diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/networking/unifi.nix b/nixos/modules/services/networking/unifi.nix
index 50f8f844188a..1e6236e6d47c 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/networking/unifi.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/networking/unifi.nix
@@ -160,17 +160,14 @@ in
       serviceConfig = {
         Type = "notify";
         ExecStart = "${cmd} start";
-        ExecStop = "${cmd} stop";
+        ExecStop = [
+          "${cmd} stop"
+          "${lib.getExe' pkgs.util-linux "waitpid"} -t 30 -e $MAINPID"
+        ];
         Restart = "always";
-        TimeoutSec = "5min";
         User = "unifi";
         UMask = "0077";
         WorkingDirectory = "${stateDir}";
-        # the stop command exits while the main process is still running, and unifi
-        # wants to manage its own child processes. this means we have to set KillSignal
-        # to something the main process ignores, otherwise every stop will have unifi.service
-        # fail with SIGTERM status.
-        KillSignal = "SIGCONT";
 
         # Hardening
         AmbientCapabilities = "";
diff --git a/nixos/tests/unifi.nix b/nixos/tests/unifi.nix
index 0f357630b587..a15a622f78b8 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/unifi.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/unifi.nix
@@ -21,8 +21,19 @@
 
     machine.wait_for_unit("unifi.service")
     machine.wait_for_open_port(8880)
+    machine.succeed("systemctl show unifi.service | grep -q 'ActiveState=active'")
+    machine.succeed("pgrep mongod")
 
     status = json.loads(machine.succeed("curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body http://localhost:8880/status"))
     assert status["meta"]["rc"] == "ok"
+
+    machine.succeed("systemctl stop unifi.service")
+    machine.succeed("systemctl show unifi.service | grep -q 'ActiveState=inactive'")
+    machine.fail("pgrep mongod")
+
+    machine.succeed("systemctl start unifi.service")
+    machine.wait_for_unit("unifi.service")
+    machine.succeed("systemctl show unifi.service | grep -q 'ActiveState=active'")
+    machine.succeed("pgrep mongod")
   '';
 }