We performed a comparison between Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and ExtremeCloud IQ based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Aruba Networking, Cisco, Ruckus and others in Wireless LAN.
"With Mist, every Wednesday they roll out new features."
"The simplicity is great."
"In terms of reporting, in terms of all the user reports, it's very rich."
"The solution is pretty generic and easy to use."
"The AI capabilities of Mist Wireless are superior to other OEMs."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is Marvis, the AI-driven network management system."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Mist is the Virtual Network Assistant, powered by artificial intelligence."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) is the ability to troubleshoot ports on the network. Additionally, when there is an update on the APs they are able to reboot quickly reducing downtime. Other solutions have a longer downtime when updates are done."
"Cloud management, wireless infrastructure, and implementation are all valuable features."
"The flexibility, since it's a cloud service, is the most valuable feature of this solution."
"The most valuable feature is that the solution is friendly to manage."
"The most valuable feature is the stability. It works and doesn't stop."
"It's simple to manage when there's a problem."
"The network security the solution provides is its most valuable aspect."
"Its management is most valuable. It is the major feature of Meraki."
"I like the record that is being kept and multiple SSDs."
"The support organization behind this product is extremely professional."
"a true controller-less approach, where each Access Point is 100% independent from the management system."
"The feature that I like to most is unified management in a multitenant environment, where we can manage all our customers with thousands of devices (routers, switches, VPNs, and APs)."
"What our customers like the most is that this device is so rugged. It has very good performance and throughput. Its console is very easy to use and has many features, which makes it different from its competitors. Cloud IQ has all the features built into the console, whereas other solutions require you to integrate multiple solutions with their consoles. You don't need to add anything extra with Cloud IQ. With this single solution, you can do almost everything."
"When we deployed the new IP that is managed wirelessly in the cloud, it fixed the problems. Now, we don't have any more reports, and everything works fine."
"Ability to assign zero trust policies from the user."
"ExtremeCloud IQ is integrated with the Ekahau tool so that you can log in to the ExtremeCloud IQ portal, upload the cloud plans, draw all the interiors, and plan the APs with the real-time AP position."
"This solution's most valuable feature is its short deployment time."
"Juniper Wireless AP can improve by continually improving its reporting and integration with other systems."
"Improving third-party integration is key for Juniper Mist's next release."
"The solution is expensive."
"The product should include adaptive Wi-Fi to show a more accurate location."
"There is room for improvement in terms of support and installation."
"They should include SD-WAN features to it."
"If you want to do more specific stuff, it's a bit limited."
"The price could be better."
"The technical support from Cisco is good, but they can improve themselves in some areas. Sometimes it takes a while to provide a solution or an answer to our problem."
"Some of their first level support staff does not seem to be well-versed in the solution, so support for Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN needs improvement."
"The signal coverage radius could be extended."
"I would like to see integration with sensors."
"Currently, only a limited number of clients can connect to these devices."
"The biggest pain point is that they limit you through firewall throughput. I understand why they do it, but that really grates me. For instance, for 450 Mbps throughput, you're looking at £800 for a router, whereas if you look at the one gig connection, for some of us are lucky enough to have a gig connection, you could almost be spending £3,000 for the option to have one gig connectivity. That's one of the pain points I've got. I don't mind paying for throughput, but I should at least have the option to be able to update that throughput, maybe through extra licensing or something else. It is crazy expensive to jump through to the next one."
"The dashboard could be a bit better. I'd like to see more information about the whole controller and APs. It should be as simple and convenient."
"An area for improvement would be that Meraki doesn't work well in a warehouse environment. The device is too sensitive to other wireless devices, which provokes noise and can require a reboot to erase this."
"I would like to see a remote phone application for monitoring APs when on the road."
"Integrating the network access control solution can be complex, as it essentially combines two separate products."
"An area for improvement in ExtremeCloud IQ is its technical support. Support could be better, especially when you need help concerning ExtremeCloud IQ and WinG."
"The solution will show us that there are some issues, but when we try to find those issues, we can't see them."
"We'd like to have a cloud dashboard from which we can see all devices."
"Having a wizard for customers who are just starting might be helpful."
"The solution's performance needs to be enhanced because of a very high delay."
"There can be an improvement by incorporating two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication for security. Advanced network access control features and application control features should be added to manage applications. Many customers are interested in managing data, such as setting data quotas for individual users."
