We performed a comparison between Aruba Wireless and Ruckus Wireless based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Ruckus Wireless seems to be the superior solution, based on the parameters we compared. Our reviewers found Aruba Wireless to have stability issues and mentioned a poor ROI because of issues that needed fixing caused by the solution. Ruckus Wireless did better in these categories.
"You can easily monitor, manage, and cover all your IT equipment."
"The most useful feature of Juniper Wireless AP is the reporting Marvis."
"The solution is pretty generic and easy to use."
"The solution is stable."
"The simplicity is great."
"With Mist, every Wednesday they roll out new features."
"The AI capabilities of Mist Wireless are superior to other OEMs."
"The artificial intelligence feature is very good."
"The initial setup was very easy and intuitive."
"The solution is stable."
"Scalability has been one of the easiest aspects of the Aruba Instant product line. As long as the models are compatible, you can simply connect it to your network and it will learn the settings from the other APs on the network and join the AP network."
"Aruba Wireless is stable."
"What I like most about Aruba Wireless is its stability, functionality, and performance."
"Aruba allowed for the detailed control and management of an entire WiFi network from a single screen backed by a support team with local SEs who work with business partners to ensure the product's success."
"The tool's most valuable feature is Aruba Central, which offers centralized management. You can manage its switches, APs, and data access. It is easy to manage the entire switches and APs. The solution is the best in terms of security and manageability."
"With Aruba Wireless Controller, all our access points are connected to one controller. Through that controller, we can actually handle each access point; we can disconnect or connect that access point, and then we can tell, or see, or allow how many users are, or should be, connected through that access point."
"The mesh technology is the solution's most valuable aspect. Ruckus originally had the patent for it. They might've lost it because I see now that other people are doing it, however, they were the ones who came out with the smart mesh technology first, which is phenomenal."
"Ruckus WAPs have excellent coverage and their beamforming means that we can cover more area with fewer WAPs."
"The most valuable feature for me is reliability."
"Configurations are highly customizable and we could tune easily to suit our Wi-Fi requirements."
"I can manage the network through a cell phone, which is a plus from my side. I am also able to visualize the network. I can also check the quality of the signal for different clients that are currently connected and see whether the quality is excellent, moderate, or poor. Sometimes, I can even adjust the signal strength."
"Very reliable."
"The product has some very awesome patents on their radios and their antennas and antenna patterns and how their signaling works. That's why nobody can touch them. If they go head to head with anybody."
"The smart antenna is very good."
"If you want to do more specific stuff, it's a bit limited."
"The pricing should be made cheaper."
"Improving third-party integration is key for Juniper Mist's next release."
"Juniper Wireless AP can improve by continually improving its reporting and integration with other systems."
"There is room for improvement in terms of support and installation."
"The price could be better."
"Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) could improve if the MIST platform had a built-in master key. This would be an advantage."
"I need a bit more time with it before criticizing the features."
"Aruba Wireless is a little bit complex to use and operate."
"Making the setup more simple is an area for improvement in Aruba Wireless. Security-wise, this solution also needs work."
"They should simplify the configuration flow."
"We have an issue with the integration of Aruba Wireless with our LDAP servers."
"The stability and management could be improved."
"Configuration could be made easier with more bandwidth than they offer at the moment."
"Initial setup was complex."
"The product’s performance got worse with newer releases."
"In the last year, there's been a significant price jump, but I think Ruckus Wireless is still a good value for the money."
"The interface should be mobile friendly."
"The solution's pricing could be cheaper."
"It could be more stable."
"I think that Web management, global management, could be improved. Unfortunately, there's not one solution that does everything. There are something like six different solutions, and each of them do something better than the others. Unfortunately, there's not one global solution that does everything."
"The tool needs to incorporate training. Also, it needs to improve the range of coverage."
"They have so many products that there are so many different part numbers for the US and other countries. That means it's easy to make a mistake with the licensing. You have to have somebody knowledgeable on the other end with the licensing. If you make one mistake, it can be a $2,000 mistake."
