UniFi is a controller with devices around it. RouterOS is the other way round: every device carries its own configuration and nobody updates it from outside. That is the whole shift. Everything below follows from it.
Controller versus standalone
With UniFi the truth is the controller. You change something in the interface and the controller writes it to the devices it has adopted. If the controller goes away, they keep running on whatever they last received, but you can no longer change anything.
With RouterOS the truth is the device. What is in it, is in it, with no network and no server involved. The configurator is not a controller: it writes one script per device, once, and then it is done. To change something later you adjust your configuration in the tool and compare the new script against the /export of the running device. You then see line by line what is added and what disappears, and you paste only that part. See Importing an existing configuration.
What you do get back of the controller feeling is the site with several devices: one router, switches and access points sharing the same VLANs, SSIDs and passwords, one script per device, plus checks across the whole site. See Multiple devices.
CAPsMAN: the answer for central Wi-Fi
For Wi-Fi the controller model does exist on MikroTik. CAPsMAN runs on the router and hands SSIDs, security, channels and VLAN membership to the access points, which need to know nothing themselves.
- The role Router + CAPsMAN builds the controller and produces a second script for the access points.
- The role CAP (managed by CAPsMAN) is for a separate access point: everything bridged, a management address and the address of the controller. You do not set SSIDs there.
- RouterOS v7 has two Wi-Fi packages, and a CAPsMAN of one kind does not manage an AP of the other. Under Type of access points, pick what you actually own. See CAPsMAN.
There is no adoption, no inform URL and no pending state. An AP gets its script, comes online, reports to the controller and is provisioned. You can narrow that with a regexp on the identity, so only your own APs are taken on.
How your UniFi settings map across
| UniFi | In the configurator |
|---|---|
| Network with a VLAN and subnet | A row in the VLANs list: id, name, router address, DHCP on or off |
| WiFi network attached to a Network | An SSID with the VLAN field set to that VLAN |
| Guest network with isolation | A VLAN with Isolated on; the guest portal is a hotspot on MikroTik |
| Switch port profile | Port assignment: access with a pvid, or trunk with tagged VLANs |
| Firewall rules per zone | The input and forward chains, with the WAN and LAN interface lists, plus the VLAN matrix |
| Port forwarding | The Port forwards list in the Firewall section |
| Fixed IP per client | Static leases under LAN or under the VLAN |
Most of the work is in the VLAN numbers and the port profiles. Write down, per switch port, which VLAN is untagged and which ones ride along tagged; that is exactly what the port assignment asks for. See VLANs.
What you give up
- The interface. There is no comparable dashboard, no topology map and no client list with a logo per manufacturer.
- Statistics over time. RouterOS keeps no history per client. You can switch graphing on and send SNMP or NetFlow to your own monitoring, but that is work UniFi did for you.
- Automatic channel and power tuning. You pick channels yourself, or leave them on automatic. See Channels and power.
- One-click updates across every device. On RouterOS that is per device.
What you gain
- No controller to keep running, update or migrate, and no device showing "disconnected" while it is working perfectly well.
- Your configuration is text. You can read it, keep it, put it in version control and compare it.
- Routing, firewall and VPN that go further than a dashboard offers.
There is no import for UniFi
The configurator only reads a RouterOS /export. It cannot read a controller backup (.unf) or a site export, and such a file holds no RouterOS commands to translate anyway. Build your configuration from your own plan: the VLAN numbers with their subnets, the SSIDs with their VLAN, and per port what should be untagged and tagged on it.
See also Example: office with VLANs and The network board, where you draw your devices and cables and the cabling decides which ports become trunks.