Ubiquiti released UniFi Network 11 (version 11.0.83) on 12 October, and it is the biggest jump the Network application has taken in a while. Version 10.6 was mostly about making config changes safer to undo. Eleven is broader than that, and a few of the additions are genuinely useful for the kinds of homes and small businesses we look after around Norfolk County and the Hamilton area.
Here is our read on it, with the parts worth caring about separated from the noise.
Traffic you can actually see
The headline item is visibility. Network 11 adds Live Traffic Flows, which shows real-time traffic for every device behind a UniFi Gateway. Not a daily rollup, not a top-ten list: the actual connections as they happen.
That matters more than it sounds. When a client phones to say the internet is slow, the first question is whether the connection is saturated or something on the network is misbehaving, and until now that answer took longer than it should have. This settles it in about thirty seconds.
There is also a Time Machine view for topology, so you can see how the network was connected at an earlier point rather than guessing what changed. For anyone managing a site they rarely visit, that is a real help.
Ubiquiti claims the rebuilt telemetry engine handles over 30 per cent more device capacity. Treat that as a vendor number, but the direction is right for busy sites.
WiFi WAN, including your phone's hotspot
Network 11 can use an existing Wi-Fi network as a WAN connection, either as the primary link or as backup. That includes a phone hotspot.
This is the feature our rural clients will ask about. Plenty of properties out here have one internet connection and no realistic second option, and when it drops the whole place stops. Failing over to a phone in the equipment closet is no substitute for a proper redundant link, but it beats nothing and costs nothing to set up.
Two cautions. It only works on supported gateway models, and Ubiquiti has not published that list clearly yet. If you are not sure whether your gateway qualifies, that is a two-minute check for us, and we would rather set the failover up and test it properly than have you discover during the next outage that it was never going to work.
The other caution is that a hotspot failover is slow and capped: fine for card payments and email, not fine for cameras uploading or a call-heavy office. If uptime matters to your business, a dedicated cellular link is still the right answer, and we covered the trade-offs in 5G backup internet and failover.
UniFi is Matter-aware now
For the first time, UniFi can see Matter devices. You enter a pairing code and the device appears in UniFi with its battery level, firmware version and signal strength, with IP and Thread devices in one topology view.
Worth being precise about what this is. UniFi is not replacing your smart home controller. It works alongside whatever you run, and what you gain is visibility and alerting rather than control. If a Thread sensor at the far end of the property goes quiet, you find out, instead of noticing three weeks later that the door contact stopped reporting.
We have been cautious about Matter, for reasons we set out in the Matter smart home reality check. This does not change that picture, but a network that can tell you a battery is dying is a step forward, and it is worth knowing about if you are planning a smart home install.
Multi-site and security changes
For businesses running more than one location, Network 11 adds application-based routing, custom failover policies, and the ability to push consistent policies across sites from one place. If your office network is still managed building by building, this is a reason to consolidate.
Network Lists can now pull from external URLs and update themselves, so firewall rules and VPN resource lists stay current without someone editing them by hand.
On the security side, the Proofpoint threat signature feed that comes with Cybersecure Enhanced now includes AI-written explanations of what a detection means and what to do about it. Useful if you are the one reading those alerts, though note the subscription requirement: it is not part of the base software.
One upgrade blocker to check first
Before any of this matters, there is one thing to establish: what gateway you have.
Ubiquiti confirmed in September that Network 10.6 is the final release compatible with the legacy UniFi Security Gateway lineup, meaning the USG, the USG-Pro and the USG-XG-8. Network 11 will not manage them. The standalone self-hosted Network Application is finished at 10.6 as well, with UniFi OS Server taking over that job.
If either of those describes your setup, Network 11 is not an upgrade you can take, and the question becomes a replacement plan instead. That matters more than missing out on new features: Ubiquiti patched close to fifty vulnerabilities across the UniFi range this year, and hardware that no longer receives releases no longer receives those fixes either. We went through what to do about it in UniFi USG end of support: what to do next.
Should you upgrade?
Not this week, for most people.
A major version release is when we slow down rather than speed up. Point-zero releases surface edge cases the beta cycle missed, and a gateway that reboots into a bad state on a Friday afternoon is a problem you do not need. Our approach is to let a new major version sit for two to four weeks, watch the community release threads, then update controllers before firmware and gateways before access points. The full sequence is in how we handle UniFi updates.
If you are on a UniFi managed services plan with us, you do not need to do anything. We test on our own gear first and schedule your update in a maintenance window once it has proven itself. Home Care is $49 a month and business Care plans start at $325 a month.
If you look after your own network and want a second opinion before you commit, ask us. Sometimes the answer is to leave it alone for a month, and we would rather tell you that than talk you into work you did not need. Anything we do quote comes in writing first.
If you would rather do it yourself, Josh walks through the upgrade steps on his own site.
We cover Norfolk, Oxford, Brant and Haldimand counties plus Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville. If you would rather someone else owned the update cycle, get in touch.
Sources
- Introducing UniFi Network 11 (Ubiquiti, 12 October 2026)
- What's New (Ubiquiti)
- Ubiquiti Blog
Cabling, networks, cameras, access control, smart homes, hosting and software for homes and small business across Southwestern Ontario. Twenty-plus years in the trade, and we still answer the phone.