How Much Does It Cost to Run a UniFi Controller?
Short answer: The software is free, whether you run UniFi OS Server or the older UniFi Network Application. Running it costs either $10 to 50 a month plus your time (self-hosted on a VPS), $150 to 250 one-time (Cloud Key hardware, single site), or $15 to 50 a month (managed hosting for a small to mid-sized network). The comparison that matters is not software cost. It is server cost plus the value of the hours you will spend maintaining it.
Option 1: Self-host on a VPS
| Devices | Typical VPS spec | VPS cost per month |
|---|---|---|
| Up to about 50 | 2 GB RAM, 1 to 2 vCPU | $10 to 14 |
| 50 to 200 | 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU | $20 to 24 |
| 200 to 1,000 | 8 GB or more, 4 vCPU | $40 to 48 and up |
Those are the cheapest shared-CPU plans at DigitalOcean, Vultr, Akamai (Linode) and Hetzner's European locations in September 2026. Hetzner's US locations cost roughly half as much again, and its sub-$10 cost-optimised line was unavailable when we checked.
To that, add the recurring time cost: OS patching, upgrades (testing them, and occasionally rolling them back), database disk management, offsite backups, certificate renewal, and securing an internet-exposed inform port. Budget one to three hours a month in steady state, more in a month where an upgrade misbehaves. At $50 an hour, that is $50 to 150 a month of labour on top of the $10 to 50 server, and it is the line that makes "free" self-hosting cost more than any hosting plan. If your time really is free, self-hosting is the cheapest option and a good learning project.
Option 2: Buy hardware (Cloud Key or Dream Machine)
A UniFi Cloud Key lists at $149 to $249 one-time, and only the $249 SSD model was in stock when we checked. Cloud Gateway and Dream Machine consoles, from $129, run the controller alongside routing. No monthly fee, and right for a single site where the controller can live on the LAN. The limits: it manages that site from that site (multi-site over the internet means exposing it), you still own upgrades and backups, and hardware fails. A Cloud Key that dies without an offsite backup takes your network's configuration history with it.
Option 3: Managed hosting
Our plans, priced by the number of adopted UniFi devices:
| Plan | Devices | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| P15 | 100 | $15 |
| P25 | 200 | $25 |
| P50 | 500 | $50 |
| P75 | 1,000 | $75 |
| P150 | 2,000 | $150 |
| Custom | up to 6,000 | quoted |
Every plan includes a private controller on dedicated bare-metal servers we run ourselves, nightly encrypted backups to two offsite locations, unlimited sites, a custom domain and the same support. New subscriptions run UniFi OS Server. The classic Network Application is still available on request, and existing Network Application customers can move when they are ready.
What the market charges as of September 2026:
| Provider | Entry | Mid | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud UniFi | $15/mo, 100 devices | $50/mo, 500 devices | $150/mo, 2,000 devices (custom plans to 6,000) |
| HostiFi | $19/mo, 25 devices | $99/mo, 250 devices | $249/mo, 1,000 devices (Enterprise above) |
| UniHosted | Free, 5 devices (shared instance) | $59/mo, 125 devices | $149/mo, 500 devices; $0.40 per device on Enterprise |
| Ubiquiti's own hosting | $29/mo, 100 devices | $99/mo, 1,000 devices |
The fee replaces the entire maintenance list from Option 1: the provider owns the server, OS, upgrade testing, offsite backups, TLS and security. Feature-by-feature comparison:
The break-even maths
- Homelab, time worth little, downtime tolerable: self-host. A $10 VPS and some evenings is the cheapest path and you will learn a lot.
- Business network, any hourly value of time: managed hosting wins on straight arithmetic. Two hours of maintenance a month costs more than a $15 to 50 plan, before counting the cost of an outage or a bad upgrade during business hours.
- Managing client networks: per-device cost at fleet scale is the number that matters. 500 devices on our P50 plan is $0.10 per device per month. Compare that against DIY plus labour, and against other providers' tiers at your device count.
Costs people forget to count
- The upgrade that goes wrong. A failed upgrade on a self-hosted controller can mean hours of database surgery or a restore. We test Network Application releases across our fleet for weeks before rollout for exactly this reason (our policy).
- Backups you have never test-restored. A backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a backup. Hosting providers restore from their own backups routinely.
- The bus factor. Self-hosted controllers have a way of being one specific person's project. When that person leaves, the controller becomes unmaintained infrastructure with admin credentials nobody knows.
Common questions
Is the UniFi software itself ever a paid product? No. UniFi OS Server and the Network Application are both free from Ubiquiti. All costs are hosting, hardware or labour.
Does device count affect price everywhere? Yes. Every managed provider tiers by adopted UniFi devices (access points, switches, gateways). Client laptops and phones do not count.
Can I start small and upgrade later? Yes. With us, plan upgrades are self-serve in the customer portal and take about 10 to 15 minutes, during which the controller restarts. Moving from self-hosted to hosted later is a standard migration.
UniFi and UniFi OS are trademarks of Ubiquiti Inc. Cloud UniFi is an independent hosting provider and is not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by Ubiquiti Inc. Competitor prices are taken from each provider's public pricing page on the date shown; confirm current prices on their sites.