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."The AI capabilities of Mist Wireless are superior to other OEMs."
"You can easily monitor, manage, and cover all your IT equipment."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is Marvis, the AI-driven network management system."
"The simplicity is great."
"Overall, we've been very pleased with the performance."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Mist is the Virtual Network Assistant, powered by artificial intelligence."
"The most useful feature of Juniper Wireless AP is the reporting Marvis."
"Its ease of use and flexibility are most valuable. It is cloud-based software."
"The solution is very stable. It is a very manageable and secure system."
"I like the status page Cisco added that shows you the health of the wireless connection."
"The dashboard to keep track of 30 or so APs, switches, routers and logs, is invaluable. I liked the UX on this."
"It is cloud-based. You can manage it remotely from anywhere in the world, and you don't have to be on-site, which is a very big advantage."
"The solution is easily scalable. There are not really any limits for the customer in terms of expanding if they need to."
"The cloud manageability feature is valuable."
"It will allow me to integrate another system very quickly, as we continue expanding for our client."
"The dashboards are great and the user interface is quite intuitive."
"a true controller-less approach, where each Access Point is 100% independent from the management system."
"HiveManager is extremely easy to use for anyone with little network experience."
"Extreme is transitioning to 802.11ax facilities running the 2G and the 5G cloud, allowing for higher density in education use cases, and ExtremeCloud IQ provides you with novel ways to manage everything. In the old days, you used to have a controller on-site for your access points, but everything is easier now."
"The HiveManager integration with the VPN Gateway is awesome."
"ExtremeCloud offers features that not a lot of other vendors do like their data storage and the ability to swap licenses."
"I like ExtremeCloud IQ's unified single-pane-of-glass dashboard. It offers a lot of visibility of performance, and it's great for troubleshooting. You don't have to go to 55 different places. You can get the information you need with just a few clicks."
"What's most valuable for me in ExtremeCloud IQ is easy management. It also has centralized administration, so you don't have to go to the customer site to program it. It can be programmed remotely."
"If you want to do more specific stuff, it's a bit limited."
"The pricing should be made cheaper."
"The product should include adaptive Wi-Fi to show a more accurate location."
"Improving third-party integration is key for Juniper Mist's next release."
"Enrolling into the tool is a tedious process."
"I need a bit more time with it before criticizing the features."
"Improvement is needed in the user-friendliness of Juniper Mist, particularly in enhancing the interaction with AI features."
"Juniper Wireless AP can improve by continually improving its reporting and integration with other systems."
"I would like to see Cisco Meraki improve the accessibility by region level here in Latin America."
"Integration with the corporate LAN where Catalyst products are installed is a major challenge."
"The cost of the devices and the solution itself could be more competitive."
"It lags a bit in providing reports for Wi-Fi performance."
"Its price could be improved."
"Concern when there are a number of concurrent users."
"This solution could benefit from a heat mapping ability so that you can tell where the hotspots are, and where the good signals are."
"The commercial version of the solution could be cheaper."
"Browser load time for the cloud is long and needs improvement."
"Pricing could be improved. It could be lower."
"From our perspective, we would love to see Aerohive provide faster feature enhancement in their Virtual Appliance to match the features with the cloud solution more quickly."
"The licensing model could be improved."
"I would like to see more security features such as NAC integrated to the solution. This would allow customers to be able to control all other users under one dashboard."
"I would like to see a remote phone application for monitoring APs when on the road."
"We have had some mediocre to poor experiences with tech support: Conflicting information, condescending attitudes, and reluctance to work to resolve an issue."
"ExtremeCloud should invest in an SD-WAN solution or integration with SD-WAN."
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 8.6. 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, Ruckus Wireless, Ubiquiti Wireless, Mist AI and Cloud 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.