The big problem with all of these hardware offloading systems is that they require quite deep modifications to the kernel. Usually vendors only prepare it as a patch for a single version, and they cannot be applied to other versions cleanly. Additionally, they don’t support much of the functionality that people have come to expect in Mikrotik routers. They are quite often buggy. Being creates strictly against a single (and per-device or per-manufacturer different) versions of the kernel, their inclusion makes long-term support very expensive or impossible. (And long-term support is one of the things I love about Mikrotik.)
Even for the Edgerouter series, which was developed with extremely seasoned developers in the area and had full manufacturer support, integration of NAT offloading for the MediaTek chips took 2-3 years of struggle. And the offloading for this chip is well-designed compared to the others and has support on OpenWrt.
After that, adapting the logic internal to the chipset to cases we take for granted, such as running multiple PPPoE clients on the same interface through macvlans and other scenarios is a big undertaking.
When people request to “integrate” these features into the Mikrotik codebase, they are asking not to integrate but to develop functionality that doesn’t exist, and cannot be created without extensive cooperation from (I would say only actually made by the engineers of) the chip manufacturer. (This sort of detailed documentation is not usually available even under NDA.)
So basically Mikrotik provides a more or less complete Linux networking stack on budget chips and devices, and makes no qualms about the fact that specialty accelerators are not available.
I agree that it is a little disappointing that there are no further products in the RB5009 formfactor.
It was initially announced as “now you can have 4 routers in a 19” 1U space" but who wants to have that?
In fact I use an RB5009 as a PoE switch somewhere, you can configure it like that with RouterOS. But of course not the most cost-effective, it could use a tiny CPU and the same switch chip and do the same.
In my case it does not matter that much, it is for business use and a couple more euro do not really matter.
Now that you mention it… It would be nice to have a micro server in that form factor. There are other arm-based m.2-SSD NAS units out there but the large heat sink of the RB5009-series would be a silent advantage.
I’ve actually suggested such a micro server based on the Radxa Rock 5-series hardware.
A collaboration –mikrotik × radxa– would be one way to achieve it.
At MWC 2026 Mikrotik shares some details regarding a new device, the hEX PRO.
It can be the “successor” of the RB5009?
Maybe some additional eth port or another SFP+ it would be perfect, but the amount of RAM and the presence of the M2 storage for container, it’s a good news.
Interesting product the unifi fiber UCG FIber, is the cheapest option Ive seen with an actually working IDS/IDP and without subscription costs, I think. It uses a suricata open source engine on-board which gets updates from somewhere………. and does IDS and IDP etc………… aka https and tls inspections.
Has anyone tried this on a container on Mikrotik???
Too bad I didnt see this tidbit of info before buying the CCR2004, I might just have had to learn an new OS lol.
The advantage with unifi is that you will quickly learn to use the device because it is intended tot be administrated trough a GUI. The edgemax stuff would be more fitting for CLI users but that product line seems to be more or less abandoned