AirMagnet Survey PRO vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN comparison

The compared NetAlly and Cisco solutions aren't in the same category. NetAlly is ranked #2 in NM , with an average rating of 6.5, and holds a 17.3% mindshare in the category. Cisco is ranked #4 in Wireless LAN , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 12.6% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of NetAlly users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

AirMagnet Survey PRO

Read 39 AirMagnet Survey PRO reviews

3,000 Views
1,642 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Read 119 Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN reviews

13,735 Views
11,204 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

AirMagnet Survey PRO

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and AirMagnet Survey PRO are prominent competitors in the wireless networking space. Cisco Meraki stands out for its cloud management and ease of deployment, while AirMagnet is recognized for its comprehensive wireless planning and spectrum analysis capabilities.

Features: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN features include a centralized cloud-based dashboard for easy monitoring and configuration, robust security with Layer 7 protections, and seamless integration with multiple access points. AirMagnet Survey PRO offers advanced wireless planning with predictive surveys, extensive RF measurement capabilities, and integration for spectrum analysis.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN needs improvements in advanced routing functions, more customizable options, and better GDPR compliance. Customers have also reported a need for enhanced technical support. AirMagnet Survey PRO would benefit from a more modern user interface, real-time updates, and reduced licensing complexity, along with fewer compatibility issues.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is known for its flexible deployment options across cloud environments and on-premises setups, supported by a user-friendly cloud management system. Customer support experiences vary, with quick responses but occasional knowledge gaps. AirMagnet Survey PRO supports on-premises installations, offering strong technical assistance and reliable customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is perceived as an expensive option, with costs associated with licensing and renewals contributing to long-term investment considerations. Despite this, users report a significant ROI through reduced maintenance costs. AirMagnet Survey PRO also incurs high costs, particularly for support renewals, but is viewed as offering valuable ROI for its detailed wireless survey capabilities, catering to specific organizational needs.

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Network Modeling and Simulation

June 2025

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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

Ranking in other categories

Network Modeling and Simulation (2nd), Network Troubleshooting (7th)

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

119

Ranking in other categories

Wireless LAN (4th)

Mindshare comparison

AirMagnet Survey PRO and Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN 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.
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, on the other hand, focuses on Wireless LAN, holds 12.6% mindshare, up 12.3% since last year.

Network Modeling and Simulation

Wireless LAN

Featured Reviews

Mark Witherspoon

Wireless Services Manager at Veritas Managed Solutions

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.

Read full review

RezaPradipta

Sr. Officer Network Managed Service Product Management at PT. Indosat Tbk

Streamline network management with a unified dashboard for seamless device integration

The primary use case for Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is mostly for enterprise wireless, including guest Wi-Fi and enterprise Wi-Fi. I use it across various industries with a focus on retail Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers a single pane of glass management. It only comes with a controller on the…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is reliable and easy to use (user-friendly). The heat mapping, passive network surveying, and doing the heat mapping of a building's wireless network allows me to see what level of coverage an area has."

"The most valuable features are the survey, spectrum analysis, and reporting."

"Clear and easy to use maps."

"The addition of the AirMapper software on the nXG and our AirCheck G2s has helped a lot because we're mostly not drilling down into the data. Local managers only need to see the coverage on their end and whether there are performance bottlenecks. These things are easy enough for us to ascertain with iPerf."

"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."

"The predictive survey is the most valuable feature. I use it quite often."

"Customer service is great."

"It allows us to prepare more real designs. Later, we validate them with actual surveys."

More AirMagnet Survey PRO pros

"The network security the solution provides is its most valuable aspect."

"The most valuable aspect of this solution is the single pane of glass management and reliability."

"The solution provides good coverage and identity management. Additionally, the user interface is straightforward."

"The monitoring device enables you to see the network health."

"I would recommend Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN simply because of the ease of deployment and its reliability."

"There are many valuable features of Cisco Meraki, including the switches, stacking, and layer 3 routing."

"The solution is fast."

"The cloud manageability feature is valuable."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pros

Cons

"It'd be nice if it was cheaper, however, you get value for your money."

"Less time consumed doing the real surveys."

"The throughput should be more advanced in the future. They need to add more versions of WiFi than just one."

"The user interface needs a lot of improvement. The auto-placement of access points is not accurate."

"It would be nice to have some more training resources for younger techs. We can use them if we need some assistance, but that usually requires one of us who knows what we're doing to calibrate the programs properly."

"When you conduct an active survey and then want to use it for design work, it's actually not very useful."

"The surveying features are in need of improvement, along with general usability."

"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."

More AirMagnet Survey PRO cons

"Unfortunately, we have to deal with European privacy laws and as far as we can see, the solution is not compliant with these. It's why we're not able to continue with Cisco Meraki. They need to become compliant with GDPR laws."

"The only thing that always causes problems with Meraki is the license. It's a bit of a bugbear with Meraki, and it remains today. So it's an unusual concept compared to the other products in the marketplace, but then it does cause a bit of a nuisance from time to time."

"It could be slightly cheaper but it's fine."

