Aruba Airwave vs NetScaler comparison

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Aruba Airwave

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

NetScaler and Aruba Airwave are both competitive in the networking space, with NetScaler standing out for application delivery due to its flexible deployment and feature set, while Aruba Airwave is more suitable for multivendor network management.

Features: NetScaler offers comprehensive features such as load balancing, SSL offload, and robust application delivery capabilities that enhance security and performance. It supports a variety of network setups through its adaptable deployment models. Aruba Airwave provides excellent multivendor support, facilitating seamless monitoring and zero-touch provisioning, beneficial for managing diverse network environments.

Room for Improvement: NetScaler could improve in feature innovation and simplify its configurations and documentation to enhance usability. Its support response times vary, needing consistency. Aruba Airwave, facing high cost criticisms, might benefit from more competitive pricing strategies and enhanced integration capabilities with third-party devices.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetScaler is versatile, offering on-premises and cloud deployments, though its technical support is inconsistently reviewed with varying levels of satisfaction regarding responsiveness. Aruba Airwave, mainly on-premises, has straightforward monitoring capabilities with user experience hindered by some integration challenges. Both could improve in delivering more consistent support.

Pricing and ROI: NetScaler's pricing is perceived as high, often exceeding budget expectations for smaller organizations despite its reliable feature set justifying the investment. Aruba Airwave, although also considered expensive, provides more pricing flexibility and is viewed as more cost-justifiable compared to competitors like Cisco, delivering appreciated ROI with its robust features.

To learn more, read our detailed Aruba Airwave vs. NetScaler Report (Updated: July 2025).

Aruba Airwave vs. NetScaler

July 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

Aruba Airwave

Ranking in Network Management Applications

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetScaler

Ranking in Network Management Applications

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (1st), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Aruba Airwave is 5.7%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 1.7%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Management Applications

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Bulbul

Senior Network Consultant at Data Market

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.

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DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU

Cloud Consultant at Migros Ticaret A.Ş.

A tool for centralized management including inventory and sales tracking

Citrix ADM has the ability to implement policies to tighten security. For instance, you can restrict access to your network from outsiders or lack necessary security measures such as antivirus programs. Additionally, there's the Delivery Controller, which allows for comprehensive monitoring and management tasks such as remote restarts, maintenance, and registration. Another essential component is the Director, which provides detailed insights into sessions, including identifying session failures, connection issues, user lockouts, etc. It presents a list of problems to address, enabling you to click on them and resolve them efficiently.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has improved my organization by increasing troubleshooting opportunities which makes things more efficient."

"The most beneficial feature for network monitoring in Aruba Airwave is the Live Heat Map. It helps identify interferences, coverage issues, and user connectivity issues. The device management capability of Aruba Airwave is good. It provides end-to-end visibility from the user to the access point, the switch, and the internet breakout. From a monitoring, management, and orchestration standpoint, it is very effective and can manage any scale of deployment."

"The most valuable features of the solution are its dashboard and simplicity."

"The powerful features we can put forward in Aruba Airwave are clarity, report creation, and VisualRF."

"Aruba Airwave provides a robust solution for monitoring and configuring Wi-Fi networks."

"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 facilitated creating floor maps."

"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."

More Aruba Airwave pros

"The solution improves security performance."

"Content Switching provides flexibility for routing traffic as desired to designated real servers. It also provides good geo capabilities through its GSLB feature."

"I like the solution's simplicity compared to Citrix's on-prem solutions."

"The solution is easy to work with and manage."

"Its customer support service is good."

"Manageability and visibility are good."

"The maintenance of the solution is not complex."

"HTTP analysis and action. We have a lot of custom web applications that sometimes require custom header insertions. Some of these custom apps are external and, via the content switching, we can use one IP and leverage various back-end web app servers."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

"When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers."

"More devices or vendors should be onboarded to Aruba Airwave."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"Its pricing and support could be improved."

"My general opinion on Aruba Airwave is that it's acceptable, but it's not ideal because we are accustomed to Cisco."

"I would like to see an integration of services into one system, rather than having multiple systems to do multiple things."

"When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers."

"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."

More Aruba Airwave cons

"The solution could be more secure."

"Some features of Citrix ADM are available on the cloud, which could really be helpful if they were available on an on-premise version."

"Citrix NetScaler has been recently acquired by another company and the support has been negatively impacted, the solution is at its end of life. The support for the solution could improve. The sales team needs to be improved."

"ADC from Citrix has added functionalities from other products and the usability is very difficult for someone who is used to a simpler user interface, it's a little bit of a mess to use."

"We had some bugs in the previous firmware. These were not big issues, but more testing on the firmware would be key to happier customers."

"We face challenges with the solution's firmware upgrades frequently."

"There are certain features that are very useful and Citrix makes you pay a bit more for them."

"I think there is always room for improvement in this type of solutions. For example, I think the GUI should be easy to understand."

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."

"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."

"The licensing is on an yearly basis."

"Aruba Airwave is an expensive solution."

"We must buy a new license to connect more devices to scale up the solution."

"It's device-based licensing. One device requires one license."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The licensing cost for Aruba Airwave increased from $72 to $210 within a few months. It would be better if the pricing for the solution were cheaper."

More Aruba Airwave pricing and cost advice

"This product is more expensive than some of the competitors."

"When compared to other solutions, the cost is high."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight or nine out of ten."

"Licensing is adequate. I wanted to have a more prominent license, but until I do they don't give enough support. The additional cost would be too much."

"You can do CapEx and then a yearly monthly fee, or you can do a subscription model, whether that's one month, month-to-month, or three-year subscription model."

"The licenses for this product are payable as a yearly subscription, and carry a high price-point. The subscription scheme is quite complicated, and costs will increase with each additional feature that is required, outside of the basic setup."

"In Turkey, everything is good, but it seems expensive for us due to the currency exchange. I don't have a specific rating scale, but if I had to rate the price, I would say it's around a six out of ten."

"Citrix ADC could improve the price and make it less expensive, other competitors have a better prices. This would allow Citrix ADC to keep dominating the market."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

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.

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.

What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?

What do you like most about Citrix ADC?

The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADC?

After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive.

What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity. While it could be easier to manage, it is like transitioning from driving a ...

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Product Reports

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Aruba Airwave

August 2025

Download NetScaler product report

August 2025

Also Known As

No data available

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall

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

One platform for a consistent application delivery and security experience because nobody has time to learn multiple systems to manage ADC deployments. NetScaler is built with a single code base using a software-based architecture, so no matter which ADC form factor you choose — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container — the behavior will be the same.

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk