Ubiquiti announced a new product today aimed squarely at a problem we get asked about more than any other: good WiFi in every corner of the house, without a rack in the basement and without a monthly app subscription. It is called Whole-Home WiFi by UniFi, and it is a genuine mesh system built on their new UniFi Express 7 nodes (the "UX7").
We install a lot of the "proper" UniFi setup: a gateway in the closet and ceiling access points wired back to it. That is still the right answer for a busy office or a home with cameras, hardwired drops and forty devices. But plenty of homes do not need all of that, and this new system is Ubiquiti's answer for them. Here is what it is and where it fits.
What it actually is
Each node is a UniFi Express 7, a small, upright WiFi 7 router. You buy them alone or in a pack and they mesh together to blanket the house:
- Single unit: US$199.99
- Two-pack (UX7-2): US$379
- Three-pack (UX7-3): US$559
Ubiquiti rates roughly 1,700 sq ft of coverage per node when it is centrally placed, so a two-pack suits most bungalows and a three-pack covers a larger two-storey or a house with a detached office or shop close by.
If the name rings a bell, it should. The original UniFi Express is where this line started: the tidy US$149 box that was a gateway and a WiFi 6 access point in one, which we have put in plenty of smaller homes. The Express 7 is its WiFi 7 successor, and the jump is not just a number: WiFi 6 becomes WiFi 7, the dual-band radio gains the 6 GHz band, per-unit coverage goes up, and, most importantly, where the old Express was a single all-in-one unit, the Express 7 is built from the start to mesh, so instead of one box you stand up two or three nodes that cover the whole house together.
The WiFi itself is real WiFi 7, tri-band. The clever part is the backhaul, the invisible link the nodes use to talk to each other. This system uses multi-link operation across the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands at the same time, which Ubiquiti calls "wired-like latency" and which testing has shown adds hundreds of Mbps over the old single-band way of meshing. If you can run a network cable between nodes it will happily use that instead, and that is always the better option when it is possible.
Setup and management
This is the part that is different from the UniFi gear we normally deploy. There is no mandatory app and no forced cloud account. You can set it up from a web browser or the optional mobile app, whichever you prefer. Under the hood it is still the full UniFi Network experience, so the same controls, guest networks, device visibility and updates you would get on a bigger system are all there if you want them.
For us as a managed provider, it also plugs into UniFi's Site Manager with zero-touch provisioning, which means for the homes and small offices we look after, we can have units shipped, adopt them remotely, and hand over a network that is already configured and monitored. It needs UniFi OS 5.2 or newer for the multi-band meshing.
Watch Ubiquiti's Whole-Home WiFi reveal
The official announcement video · opens on YouTube
The honest limitations
We would not be doing our job if we only listed the good parts.
- Two network ports per node, and only one is 10 Gb. That is fine for a WiFi system, but it means a node is not a replacement for a switch. If you have wired drops for a TV, a desktop and a printer in one room, you will still want a small switch there.
- No PoE. These nodes cannot power a UniFi camera or doorbell over the network cable the way our usual access points and switches can. If cameras are on your list, that points back toward the standard gateway-and-switch setup.
- It is still a mesh. Wireless backhaul is excellent now, but a cable between nodes always beats radio. Where we can get a wire between floors, we will, and the system will use it automatically.
Where it fits, and where it doesn't
Reach for Whole-Home WiFi when the goal is simple, strong coverage everywhere in a house or a small office, the budget favours a clean two- or three-pack over a wired install, and there are no cameras or heavy hardwired needs. It is a lot of WiFi 7 for the money and it grows by adding a node.
Reach for the full UniFi setup (gateway, switch, ceiling APs) when there are cameras, door access, a lot of wired devices, or a building where we would be pulling cable anyway. The two are not rivals; they are different tools, and the nice thing is they live in the same UniFi Network app, so a home can start with a mesh and grow into the wired system later without throwing anything away.
Pricing in Canada
The figures above are Ubiquiti's launch prices in US dollars. We quote the delivered Canadian price plus HST, and we include placement and setup so the nodes actually land where the coverage is best rather than where the outlet happens to be. If you have been fighting a dead spot at the back of the house, or you are planning a new place and want it right from day one, get in touch and we will put together a quote.
Whole-Home WiFi by UniFi and the UniFi Express 7 were announced by Ubiquiti on September 2, 2026. Specifications and pricing are the manufacturer's at announcement and may change.
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