Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber vs Aruba (HPE) 9004 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) 9004 Gateway

★ 4.0 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 2 Gbps (datasheet, mobility controller mode); some retailer listings show 4 Gbps and marketing text cites up to 6 Gbps. Conflicting across sources; verify against the SKU's current datasheet
Threat Prevention Throughput: Not published in the sources reviewed
IPsec VPN Throughput: Not clearly published; 4 Gbps wired bridged throughput and 2 Gbps AES-CCM encrypted throughput listed in some datasheet versions
Max Sessions: 32,426 active firewall sessions (older datasheet); 64K (later datasheet); 128K datapath/firewall sessions (HPE 9000 Series sheet). Conflicting across versions
New Sessions/sec: 130,000 session creation rate (HPE 9000 Series sheet); not confirmed in other versions
Interfaces: 4 x 1GbE RJ45 (GbE copper)
Form Factor: Compact desktop/appliance with optional rack mount kit
Max Concurrent Clients: 2,048
Max Supported APs: 32
Concurrent IPsec Sessions: 2,048
Concurrent SSL VPN Sessions: 2,048
GRE Tunnels: 544

✔ Pros: Compact, low-cost branch gateway for small and remote sites; Supports up to 2,048 clients and 32 APs from one unit; Integrated Aruba controller/gateway functions with 2,048 IPsec and SSL VPN sessions; Four GbE ports cover typical branch WAN and LAN uplinks; Regional SKUs (US, EG, IL, JP, RW) and a TAA-compliant variant are available for compliance needs
✘ Cons: Published firewall throughput figures conflict across datasheets and retailers (2, 4 and 6 Gbps); Threat prevention throughput and new sessions/sec are not clearly published; Only four GbE ports and no multi-gig or SFP uplink options; Throughput is modest for higher-bandwidth branch or data-center use; Superseded by newer HPE Aruba Networking gateway platforms; Reseller prices vary and are not a manufacturer list price
Est. Price: $1,511 - $1,831

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