We performed a comparison between Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and NETGEAR Insight Access Points based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Wireless LAN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The solution is pretty generic and easy to use."
"The simplicity is great."
"The most useful feature of Juniper Wireless AP is the reporting Marvis."
"Its flexibility, ease of management via the portal, and the variety of access points are the most valuable features."
"You can scale the solution easily."
"There are many valuable features of Cisco Meraki, including the switches, stacking, and layer 3 routing."
"It is very stable, very resilient, and very robust."
"The network security the solution provides is its most valuable aspect."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The most valuable features are the multiple types of user groupings and access management."
"The solution is trustworthy. I find it easy and secure."
"The metrics demonstrate that NETGEAR really does a good job of balancing the load between the various access points on the networks and this results in an elimination of downtime."
"We use NETGEAR's Insight management solution to do off-property controls. It is user-friendly and provides network management, monitoring, and service deployment across multiple remote and local sites. That means I don't have to be physically at a location to do things if I want to make any changes to the network. It saves time and money."
"I'm able to do a lot of things, because the GUI is designed very well. I'm able to remotely make certain changes via my phone and apply them right away. It makes life easier when it comes to managing the equipment. The Insight management solution phone app is very good. It enables me to do what I want to do."
"The meshing capabilities are the most valuable feature. When I am going in-between buildings, my phone doesn't have to pick up different WiFi. They are all the same. Even in-between the buildings, I stay connected."
"I now have the ability to remote access my network. That works extremely well. I can access it from any place. I don't need to be physically at the device. This saves me on time and travel."
"From the WiFi aspect, it's very intuitive and easy to use. The solution enables me to manage my entire WiFi from anywhere in the world..."
"[Being] able to configure the WiFi devices and to see utilization remotely, or from the cloud."
"I am all about simplicity. With the Insight management solution, I don’t need an additional cloud controller, appliance, network manager, or PC/server to configure and manage my access points. You have to look at cost, and everything has a cost. There is a cost to using Insight. But if the cost is reasonable, I don't want another layer. The ability to deploy a network and then have that software built-in, without having to go to a third-party, is big. Also, the less pieces that I have to call in on, the better. So, when I'm calling NETGEAR, it's not like I'm using some third-party piece of software to manage their product. It doesn't add that layer of complexity, which is key."
"If you want to do more specific stuff, it's a bit limited."
"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."
"It would be nice to have licensing that stays in place while the system is being renovated or changed."
"It would be better if they enable full integration with Cisco's cloud-based network in the next release."
"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 initial setup was simple. However, the full deployment could be easier."
"Meraki is still very much a small office type of solution. It is not a fit for large enterprise networks, as it doesn't have tunneling functionalities."
"The price could be slightly better, but then again, we negotiate deals every time so the market price isn't really relevant."
"Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN could improve by having more granularity in terms of the data displayed. However, I understand that with Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, you need to have a compromise point to what are the functions that you're going to provide to the users versus ease of use. More granularity in terms of the data and the things that you can do to the devices would be helpful. For example, when we wanted to make a change, restriction, or segregation within Palo Alto, we can go to the level of detail that we want. The amount of detail provided is amazing, it is very granular. However, it comes with much more difficulty, it requires a technical understanding of the environment compared to Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN."
"This solution could benefit from a heat mapping ability so that you can tell where the hotspots are, and where the good signals are."
"While the data throughput does provide us with full insight into data being used, we find that it's not very accurate."
"There is always room for improvement."
"The biggest issue I've had is that it works very well with the WiFi, but it does not offer any assistance at all with the routers. You can't control them or manage them at all. As soon as you want to use anything on the network side—because I have multiple 28-port switches—you can't manage them using this app."
"A con is the backend system which is very, very slow."
"Software-wise, they need to provide the ability to kick users out. If multiple users are abusing the system or the network, I should be able to block them for a time and, when I need to unblock them, I should be able to do so by using their MAC ID. That feature might already be there and I just don't know about it."
"The registration is annoying. I have to go back to NETGEAR and log tickets. Access points and router registration are something that they need to address in Insight. They need to fix the bug of getting the devices activated and enrolled in Insight without fighting with them. I have probably done about six of these in the last month. You get to see patterns."
"Ubiquiti is a very good company. NETGEAR should look at that model and expand on its remote capabilities. Ubiquiti seems to have a better product."
"I have some frustrations with the ease of use. It tends to be sluggish. The graphical interface is pretty, but not useful. They have this tree that shows connected devices, which makes no sense whatsoever because the labeling field of the tree truncates all the items to the point that it's almost useless. You can't even tell what it is. I would prefer a spreadsheet list of the gear as opposed to a graphical representation."
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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is ranked 2nd in Wireless LAN with 60 reviews while NETGEAR Insight Access Points is ranked 9th in Wireless LAN with 8 reviews. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is rated 8.0, while NETGEAR Insight Access Points is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN writes "Highly reliable, effective site blocking, and beneficial reports". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NETGEAR Insight Access Points writes "Without using a third-party, I can deploy a network with software built-in". Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Ubiquiti Wireless, Cisco Wireless, Mist AI and Cloud and TP-Link Auranet EAP, whereas NETGEAR Insight Access Points is most compared with Ubiquiti WLAN, Aruba Wireless, Ruckus Wireless, Cisco Wireless and TP-Link Auranet EAP. See our Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. NETGEAR Insight Access Points report.
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