Ubiquiti launched the USG line of UniFi firewalls quite a while ago, such that they have been kind of replaced with the new UDM line, but there are still some use cases for a single purpose device. With a UDM or UDM Pro, it is not possible to adopt them to a cloud hosted UniFi server or a Cloud Key. If the device needs to be replaced for any reason it can then be hot swapped out with minimal downtime or in some cases cost to the user too. In the case of the UDM, the model with the WiFi AP integrated, the cost of upgrading it to WiFi 6 for example, is more than if you had a separate UniFi AP.

So Ubiquiti is still selling the USG and USG Pro and for $139 / £103.19 the USG makes a good fit into homes and small businesses thanks partly, for being fan-less and with a small form factor. On paper, the small USG doesn’t stack up that well anymore it has 512MB DDR2 RAM and while it is gigabit capable, enabling IDS or IPS does limit the throughput the USG is capable of.

“Warning: Enabling Threat Management will affect the USG-3P maximum throughput (85 Mbps).”

Ubiquiti

This limitation also affects the USG Pro too, limiting it to 250mbps. This is where the UDM line differs from the USG line, thanks to much more powerful internals the UDM Pro for example can handle 1Gbps traffic with DPI and IDS or IPS activated.

The USG Pro is $344 / ££259.55 UK and it is 1U rack mountable, unlike the USG.

The USG comes in at $139 US / £103.19 UK / €199.79 EU and the USG Pro comes in at $344 US / £259.55 UK / €301.29 EU on the official Ubiquiti store.

USG

USG Pro

Number of ports

3x RJ45


1x WAN

1x LAN
1x WAN2/LAN2

4x RJ45 and 2x SFP


1x LAN 1

1x LAN 2
2x WAN1
2x WAN2

Maxiumum throughput

850Mbps

3.5Gbps

Form factor

Desk and wall mountable

Desk mountable and 1U rack moutable

Supported features

IDS and IPS threat detection
DPI deep packet inspection
Firewall
Radius server

IDS and IPS threat detection
DPI deep packet inspection
Firewall
Radius server

Price

$139 US / £103.19 UK / €199.79 EU

$344 US / £259.55 UK / €301.29 EU

Recommendation

The USG is a good affordable and powerful UniFi firewall that will work well on gigabit services, so long as you don’t use IDS or IPS which is quite a useful tool. Both routers are getting old now in the UniFi line up and Ubiquiti is working on the new UXG-Pro which was teased around a year ago and should launch soon and be a direct replacement for the USG Pro and have much more capability and power. For that reason, I would hold out on purchasing the USG or USG Pro and wait for the new UXG-Pro.

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