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Aruba Access Points vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 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 Access Points
Ranking in Wireless LAN
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi
Ranking in Wireless LAN
22nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Aruba Access Points is 2.7%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba Access Points2.7%
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi1.2%
Other96.1%
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

HJ
Telecommunication Engineer at Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia
Wireless connectivity has remained reliable and supports flexible, cloud‑independent management
As I already mentioned, the ability to stay with self-hosting solutions for central management is what I think could be improved about Aruba Access Points. If this becomes available in the future, I think it should change the game. However, I don't currently see this because I see nothing about AirWave anymore on your roadmap. I don't understand what happens next. There are some problems in assessing the performance of Aruba Access Points in environments with high user density. If there is a dense environment, a mobility controller would be the one you should go with because this needs more telemetry to calculate. I suspect this will be easier to do with local administration or local management because if everything goes over the internet through Aruba Central, it takes time. Every decision the central management makes takes extra latency to send over to the local area network. I think this is not a good approach to move to central management that is hosted somewhere far away. It should still retain the functionality to use Instant AP functionality that is available until 500 and maybe 600 as well. If you go to software version 10 and future versions, then you lose this functionality and you can't go back anymore. It would be good to assist with local location management and BLE-based functionalities as additional features I expect from future Aruba Access Points. There were some attempts to support third-party integrations through cooperation between Aruba and Meridian. However, I don't understand what happened there, and nothing is clear in this area. IoT will also be very important for people. You should add functionality to the platform that will support third-party IoT devices.
reviewer2562924 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT System Support Administrator at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees
Configuration offers flexibility but response to incidents needs improvement
We recommend using WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi, but when incidents occur, it can be very difficult to identify why they happen. Normally, the issues are simple to fix, but we recently faced a major incident. We are still trying to identify the cause, which is why I would rate it seven out of ten. Without this incident, I might have rated it eight to nine. Overall, I give the solution a rating of seven.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Aruba access points protect connectivity, and we don't get interference."
"It has been a stable solution since its installation."
"The product is quite accessible and reliable."
"Aruba Access Points is an easy-to-use solution."
"Aruba Access Points provides secure and transparent access points for all users"
"It is relatively easy to deploy Aruba Access Points, so from the box to operation is straightforward."
"The main advantage of Aruba Access Points is their on-premises controllers, and the solution is not complex but rather user-friendly and easy to use— even without a controller, small networks can be established for SMB environments."
"We had a very great experience with the technical team."
"We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use."
"If I were tasked to set up new WiFi at a single site, or at multiple locations for hundreds of sites, I would make this solution my first choice."
"The solution has been stable."
"All you have to do is take it out of the box, plug it in and you're ready to go."
"Cloud analytics that provide all its attributes."
"The solution is priced high compared to competitors, however, for the features that are included in the solution, the price becomes more reasonable."
"It makes it easy to obtain all information about the client experience."
"The configuration part of WatchGuard is very flexible."
 

Cons

"The support from Aruba, as well as the overall HPE unit, has been lacking. The regional head and hepatic services are nonresponsive, leading to a decline in market share. While Aruba is recognized for its top-notch quality, especially in switching technology, the services and support in the African region need significant improvement. There is a suggestion to focus on enhancing services, support, and presale activities in this region to address the challenges faced by customers, particularly in healthcare. Continued emphasis on research and development, along with addressing regional issues, is recommended for sustained success."
"The integration capabilities of the product with the tools from other vendors is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The product's prices are an area of concern. The product should be available at a lower price point."
"The product is highly priced. They could improve pricing."
"I would like Aruba to provide integration capabilities for Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Directory, or other identity verification engines like Okta, Google Identity, or Ping Identity."
"They should reduce the prices as an advanced marketing tool."
"Some customers comment that the shape and size of the access point is a little big, especially the one installed in the guest room."
"The product should provide more coverage."
"The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention."
"If a client device had issues with authentication due to out of date browser or similar difficulties, it would be nice to have the ability to migrate the client onto the portal via one click."
"Inability to import a user with one click."
"One of the things is if you buy it with a certain subscription, you can't easily change the subscription level."
"I don't think they're available at the best price."
"The price of this solution needs to reviewed, as it is currently high enough to deter customers from trying it."
"The solution can be scaled but it has limitations from my experience. The access points are rated for 500 people but I think the max is closer to 200."
"In terms of improvement, one issue I have is that I can't import a user with one click."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Although not cheap, Aruba Access Points is a reasonably priced solution."
"I rate the pricing a six out of ten because it's not cheap or expensive."
"The solution is expensive and licensing costs are yearly. Customers have to pay extra costs for service and subscription apart from the hardware cost."
"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
"Users have to pay a licensing fee for Aruba Access Points, which could be cheaper."
"The product's pricing could be better than one of its competitors."
"My company needs to pay around 50,000 JPY to 1,00,000 JPY towards the licensing costs of the product on a monthly basis. Additional payments are to be made towards the maintenance and support costs of the product."
"Aruba Central is a bit overpriced for some customers."
"The solution is priced high compared to competitors. However, for the features that are included in the solution, the price becomes more reasonable."
"Your licensing and cost, as would be required for many other solutions, being considered for eighty to two hundred and eighty different physical locations, is just about the same amount per access point."
"WatchGuard is on the upper scale for pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Access Points?
I would rate the price for the product as two, with one being high and ten being low.
What needs improvement with Aruba Access Points?
AI is only in Aruba Central, and we don't use Aruba Central yet. Integrating AI in the controller would be a good point for improvement. Performance is an area that could be improved and represents...
What advice do you have for others considering Aruba Access Points?
Aruba Access Points work fine with another product called ClearPass. I integrated it with the Access Point. Overall, I would give a final rating of eight for Aruba Access Points. I would recommend ...
What needs improvement with WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?
The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention. Also, when an incident occurs, the impact can be significantly huge. A recent p...
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?
We use WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi because we have used different tools as well, like Ubiquiti. The complexity of Ubiquiti is much more compared to WatchGuard, which provides more flexibility and is ea...
What advice do you have for others considering WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?
We recommend using WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi, but when incidents occur, it can be very difficult to identify why they happen. Normally, the issues are simple to fix, but we recently faced a major inc...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Portsmouth Grammar School, HILOTEC
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Access Points vs. WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.