Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs ExtremeCloud IQ vs Ruckus Wireless 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

Wireless LAN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN11.5%
Aruba Wireless15.4%
Ruckus Wireless13.8%
Other59.3%
Wireless LAN
Network Management Applications Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ExtremeCloud IQ2.7%
Cisco DNA Center21.8%
Cisco Catalyst Center9.9%
Other65.6%
Network Management Applications
Wireless LAN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Ruckus Wireless13.8%
Aruba Wireless15.4%
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN11.5%
Other59.3%
Wireless LAN
 

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…
KristianLarsen - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps resolve network-related issues quickly and is reasonably priced
The tool has both advantages and weaknesses because it has several pieces of software on which it has been working because of buyouts. The tool has several branches of software versions, and you can consolidate it into ExtremeCloud, but it also has the disadvantage that sometimes people can get issues because the software on the hardware is different than they expected, especially if it is not converted to the tool used. The tool has simplified things, but it also adds a complexity that sometimes stumps some users. In the future, I think the tool’s onboarding setup of a new tenant could be smoother or faster. I also think that they could provide a simpler setup for first-level support so that it can be easier for them to have a support dashboard that would help them. I am talking about customer support organizations, so you usually have a high turnaround, but you need to have something that is easier to use and where you don't need so much training.
Xander Janse Van Rensburg - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable and high-performance wireless networking with exceptional stability, scalability, and robust feature set
One of the most valuable features I appreciate is auto channelization, facilitated by a proprietary product called ChannelFly. This feature enables APs in a specific zone to automatically adjust their channels, optimizing performance. Additionally, Ruckus Wireless stands out for its ability to reuse certain beams, resulting in smaller data spots. In my experience with various products, Ruckus Wireless consistently delivers unparalleled throughput, coverage, and reliability in wireless networking across different environments. As a noteworthy point, the newly launched WiFi 7 standard is measured against Ruckus's WiFi 7 AP, establishing it as the global benchmark. When it comes to WiFi, Ruckus sets the standard, outperforming competitors with its superior performance and capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its ability to be cloud-managed is the most valuable feature so if there's a reconfiguration or an issue, we have excellent visibility into the network and we can usually resolve the problem online without having to go onsite."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of deployment."
"It is very handy to have a support number to call."
"The most valuable features include key elements like creating SSIDs, networking configurations, and the ability to manage all devices through a single console."
"The emailing of statuses is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN are the ease of use and the ability to manage it from the cloud."
"It is easy to manage and configure. The dashboard of Meraki is easy to use."
"The stability of the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is very good."
"Everything can be seen from the dashboard."
"This solution's most valuable feature is its short deployment time."
"The dashboards are great and the user interface is quite intuitive."
"The Client 360 feature provides a comprehensive view of your clients and their activities, including the devices they use. Additionally, a feature called Network 360 offers a 360-degree view of the network, like data usage (in GB), the status of ports and AP, and other details. You can drill down on granular-level drills to gain insights into specific applications and usage patterns like application level and fee, where your data is being wasted or what your clients are doing with the Internet data, what kind of applications they are using, etc."
"Another valuable feature is the automation of Wi-Fi configurations, which allows the wireless network to auto-reconfigure in case of problems."
"HiveManager is incredibly useful for managing APs and switches from one cloud interface."
"Integrated Firewall in every AP (with DPI inspection) is a killer feature and it is included already in the price of licence (with others, this feature is an add-on licence)."
"Whenever I have a concern, question, or just need a refresher the helpful staff at AeroHive is there to help me. By far, the ]best relationship I have ever had with a vendor."
"The list of options you have is great: throttling guest networks, the controller dashboards for administration, on-the-fly configuring, settings, hours of use."
"The beamforming has been the most valuable aspect of the solution for our organization."
"The reason we picked Ruckus, in addition to our long-standing relationship with them, is pretty much that the RFS characteristics of it seem to be the best."
"It's very scalable."
"We rarely had access points fail in the field. They were rock solid, durable, and had the best signal penetration from any we tested.​"
"Our IT staff can quickly issue guest passes for vendors and the instructions are very straightforward, requiring very little effort to get connected."
"One of the most valuable features I appreciate is auto channelization, facilitated by a proprietary product called ChannelFly."
"Key features are integrated WiFi client performance tools, sophisticated user access controls, and easy and understandable controls and interfaces."
 

