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Aruba Remote Access Points vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Remote Access Points
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Prisma Access by Palo Alto ...
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (4th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (1st), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Aruba Remote Access Points is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is 6.4%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks6.4%
Aruba Remote Access Points1.0%
Other92.6%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Theesula Majuwanagamage - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient Setup and Strong Performance Highlight Versatile Capabilities
In terms of areas for improvement in Aruba Remote Access Points, when planning for the customer's end, you need to highlight the precautions against EMF emissions and environmental emissions, as well as power management limitations. If the user is in one direction and you're transmitting everywhere, that's not good power management. Currently, all access points provide the same power requirement to the client, but we should explore what extra mile we can go. We are facing energy crises and climate issues, along with GHG and SDGs protocols. If we highlight the alignment with these protocols, it can enhance the product quality as an environmentally friendly option. Apart from that, service-wise, every unit is the same. Users can only distinguish those requirements using spectrum analyzers; otherwise, minor data delays of one or two seconds do not matter, but for high-security or high-speed needs, it becomes significant.
Amar-Patil - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables seamless policy management and supports secure remote work
Our primary use case for Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is to control the internet and serve as an internet proxy. Additionally, we use it for secure remote work One of the most valuable features of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is the ability to manage on-premise firewalls. We can…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The Aruba Remote Access Points are simple, not expensive, and very intuitive for management and configuration."
"There are no bad features in Aruba Remote Access Points. Every feature is customized to meet customer requirements according to their limitations, and we can make use of all features to benefit us as needed."
"The product is very flexible. So far the stability of the solution has been good."
"The most valuable feature of Aruba Remote Access Points is the manageability from the central cloud platform."
"It provides good Spectrum Analysis and troubleshooting."
"It’s very light."
"What I like best about Aruba Remote Access Points is that it's pretty easy to set up."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is experienced by those working at home since they get a secure Wi-Fi connection."
"It protects all app traffic so that users can gain access to all apps. Unlike other solutions that only work from ports 80 and 443, which are predominantly for web traffic, Prisma Access covers all protocols and works on all traffic patterns... The most sophisticated attacks can arise from sources that are not behind 80/443."
"The users can securely access any cloud data centers or cloud platforms. In terms of the features, it has all the features that Palo Alto Next-Generation Firewall has. It is also very stable and scalable."
"The features I find most valuable is WildFire, user integration, and the basic technology features."
"Overall, the cost savings, ease of deployment, and better VPN user experience and performance are valuable."
"Prisma integrates well with Cortex XDR and Cortex Data Lake. My company has been also using Prisma Access in-house for nearly a year, and it integrates seamlessly."
"It is easy to use, easy to integrate, and is stable. It's scalable as well."
"The Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADEM) offered by Palo Alto is a good reporting tool. It gives insights into how things are going within the network. It takes all the data from the users' endpoints and does an analysis, and it suggests changes as well."
"Palo Alto Firewall is one of the best firewalls in the world."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in terms of pricing. If they can be more competitive."
"Its scalability capabilities should be improved."
"They can add more graphical reporting systems so that network admins and system admins get more information about user usage, such as which user, what they use, and when they use it."
"The solution's technical support has some shortcomings that need improvement."
"One thing that would be beneficial is for the Aruba Central mobile app to work more effectively. Currently, it does not function as expected when I really need it."
"The security side of Aruba Remote Access Points could be improved."
"The product needs an increased level of security for the end user."
"The remote access point coverage should be bigger than it is now."
"Its security is good. Everything is good, but the way the dashboard responds can be improved. It takes time to implement a policy. If you change only two or three lines and push the policy to make the change work, it takes 20 to 30 minutes even for a small change. That is something very irritating from the implementation perspective."
"There is some particular traffic that the security team wants to filter out and apply their own policies and they cannot."
"They automatically update and they should give us time to fully understand what they're updating so that we can make sure it doesn't impact production."
"The licensing model isn't flexible enough. It's an all-or-nothing model. Other providers in the market allow you to buy modules or add-ons separately. With Prisma Access, you have to purchase the same module for all users."
