UniFi Dream Wall (UDW)

Run Cat6 not CCA to every room, 3-4 cables for APs to do POE, 3-4 Ubiquiti APs, and then you can use a Ubiquiti Dream Wall (UDW) which is a router/POE switch/AP all in one. You can buy an additional power supply for the UDW for redundant power and place the UDW in one of the AP spots centrally located in order to reduce the cable length to each location. Mount your APs to the ceiling in their respective locations and POE them with the UDW. Ubiquiti also has a site survey tool, WiFiman, as well as a floorplan tool to assist you in AP placement for best coverage estimate. I would make sure to put your UDW on a UPS so that you have that protection as well as uptime. When you run your Cat6 make sure you pull a pull wire through with it for possible future use.

Function split 👍👍👍 One Unifi Cloud Gateway Fibre, along with a U7-Pro hanging from the ceiling being powered off the CGF's POE+ port.

Moved from ASUS to Unifi. Reasonably low end kit for them, over 50 devices. Works like a dream. Even the Wi-Fi mesh.

I’ve tried to two or three of the Internet console based units, and have come back to my choice for business, unifi. The reason I made the jump from the Amazon EERO to the unify was an increase in speed from one gig to two gig. Wanted to take advantage of the increased throughput I have on the switch to fiber, and so I went with the 2.5 gig unify options. I would strongly recommend you get something that has an Internet based command and control for things like remote configuration, automatic updates and content filtering. We have a kid so it’s crucial for us to do the filtering. You can also do simple things like IDSIPS and other more advanced monitoring with these devices. In my experience, they are supported for a long long time, so the investment pays off in usable lifetime.

+1 for Ubiquiti if you want something simple enough that works out of the box with nice GUI and dashboards but also allows you to tinker. Their cloud gateways are a great place to start.

UniFi, hands down. I don't know what you consider "similar nonsense", - prosumer and a lot of business will use a controller that manages the configurations and statistics. The Cloud Key is a somewhat older implementation of the UniFi setup where it performed as the controller and an NVR for cameras. They've split that off - you can get gateways (router/controller) that does not have the video incorporated any longer. The "cloud" in some of their hardware doesn't mean it's run from the cloud or whatever, it's simply part of the model name. You can run it all standalone without being tied to their servers (though it's pretty convenient at times). Similarly, they have "mesh" in the name of some of their APs - but all of them can be wirelessly uplinked. It's a matter of them associating through marketing to the massive consumer "mesh" marketing. But it's still prosumer stuff and uses the same controller as the rest. My favorite feature is reliability. It's been rock solid for me through 6 years (I've moved through three upgrades and it's just stable. I love it. Look at the Dream Router 7, UniFi Express models, and Cloud Gateway models for some pretty darned good home solutions. The Dream Machines are great also, they are rack mount though and tilt towards having the video features. Should you choose one of the simpler offerings and want to go video later - there are standalone DVRs - including the Cloud Key+, which is still popular - that you can add. There is other prosumer gear, but Ubiquiti UniFi and TP-Link Omada are the only ones I know of with the unified management.

UniFi. My current gateway has an uptime of 5m 2w 6d 9h. It's been well over a year previously, only interrupted by firmware updates.

It's not so much that Orbi doesn't work with Apple products, it's that Apple products are very "finicky" - it's a byproduct of Apple being very aggressive and strictly standards-compliant in ways that often clash with consumer-grade hardware like Orbi. There is a certain amount of freedom (in wifi standards) for Apple to be strict, and for consumer wifi like Orbi to be "loose" or have defaults that don't work well with them. So, some consumer gear, trying to be helpful, or users who don't know the effects of some settings, end up making it feel like crappy hardware. Band steering, force roaming, and other settings that might work with most wifi devices doesn't with Apple hardware. Since you have a grand to spend - Ubiquiti UniFi. The prosumer gear will allow you to set meaningful parameters that can improve your Apple experiences. For instance, UniFi allows you to fine-tune the "Minimum RSSI." You can tell the system, *"If an iPhone signal drops below -70, let it go,"* which aligns with Apple's internal logic for roaming signal strength criteria. There is lots of support and guidance for UniFi - including tuning for Apple devices. You'll also find flexible options for inexpensive switches (\~$30 for the Flex Mini) to get you more ports. APs with ethernet ports is more of a consumer thing, with prosumer, you'd be using switches when you need ports. If not UniFi, then look at Eero - it has a good reputation for working well with Apple's implementation, but the downside is the subscription model. UniFi has none.

You could do one Asus router then run a cable across basement and do another Asus router in AI MESH mode. Or id setup Ubiquiti cloud gateway (any of the 3) and u7 lite then a cat 6 across basement to another u7 lite. You could test one nice asus router in the middle of the house basement or maybe the Ubiquiti Gateway with 1 U7 Pro or something in the middle and always have the option to add another of each too.