Cons

"Technical support can be improved, as well as having more detailed capabilities to go without using an API."
"Recently I have seen that the Meraki access point, maybe due to congestion, just kicks off my customers, mostly when they are in Zoom meetings or Teams meetings and they have to reconnect."
"The ease of use is average. It could be more user-friendly."
"They could also add some more controls for guest access. For example, when you have a captive portal, it would be nice to limit the amount of time users can stay connected per day. Right now, you can only configure the splash frequency. And you can set the connection for one hour, but you have to use the billing feature."
"The licensing model is a terrible idea."
"There needs to be some work done on security because, with time, some viruses may emerge that one may not know about."
"The biggest pain point is that they limit you through firewall throughput. I understand why they do it, but that really grates me. For instance, for 450 Mbps throughput, you're looking at £800 for a router, whereas if you look at the one gig connection, for some of us are lucky enough to have a gig connection, you could almost be spending £3,000 for the option to have one gig connectivity. That's one of the pain points I've got. I don't mind paying for throughput, but I should at least have the option to be able to update that throughput, maybe through extra licensing or something else. It is crazy expensive to jump through to the next one."
"It is not a budget-friendly solution."
"Their firewall configuration gets funky and it can be difficult to understand."
"Certain features only exist or work in certain versions."
"They can improve just the onboarding process. More user information about the introduction to the product would be helpful. It would be good if they have a better user introduction to the new product because it is different than the prior version."
"The product could support multi-vendor infrastructures."
"A room for improvement in ExtremeCloud IQ is roaming. My team is facing roaming issues with the solution, particularly when using VoIP over WiFi. For example, VoIP sometimes breaks when you walk around the customer site. In terms of what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution, right now, the inventory for ExtremeCloud IQ is awful. There's no stock, and you must wait a year and a half for new stocks. It's awful."
"An area for improvement in ExtremeCloud IQ is its technical support. Support could be better, especially when you need help concerning ExtremeCloud IQ and WinG."
"The solution's performance needs to be enhanced because of a very high delay."
"From our perspective, we would love to see Aerohive provide faster feature enhancement in their Virtual Appliance to match the features with the cloud solution more quickly."
"I would like to see newer on-premises controller-type models, similar to the 3000."
"The price has room for improvement."
"In the last year, there's been a significant price jump, but I think Ruckus Wireless is still a good value for the money."
"The cloud system from Ruckus is not mature enough just yet."
"The cloud controller needs work. My big issue is that all APs can't set static IPs. Also, adding customers to your dashboard is not that easy at all. I wish I could pop out some reporting from the dashboards as well."
"Its security can be improved. It doesn't use Wireless IPS. Therefore, we have to combine WatchGuard that uses a Wireless IPS but is a separate solution. These two solutions work in conjunction. We are using the WatchGuard as a sensor and Wireless IPS, and Ruckus is like a platform that is used for the connectivity of the network."
"APs should be more adaptable to denser client regions and, most important, the logs on the ZoneDirector should be classified into groups, such as type of logs and alerts."
"Lacks some analytics features in the control itself."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is on the higher side."
"Cost could be better."
"The cost is not so much for Wireless LAN, but when you have to get the security license, it costs a lot."
"This solution is slightly more expensive than others, such as Ruckus Wi-Fi."
"It is super expensive for what you get. You also have to buy a license every year. Otherwise, it stops working."
"I haven't conducted a price comparison yet, but based on information, it appears to be more affordable than the current environment. Therefore, I consider the price to be reasonable."
"It is expensive, but it is a good product."
"The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
"For example, if you compare Aruba vs Aerohive, you need to check which licences from Aruba you need to match the functionality of Aerohive (usually you need at least three types of licences and a controller with redundancy). The same goes with Cisco, where you need buy additional licences for central management, firewall, spectral analysis, WIPS, PPSK, etc. Aerohive has a very simple model - one licence for all the functionalities - and you can believe that there are many. One licence makes it easy to maintain, scale, renew and you can plan your costs 10 years in advance."
"It is easy for customers to use this product because they are able to interchange the license depending on their usage rather than having to buy individual licenses for each asset."
"I did a multi-year license. It was a three-year license. It compares well with others in terms of the price. It is about a hundred dollars per year on a three-year scale."
"Price-wise, it is a reasonable tool."
"Extreme licensing is based on the number of access points. When you buy the license for the first year, everything is included, such as access to mapping, etc. If you don't renew your software assurance for the second year, the access points will still work, but you can't use the cloud management tools."
"I am not involved in the price, but I am sure that it is not cheap."
"Although the pricing is a bit high, I consider Aerohive to be well worth the money."
"Extreme is twice as cheap compared to Cisco due to the currency exchange. Normally, I think Cisco would be a little bit more expensive, but there wouldn't be that much of a difference."
""The biggest adjustment improvement will come from a price adjustment because the price is quite high; it feels like premium pricing. I suggest shaving off 10 percent to 20 percent. That would help grow users and increase the number of clients.""
"We have a yearly license for our multiple mode 200 or 300 Ruckus Wireless systems. It's a good price."
"Ruckus Wireless is a cheaper solution than Cisco."
"​The cost can be prohibitive for many as it is a high-end product in the WiFi market.​"
"It is reasonably priced. I would rate the price a three out of five."
"We paid for a three-year contract last year. I am not sure about what we paid. It is certainly less expensive than Meraki."
"Ruckus is more expensive than Meraki, but the performance moves in parallel with the cost."
"The pricing is the biggest issue with Ruckus wireless. It's so expensive, but Ruckus are just the best."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Wireless LAN solutions are best for your needs.
869,883 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise25
 

