UniFi API Browser 3.0 — Compare the Legacy and Official APIs Side by Side

With the release of our PHP client for the official UniFi Network Application API, a question started coming up immediately: what does the official API actually return compared to the legacy one?

The answer matters. If you're building integrations, migrating existing code, or just trying to understand what data is available through which API, you need to see the differences — not read about them in documentation that may or may not be complete.

That's why we've released version 3.0.0 of the UniFi API Browser, our open-source tool for exploring UniFi Controller API data. The big change: the browser now supports both our legacy API client and the new official API client, and you can switch between them to compare output for the same controller, the same site, and the same data collection.

Why this matters

Ubiquiti's official API and the legacy (unofficial) API don't always return the same data for what looks like the same request. Property names differ, nesting structures change, and some fields appear in one but not the other. If you're planning a migration from legacy to official endpoints — or deciding which client to use for a new project — seeing these differences in actual JSON output from your own controller is worth more than any documentation.

The API Browser makes this trivial. Connect it to your controller, select a data collection, and toggle between clients. The output updates instantly. No code to write, no test scripts to maintain.

What's new in v3.0.0

• Dual API client support — browse data using either the legacy API client or the new official API client

• Side-by-side comparison workflow — switch between clients to see exactly how the output differs for the same endpoint

• Official API client integration — uses our new PHP client for the official UniFi Network Application API, built on Saloon v3 with API key authentication

• Updated dependencies — modernized codebase for PHP 8.1+

Getting started

If you already have the API Browser installed, upgrading is straightforward:

cd /path/to/UniFi-API-browser
git pull

For fresh installations:

git clone https://github.com/Art-of-WiFi/UniFi-API-browser.git

Then configure your controller credentials in config/config.php. For official API access, you'll also need to provide an API key — see the official API client documentation for details on generating one in the UniFi Network Application.

The bigger picture

The API Browser has been part of the UniFi developer ecosystem since 2015, with over 1,200 GitHub stars and 25,000+ downloads. Together with our legacy API client (close to 400,000 Composer downloads) and the new official API client, it forms a comprehensive toolkit for anyone building PHP-based integrations on the UniFi platform.

We'll continue maintaining all three projects. As Ubiquiti expands the official API's coverage, the API Browser will be the easiest way to track what's changed and what's new.

The repository is at github.com/Art-of-WiFi/UniFi-API-browser. Issues and suggestions are welcome on GitHub.