I agree. Right now I have the edge router lite. I have it setup so 4 ports are switched together and then I use poe pass-through to power my access point. Then I run the unifi software on a raspberry pi.
I would love at least a gateway/cloud key combo to simplify things. The separate switch doesn't bother me as much though.
one more thing to go wrong in the field, one more cable to get unplugged. a key/gateway/24portPOEswitch would be a single device people can run ethernet to for APs, and plug their office pcs into. If you have a rack its irrelevant, but for some kind of trailer where its sitting on the floor... or mounted to a wall.
I just ran both UNMS and the UniFi controller on a gcp instance (free credits). Their software is unconsistent though (the fact that there’s separate UNMS for the edgerouter and UniFi for the aps should already tell you that) but for example: the UNMS container sets up letsencyrpt etc but unifi does not.
Had to modify it to mount bind a shared cert location.
This drives me insane! I get that in a commercial environment those are typically treated differently, but at home I want one device that I can manage everything from.
I'm currently commandeering a R-Pi as a controller, but I tend to misplace it when it gets pulled into other projects.
Amplifi is apples to oranges with their full setup.
I installed an Amplifi AP/Router at my parent's house. It works absolutely phenomenally for their use case, but is basically plug and play. The Ubiquiti gear is worlds more configurable.
which tends to fair poorly compared to orbi, asus, velop and others. a bottom of the pack product at the moment. its also not part of the unifi family, and doesnt have the advanced management interface.