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Aruba Airwave vs Cisco Prime [EOL] comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco are both solutions in the Network Management Applications category. Additionally, 91% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Cisco users who would recommend it.
Aruba Airwave
Read 25 Aruba Airwave reviews
  • 1,457 Views
  • 1,384 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
Cisco Prime [EOL]
Read 35 Cisco Prime [EOL] reviews
    91% willing to recommend
     

    Comparison Buyer's Guide

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    Executive Summary
    We performed a comparison between Aruba Airwave and Cisco Prime [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Management Applications.

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    To learn more, read our detailed Network Management Applications Report (Updated: July 2025).
    Buyer's Guide
    Network Management Applications
    July 2025
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    Helped 864,155 peers since 2012

    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 Airwave
    Average Rating
    8.2
    Reviews Sentiment
    6.4
    Number of Reviews
    25
    Ranking in other categories
    Network Management Applications (2nd)
    Cisco Prime [EOL]
    Average Rating
    7.8
    Reviews Sentiment
    6.5
    Number of Reviews
    35
    Ranking in other categories
    No ranking in other categories
     

    Featured Reviews

    Ahmet Bulbul - PeerSpot reviewer
    Reports generation remains efficient while support and updates require attention
    The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it. I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive. Customers start to complain and get annoyed about the license price. For example, when customers have 500 access points and features about access point licenses, moving to Central requires purchasing new licenses. This makes customers annoyed and complaining about this situation. It's hard to move from on-premises to Central because they always compare costs. If Aruba gave free licenses, they could move. But going to cloud and Central means more investment, and their budget doesn't cover the new investment. This creates problems for local partner companies.
    Read full review
    ZeeshanAli1 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Robust, cost-effective, and provides good visibility, but the scalability could improve
    We are extremely satisfied with the reliability and robustness of Cisco Prime Infrastructure, which we have been using for many years. Compared to newer products such as DNS centers or others, it has proven to be much more stable, which is important for large-scale operations. Stability is a primary concern for us, and we are glad that Cisco Prime Infrastructure meets our expectations in that regard. Furthermore, in regards to Legacy Plus new hardware, Cisco Prime has proven to be a reliable and adaptable solution thus far. Not only can it support older hardware, but it also has the capability to handle new features with the latest updates. If we consider new solutions such as DNS Center, we may have to sacrifice some legacy features that we still rely on. We may need to continue using these legacy features for a few more years due to various reasons such as budget constraints or the site not being a high priority. However, if we switch to a new product at this stage, we may lose a lot of the monitoring and other capabilities that we have with Cisco Prime. We have a close relationship with Cisco and understand that they are not prioritizing investments in Cisco Prime as they are encouraging customers to adopt the Cisco DNA Center. This means that we don't anticipate many new features to be added to the product in the future. While we know that we will eventually have to transition to a new solution, in the meantime, we plan to do a quick refresh of our legacy products.
    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

    "The solution is not overly expensive."
    "It can interact with other vendors better than Cisco, which is a good point of AirWave. It is easy to use, and its reporting is good."
    "This solution is definitely stable."
    "The most valuable features are the error log and intrusion log. It also provides an overview of your assets. It gives a good database for wireless coverage."
    "It's scalable because it's licensed per device and we bought licenses with each device. I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability."
    "The feature that proved most beneficial for our organization's network monitoring is the virtual four, which we use frequently when working with Aruba."
    "It has improved my organization by increasing troubleshooting opportunities which makes things more efficient."
    "It contains valuable features for engineers to C-level executives, who want visibility, performance, statistics, and a platform which can take action for them without manual intervention, saving time and money.​​"
    More Aruba Airwave pros
    "Cisco Prime is a good tool for inventory monitoring and wireless management."
    "It gives you the ability to upgrade switches remotely, schedule the upgrade time, perform backups, and monitor the health of all networks."
    "Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring. This allows us to be proactive in our environment."
    "Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
    "Cisco Prime can help customers fix their Wi-Fi issues with scientific and digital data."
    "The VLAN mapping function has been most impactful in simplifying our network management tasks."
    "The installation is easy."
    "The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat maps."
    More Cisco Prime [EOL] pros
     

