advice or recommendations you can offer me while I’m shopping!
If you want to fully control your router, look into Mikrotik.
Ubiquity is okayish, but does need you to set up a Unifi center, which can manage multiple routers simultaneously. But they are less flexible than Mikrotik.
But, as others have mentioned, your ISP is the issue. If you go with Mikrotik, you can set DNSs to your custom set (eg. Use CloudFlare or FreeDNS) and directly install VPN (Wireguard or IPsec or OpenVpn) and route all your traffic through that.
My suggestion: if you have a bit of networking knowledge or want to learn, go with Mikrotik. If you’re more “high level, I just want stuff to automatically work”, pick Ubiquity.
You have not mentioned how all of these devices are connected, but if it’s mostly wired (which I would always suggest due to security and speed), you’ll need a switch as well.
You can also combine several Unifi WiFi access points with a Mikrotik router as an edge device. This should give you enough coverage and wireless bandwidth for all non-cable connected devices.
Note that Mikrotik VLAN setup is kinda weird if you’re looking to get broad experience. I thought I had lost all my networking knowledge the first time I needed to set it up