I've been slowly accumulating Unifi gear and I'm happy with it, though my experience is mixed - the prices are relatively good for a unified ecosystem, IMO. OTOH I've had two pieces of equipment die: an outdoor camera that shorted PoE pins because it really wasn't an outdoor camera, and the original doorbell that died after about three years of use (cause of death unknown, but I suspect a heavy rainstorm). Technically I had a third 48-port, 1st gen EdgeRouter Pro (750W model) that I saved from e-waste that died, but that already had quite a few years under its belt. I still lean towards liking them. I have a set of 5 in-wall APs that have been functioning for 5? 6? years straight and still get updates and work with the unifi console. My Dream Machine Pro works pretty well for its purpose. I don't like that it doesn't offer more PoE+2.5G port options, and that only two ports are true PoE++, but from an effort perspective it's been so nice to manage. All this being said, I think that their strength is in APs that are a good balance of tech + cost, and cameras which lean slightly more expensive but are trivially easy to manage locally and remotely. Going forward I'd probably skip unifi cameras and try to integrate OTS ONVIF cameras which will be a better value. I'd avoid any of the large switching gear. I don't think that stuff is well-priced, and it lags a bit behind what you can find from Mikrotik and other manufacturers. It's not that important to have that stuff included in…
Neutral
It's unethical to increase the risk profile of unaware third parties because you're a hacker. I'd be fine installing this in my own house, but it shouldn't go in a shared space. in fact, I've done something similar, wiring my unifi door bell to be able to unlock my matter-enabled deadbolt via an esp32 in the wall.
Likes it
I have a Unifi doorbell and it takes great photos of the local badgers, foxes, and other wildlife. They are stored locally. Love it.
Likes it
I have a UniFi doorbell that I chose because it's self hosted and the video stays in my home. It also easily lets you get an RTSP stream of the camera feed. Earlier this spring we put a bird feeder outside the front door and it dawned on me I could be piping the doorbell cam into BirdNET to classify the bird calls. With an RTSP stream there's no need to mount a microphone anywhere, that comes for free from the doorbell. My wife is the bird person in the house more so than I am, but it was still really fun to set up and watch the identifications come across.
Likes it
I personally use unifi doorbell, mostly because I already had dream machine, but AFAIK they have also less expensive options.
Likes it
My parents wanted a video doorbell after a neighbor had a break-in. I set them up with a Unifi doorbell and their least expensive recording/console device - the upfront cost is high (~$500, plus more time configuring and researching everything) But now that it is set up there are no subscription fees, the data is local, and I can manage the cameras and their Unifi accounts remotely if they need anything. It’s been a great experience and I’m planning to gradually add one or two additional cameras.
Likes it
I have the Unifi Protect doorbell and like it a lot. But the big decision point is whether you want to get stuck in the Unifi Protect walled garden. A lot of people understandably don't want that. Back in the days of Unifi Video, you could create your own NVR using Unifi's software, but you can't with Unifi Protect. I've already outgrown my Unifi Cloud Key Gen 2+ (which is only doing NVR duties). Scrubbing through footage in a browser or mobile device can be a royal pain. If you have a significant number of cameras, you need to invest in one of the more powerful Unifi NVRs to get better performance.