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 h...
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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeCloud IQ?
The licensing was a challenge due to budget constraints, and I used ExtremeCloud IQ without a license for a period. T...
What advice do you have for others considering ExtremeCloud IQ?
I rate the overall solution nine out of ten only due to the poor documentation. Despite this, I was very happy with E...
What do you like most about ExtremeSecurity?
ExtremeCloud IQ is an intuitive platform. The tool's ability to streamline network operations depends on the end cust...
Aruba Wireless or Ruckus Wireless?
At my organization, we researched Ruckus Wireless among other solutions but ultimately chose Aruba wireless. What di...
Which is better - Ruckus Wireless or Cisco Wireless?
Ruckus Wireless offers users the benefit of being both easy to set up and get running as well as being very user frie...
What do you like most about Ruckus Wireless?
Ruckus Wireless is an easy to manage solution.
 

Also Known As

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN
Aerohive Networks, Aerohive HiveManager, HiveManager, ExtremeCloud , ExtremeSecurity
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
Henry Ford Health System, Baltimore Ravens, Brandili, Federal University of Alagoas, CEDAE, Caxias do Sul, UNISC Concurrency, CenturyLink Field, Louisiana College, Cricket Tasmania Stadium, Moscow Internet Exchange
American University of Sharjah, Baruch College, Centro Escolar Liceo Santo Tomšs, Chevalier College, Chico Unified School District, Colegio de Fomento El Prado, Columbia Public Schools, Delta School District, Dordt College, Douglas County School District, Drew University, Armonea, Central Utah Clinic, Grove Hill Medical Center, Inner South Community Health Service, Midwest Surgical, Satilla Regional Medical Center, Lyndoch Living, Polonus, Roaring Fork School District, Sonora State, Vivid, Sydney, Players Club, Sandals, Scandic Hotels, Sheraton LAX, Sunbird
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ruckus, Cisco and others in Wireless LAN. Updated: October 2025.
869,883 professionals have used our research since 2012.