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Aruba Remote Access Points vs SonicWall SMA comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 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 Remote Access Points
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall SMA
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Universal Access Gateways (2nd), SSL VPN (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Aruba Remote Access Points is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall SMA is 2.6%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba Remote Access Points1.1%
SonicWall SMA2.6%
Other96.3%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

AmrIssa - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Information Officer at Mobica Advanced
Remote access has provided secure site connectivity and supports centralized on‑prem operations
We have a solution that is completely Aruba, including the controller, access point, and switch. We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without issues. Aruba Remote Access Points are critical for our construction company because we have many sites…
BA
Owner at ThinkEzIT
Security enhances through autonomous protection and strong support while multi-factor authentication secures access
I haven't utilized the high availability and scalability features of SonicWall SMA yet because I've never had a need to. I don't know where they can focus their energy on continuous improvements, as I haven't been looking at what they're releasing. We're a small shop, so we drop stuff in and manage it and do what we need to do to maintain it. If we run into an issue, we contact support. There's a learning curve, but it comes down to getting support to train you on the product, and then once you have the training you need, you're able to make the changes and updates that you need to.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product is very flexible. So far the stability of the solution has been good."
"We have many government colleges here and provide a wireless network to all students, faculty, and teachers, so we have deployed their security access network and firewall security."
"The most valuable feature of Aruba Remote Access Points is the manageability from the central cloud platform."
"The most valuable features of Aruba Remote Access Points are the easy configuration, straightforward installation, and secure security features."
"It is a very stable tool."
"We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without issues."
"There are no bad features in Aruba Remote Access Points. Every feature is customized to meet customer requirements according to their limitations, and we can make use of all features to benefit us as needed."
"The platform has the most valuable advanced filtering feature."
"It is faster than other security options when using remote connections."
"This solution has many options for remote desktop and access."
"The solution is reliable and has good overall performance."
"Secure Mobile Access (SMA) is easy to configure and the deployment is straightforward. However, this is mostly because of the AWS setup."
"The product is extremely flexible, the program is easy to use, the performance is good, and the solution is very stable."
"The management and the dashboard are the solution's most valuable features."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is they have IT consultants that know SonicWall."
"I think they ask for a fair price."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in terms of pricing. If they can be more competitive."
"They can add more graphical reporting systems so that network admins and system admins get more information about user usage, such as which user, what they use, and when they use it."
"The solution is costly for medium-sized companies."
"It could have better monitoring features. Not all features are available on the monitoring dashboard."
"The price of Aruba Remote Access Points could be better. It is a little expensive."
"I don't really have any critiques at this time."
"But the hardware needs to be revamped when we compare the Meraki solution."
"To make the solution better, the cloud solution should be more integrated as it has too many different menus, and it would be preferable to have it more cohesive in one solution."
"The solution has 2FA, it will generate a token and send it to an email, but multifactor authentication is not available. I would suggest that there should be MFA integration and provided with the appliance."
"There are some features that are available on Palo Alto or Cisco that don't exist. The solution could integrate better with other platforms."
"The pricing for the solution could be a lot less."
"This solution is very slow, and the competitors have much higher speeds."
"The user interface could be improved."
"SonicWall's reporting isn't good. Reports should be part of a data plan."
"SonicWall SMA is difficult to use and it does not provide easy access to different parts of the network."
"The product's technical support services could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Aruba pricing is not very high. They offer competitive pricing for what they provide."
"In terms of pricing, we've found Aruba's offerings to be very competitive."
"Aruba Remote Access Points' pricing is good and affordable."
"You require no separate licensing to convert an access point to RAP."
"Price-wise, Aruba Remote Access Points is in the middle, so my rating for its pricing is three out of five."
"There are no other expenses than standard licenses for the product."
"The price of Aruba Remote Access Points could be better. It is a little expensive."
"The platform has medium pricing."
"This solution is priced well and we currently have the maximum number of licenses allowed."
"The cost of the licensing is based on the maximum number of concurrent users, and it costs a lot to add them."
"Our licenses are stackable and can be anywhere from five users to a million users."
"I don't know about the pricing of the SSL-VPN box. I know the SSL-VPN software is free. Global VPN client, by comparison, is licensed for around $150 or something like that. But the SSL-VPN software is free. It is already built-in with the box."
"All the costs are included in a bundled license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Construction Company
14%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Remote Access Points?
We do not use Zero Touch Provisioning with Aruba Remote Access Points because the Aruba device being expensive compared to cheaper Cisco options holds us back.
What needs improvement with Aruba Remote Access Points?
The device requires reconfiguration if we use a standalone setup because the battery fault leads to all configurations resetting. This is a significant area for improvement, especially when the dev...
What is your primary use case for Aruba Remote Access Points?
We have a solution that is completely Aruba, including the controller, access point, and switch. We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without iss...
What needs improvement with SonicWall SMA?
I haven't utilized the high availability and scalability features of SonicWall SMA yet because I've never had a need to. I don't know where they can focus their energy on continuous improvements, a...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall SMA?
I have experience with the SonicWall SMA; we have rolled it back into our stack. We use SonicWall SMA for all of our clients that need VPNs, including doctor's offices and lawyer offices. Our clien...
 

Also Known As

Aruba RAP
SonicWall Aventail, SonicWall SMA SSL-VPN, SonicWall Secure Mobile Access
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trafford Metropolitan Borough
UnitedStack, Newport City Homes, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, PRIME aerostructures GmbH, Celtic Manor Resort
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Remote Access Points vs. SonicWall SMA and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.