We performed a comparison between Aruba Wireless and Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Of the two solutions, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is the more popular choice with PeerSpot users. While both have great features, users of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN seem to find fewer things lacking with it and are generally satisfied. In regards to service and support as well, Cisco users are happy with the service they receive. However, users do feel that it is an expensive solution.
"The simplicity is great."
"The most useful feature of Juniper Wireless AP is the reporting Marvis."
"The solution is pretty generic and easy to use."
"The web-based GUI is much simpler to use than similar products by Cisco."
"I have not experienced any bugs, software, or hardware issues with Aruba."
"It has an aesthetically pleasing GUI for configuration."
"The Airwave is the best feature for a single management point for all APs in the environment."
"The main features of Aruba Wireless in my country is its popularity, long hardware warranty when compared to other solutions, and it integrates well with our network access control solution."
"Aruba is an industry leader. The hardware is on par, and its performance is also on par with anybody else. The Aruba brand really only focuses on wireless, so they're not competing their R&D for switching data center products and cloud security. They're really focused on that and their underlying key pieces. They provide a role-based authentication that is native to the controller. A lot of other systems don't do that. They won't provide you the ability to basically have everybody join the network, regardless of whether or not they share the same network space, the SSID, or the wireless LAN. You can segment it down to a specific user role based on any kind of attributes that you like. That's their differentiator. If you need per user, per device, or per port segmentation, you can get that with Aruba. There isn't another vendor who does it."
"The technical support is very good."
"It offers an easy initial setup."
"It is more robust for me to deploy networks. And because of the field we are in where offices open up and others close, it helps my turnaround time to deploy these networks for the customers."
"The most valuable features are the multiple types of user groupings and access management."
"What I like best about Meraki is that I can change it from anywhere."
"Cisco Meraki is HIPAA compliant."
"The emailing of statuses is the most valuable feature."
"Great architecturally based dashboard and the solution is accessible from anywhere."
"Meraki is a decent solution for a small company, and we use it in a pretty typical way. We need Teams and Zoom to work, and we need a high level of security because we want our business to remain confidential."
"The most valuable features in Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN are that we were able to see all the registered users for each particular WAP, which is a big help. The roaming allows us to have continuous wireless throughout the building. The signal can carry over from one WAP to another. Which is probably the most important feature."
"Juniper Wireless AP can improve by continually improving its reporting and integration with other systems."
"I need a bit more time with it before criticizing the features."
"If you want to do more specific stuff, it's a bit limited."
"Making the setup more simple is an area for improvement in Aruba Wireless. Security-wise, this solution also needs work."
"The dashboards that represent the network access control in Aruba Wireless could improve."
"Their documentation needs to be improved. Aruba's documentation is poor."
"They should have more support for implementing Aruba Wireless in Smart Cities and outdoor applications."
"We needed the help of network consultants to complete the setup for us."
"The network times for protocol synchronization can be improved."
"I believe that Aruba's support could be improved."
"They could work on energy consumption as this equipment needs a lot of energy."
"It would be useful to have a service management platform integrated within this solution where we can measure the customer experience."
"Documentation could be improved, but everything else has been spot-on."
"Meraki leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the technical capabilities in terms of throughput, spectrum, management, higher-level functions, etc"
"The solution should be more secure."
"The customization needs to be improved because it's pretty locked down."
"It would be better if they enable full integration with Cisco's cloud-based network in the next release."
"If they could work on the Meraki firewall hardware, and add SSL decryption as well as more application control and deep packet inspection, that would be ideal."
"The technical support from Cisco is good, but they can improve themselves in some areas. Sometimes it takes a while to provide a solution or an answer to our problem."
More Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) Pricing and Cost Advice →
Aruba Wireless is ranked 1st in Wireless LAN with 42 reviews while Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is ranked 2nd in Wireless LAN with 62 reviews. Aruba Wireless is rated 8.0, while Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Aruba Wireless writes "Overall a good product that provides role-based authentication native to the controller, but has code stability issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN writes "Highly reliable, effective site blocking, and beneficial reports". Aruba Wireless is most compared with Cisco Wireless, Ubiquiti WLAN, Ruckus Wireless, Fortinet FortiWLM and Mist AI and Cloud, whereas Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is most compared with Ubiquiti Wireless, Cisco Wireless, Ruckus Wireless, Mist AI and Cloud and Aruba Instant. See our Aruba Wireless vs. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN report.
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Pricing is different based on region; it depends on Aruba's and Cisco's strategy in the region. You must contact the respective partners to get an accurate price for comparison.
That being said, in MENA where I live, as of a few months ago (21H1), Aruba pricing was cheaper than Cisco.
Aruba licensing for the AP's is much cheaper compared to Meraki.
You can get a 1/3/5-year cloud license per AP.