# Ubiquiti UniFi 5G

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Ubiquiti UniFi 5G and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a cheap, unlocked 5G router that works on any major US carrier and as failover internet. Main caveat: limited bandwidth, and the outdoor model is directional.

## Why people recommend it

- Good backup or failover internet (3 comments): "I could see this being a good backup, especially for small businesses like retail shops" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46161426)) "The fallback support for UniFi setups will be awesome." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157868)) "It'd be a good option for failover Internet." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46161772))
- Unlocked for any carrier (2 comments): "fully unlocked: any major carrier, any type of deployment, with one piece of hardware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46160950)) "having modems that are fully unlocked for Stateside usage for once is a nice touch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46160977))
- Gigabit speeds and multi-gig ports (2 comments): "I was surprised that I could get symmetrical 1gbps connection, without any cables." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46163440)) "they actually have 10 Gbps SFP+ and 2.5 Gbps ethernet ports" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162983))

## What people warn about

- Limited antenna options (3 comments): "Seems weird to cripple the product by not allowing me to (optionally) disable the internal antenna" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46161269)) "The fact that the outdoor version is directional kind of limits its adoption in mobile usage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157742)) "It sucks how the gateway from these services do not have external antenna support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46160292))
- Limited bandwidth and slow fallback (2 comments): "They still give you 500kbps of speed, which is enough for checking emails, voice calls, navigation, music streaming, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46166904)) "these supposedly premier networking devices are lacking so much in bandwidth" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46158177))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [MikroTik router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mikrotik-router.md): 59 recommend
- [GL.iNet travel router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gl-inet-travel-router.md): 54 recommend
- [Ubiquiti UniFi Travel Router](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unifi-travel-router.md): 35 recommend
- [OpenWrt One](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openwrt-one.md): 34 recommend
- [AVM Fritz!Box](https://hackerapproved.com/p/avm-fritz-box.md): 15 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Ubiquiti+UniFi+5G+router&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://ui.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Ubiquiti UniFi 5G", https://hackerapproved.com/p/unifi-5g/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).