"The Prisma Access could improve in terms of adding more machine learning and AI capabilities to automate tasks such as incident response."
"They could add more flexibility and improve product performance."
"We are using the SaaS offering. We use our applications for microservices. We use Twistlock to scan containers, and it displays these results in Prisma, which is a good feature because we can see vulnerabilities with respect to these containers. We can see everything in a very detailed manner. However, when you have different environments for a single application, such as DEV, QA, PROD, and TEST, all these environments run multiple containers, which can lead to a very high number of containers. In such a scenario, it shows you the alerts for all those containers that have vulnerabilities. If you show the results of all the containers that share the same image, it is not going to add any value. Therefore, they should narrow down the alerts based on a container. It should show information for a single container. Otherwise, the person who is looking at the results gets the impression that he has to fix all these issues. This is something that they can improve."
"When it comes to integration mechanisms, Prisma SaaS does not support reverse proxy type of integrations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of pricing, we've found Aruba's offerings to be very competitive."
"You require no separate licensing to convert an access point to RAP."
"There are no other expenses than standard licenses for the product."
"Price-wise, Aruba Remote Access Points is in the middle, so my rating for its pricing is three out of five."
"The price of Aruba Remote Access Points could be better. It is a little expensive."
"Aruba Remote Access Points' pricing is good and affordable."
"Aruba pricing is not very high. They offer competitive pricing for what they provide."
"The licensing model for this product is complicated and changes all the time, making it very hard for the user to comprehend the configuration."
"Prisma Access is a little bit expensive."
"It's pricey, it's not cheap. But you get what you pay for."
"This is not an expensive product and everything is included with one license."
"Compared to other products, the price is slightly high."
"Prisma is in the middle of the road. It's not the most expensive, but it's not the cheapest. There aren't any additional costs, to my knowledge. I know they have some extra modules, but we didn't use them."
"I would advise choosing your options according to your company's needs. Just go for what you want and do not pay for anything extra in terms of licensing. You need to determine how much bandwidth is required in your company network, and according to that, you should pay for the license. The mobile user license is based on the number of users who are going to use the VPN solution. You need to determine how many mobile users you are going to have in your network, and you should pay according to that. There are no other costs in addition to licensing, but if you go for the consultant services of Palo Alto networks to deliver the solution for you, then you need to pay something extra. That is not a part of licensing."
"As compared to other solutions, Prisma Access is much cheaper. It is probably 30% to 40% cheaper than other solutions, but I do not know the exact cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Healthcare Company
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Remote Access Points?
This solution is widely adopted and involves both technology and non-technical devices. It is robust, except in cases of significant power outages.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Remote Access Points?
The pricing is adequate. It is available in every range, from medium range to high range and enterprise level. Thus, it is not an issue.
What needs improvement with Aruba Remote Access Points?
In terms of areas for improvement in Aruba Remote Access Points, when planning for the customer's end, you need to highlight the precautions against EMF emissions and environmental emissions, as we...
What is the better solution - Prisma Access or Zscaler Private Access?
We looked into Prisma Access before choosing Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). Palo Alto’s Prisma Access is a secure access service edge (SASE) designed to deliver network security in a cloud-deliver...
What do you like most about Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?
The most valuable features of the solution are in the areas of the secure remote access it provides while also being user-friendly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?
From my experience, Palo Alto is more expensive compared to solutions like Netskope and Triscale.
 

Also Known As

Aruba RAP
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Prisma Access, GlobalProtect, Palo Alto GlobalProtect Mobile Security Manager, Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks, Prisma Access
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trafford Metropolitan Borough
Concord Hospital, State of Colorado, Essilor International, RheinLand Versicherungsgruppe, University of Westminster, Universidade Nove de Julho, SPAR Austria, CAME Group, ZipRealty, Greenhill & Co., IKT Agder, Aviva Stadium, Animal Logic, Management & Training Corporation, Brigham Young University Hawaii, School District of Chilliwack
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Remote Access Points vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,883 professionals have used our research since 2012.