Helping You Make the Right Call: Meraki vs Ubiquiti for Business Networks

Choosing the right networking equipment is about more than just hardware. It’s about making sure your business runs smoothly, securely, and efficiently. As your IT partner, our role is to help you understand the key differences between two widely used platforms: Cisco Meraki and Ubiquiti UniFi. You don’t need to learn how to configure them yourself. That’s our job. But having a general understanding of how each option performs, and what it means for your business, can help you make more informed decisions.

Below, we break down what your business stands to gain or lose by going with Meraki, why having a firewall matters, the challenges of mixing Meraki with Ubiquiti, and why we recommend Meraki to our clients.

What Do You Gain or Give Up by Choosing Meraki?

Let’s start with what Meraki offers your business.

Benefits of Meraki:

Meraki is built for professional business environments. Its cloud-managed platform gives us the ability to monitor and manage your network proactively. This means better uptime, faster response times, and fewer on-site visits.

Security features are also integrated into Meraki’s hardware. These include web filtering, malware detection, content control, and intrusion prevention. These capabilities help protect your company from modern cyber threats without needing additional tools or subscriptions.

Meraki also supports scalability. Whether you add a new office, onboard more staff, or expand your remote workforce, we can quickly adjust the network to meet your needs without complex changes.

Most importantly, Meraki allows us to fix issues quickly. We can often detect and resolve problems before they impact your day-to-day operations, all from our remote dashboard.

What you give up:

Ubiquiti hardware typically costs less upfront. There are no license fees, and many people are drawn to it for its budget-friendly approach. However, this lower price point often comes at the cost of business-grade support, fewer advanced security features, and more manual configuration.

Updates with Ubiquiti are less frequent and not always guaranteed. Troubleshooting is also more complex, which can mean longer wait times if something goes wrong.

While Ubiquiti may suit smaller, tech-savvy environments with in-house IT support, Meraki is a better long-term investment for businesses that prioritize stability and security.

💡 Did you know?
Meraki vs Ubiquiti for business networks is one of the most frequently researched comparisons by small and mid-sized companies looking to modernize their IT infrastructure.

What You Gain or Give Up by Going with Ubiquiti

Ubiquiti UniFi is often viewed as a cost-effective, flexible networking solution, particularly appealing to businesses aiming to reduce upfront investment. It offers some benefits, but there are trade-offs to consider.

What you gain:

• Lower equipment costs: Ubiquiti devices tend to be more affordable than Meraki.

• No recurring license fees: Once installed, there are no annual costs to access software features.

• More technical control: Ubiquiti can appeal to organizations that prefer deep customization or have in-house IT staff with the time and skill to manage it.

💡 Did you know?
When it comes to Meraki vs Ubiquiti for business networks, Meraki’s cloud dashboard gives your IT provider real-time insight into network performance, while Ubiquiti often relies on local or manual diagnostics.

What you give up:

• Limited built-in security: Features like threat detection and content filtering are not natively integrated or require significant configuration.

• Reduced remote visibility: We can’t see or manage the network as easily, which limits proactive support.

• Longer resolution times: Diagnosing and fixing issues often takes longer compared to Meraki, where we receive real-time alerts and system logs.

• Scaling limitations: While Ubiquiti works well in simple networks, it becomes harder to manage as your business grows or adds complexity.

• Community-based support: Vendor support is limited. Businesses are often left to search forums or rely on MSPs like us to manually troubleshoot deeper issues.

In short, Ubiquiti may work well for smaller, self-managed environments, but it lacks the business-grade support and automation Meraki brings to the table.

Why You Still Need a Firewall

A firewall serves as the gatekeeper between your internal network and the outside world. Every device in your office—whether it’s a workstation, phone, or printer—communicates through it. Without a firewall, your network is exposed to a wide range of threats including malware, unauthorized access, and cyberattacks.

With a business-grade firewall in place, you gain the ability to:

• Block known malicious traffic before it reaches your devices

• Secure remote access for employees working off-site

• Protect sensitive data from accidental exposure

• Segment your network so guest devices or public Wi-Fi don’t compromise your business systems

Meraki firewalls come with built-in intelligence and receive regular updates from Cisco’s threat databases. This allows your network to adapt to emerging threats without manual intervention. Ubiquiti does offer firewalls, but they usually require hands-on configuration and don’t provide the same level of automated protection.

💡 Did you know?
A firewall’s effectiveness can differ significantly depending on your platform. In the Meraki vs Ubiquiti for business networks debate, Meraki includes advanced threat protection out of the box, while Ubiquiti usually requires additional configuration and third-party tools.

