The secure, upscale network in the single-family house

As an experienced networker, I can tell you: Anything other than Unifi is even more expensive.
There are options that are even easier to manage and offer better performance, e.g. Cisco Meraki, but those are significantly more expensive and have recurring license costs. (1,3,5,7,10 years)
Everything else, whether Aruba IAP, ALE Stellar, Ruckus, or whatever, is also far from Ubiquiti.

What is not priced 5 or 10 times more expensive than Unifi would be the Access Point series from Fortinet, where you can also manage the APs together with a Fortigate firewall and FortiSwitches directly from the firewall.
Everything is graphical, colorful, topology diagrams, etc.
Clearly more complex than Ubi, significantly more security features and control, and “only” about 2 times more expensive.

Therefore, I can now give 4 clear recommendations in the (W)LAN area.
AVM Fritz portfolio for everyone who just wants to push buttons and doesn’t need any settings.
Ubi for the bargain hunters with many features. (Factor 1)
Fortinet for the security freaks with the ambition to engage more with the technology. (Factor 2-3 more expensive approx.)
Cisco Meraki for the category: I want an enterprise network, everything cloud-managed and still easy to administer. Can integrate WLAN, LAN, sensors (temp, water, doors, etc.), and cameras. With the app or dashboard, I can remotely block Wi-Fi for the kids or access my cameras from Samoa. Without complex configuration. (Factor 5 more expensive approx.)

And the most important tip, proper Wi-Fi needs cables! Sounds strange but it’s true. I hate mesh.

But one also often hears about the Unifi switches that there are models which have to be rebooted more or less frequently. If you are considering VLAN segmentation, you can also use used Cisco switches. There are also good guides for them in the administrator forum. And they run very stably...

These are mostly the USGs, the switches and access points are actually quite stable. I have a pfSense in front of mine, on which the controller also runs. It has never crashed. Error no. 1 with Ubiquiti is to click on update immediately upon release. Ubiquiti likes to test the firmwares on the customer.

So, do I understand correctly that unifi is already the right choice for my needs? There hasn’t been much feedback about tp Link omada yet, isn’t it somewhat similar and significantly cheaper? Currently, 12 LAN sockets are permanently installed in the house. 3 of them are on the wall in the middle of the floor for the access points and one for an outdoor camera. So currently, I need at least 4x PoE. That’s why I was considering the 16 PoE switch, but with the router, NAS, Hue, etc., 16 might already be a bit tight. However, the 24 PoE from unifi is already quite a big deal from unifi. Do you have any special recommendations for me? Especially for switch and access point? Maybe even the u6 lite instead of the nanohd because of WiFi 6?

My interest in the Omada portfolio ended when I saw that the access points do not support 802.11h. Without DFS and TPC, they are actually not legally operable in the 5 GHz band in DE. Nobody cares, of course, but unfortunately I have had problems with APs without these features too often. However, it is a problem with many cheap 5 GHz devices that they do not comply with some common standards. For example, the FireTV Stick is hardly usable in an Aruba Enterprise WLAN because the stick, true to its name, belongs in the fire and not in a proper WLAN.

Are there any other tips for me? Which access point can you recommend?