Ubiquiti - U7 Pro XG

Saw your edit Hiding APs in your closet is probably fine for 5Ghz but if you are thinking of going 6ghz I would highly recommend leaving the APs visible and within the room you have your 6ghz device in. 6ghz does not transmit thru walls very well. I believe there are some in wall options with paintable panels, but I’ll say that the new UI XG APs look very good. Better than that smoke detector that’s hanging out on your ceiling right now.

I have a mesh setup with a XG Pro and a UX7 off of my Cloud gateway fiber and it just works. No issues with it for me. It allows me to be lazy!

I believe most routers will handle 30 odd clients/devices if theyre in range.  If you need more range in different areas ideally you would have multiple access points. Eg a mesh system. Multiple access points with a wired backhaul (feed back to main) is the best as its not sharing bandwidth with itself. I run a unifi system myself but that is more prosumer grade. If you want a more basic solution they have those as well.  If your internet connection is not very fast a better router wont help. What internet connection do you have? 

I personally would get the UCG Fiber and the U7 Pro XG (or even the U7 Pro Max) the Pro XG has a 10gbe connection but without a 10gbe switch its not fully utilised. The U7 pro max has a 2.5gbe interface which would mate well to the USW flex 2.5 8 port poe switch. Even then the U7 aps might be too much if you dont plan to be using all that much bandwidth. 

I'll say the following: 1. If your main router/wifi has "2.4GHz quality issues", why not consider replacing that with something that works right? Seems silly to have physically separate equipment and access points for 2.4GHz/IOT. 2. Wifi "range extenders" suck. Especially if you're planning on using 5GHz for the backhaul. 3. Bear in mind that even with the "most solid" 2.4GHz wifi, it's common for cheap IOT home devices to just be flaky and crappy. You will not eliminate 100% of that behavior even with the best wifi. 4. Others are recommending Ubiquiti, and I have a full Ubiquiti system at home as well, but keep in mind that Ubiquiti makes dozens of different access point models - some are KNOWN to have issues with 2.4GHz IOT devices. For example the U7 Pro. So you can't just go to Unifi and "buy the best" and expect that to be rock solid either. You'll have to do your research. But if you go with Ubi, one nice thing is you can have your main wifi SSID on all bands (2.4/5/6GHz), and additionally have your IOT SSID broadcasting from all the APs as well, but only on 2.4GHz if you choose. And as others have said, you can apply network rules such as not allowing devices on that SSID to connect out to the network if you want.

Yeah it’s mostly the U7 series I heard that there were issues with. Personally I didn’t have the issue with my U7 Pro but I also run nanoHDs which my 2.4ghz devices were connecting to for all I know. Also I know for a fact I had trouble with some WiFi HomeKit accessories not connecting to a mixed-frequency network. I think it was eufy or Meross only had 2.4ghz radios and would time out and fail to add unless I switched to a 2.4ghz-only network. So in my case I have a 2.4ghz hidden SSID for iot devices. I assume it was trying to connect to the same exact network as my phone which was connected to 5ghz. This could have been fixed with a HomeKit upgrade maybe?

I use an Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway and have three Ubiquiti U7 Pro nodes on PoE spread throughout the house. It's been fantastic. Really enjoy the UniFi software as well

A whole home Ubiquiti setup sounds up your alley. If you run Ethernet throughout your house, start with two of something like the U7 Pro or U7 Pro Wall (depending on whether or not you have an easier time mounting to your ceiling versus a gangbox). Feel free to mix and match units, preferably keeping them both at a distance where most devices stay within -70 dBm from each on 5 GHz. If you need more than, say, 4-5 Ethernet ports from a switch and something like a Cloud Gateway Ultra (gigabit only), Cloud Gateway Fiber, or Dream Router 7 (this one includes Wi-Fi, so make of that what you will) is lacking for that, add another UniFi switch of your choice. The “Wall” UniFi APs have Ethernet ports as well. Do you have gigabit? Faster than gigabit? Have you run Ethernet throughout your home already? Do you currently have fiber or coax, and if the latter, do you have a cable modem already?

same… fiber + u7 pro and u7 pro wall…. Stable / fast internet everywhere in the house…. getting 800 down/up with 6ghz on iphone 16pro (1gbit plan)

Ubiquiti's UniFi system is difficult to recommend without running some ethernet cable. Even the Eero, Orbi and TP-Link mesh routers I cannot recommend without wired backhaul. Some of the U7 access points are capable of doing mesh but the ethernet backhaul to a PoE switch is crucial. Being that your current house is a ranch, do you have access to the attic? All you'll really need to do is run maybe about 1 or 2 ethernet cables (2 if you use the UCG Fiber which I recommend getting or 1 in the case of the Dream Router 7) in the attic which you could theoretically take with you when you move. I've shopped around for mesh routers as my dad has a Lorex Wifi Flood Light camera above the garage that our current router can't reach and the best combination I've seen so far is the UCG Fiber and any of the U7 access Points. I've priced everything and the Eero Max 7, Orbi 970 & TP-Link's equivalent came out to over $100 more than any UniFi equipment combination that I need.

I use TP link Deco X95 2 nodes system at home and Unifi 7 at work works without any issues for over a year though we will replace Eufy at work as we rolling out our own cloud platform

If you’re heavy on Apple devices then WiFi 7 won’t be coming for a while and you should be okay with a WiFi 6E router for the next 5 years. However, if you want to go forward with you can look at Ubiquiti CG Fibre and U7 or UX7 AP. The router should be future proof and allow you upgrade your AP nodes based on which band you want. If you want a different mesh brand then you can look between Deco (best on budget), Asus Zenwifi BT10 (tri-band) / BQ16 (quad-band) or Orbi 770 / 870 / 970. This are the top 3 brands with top mesh systems and best coverage. Nevertheless, your bandwidth and devices should decide your choice (added with budget) Honorable mention will be Eero Max 7 but it’s barely customizable and you have to do things the Eero way