    Cons

    "I want a management solution to manage and monitor everything from a single dashboard. This is not there with Airwave."
    "We encounter delayed ETAs in the manufacturing of hardware."
    "The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it."
    "When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls. It's somewhat annoying since other Wi-Fi design software we use is easier for drawing walls and including floor plans."
    "We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices."
    "I am not deeply familiar with the solution, so if I mention a feature, it might already exist, yet I may be unaware of it."
    "When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers."
    "I would like to see an integration of services into one system, rather than having multiple systems to do multiple things."
    More Aruba Airwave cons
    "The product's pricing can be cheaper."
    "The user interface of Cisco Prime could be more user-friendly and increase its performance."
    "It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions."
    "Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface."
    "The product needs to improve its stability."
    "There is room for improvement in the Access layer."
    "I would love for Cisco Prime to show bandwidth usage and consumption, but I can't monitor bandwidth usage at a given time."
    "We would like to see the inclusion of detailed alerts."
    More Cisco Prime [EOL] cons
     

    Pricing and Cost Advice

    "AirWave is a very expensive solution. If you implement it in a wide range network, it will cost a lot. There is no option to sell it outside that price segment, which is a problem."
    "Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."
    "The licensing is on an yearly basis."
    "I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."
    "The cost is perfect because the devices have a lifetime warranty, and the licensing is good as well."
    "Aruba Airwave's licensing cost is not that expensive."
    "Run a 90 day free Proof of Concept (PoC) for each product by implementing and using it fully in your environment. This way you will be educated on its features, functionality, and manageability."
    "This product is not expensive."
    More Aruba Airwave pricing and cost advice
    "We update the license every five years."
    "The price of Cisco Prime was reasonable because we purchased it as part of a Cisco One package. The package was a bundle of Cisco solutions together, such as Cisco ISE and CMX. The price is reasonable com compared to other solutions."
    "I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
    "Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
    "The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
    "The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
    "The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
    "You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
    More Cisco Prime [EOL] pricing and cost advice
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    Top Industries

    By visitors reading reviews
    Computer Software Company
    13%
    Manufacturing Company
    9%
    Government
    8%
    Educational Organization
    7%
    Computer Software Company
    16%
    Government
    14%
    Manufacturing Company
    7%
    Healthcare Company
    6%
     

    Company Size

    By reviewers
    Large Enterprise
    Midsize Enterprise
    Small Business
     

    Questions from the Community

    What do you like most about Aruba Airwave?
    I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
    See all answers
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Airwave?
    The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.
    See all answers
    What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
    The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it. I find the pric...
    See all answers
    What do you like most about Cisco Prime?
    The most valuable features of Cisco Prime include its comprehensive functionality as a one-stop solution for basic SNMP port management.
    See all answers
    What needs improvement with Cisco Prime?
    The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive.
    See all answers
    What is your primary use case for Cisco Prime?
    We use Cisco Prime for centralized configuration management backups and monitoring.
    See all answers
     

    Comparisons

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    Compared 22% of the time
    Aruba ClearPass vs Aruba Airwave Logo
    Aruba ClearPass vs Aruba Airwave
    Compared 12% of the time
    Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista vs Aruba Airwave Logo
    Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista vs Aruba Airwave
    Compared 10% of the time
    Cisco Catalyst Center vs Aruba Airwave Logo
    Cisco Catalyst Center vs Aruba Airwave
    Compared 10% of the time
    More Aruba Airwave Competitors
    Huawei eSight vs Cisco Prime [EOL] Logo
    Huawei eSight vs Cisco Prime [EOL]
    Compared 52% of the time
    NetMaster Network Intelligence vs Cisco Prime [EOL] Logo
    NetMaster Network Intelligence vs Cisco Prime [EOL]
    Compared 48% of the time
    More Cisco Prime [EOL] Competitors
     

    Product Reports

    Buyer's Guide
    Aruba Airwave
    July 2025
    Aruba Airwave reportDownload Aruba Airwave product report
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco Prime [EOL]
    July 2025
    Cisco Prime [EOL] reportDownload Cisco Prime [EOL] product report
     

    Also Known As

    No data available
    Cisco Prime Infrastructure
     

    Overview

    Offering granular visibility into wired and wireless networks, AirWave is the only management platform designed with mobile devices and apps in mind. By proactively monitoring the health and performance of all things connected, AirWave lets IT gain the insights they need to support the digital workplace.
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise

    Cisco Prime products deliver next-generation management by supporting an intuitive workflow-oriented user experience and integrated lifecycle operations across Cisco architectures, technologies, and networks.

    Cisco
     

    Sample Customers

    Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
    Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare
    Buyer's Guide
    Network Management Applications
    July 2025
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