Why Meraki and Ubiquiti Don’t Work Well Together

Technically, you can run a mixed environment using both Meraki and Ubiquiti. In practice, we strongly advise against it.

Each brand has its own management dashboard and its own way of handling configurations. This means we would need to manage two separate systems, increasing both the complexity and the time it takes to troubleshoot issues.

Features like VLANs, wireless networks, and firewall rules can behave differently between the two systems. Inconsistencies like these lead to unpredictable performance, which can be frustrating and disruptive.

Most importantly, support becomes a challenge. If there’s a problem, neither vendor will take responsibility if the issue involves equipment made by the other. That often results in delays and back-and-forth that affects your operations.

For consistency, reliability, and faster resolution times, it’s best to standardize on one platform.

Why We Recommend Meraki

At Professional Computer Concepts, we choose Meraki for our clients because it allows us to provide the best level of service and security.

Meraki gives us the tools to:

• Proactively monitor your network and catch problems early

• Make fast, remote changes without disrupting your day

• Protect your systems with enterprise-grade security features

• Support business growth with minimal disruption

We’ve found that clients using Meraki experience fewer issues, faster support, and greater confidence in their technology.

Why This Matters to You

You might be thinking, “If you’re the ones managing the network, why should I care which platform we use?” That’s a fair question, and the answer comes down to the experience you have as a business owner, leader, or manager.

The platform we use behind the scenes directly impacts how reliable, secure, and scalable your entire IT environment is. It shapes how quickly we can help when something goes wrong, how well we can protect your business from threats, and how easily your systems can grow as your needs change.

Let’s break that down.

Fewer interruptions to your team’s productivity

A stable network means your staff can focus on their work instead of dealing with spotty Wi-Fi, dropped calls, or slow internet. With Meraki, we can monitor performance in real time and resolve many issues before they ever impact your team. If a device goes offline or a connection degrades, we see it and act on it – often before you notice anything’s wrong. With platforms like Ubiquiti, that kind of proactive visibility is limited, which increases the chances of preventable interruptions.

Stronger protection of your data and reputation

Security is no longer just an IT issue—it’s a business risk. Whether you’re protecting sensitive client data, financial records, or intellectual property, you need a system that can defend against modern threats. Meraki includes built-in threat detection, content filtering, and intelligent firewall controls that evolve with the threat landscape. That helps safeguard not just your systems, but also your reputation with clients, partners, and regulators. With Ubiquiti, many of these protections require additional setup, third-party tools, or constant manual tuning.

Faster support when something does go wrong

No system is perfect, but how quickly we can diagnose and resolve an issue makes a big difference. Meraki allows us to log in remotely, pinpoint the issue in moments, and apply a fix without sending a technician onsite. With Ubiquiti, we often have to rely on limited diagnostic tools or wait until we can physically access the equipment. The result is longer turnaround times, and that can mean more downtime for your business.

💡 Did you know?
The outcome of your Meraki vs Ubiquiti for business networks decision can directly impact how quickly your MSP can respond to support requests—and whether they can fix issues before they affect your team.

Smoother growth as your needs evolve

Your network isn’t just supporting today’s operations—it’s setting the stage for tomorrow. Whether you’re opening a new office, hiring more staff, or rolling out new cloud-based tools, Meraki makes it easy to expand. We can configure new equipment, apply consistent policies, and bring additional locations online quickly and securely. Ubiquiti, while flexible in its own way, tends to require more hands-on work and manual adjustments to keep everything aligned.

Ultimately, this isn’t just a technical decision. It’s a strategic one.Your network powers everything from communication and collaboration to customer service and compliance. By choosing a platform that enables proactive support, stronger protection, and easier growth, you’re not just buying hardware—you’re investing in fewer headaches, fewer emergencies, and a more resilient business.

If you’re curious how your current setup stacks up or want to talk through whether a switch to Meraki is the right move, we’re happy to walk you through it. Our goal is always to make sure your technology helps your business—not holds it back.

💡 Did you know?
Many businesses choose Ubiquiti for its low upfront costs, but over time, Meraki vs Ubiquiti for business networks often shifts in favor of Meraki due to better long-term support and integrated security.

Ready to Talk About What’s Right for Your Business?

If you’d like us to review your current setup or explore how Meraki could benefit your business, we’re happy to schedule a quick call. Our goal is to help you build a network that works for your business—not the other way around. Let’s talk!