Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber vs Aruba (HPE) Aruba 9106 Gateway: Specs & Price Comparison

Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber

★ 5.0 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti; 5 Gbps IDS/IPS-secured routing throughput is the only headline figure (reviewer and retailer listings)
Threat Prevention Throughput: 5 Gbps IDS/IPS
IPsec VPN Throughput: Not published
Max Sessions: Not published; 500+ simultaneous users and 4,000-entry MAC address table
New Sessions/sec: Not published
Interfaces: 2x 10G SFP+; 1x 10GbE RJ45 (10G/2.5G/1G); 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 (2.5G/1G/100M/10M); 2 of the 6 WAN-capable ports are default WAN (1x 10G SFP+ and 1x 10GbE RJ45), with the other ports selectable as WAN
Form Factor: Compact desktop; 212.8 x 127.6 x 30 mm; 675 g without SSD
CPU / RAM: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 at 2.2 GHz / 3 GB RAM
Storage: Optional NVMe SSD up to 2 TB (NVR storage)
PoE Budget: 30W total from one PoE+ port (port 4)
Max Power Consumption: 29.4W excluding PoE output

✔ Pros: Lowest-cost Ubiquiti gateway with 5 Gbps IDS/IPS, rated above the UDM-SE's 3.5 Gbps at a lower launch price ($279 MSRP vs. $499); Multi-gig flexibility with 10GBASE-T, dual SFP+ and four 2.5GbE ports; Compact desktop design with optional NVMe storage for UniFi Protect/NVR use; Supports site-to-site VPN plus OpenVPN, WireGuard and L2TP server functions, with integrated PoE+ for one device; Managed through the UniFi Network controller with 500+ simultaneous user capacity
✘ Cons: No official routing, IPsec or WireGuard throughput figures published by Ubiquiti; community WireGuard numbers (around 400-500 Mbps) are unverified; Only one PoE+ output port (30W total) versus eight PoE ports on the UDM-SE; Lower device and user capacity and less storage expansion than the UDM-SE; No published IPsec tunnel or concurrent session limits; Reseller prices now often run above the launch MSRP (about $320-$346 USD at US resellers)
Est. Price: $279 - $346

Aruba (HPE) Aruba 9106 Gateway

★ 4.3 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 10 Gbps (HPE QuickSpecs, via reseller-cited sources; 9114 is rated 20 Gbps)
Threat Prevention Throughput: Not published in sources found
IPsec VPN Throughput: 10 Gbps encrypted throughput (AES-CBC, AES-GCM, GRE); one reseller lists 5 Gbps
Max Sessions: 2,000,000 datapath/firewall sessions
New Sessions/sec: Not published in sources found
Interfaces: Desktop SKU (S0B85A): 6 ports incl. 2x 10GbE SFP+ and 2x 1GbE RJ-45/SFP combo, plus console. Rack SKU (S5H01A, RW): 2x 10GbE SFP+, 2x 1GbE combo (SFP/RJ-45), 2x GbE PoE
Form Factor: 1U rack-mount (RW/S5H01A) or desktop (S0B85A); cloud-managed hybrid gateway
IPsec Tunnels: Up to 8K concurrent IPsec sessions per QuickSpecs; one datasheet excerpt lists 16K concurrent / 20K total; one reseller lists 1K (outlier)
PoE Budget: 2x 60W 802.3bt-class PoE ports on RW SKU; no system-wide budget found
Max Clients/Devices: Up to 2,000 APs per gateway; up to 8,000 client MACs (reseller listings)
Product Status: Listed as end of life by at least one reseller; verify availability before purchase

✔ Pros: Carrier-class 10GbE uplinks (SFP+) for branch and campus WAN or core aggregation; Integrated SD-WAN and cloud management via Aruba Central; 2 million firewall sessions suits busy branch or campus edge; Built-in PoE ports on RW model can power APs or cameras without a separate injector; Works as both branch gateway and Aruba Mobility controller in one 1U box; Strong IPsec and GRE support for site-to-site VPN
✘ Cons: Firewall throughput of 10 Gbps is well below 9114 (20 Gbps); Threat prevention throughput is not published, so IPS/URL-filter performance is hard to size; Conflicting IPsec tunnel and VPN throughput figures across sources; Sessions-per-second rate not published; Listed as end of life by some resellers, which raises support and roadmap risk; Price is high relative to competing branch firewalls with similar throughput; SKU variants (desktop vs rack, RW vs US) differ in ports and price, which complicates comparisons
Est. Price: $5,720 - $8,095

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