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AirMagnet Survey PRO vs Ruckus Wireless comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

AirMagnet Survey PRO
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Network Modeling and Simulation (2nd), Network Troubleshooting (7th)
Ruckus Wireless
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Wireless LAN (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

AirMagnet Survey PRO and Ruckus Wireless aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. AirMagnet Survey PRO is designed for Network Modeling and Simulation and holds a mindshare of 17.3%, down 31.5% compared to last year.
Ruckus Wireless, on the other hand, focuses on Wireless LAN, holds 14.1% mindshare, up 13.0% since last year.
Network Modeling and Simulation
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Mark Witherspoon - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution for site verifications and enhanced with adapters that provide more realistic readings, but needs to support Wi-Fi 6E
Ekahau and AirMagnet Survey have their own pros and cons, in my opinion. For example, the APs are not visible in Ekahau but AirMagnet Survey allows us to see what APs and channels are being used in a live view, which Ekahau lacks. In Ekahau, the signal from the AP it's capturing at that time is visible which is a bit of an inconvenience. The predictive planner of AirMagnet's is better. However, Ekahau has advantages over AirMagnet because it groups all the SSIDs into one AP, whereas with AirMagnet, one needs to group them manually. Ekahau also supports Wi-Fi 6E, but its licensing is restrictive and more costly.
Xander Janse Van Rensburg - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable and high-performance wireless networking with exceptional stability, scalability, and robust feature set
One of the most valuable features I appreciate is auto channelization, facilitated by a proprietary product called ChannelFly. This feature enables APs in a specific zone to automatically adjust their channels, optimizing performance. Additionally, Ruckus Wireless stands out for its ability to reuse certain beams, resulting in smaller data spots. In my experience with various products, Ruckus Wireless consistently delivers unparalleled throughput, coverage, and reliability in wireless networking across different environments. As a noteworthy point, the newly launched WiFi 7 standard is measured against Ruckus's WiFi 7 AP, establishing it as the global benchmark. When it comes to WiFi, Ruckus sets the standard, outperforming competitors with its superior performance and capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The AirMagnet Survey allows you to see the list of APs in the live view. It only supports certain adapters, which can be limiting, but it's also beneficial because these adapters are more comparable to real-life devices like laptops. With Ekahau, Sidekick needs to be used for full features, but I find the Sidekick too strong, which can hamper results. Therefore, I prefer AirMagnet's approach because the adapters provide more realistic readings."
"Clear and easy to use maps."
"The most valuable feature is the predictive survey. The antennas' RF patterns are reflected correctly on the drawing when preparing predictive heat maps."
"Customer service is great."
"It allows us to prepare more real designs. Later, we validate them with actual surveys."
"I would like to rate the product as eight of ten."
"Using the products to ensure the safety of our equipment that we have a lot invested in."
"The heat maps are quite good, and some features are easy to use."
"Its roaming capabilities and the fact that we can have redundant backup controllers are the most valuable. There is a backup controller that is heart beated to the primary. It is also fairly easy to install."
"One of the most valuable features I appreciate is auto channelization, facilitated by a proprietary product called ChannelFly."
"I am familiar with the brand and it works well."
"The solution has great network intelligence from applications, clients, access points, and controllers."
"For me, the most valuable features are good integration with the customer's existing network and the ease of deployment and configuration. Ruckus products are also easy to learn to manage and deploy for not only our own staff, but also for the IT workers in the customer's organization."
"Ruckus Wireless is a reliable solution."
"Ruckus features a centralized architecture solution with ultrasound technology, which helps us with communication and roaming."
"We rarely had access points fail in the field. They were rock solid, durable, and had the best signal penetration from any we tested.​"
 