More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is ranked 4th in Wireless LAN with 115 reviews while ExtremeCloud IQ is ranked 5th in Network Management Applications with 73 reviews. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is rated 8.2, while ExtremeCloud IQ is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN writes "Offers good mobility, stability and scalability ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of ExtremeCloud IQ writes "Robust stability for maximizing network efficiency and security". Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Ubiquiti Wireless, Mist AI and Cloud, Ruckus Wireless and Aruba Instant, whereas ExtremeCloud IQ is most compared with Ubiquiti Wireless, Mist AI and Cloud, Aruba Wireless, Cisco DNA Center and Ruckus Wireless.
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.
I suggest Aruba. We've considered the same upgrade (APs + Switches) and I've settled with Aruba.
Aruba 505,515 (or other models) depends on the number of users and the area you want to cover.
Regarding switches, from what I could see, there isn't much difference though my experience is for Cisco so far. I haven't used Aruba switches to judge.
Aruba APs are very flexible: you can operate them in 3 modes: controller-less (Instant) where 1 AP acts as the controller for the others, with the on-prem controller, and cloud controller (similar to Meraki). depending on budget, you can go with a cloud controller (very affordable pricing in our region). then upgrade to an on-prem controller 1-3 years later to split the project budget.
Cisco isn't as flexible: you can either go with the controller-less solution, or on-prem controller if you buy the Cisco Catalyst APs or go with the Meraki cloud-only solution. But you can't migrate the solutions after buying them. As @Michael Fulton said: "Merakis are worthless without the subscriptions as you can't manage them".
I have also heard it from several people: Aruba is much better in wireless. Though, honestly, I haven't tried both solutions for myself to give any feedback (Currently, we have 802.11n APs from Cisco).
Depends. I have personally used both Cisco and Aruba so I am familiar with them. Extreme I am not, so unless they have some feature that I need or want, I wouldn't consider them.
Do you have experience with any of these brands? If so, based on your experience would you use that brand again?
Also what other equipment do you have on your network? Firewall? Router? APs? Security (Cameras, door locks etc.)? Are there any functions with one of these brands of switches that would enhance the products you already have? Sometimes you get more bang for your buck by sticking with the same manufacture as they will have features on different products that work together well or feed off of each other.
If all of that comes down to the same three brands still, then look at performance claims, features sets, cost.
We have the Meraki AP's and I like the cloud management portion of them. But if you don't renew with them to use the cloud then the AP's are worthless as the require the cloud management. But it is nice to have that central, visual representation and central management feature Meraki has to offer. I don't know if Extreme Networks or Aruba has that.
STAY AWAY from Arista Mojo
Most of the Wi-Fi properties come embedded in the chipset. So, there is not too much difference between different brand APs.
If you are redoing your Wi-Fi infrastructure because of new technologies (such as Wi-Fi 6), fine. If you are redoing it because of a bad user experience, then you should investigate possibilities of AP misplacement or AP configuration.
Cisco Meraki is cloud-controlled. If you are thinking about an on-prem Wi-Fi controller, you should concentrate on Aruba or Cisco Catalyst 900 series.
As far as I know, Aruba 515 has
- 4x4:4 antenna for 5 GHz
- 2x2:2 antenna for 2.4 GHz
Cisco, on the other hand, has either
- 2x2:2 antenna for both bands (9105 model) or
- 4x4:4 antenna for both bands (9115 model)
Of course, whether this difference in antennas will have any impact will depend on the client devices and whether they have matching antennas and whether they also have Wi-Fi 6 technology.
If you really want a differentiating factor, you should consider Ruckus Wireless.
Ruckus Wireless APs have;
- Adaptive antenna technology (called BeamFlex). This technology analyses 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.
None of the other brands have the features listed above.
To summarize:
- Features embedded in the chipset, and dumb antennas don't make any difference.
- Adaptive antenna and polarization diversity make a big difference.
I have Extreme and chose them years ago when they were Aerohive for one reason PPSK they are still the only company that has this. I put out a bid this year and was ready to forklift my entire extreme system because of their outrageous maintenance costs Aruba had a great maintenance cost but to achieve what I needed I would have to purchase clearpass an excellent product I might add. TCO for Aruba was about 10% of my original Extreme quote. The bid for extreme came in and they had dropped the maintenance cost to 10% of the original cost for 5 years. I would like to have purchased Aruba but I have 125 Extreme WAPs deployed so the cost of Aruba forklift would have been higher and the need to retrain techs on how to configure Aruba is now not an issue. If I was doing a system from scratch I would choose Aruba hands down for their service, price and ease of use. I have a full Aruba network of routers and switches as well as all HP printers so it would have been a good fit. I must add this is based on educational prices I am the network Engineer for a residential High School ASMSA. Your prices may vary. I have heard from other extreme users that their support is not what it was when Aerohive was a stand alone company, I have a very knowledgeable vendor so I rarely have to contact Extreme.