Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Max (UCG-Max) vs Palo Alto Networks PA-545-PoE: Specs & Price Comparison

Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Max (UCG-Max)

★ 4.9 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti in the sources reviewed
Threat Prevention Throughput: 2.3 Gbps IDS/IPS per Ubiquiti spec page (older listings show 1.5 Gbps)
IPsec VPN Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti; third-party reviews report about 800-1,000 Mbps for WireGuard and 300-400 Mbps for OpenVPN
Max Sessions: Not published in the sources reviewed
New Sessions/sec: Not published in the sources reviewed
Interfaces: 1x 2.5GbE RJ45 WAN, 4x GbE RJ45 LAN (one LAN port can be reconfigured as a second WAN for multi-WAN)
Form Factor: Compact desktop; UCG-Max-NS variant includes 512GB NVMe storage

✔ Pros: Low entry price at $199 MSRP; Compact desktop form factor; Five-port layout with multi-WAN support via a reconfigurable LAN port; Runs UniFi OS with integrated IDS/IPS, site-to-site and remote VPN options (IPsec, WireGuard, OpenVPN, L2TP); Manages 30+ UniFi devices and 300+ clients per Ubiquiti listing
✘ Cons: Routing and IPS throughput (2.3 Gbps) is modest for multi-gigabit WANs with inspection enabled; Published throughput figures conflict across sources (1.5 vs 2.3 Gbps IPS, varying VPN numbers); Only one 2.5GbE port, with the remaining ports at 1GbE; Vendor does not publish IPsec tunnel, session, or new-connection limits; Some resellers list prices well above MSRP (one US listing at $394.79)
Est. Price: $199 - $279

Palo Alto Networks PA-545-PoE

★ 3.5 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 5.1 Gbps App-ID (appmix). Reseller listings also show 5.0 Gbps; the official PA-500 datasheet was not retrievable to confirm
Threat Prevention Throughput: 3.6 Gbps (reseller listings also show 3.0 Gbps; unverified)
IPsec VPN Throughput: 2.5 Gbps (one reseller lists 3.0 Gbps; unverified)
Max Sessions: 400K concurrent (one reseller lists 298K; unverified)
New Sessions/sec: 72K (one reseller lists 55K; unverified)
Interfaces: 8x RJ-45 10M/100M/1G copper (ports 1-8, ports 3-4 fail-open, port 1 ZTP); 4x RJ-45 mGig 1G/2.5G PoE+ (ports 9-12); 4x SFP 1G (ports 13-16, no 10G support); 1x RJ-45 1G management; 1x USB-C and 1x RJ-45 console; 1x USB admin/bootstrap port
Form Factor: 1U rack-mountable (one reseller lists Desktop/1U; optional 1RU 4-post rack kit)
PoE Budget: 181W total across ports 9-12, up to 90W per port (official Palo Alto electrical spec)
Max Power Consumption: 336W (official Palo Alto electrical spec); 100-240V AC input, 54VDC adapter output, 6A @ 54VDC
Layer: L2/L3 security appliance (Layer 7 NGFW)
Power Redundancy: 2 DC inputs; one PSU required, second optional
Virtual Systems: 1 base / 7 max (one listing shows 1/2)
Price Source Note: Single reseller listing (Newegg, $5,475.00, marked out of stock). CDW shows a quote-only price. No official Palo Alto list price found

✔ Pros: Four mGig 2.5G PoE+ ports suit Wi-Fi 6/6E APs and cameras without a separate injector; Four SFP 1G ports allow fiber uplinks or fiber-to-copper flexibility; Dual DC power inputs with optional second PSU add power redundancy; Fail-open ports 3-4 keep pass-through connectivity during power or OS failure; Zero Touch Provisioning on port 1 simplifies branch deployment; Compact 1U footprint with full Palo Alto Networks NGFW feature set and PAN-OS
✘ Cons: No 10G port support; SFP ports are 1G only, which limits high-speed uplinks; Only four PoE ports and a 181W total PoE budget, versus 332W on the PA-555-POE; Performance figures conflict across reseller sources and the official datasheet could not be retrieved to confirm them; Pricing is quote-based at many resellers, with the one listed price showing out of stock; Licensing (Threat Prevention, URL, support subscriptions) adds recurring cost beyond the hardware price
Est. Price: $5,475

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