Cons

"When you conduct an active survey and then want to use it for design work, it's actually not very useful."
"But it's definitely a more expensive solution than other ones."
"The throughput should be more advanced in the future. They need to add more versions of WiFi than just one."
"I would say some of our newer techs that are going out to job sites can be a little bit intimidated by the interface."
"The surveying features are in need of improvement, along with general usability."
"Printouts are JPEG printouts. The AirMagnet software is proprietary. I can't send my customers a file, because it is AirMagnet file, even for building projects. I can only send JPEGs or screenshots of heat maps."
"It'd be nice if it was cheaper, however, you get value for your money."
"AirMagnet Survey needs to support Wi-Fi 6E otherwise they can lose to the competition. They also need to allow better grouping of SSIDs to one AP, removing the need to filter manually. At the moment, you can filter by channel or SSID, but grouping all those SSIDs together is a difficult task."
"The pricing is okay, however, it could be a bit lower."
"I wish that Ruckus Wireless were more affordable for customers."
"What would be interesting to see is if they had more of an ability for their customers to capture revenue. They should offer some sort of gateway functionality that you could tie through radius authentication, so you can bill the customers. That way, when you go in, you could just have a device and set up a hotspot, and it's a totally billable tool at that point."
"It would be better if there were more visibility on the cloud. We have some lack of visibility because of wireless interference, and you have to do some troubleshooting for the packet capture. They have a built-in packet capture, and we can monitor the application. You can see all things over the cloud. They also provide an on-premise solution, so they need to improve the on-premise version and ensure an output with more visibility. Live monitoring in a live environment should be good. What is happening with wireless is that the wireless client is not connected due to interference, and there should be a shield zone on their wireless cloud. If they give us more features on both Ruckus Cloud or on-premises, that will be best. Nowadays, security is more important for everyone using wireless technology. If they implement a little bit of reduction and prevention features for some packets on the wireless cloud, some features like web filtering and some prevention for blocking will be good for the network."
"One area where Ruckus Wireless could improve is its technical support."
"I do a reset of the access points from time to time because sometimes we have no access."
"It could be cheaper."
"From my point of view, portal features are something missing in Ruckus Wireless. I want to see Ruckus Wireless integrate a Wi-Fi portal into its product. This would allow for easier user authentication for vendors."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The moment we began needing more of the vendor's support, the cost became very high; we switched to another solution."
"For technical support, you need an annual license, but it is not worth it."
"The pricing needs improvement."
"There is an annual cost of the solution. There are some additional charges, such as support and maintenance."
"The licensing of AirMagnet Survey is different when compared to Ekahu. It is a third of the cost of Ekahau but there are no dedicated laptops to the Sidekick. AirMagnet allows you to license an adapter and share that adapter."
"The tool's pricing is medium."
"This product is very expensive."
"It is not cheap, but it also doesn't carry the high price tag of some other products on the market."
"Not all of our clients can afford a fully corporate solution like Ruckus. But for many of our clients, pricing is the only factor that prevents them from choosing Ruckus, as we have found Ruckus to be a very suitable and reliable solution for integrating wireless access points to a company's network."
"Ubiquiti and Aruba Instant On are good for small businesses in terms of cost than Ruckus Wireless."
"We paid for a three-year contract last year. I am not sure about what we paid. It is certainly less expensive than Meraki."
"Ruckus Wireless is available at a reasonable price"
"We have a yearly license for our multiple mode 200 or 300 Ruckus Wireless systems. It's a good price."
"The price is reasonable."
"The tool’s pricing is competitive with other alternative solutions’ pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AirMagnet Survey?
We use the solution for Wi-Fi and networks.
What needs improvement with AirMagnet Survey?
AirMagnet Survey needs to support Wi-Fi 6E otherwise they can lose to the competition. They also need to allow better grouping of SSIDs to one AP, removing the need to filter manually. At the momen...
What is your primary use case for AirMagnet Survey?
We use AirMagnet Survey, for site verifications after the wireless system has been installed. We conduct pre and post-install surveys with it. We have reduced the use since now our customers requir...
Aruba Wireless or Ruckus Wireless?
At my organization, we researched Ruckus Wireless among other solutions but ultimately chose Aruba wireless. What did we like about Ruckus? First, it was very easy to use, and anybody with minimal...
Which is better - Ruckus Wireless or Cisco Wireless?
Ruckus Wireless offers users the benefit of being both easy to set up and get running as well as being very user friendly. This user-friendly quality also renders it easy to learn how to use and ma...
How does Ruckus Wireless compare to Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?
Cisco’s Meraki Virtual MX is a virtual instance of the Meraki SD-WAN appliance. We liked the Meraki. The Wifi APs are a great feature. The dashboard is a simple interface and easy to learn. It feat...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Houston Methodist Hospital, Love's Travel Stops
American University of Sharjah, Baruch College, Centro Escolar Liceo Santo Tomšs, Chevalier College, Chico Unified School District, Colegio de Fomento El Prado, Columbia Public Schools, Delta School District, Dordt College, Douglas County School District, Drew University, Armonea, Central Utah Clinic, Grove Hill Medical Center, Inner South Community Health Service, Midwest Surgical, Satilla Regional Medical Center, Lyndoch Living, Polonus, Roaring Fork School District, Sonora State, Vivid, Sydney, Players Club, Sandals, Scandic Hotels, Sheraton LAX, Sunbird
Find out what your peers are saying about Ekahau, NetAlly, iBwave and others in Network Modeling and Simulation. Updated: June 2025.
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