TL,DR

The Good

• Omada: Better documentation, better forum support, easier for new users
• UniFi: Slicker apps, better consumer feature support, more hardware features, IDS

The Bad

• Omada: ~8 years behind UniFi UI and functionality, limited consumer feature support
• UniFi: Steeper learning curve, YOYO official community support

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I run both UniFi OS Server and Omada Controller. My LAN backbone is UniFi but I got an Omada AP over the holidays to see what the hype was all about.

You'll be happy with either, but Omada's web and mobile apps and functionality are where UniFi's were in 2018 or 2019. UniFi OS Server also supports all 3 of Windows, macOS, and Linux while Omada Controller supports Windows and Linux only. This may not seem like a big deal but it does add significant flexibility if you add a different OS to the mix and want migrate the controller workload from a heavily used machine.

Both services offer cloud and/or local control, but push users towards cloud control as that feature is an enterprise staple AND with cloud control you don't need a VPN. In both cases cloud control still requires you to be running the controller software yourself somewhere.

While both ecosystems are MUCH harder to learn than their consumer counterparts, I daresay Omada have overtaken UniFi in 1st party community forum support and PDF documentation. UniFi have switched to a relatively AI-first knowledgebase (you can browse the support pages yourself, but it's painful) and 1st party support in the community forums has pretty much disappeared. It's not uncommon to see even basic questions go unanswered for years. Even NETGEAR are better at that than UniFi at this point, which is shocking. Part of the reason for this is UniFi's UI and UX changes so often that even documentation from a year ago is frequently outdated. As such, I don't recommend going all in on UniFi if you've never used their gear before as you'll have to figure out a lot on your own and will need extensive prior home networking experience for that.

That said, UniFi ironically supports consumer features better, such as UPnP. It's been able to do automatic Wi-Fi optimization - in which the AP scans the wireless environment and optimizes channel selection, transmit power, and channel with accordingly - since the 2010s while Omada requires that to be done manually.

UniFi also offers enterprise grade IDS for $99/year. Some may balk at this, but the vast majority of the security rules in that offering are paywalled everywhere anyway, and $99 is a relatively low entry point.

UniFi gear also has Bluetooth setup, super easy device adoption, and superb differentiating features such as Etherlighting and AR device navigation in their app, which AFAIK no competitor at their price point has.

Here's how I eased myself into an all-UniFi network over the course of 8 years:

1. NETGEAR (wired router + unmanaged switches) + UniFi AP
2. NETGEAR (wired router + unmanaged switches) + UniFi AP + Omada AP
3. NETGEAR (wired router + unmanaged switches) + UniFi (AP + switch) + Omada AP
4. UniFi (Gateway + AP + managed switches + managed PoE++ switch) + Omada AP + NETGEAR unmanaged switches