"We've had issues with the ISP, not enough bandwidth."
More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points Pricing and Cost Advice →
Aruba Wireless is ranked 1st in Wireless LAN with 138 reviews while Ruckus Wireless is ranked 3rd in Wireless LAN with 96 reviews. Aruba Wireless is rated 8.4, while Ruckus Wireless is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Aruba Wireless writes "The portal for centralized management and virtual controller for APs are very valuable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Ruckus Wireless writes "Great wireless, good reliability, and excellent connectivity". Aruba Wireless is most compared with Cisco Wireless, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, Ubiquiti WLAN, Huawei Wireless and Mist AI and Cloud, whereas Ruckus Wireless is most compared with Cisco Wireless, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, Ubiquiti WLAN, ExtremeWireless and Omada Access Points. See our Aruba Wireless vs. Ruckus Wireless report.
See our list of best Wireless LAN vendors.
We monitor all Wireless LAN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
1 Ruckus
2 Aruba
3 Cambium
It depends on your enviroment.
Greetings
Here's my recommendation in order.
#1 Aruba
#2 Ruckus
#3 Ubiquiti
Hi Vinny,
I recommend you the following devices:
1. Ruckus: Easily to deploy. Expensive but effective. Don’t ask for the advanced license - you don’t need it. Buy only the basic one. A great option for hard users performance and large venues.
2. Ubiquiti: Easy to deploy, cheap but limited hardware. This is an option for basic performance.
3. Aruba: Easy to deploy, expensive, bad UX experience.
4. Cambium networks: A good option, between Ruckus and Ubiquiti.
5. Huawei. Never. Never. Never. Bad UX, bad support experience, bad hardware, bad everything.
6. Meraki. Too expensive. Don’t!
Regards!
If you want high performance and stability, you should definitely go with Ruckus Wireless.
Ruckus Wireless APs have:
- Adaptive antenna technology (called BeamFlex)
This technology analyzes different paths to reach the client and electronically turns itself to a directional antenna, choosing the path that gives the best performance to reach each specific client. If the client is mobile or if the environment changes (such as a warehouse) the selection of paths/direction also changes instantly.
Transmitting in a directional way allows a good Signal-to-Noise Ratio and also causes less interference for other nearby APs outside the path of the directional transmission.
- ChannelFly technology
This technology chooses the best channel based on performance rather than background scanning for noise.
- Polarization Diversity
This technology allows the clients not to lose signal strength when held at different angles (important for mobile devices such as tablets and telephones).
- Better receive sensitivity compared to the competitors
All these features make Ruckus Wireless a better choice than any other competitor (better performance, better coverage area, more stable and surprise-free communication especially in not so easy conditions such as noise, too many clients, too much traffic).
Selecting an AP depends upon a couple of factors which include (the number of users per AP, coverage area and required speed/throughput)
My recommendations are:
1. Ruckus
2. Aruba
3. Cisco
Ruckus:
Performs well in a high-density environment, with unique adaptive antenna technology & PD-MRC gives more coverage and interference mitigation. Ruckus offers a reliable Wireless network solution.
Aruba:
Good but not the best with better security features.
Cisco:
Complex deployment, is costly but it has better compatibility.
I have a smaller venue where I am using Unifi: Dream Machine UDM, Aggregation Switch, U6-Lite APs and Pro Switches...fiber optic backbone.
I am extremely satisfied with its performance. I can't tell about the other brands.
Have a look at Juniper Mist solution - it used in large retail stores and corps as well as a full integrated AI suite.
You can implement hundreds in just a few hours using foundation staff as it can all be programmed up on the cloud, no need for expensive network engineers to deploy
https://mist.com
Malcolm
Hi Vinny,
I'm biased toward Ubiquiti Unifi, but successful Wi-Fi deployment is hugely dependant on the type and number of Wi-Fi users, and more importantly, the layout and environment of the area you would like to cover.
Please feel free to PM me to discuss your application.
Regards,
Steve Pender