What Made Five Guys Choose UniFi Enterprise Over Cisco?

Published by Juan David Ramirez on 9th Dec 2025

Hi there, I’m Juan David, UniFi Certified Trainer and Lead Tech Support at Flytec. Today, I want to take you behind the scenes of a powerful case study, how Five Guys, the globally recognized burger chain, made the switch from Cisco to UniFi Enterprise and saved over $450,000 a year in licensing fees.

Like many fast-growing restaurant chains, Five Guys was locked into a web of recurring licensing costs and fragmented infrastructure. Their Cisco Meraki stack, while functional, was expensive, inflexible, and hard to scale. With over 1,700 locations globally, each new store just made the burden heavier.

Their IT team had a clear goal: simplify the stack, standardize every deployment, and eliminate licensing fees, without compromising performance, security, or visibility.

The Shift to UniFi Enterprise

Five Guys transitioned to a fully integrated UniFi Enterprise platform across 350+ restaurants in the UK and Europe. Here's the core hardware used in each location:

UDM-Pro (UniFi Dream Machine Pro): Served as the all-in-one gateway and router, providing high-performance routing, VPN, and security features, with no recurring licenses.
USW-24-PoE Switches: Typically deployed in pairs for redundancy, powering everything from POS systems and kitchen displays to cameras and Wi-Fi access points.
U6-LR Access Points: Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 access points that provided strong, consistent coverage in dense, interference-heavy environments like kitchens and dining areas.
U-LTE (UniFi LTE Backup): Ensured uninterrupted service during primary ISP failures, keeping POS and critical systems online.

This uniform hardware stack allowed the IT team to manage hundreds of locations through a single UniFi Site Manager dashboard, no license renewals, no platform juggling, and no surprises.

What Changed Immediately

Over $450,000 saved annually in licensing costs.
Zero store closures during rollout, all installs completed before opening hours.
Standardized deployment model reused globally.
Real-time usage insights across stores with the ability to throttle non-essential bandwidth.
Failover-ready design using LTE and, in some cases, Starlink backup.

Why They Switched from Cisco

Tired of paying $400+ per site/year just to access the dashboard.
Onboarding new stores required outside consultants and complex configurations.
Fragmented toolsets led to inconsistent performance and longer troubleshooting times.

Why They Chose UniFi Enterprise

Zero-touch provisioning with pre-configured kits.
Centralized, cloud-managed control with Site Manager.
Modular design easily integrates with UniFi Protect, Access, and Connect.
Durable hardware that performs under heat, moisture, and grease.
Built-in LTE failover, no more downtime when broadband drops.

Beyond the Burgers, It’s About Infrastructure That Scales

This wasn’t just a tech refresh. It was a shift in strategy. Twilight Zone Engineering, Five Guys' IT partner, rolled out over 1,500 UniFi devices across more than 250 stores in just four months, without closing a single restaurant.

Upgrades were performed between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. before business hours. Each store received a standardized kit with a pre-configured UDM Pro, PoE switches, U6-LR access points, and LTE backup.

Now, as Five Guys continues expanding across Europe including France, Spain, and Germany. The same model is being deployed with consistent performance and zero licensing friction.

Flytec Computers: Your UniFi Enterprise Partner

Flytec Computers is proud to be a UniFi Enterprise distributor for the USA, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We carry the complete product line and provide staging support, training, and deployment planning.

Whether you manage 10 restaurants or 1,000, if you're stuck in licensing renewals and over-engineered stacks, it’s time to rethink your network.

Visit us at flyteccomputers.com or call (305) 471-5142 to get started.