"The most important improvement needed is to eliminate the limitation of uplinks."

"The price could be slightly lowered to make it more competitive in the market."

"The product doesn't effectively do its job anymore since some issues crop up in it once you run out of your subscription licensing...Improvements are needed in the licensing part of the tool."

"The way Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN groups certain things, as far as the devices for either monitoring and or configuring them should be done better. They should be grouped a little bit differently because if I want to configure something, a different setting on an SSID, I have to go to their specific area where I would have thought it should be clumped as a dropdown menu in another area."

"They're great. If there's anything that they need to change, it is just simplifying the site to which you go to make changes on the admin side."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing needs improvement."

"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."

"This product is very expensive."

"For technical support, you need an annual license, but it is not worth it."

"There is an annual cost of the solution. There are some additional charges, such as support and maintenance."

"The moment we began needing more of the vendor's support, the cost became very high; we switched to another solution."

"The tool's pricing is medium."

"The pricing is based on a subscription and is a bit high at the moment."

"Cisco products are generally recognized for their performance and quality, which may justify the higher price point compared to other options on the market."

"This solution is quite costly and there are costs in addition to the licensing fees."

"You have to renew your contract every year, or for three or for five years. If you do not pay right away they will suspend your subscription."

"As is always the case, the price could be better, although I do not recall exactly how much this comes out to."

"The box itself is very cheap. The question here is about the subscription because this is what you will pay every year. In the initial year, for purchasing, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN gives you an attractive price. While during renewal, we are not given much discount."

"The price of the product could be cheaper."

"I don't deal with pricing directly, however, it's my understanding that it is around $40 per unit."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Educational Organization

Retailer

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What are pros and cons of Aruba 515 Series AP vs. Cisco Meraki or Extreme Networks?

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 expe...

See all answers

Which is better - Cisco Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?

Cisco Wireless is very robust, very rugged, and can handle indoor and outdoor coverage extremely well. We found it to be very reliable and to consistently run very efficiently. Cisco Wireless helpe...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Ekahau AI Pro vs AirMagnet Survey PRO

Compared 76% of the time

iBwave Unity vs AirMagnet Survey PRO

Compared 5% of the time

AirCheck G3 vs AirMagnet Survey PRO

Compared 4% of the time

Wireshark vs AirMagnet Survey PRO

Compared 3% of the time

NetAlly EtherScope nXG vs AirMagnet Survey PRO

Compared 3% of the time

More AirMagnet Survey PRO Competitors

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 32% of the time

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 14% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 11% of the time

Ubiquiti Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AirMagnet Survey PRO

June 2025

Download AirMagnet Survey PRO product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

June 2025

Download Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN

Overview

AirMagnet Survey PRO provides efficient wireless network surveying and design capabilities, optimizing access point placement with dual passive-active surveys, spectrum integration, and real-time analysis.

AirMagnet Survey PRO offers comprehensive tools for wireless coverage optimization. It facilitates accurate SNR/RSSI data collection and features multi-floor planning with robust reporting capabilities. The software enables efficient spectrum analysis, predictive mapping, and simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz surveys, saving significant time. Users appreciate its intuitive interface, which aids technical assessments and visual displays. However, they suggest improvements in multi-floor integration, file import options, and a more dynamic license system. Enhanced cloud storage support, improved auto-placement features, and better device compatibility are also on the wishlist.

What are the key features of AirMagnet Survey PRO?

Dual Passive-Active Surveys: Streamline access point placement with dual survey types.
Antenna Customization: Tailor antenna parameters for optimal performance.
Predictive Mapping: Visualize potential coverage areas before deployment.
Spectrum Integration: Analyze interference and optimize signal paths.
Simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Surveys: Conduct faster, comprehensive surveys across frequency bands.

What benefits should users look for in reviews of AirMagnet Survey PRO?

Accurate Data Collection: Highly precise SNR/RSSI measurements improve network assessments.
Time Efficiency: Reduce survey duration with dual-band simultaneous assessments.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies complex tasks with intuitive visual tools.
Comprehensive Reporting: Offers detailed analysis and insights into network performance.
Cost Savings: Efficient planning and troubleshooting lead to reduced deployment costs.

In industries like hospitality, education, and healthcare, AirMagnet Survey PRO is instrumental in wireless network surveying and design. These sectors rely on the software for precise Wi-Fi coverage assessments, spectrum analysis, and real-time signal checks, using heat maps to identify dead zones for pre and post-installation verifications. Some opt for alternatives to support newer technologies like Wi-Fi 6E.

NetAlly

Cisco Meraki access points are built from the highest grade components and carefully optimized for a seamless user experience. The outcome: faster connections, greater user capacity, more coverage, and fewer support calls. The Cisco Meraki dashboard gives visibility into the network users, their devices, and their applications. Armed with rich analytics, administrators can quickly create access control and application usage policies, optimizing both the end-user experience and network security.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Houston Methodist Hospital, Love's Travel Stops

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins

Buyer's Guide

Network Modeling and Simulation

June 2025

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