UniFi Design Center: how to use Ubiquiti's free network designer (2026)
UniFi Design Center is Ubiquiti's free planning tool for UniFi networks. It runs in your browser at design.ui.com. Most people search for it as the "UniFi designer" or the "Ubiquiti design tool".
You use it to plan a site before you buy anything. Put access points and cameras on a floor plan, see the simulated coverage, fill a rack, connect the ports and get a bill of materials with store prices.
Ubiquiti released a new version in September 2026. This guide is based on that version, checked on September 25, 2026.
What UniFi Design Center is
Ubiquiti calls it "our powerful network visualization and simulation tool". It covers the main UniFi product lines: gateways, switches, access points, cameras, door access and storage.
Three things to know before you start:
- It's free. Ubiquiti describes it as license-free, "without recurring software fees".
- You don't need an account to try it. The editor opens straight away. A banner asks you to sign in with a UI account "to save your progress and access it from any device".
- There's a mobile app. The UniFi Design app for iPhone and iPad syncs projects and floor plans with the web version. Ubiquiti also publishes release notes for an Android version.
The prices in the tool come from Ubiquiti's store for the region you pick at the top of the screen.
What you can plan with it
The editor has a view for each part of the job:
| View | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rack | Fill a rack with gateways, switches, recorders, storage and power. Products are grouped by tier: Value, Professional or Enterprise. A 3D viewer shows the rack |
| Floor plans | Place access points, cameras and other devices on your plans. Show simulated WiFi or camera coverage, in 2D or 3D |
| Topology | See how every device connects. You can export it as a high-resolution image |
| Ports | Map which device plugs into which switch port |
| Share | Copy a link or save a PDF with the racks, floor plans, topology, ports and bill of materials |
| Checkout | A cart with every device, the quantities and the prices |
For camera sites it also simulates what each camera sees. Ubiquiti calls this Camera Experience. It shows detection, observation, recognition and identification ranges at any point on the plan.
How to plan a site in Design Center
These steps follow Ubiquiti's release notes from April to September 2026.
1. Upload your floor plan
Import the floor plan as an image or a PDF. Design Center detects the walls automatically and sets an approximate scale, so coverage is roughly right from the start.
Ubiquiti marks wall detection as experimental. Check the scale against a real measurement before you trust the coverage. For a building with several floors, you can combine the plans into one 3D model.
2. Model what blocks the signal
Walls already count. Add attenuation objects for anything else that blocks signal, such as furniture, racks or other materials. You can pick a default object type or define your own height and attenuation.
WiFi Zones limit planning to the areas you care about. Coverage outside the zones fades out.
3. Let it place the access points
Draw capacity zones for busy areas like meeting rooms. For each zone, enter the expected number of clients and their WiFi standard (WiFi 6, 6E or 7).
Then start automatic AP placement from the WiFi section of the Add Device panel. It uses the zones to decide how many access points each area needs.
4. Plan the channels
Set a radio's channel to Auto and Design Center picks one based on interference across the whole project. Channel width is also set automatically for the 5 GHz and 6 GHz radios. 2.4 GHz stays at 20 MHz.
In dense areas, automatic planning can switch off extra 2.4 GHz radios. You can review every channel in the project-level channel plan. If you'd rather set channels by hand once the site is live, see how to set WiFi channels manually in UniFi.
5. Build the rack and connect the ports
Add the gateway, switches and any recorder or NAS in the rack view. Connect uplinks in the ports view. For redundant uplinks, set the number of links and Design Center assigns the ports.
If the project has cameras, Design Center can also size the recorder's drives from your retention needs.
6. Share it with the client
The Share page puts everything in one link or PDF: racks, floor plans, topology, ports and the bill of materials with prices and estimated cable lengths.
You can add your company name and logo to the PDF cover page. You can also adjust prices, titles and quantities, or add your own line items, without changing the project. That makes it usable as a proposal.
From design to a live site
A design doesn't have to stop at the PDF. Ubiquiti has added two links to its management tools.
Provisioning through Site Manager
Ubiquiti's April 2026 announcement already listed direct integration with Site Manager. The July 2026 release added site provisioning with Blueprints. You provision a project directly to UniFi Site Manager, and Design Center applies the site configuration through Blueprints and Site Groups. Ubiquiti calls this moving "from design to deployment in one step".
InnerSpace
InnerSpace is a UniFi application that shows your live site on its floor plans, with the access points you've actually installed. It runs on a UniFi OS console or on UniFi OS Server.
Design Center and InnerSpace now exchange projects in both directions:
- Import a Design Center floor plan into InnerSpace. Planned devices show up as placeholders, and installers match each real device to its planned spot.
- Export an InnerSpace site back into Design Center as a new project or version, to compare design changes.
Check your InnerSpace version before you rely on this. Design Center added the feature on September 16, 2026, for InnerSpace 1.4. On September 25, InnerSpace 1.4.1 was still a release candidate. The latest general release was 1.3.23.
Adopting the devices
The design doesn't adopt anything. Your access points and switches still adopt into a UniFi Network application, running on a console, on UniFi OS Server or on a hosted controller. If the devices sit on a different network from the controller, point them at it with set-inform.
Limits worth knowing
- Coverage is a simulation. Walk the site after installation and adjust.
- Wall detection is experimental. Check walls and scale on every plan.
- Prices follow the region you select. The checkout lists extras such as the memory surcharge separately.
- UISP Design Center is a different tool. It plans ISP-style wireless links and has its own release notes.
Frequently asked questions
Is UniFi Design Center free?
Yes. Ubiquiti describes it as license-free, with no recurring software fees. You pay only for the hardware you buy.
Do I need a UI account to use it?
No. You can open design.ui.com and start planning right away. Sign in with a UI account to save your projects and open them on other devices.
Is there a UniFi Design Center app?
Yes. The UniFi Design app for iPhone and iPad syncs projects and floor plans with the web version. Ubiquiti also publishes release notes for an Android version. Its April 2026 announcement mentions LiDAR scanning to capture rooms on mobile.
What's the difference between Design Center and InnerSpace?
Design Center plans a site before installation. InnerSpace runs on your console or UniFi OS Server and shows the installed site on its floor plans. With InnerSpace 1.4 you can move floor plans and device positions between them. On September 25, 2026, that version was still a release candidate.
Does Design Center replace a site survey?
No. It predicts coverage from the plan, the walls and the objects you draw. A walk-through after installation still tells you what the building actually does to the signal.
Final thoughts
UniFi Design Center has grown from a coverage map into a full planning tool. It places access points, plans channels, fills the rack and produces a proposal with prices. It's free, and you don't need an account to try it.
The design is the plan for the hardware. The devices still need a UniFi Network application to adopt into once they're installed. For a single site, a console or your own UniFi OS Server works fine. If you plan sites for clients, UniHosted runs managed UniFi OS Server hosting for MSPs, with daily backups and tested updates on paid plans. Each controller shows up in your Site Manager next to your other sites.