In this video I built two complete home networks in my own house to see what you really get for the money: a roughly £100 “cheap” setup versus my real-world UniFi setup that’s around £2,000. The goal wasn’t to do a lab test—it was to mirror how my house actually works, with the studio/annex sharing internet from the main building, and with three Wi‑Fi points (two in the house, one in the studio) plus hardwired backhaul where possible. On the budget side I used a Mercusys Wi‑Fi 6 router, a tiny 5‑port gigabit PoE switch, a super cheap plug-in extender (as an AP), and a TP‑Link travel router in AP mode. Setup was doable, but it’s not as “lovely” as UniFi—you’ll be doing IP hunting, LAN scans, and living with limited features. Performance was surprisingly decent in some rooms (and the TP‑Link AP was genuinely the standout), but the cheap plug-in extender was, frankly, awful and absolutely tanked speeds in the worst location. My takeaway: the £100 network can give you usable internet everywhere, but UniFi is faster, smarter, and better in the ways that matter—10G/2.5G bottlenecks, proper QoS that actually works, VLANs, security, visibility, and the ability to handle multiple clients without falling apart.