It should be noted that Ubiquiti APs have no router functionality, they're just plain access points. Which is the way I like it, but might not be appropriate for many use cases.
I bought myself an Ubiquiti Security Gateway and the AC Pro access point. Works really well and the total cost wasn't all that much more than, for example, an Airport Extreme…
Yeah, it disables all the hardware offloading unfortunately. But if you really need it because of a slow internet connection, I guess 60Mbps is good enough.
i actually edited my post to include the thing about openwrt/ddwrt.
If you need stability, go with a high end consumer router and load OpenWRT/DDWRT on it. OpenWRT and friends are very stable, but don't often take advantage of advanced features like automatic channel selection, traffic prioritization, or beamforming.
If you absolutely need features, go with a ubiquiti AP. My only issue with them is their hardware leaves a lot to be desired, and is rarely powerful enough to cover a full home, this isn't necessarily ubiquiti's fault though.
Business class APs expect you to set up multiple APs in the office, so their hardware is typically a lot less powerful than what you'd see in a consumer wireless router. A ubiquiti AP will gladly cover your 1 bedroom apartment, but don't expect it to cover your 3 bedroom home
The difference between your and GPs experience probably comes down to concrete vs. wood housing. WiFi, like most radio signals, has really poor propagation through concrete.
I ended up just keeping my ISP router as is, and putting a DD-WRT router behind it. I suspect the double layer of NAT isn't great, but I've been doing it for years without issue.
DD-WRT has been pretty solid for that, even in non-ideal network setups (currently have it connected to the ISP router as a 2.4GHz client, then acting as a 5GHZ AP for my other devices).
Personally I really like the new Draytek models (like the 2925 and 2860 series). Lots of nice features like central access point management (Draytek APs only) and central VPN management to configure remote Draytek routers are great features on top of fail-over/load balanced multi- WAN and even a model with built-in LTE modem as a WAN link. They're intended for always-on/highly reliable situations. You can even pair 2 units into an HA cluster.
They're very popular in Europe but oddly never seem to have had the same impact in North America, although you can find them if you look around a bit.
They did do a linux based variant at one point but switched back to their custom rolled OS a couple of years back. Not sure of the story there or if it's possible to do a custom firmware. There was something on google code at one point.
pfSense running on an old laptop or other lightweight system, along with a VLAN-capable switch and a Ubiquiti or Cisco WAP371 wifi point. Bridge pfSense to your modem, and you have a full stack. You can run your pfSense box on a stick via VLAN-ing, so you only need one interface.
Just be aware that if you're using any flavor of Comcast in the US (Business or Consumer-class), "Bridging" your cable modem will make it cease to work and require a factory reset. Anecdata from me, from sites in Boston, Seattle, and Portland.
Personally I prefer at least desktop hardware for my pfSense boxes, with a physically separate WAN and LAN port. Maybe that's just because I'm bad at VLANs.
