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Aruba Wireless vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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 Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
148
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi
Ranking in Wireless LAN
24th
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 May 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Aruba Wireless is 17.1%, down from 23.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi is 0.4%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad_Faisal - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience seamless connectivity with top-notch roaming capabilities
The Aruba Wireless solution has excellent roaming capabilities, ensuring seamless connectivity. Once installed, Aruba Wireless works robustly without overheating issues. This is particularly effective compared to other products I've used, like FortiMonitor and FortiAPs, which sometimes heat up. I am very satisfied with the roaming feature, as it ensures connectivity when moving from one location to another. The product's stability, after setting it up, adds to its value.
WarrenWilliams - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution that offers excellent support and makes it easy to manage networks
To utilize the solution properly, you need some training and guidance on that. Getting it working is easy, but if you're going to use it with feature sets that make WatchGuard worthwhile to use, it's probably not the easiest to set up. I'd rate the initial setup a seven out of ten. The time taken to deploy the solution depends on the project scope you're doing. Do you need ten WiFi access points or one? You could deploy the solution in an hour. We need one person to deploy the solution. But the number of people required for deployment depends on where the access points are deployed. Like, if it's the ceiling or whatever. The way we do it, we usually have an on-site technician who sets up the backend. We usually have two people when deploying the solution, but you can do it with one person. We have a team that manages the solution. But if you have ten people on a site to manage the solution, 15 minutes daily is enough.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technical support is 24/7 from the UA."
"We have three wireless networks: One for employee use, one for guest use, and one for our warehouse use, which uses MAC authentication. These wireless networks just simply work, they do not fail. The IAP-205 devices are very strong with great range. Very durable equipment; it always works."
"It has helped in making deployments easier."
"It has very flexible features."
"The most valuable feature is the fact that it can work with many devices. It supports everything that we need it to."
"Aruba Wireless has its own protocols in the controller that are managed by the firewall of our company."
"Scalability has been one of the easiest aspects of the Aruba Instant product line. As long as the models are compatible, you can simply connect it to your network and it will learn the settings from the other APs on the network and join the AP network."
"I can have a clear picture of what's happening in my Wi-Fi cellular networking environment."
"They're very easy to set up and get running."
"The configuration part of WatchGuard is very flexible."
"Cloud analytics that provide all its attributes."
"It makes it easy to obtain all information about the client experience."
"The solution has been stable."
"The Wi-Fi security features of this solution have been great for our customers who need to strictly control access to their network."
"We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use."
 

Cons

"I would like to see a faster web interface in the controller and more troubleshooting tools, including real-time troubleshooting tools."
"There has been a recent decrease in the level of support."
"What needs improvement in Aruba Wireless is its access point, in particular, it should have more flexibility. Aruba Wireless has Campus AP, Instant AP, and Unified AP, but it would be better if the product has a generic access point that you can manage over the cloud, on-premise, etc. Another area for improvement in Aruba Wireless is scalability. In terms of what additional features I'd like to see in the product, I'm unsure if it's already on the roadmap, but if possible, it would be good to have an SD-WAN functionality on the AP in Aruba Wireless."
"The new 8400 failed at Lab, plus its integration with Aruba Central."
"The access points could be cheaper."
"We have an issue with the integration of Aruba Wireless with our LDAP servers."
"Every month Aruba has new firmware. I don't know if it's good or bad but it's not good in terms of production. We can't upgrade our firmware every month, especially an enterprise company, because if we upgrade our firmware based on the latest firmware that Aruba has, that firmware is not stable. They're not 100 percent sure about it."
"Currently, the stability of the code is the basic underlying problem for us. They had an 8.6 release that came out two weeks ago, but we had to migrate twice because the code wasn't stable. We can't get things to work the same way. Version 8 was a big change for them. They made a change so that it is forced to be a managed hierarchical system. It means that you make changes at the top, and it pushes them downstream. There are a lot of problems with the 8.6 version code. I ran into four bugs in one week and was informed that we should just move onto the next one because all of those fixes have taken place. The feedback loop for fixes is not always really relayed back to you. I don't have a lot of strong things to say about version 8.6. When we had version 6, the controller was pretty much rock solid. We had no problems. We made a heavy investment to migrate a lot of stuff to take advantage of things like WPA3, Wi-Fi 6, and all that kind of stuff, and we haven't been able to turn those features on because we are not confident that they are going to work just yet. So, right now, we're still very much stumbling through the version 8.6 code and just trying to make sure that it is safe before we turn on some of those features. In terms of the marketplace, they are one of the top three leaders. In some respects, one of the things that they focus on is wireless. Therefore, there are some things that should be beyond reproach, as far as I'm concerned. In terms of the stability of the code, there are always going to be bugs, but the core stability of the code needs to be there. When it is not stable, that's a real problem for me because you lose a lot of confidence in the products."
"The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention."
"The price of this solution needs to reviewed, as it is currently high enough to deter customers from trying it."
"Inability to import a user with one click."
"The solution can be scaled but it has limitations from my experience."
"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."
"I don't think they're available at the best price."
"One of the things is if you buy it with a certain subscription, you can't easily change the subscription level."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Aruba Wireless could improve. It is expensive. However, I am able to reduce my costs because I do not use all the features in the controller, such as the AD integration and other enterprise features."
"Besides paying for the APs, you need to pay a license each year for their use. Therefore, watch out for that and do the best you can to keep costs down.​"
"The price could be better. Competitors offer more features for a similar cost."
"My main concern about this product is the price. The cost is causing me to look at other vendors and competing products."
"The price of Aruba Wireless is higher than other products, but you'll get stability, performance, and functionality out of it. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating the price of Aruba Wireless a three."
"The solution's cost is affordable."
"When you look at the price it is a higher price than Cisco."
"It offers a lower cost compared to other products, which is a significant advantage."
"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."
"The solution is priced high compared to competitors. However, for the features that are included in the solution, the price becomes more reasonable."
"WatchGuard is on the upper scale for pricing."
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Comparison Review

it_user212721 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 24, 2015
Cisco vs. Aruba Wireless Solutions
Cisco or Aruba Networks? If you are considering wireless access solutions, this is a common question that you are probably asking. You probably have sales people knocking at your door. How do you make sense of all the stories that you are presented with. If you have done any research, you are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Non Profit
11%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are pros and cons of Aruba 515 Series AP vs. Cisco Meraki or Extreme Networks?
Depends. I have personally used both Cisco and Aruba so I am familiar with them. Extreme I am not, so unless they have some feature that I need or want, I wouldn't consider them. Do you have expe...
Aruba Wireless or Ruckus Wireless?
At my organization, we researched Ruckus Wireless among other solutions but ultimately chose Aruba wireless. What did we like about Ruckus? First, it was very easy to use, and anybody with minimal...
How does Cisco Wireless compare with Aruba Wireless?
On the most basic level, Cisco Wireless can offer a rather straightforward initial setup. In the span of about three hours, the basic framework can be set up. Step-by-step instructions are availabl...
What do you like most about WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?
We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use.
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...
 

Also Known As

Aruba WLAN, HP WLAN, HP Wireless, Aruba Instant On AP Series Access Point
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Consulate Health Care, Los Angeles Unified School District, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), San Diego State University, KFC, ACTS Retirement-Life Communities
Portsmouth Grammar School, HILOTEC
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Wireless vs. WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.