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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs Cisco Wireless WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
1.0
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers financial savings and scalability, justifying initial costs, though competitors may offer similar features cheaper.
Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Wireless WAN is reliable and cost-effective, offering strong ROI despite high costs, with significant productivity and efficiency gains.
Cisco's licensing structure is more expensive than FortiNet, as it requires different tiers of licenses to access advanced features.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
3.0
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN support is generally prompt and knowledgeable, but inconsistencies and delays exist, especially with complex issues.
Sentiment score
6.6
Cisco Wireless WAN support is praised for expertise and RMA services, though response times and engineer consistency vary.
It would be better if the SLA of technical support was less than four hours.
If an engineer's shift ends, I have to re-explain everything to a new engineer, which is challenging.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.3
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers seamless scalability, easy expansion, and strong adaptability, despite some cost and licensing challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Wireless WAN is scalable and adaptable, efficiently managing users across various sectors despite some licensing challenges.
Meraki is not scalable enough since it straightforwardly maps its products to segmented specifications.
There isn't a limit to scalability, but for deployments exceeding five thousand equipment, it requires opening a case with Meraki support to increase capacity.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
4.6
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is stable and reliable, but may experience issues during firmware updates and in high-density areas.
Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Wireless WAN is stable and reliable, with minor configuration issues and responsive support, rated 8-10 by users.
Stability is not an issue for me because it comes with Cisco's proven manufacturer quality.
We have experienced many instances where we have experienced a lag in our network, and I am not sure if it is due to their devices or our network.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN needs improved features, integration, scalability, security, and competitive pricing to match competitors' offerings.
Cisco Wireless WAN needs enhanced compatibility, affordability, user-friendliness, and improved security, support, and management features.
The most important improvement needed is to eliminate the limitation of uplinks.
Some of the newer models of the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN access point have encompassed the new wireless protocols and increased the strength of their antennas.
Walmart is interested in using electronic tags instead of paper labels for easier price changes on products.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is costly with annual licenses, but valued for quality despite limited renewal discounts and coterminous issues.
Cisco Wireless WAN is seen as costly due to licensing, with some seeking cheaper alternatives like Aruba and Ruckus.
The pricing of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is not competitive enough for the SMB market compared to other brands.
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is on par with other devices in that category, offering competitive pricing.
The cost is one of the higher in the industry.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers cloud management, ease of deployment, security features, and real-time monitoring for versatile network management.
Cisco Wireless WAN provides high-speed connectivity, strong security, scalability, and reliability with easy management and comprehensive integration features.
It also manages security clients and switches, providing a single dashboard to manage multiple network infrastructures.
The ability to program all access points from the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN dashboard, view the status of all of them, and examine the individual devices connected to each access point is very valuable.
The main value of using Cisco Wireless WAN with Meraki is that the technology is cloud-based, making it more accessible for the customer to troubleshoot and implement changes remotely.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Wireless LAN (4th)
Cisco Wireless WAN
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Wireless WAN (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is designed for Wireless LAN and holds a mindshare of 12.3%, down 12.4% compared to last year.
Cisco Wireless WAN, on the other hand, focuses on Wireless WAN, holds 3.6% mindshare, up 3.2% since last year.
Wireless LAN
Wireless WAN
 

Featured Reviews

RezaPradipta - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamline network management with a unified dashboard for seamless device integration
The primary use case for Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is mostly for enterprise wireless, including guest Wi-Fi and enterprise Wi-Fi. I use it across various industries with a focus on retail Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers a single pane of glass management. It only comes with a controller on the…
LalanChowdhury - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhances network reliability, offers device longevity and offers open authentication
The device longevity is a factor. enhances network reliability. Specifically, the handoff feature for WAN, when a customer moves from one access point to another in a building or office, is much easier and more reliable if it's controller-based. So, in those cases, we recommend the traditional controller-based solution. Cisco is adding AI features; they've already started in SD-WAN. But in Bangladesh, people are still new to AI. Cisco is including AI capabilities in their devices, so people are gradually adopting them. If they need AI-driven devices for industrial purposes, they can use them. So, Cisco is forward-thinking with these features. Even though they're not being used extensively now, they may be used in the future for things like RFID or automation. That's why Cisco's solution is logical and adaptable.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
 

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...
Which is better - Cisco Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?
Cisco Wireless is very robust, very rugged, and can handle indoor and outdoor coverage extremely well. We found it to be very reliable and to consistently run very efficiently. Cisco Wireless helpe...
How does Ruckus Wireless compare to Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?
Cisco’s Meraki Virtual MX is a virtual instance of the Meraki SD-WAN appliance. We liked the Meraki. The Wifi APs are a great feature. The dashboard is a simple interface and easy to learn. It feat...
What do you like most about Cisco Wireless WAN?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What needs improvement with Cisco Wireless WAN?
We are conducting proof of concepts with VOIP and electronic tags. Walmart is interested in using electronic tags instead of paper labels for easier price changes on products. We are still testing ...
 

Also Known As

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins
Aegean Motorway, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Brunel University London, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Chartwell School, Children's Hospital Colorado, Cisco Live Milan, City of Biel, City of Mississauga, Dundee Precious Metals, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Erickson Living, Goldcorp, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS)
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ruckus, Cisco and others in Wireless LAN. Updated: June 2025.
862,543 professionals have used our research since 2012.