Amplifi HD vs Ubiquiti Unifi

[Vitus]

Hi

I am considering replacing an old router in my house and and extra AP I use.
I have looked at both Amplifi and unifi systems
If I buy
2xUnifi AP AC Pro
1xUnifi AP AC Lite
1xCloud key (I can even drop this one and install software on my Raspberry Pi)
1xUnifi Switch 8 ports 150W (or Zyxel GS1900-8HP)
or
1xUbiquiti AmpliFi HD Mesh WiFi system
1xUbiquiti AmpliFi HD MeshPoint

The price difference is really not that big. So I am not sure what to choose.
Unifi will give me more flexibility, cause I can extend with outdoor modules of the same type later if I want to cover bigger area. It also gives me much more flexibility.
Amplify is easy to setup, but it does not have outdoor module. It will also occupy wall outlets.
I have Chromecasts and apple tv in the house. We stream a lot, cause we do not have cable tv. We have 10-20 devices connected to network, sometimes even more.
I have I have wires in strategic rooms, so it is not an issue.
There are 3 floors in the house, where walls and roof in the basement are all concrete.
I assume stability is not the issue for these system. But how are these systems performance wise? And which one would give me best coverage?

I also have a friend that would prefer a simple to setup solution and there are no network cables in the house, only 1 place he can set his router, so for him Amplifi HD will be the best solution.

 

[MichaelCG]

If you don't mind tinkering with things and have the option to get hard lines to each AP, go for the UAP devices. Do I get the uber top speeds out of my UAPs? No, there are faster out there. But for the most part my UAP-AC-LR are stable and just work. We have 2-5 people in the house depending on the day each with phones, iPads, FireTV, Kindles, AppleTV and laptops and have no issues with our WiFi performance these days.

To note...you don't "need" to buy the switch. Individual UAP devices include a PoE injector. You only need the PoE switch if you want to clean up cabling or you buy the multi-pack which do not include the injectors.

 

[Vitus]

Thank you michaelcg. I have already dlink dsg-1008d green unmanaged switch that is maybe 5 years old. Very stable and I can use it for new setup. I might in stead buy an extra AP for outdoor use or camera.
Do you use cloud key? If not, do you think or know it is a lot of extra work to install software on my raspberry pi?

 

[MichaelCG]

I do not have a cloudkey today, but it is on my to-do list someday...when an extra $100 comes around, I would rather get an additional AP before a CK. I am currently running my controller on an Ubuntu VM running on my file server.

I know nothing about getting it running on a RPi...I would suggest popping over to the Ubiquiti forums and reading through there. I have seen several threads about this topic the past few weeks. Pretty sure there are detailed posts that will walk you through it. I found the Wiki article for Ubuntu and had my controller up and running in no time at all.

 

[Vitus]

I already have ubuntu installed so I will try with software first. Will order hardware today.