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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs Ubiquiti Wireless comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 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

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.1
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Wireless LAN (4th)
Ubiquiti Wireless
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
Wireless WAN (1st)
 

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 13.0%, up 12.3% compared to last year.
Ubiquiti Wireless, on the other hand, focuses on Wireless WAN, holds 40.7% mindshare, up 39.9% since last year.
Wireless LAN
Wireless WAN
 

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables organizations to control many sites globally with a lean IT team and provides visibility into the user activities
The solution can handle only medium and small businesses. We face a bottleneck on the gateway while using the solution for large enterprises. The solution must be able to expand to larger enterprises. Currently, the MX device can support only up to 10,000 users. It would be good if it can go beyond 1 lakh users. Catalyst 9300 is coming on the Meraki Dashboard. The vendor must also bring in the 9400 and 9600 Catalyst series. It will be very helpful. We will not have any choke on the gateway. There is no active-active concept. It will be very helpful if the solution provides active-active. Now, we are doing an active-passive setup, which is a warm spare. If it is an active-active setup, the gateway bottleneck issue can be resolved. I would be able to segment the Wireless LAN IPs. It will help support 20,000 devices at a go. Meraki does not have a single dashboard. I need to port an on-premise controller. There is a bottleneck while scaling the product. I need to consider a lot of things.
Sachin Vinay - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to set up and good outdoor accessibility but does not penetrate rooms well indoors
Ubiquiti requires more improvement in wireless penetration. It has significantly less penetration in indoor devices. When it comes to indoor devices, Ubiquiti Wireless does not have penetration power, so when we deploy it in closed rooms, it fails to connect. This is one drawback that has to improve. When indoor access points failed to penetrate into rooms, we had to deploy single access points in each room, which seemed to be really costly. Still, when compared to Fortinet, it has an outdoor access point model also. The outdoor access point is relatively stable in comparison. The solution needs to offer more scalability. It does not have traffic shaping or traffic policies in its wireless requirements. We have to completely depend on an additional firewall for traffic shaping and policies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The interface is excellent. We've been really happy with it."
"The most valuable feature is the technology of the security that is offered."
"Cloud managed wireless LAN product that's stable and scalable. It's an easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot solution."
"I have found the scalability to be very good."
"Cisco provides 24/7 support"
"The solution has worked very well in our campus environment."
"I like the status page Cisco added that shows you the health of the wireless connection."
"The tool's most valuable feature is report generation. Its dashboard helps me a lot with user analytics."
"In general, the setup process is straightforward."
"Easy to set up and maintain and simple to configure."
"Setting it up wasn't so complicated. It is reliable. Security-wise, we didn't have much trouble, but that could be due to our environment. We haven't had so many attacks, at least up till now."
"It's a well priced solution and as far as I'm concerned, it's enterprise class."
"Ubiquiti is intuitive. The management interface is user-friendly. You can easily make changes and do the things that need to be done."
"The seamless roaming feature was significant at the beginning, making it easier to grow into the system."
"Overall, I would rate Ubiquiti Wireless eight out of ten for our experience with it."
"Ubiquiti devices are centrally managed, and you can log into the access points via SSH. If the GUI isn't working for some reason, you can intervene via SSH."
 

Cons

"There is only one particular thing that needs improvement. Sometimes, for example, when you need to open a ticket, although it's under the umbrella of Cisco, you still need to go to the Meraki support."
"It is expensive. Juniper seems to have a lot more to offer for future expansion. Juniper has some features that are not there in this solution."
"It would be good to integrate with ISE in the future."
"Concern when there are a number of concurrent users."
"Initially, I liked some of the filtering features, but that's one of the components that we ran into problems with."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The pricing structure could be improved."
"The technical support for Meraki needs improvements made to the waiting times."
"There is really nothing wrong with the product but there are ways the utility and features can be expanded to meet future demands."
"Tech support is mostly remote and could be better."
"Performance could be improved in the solution because when I compare it with Ruckus and other APs, some of those APs are better performing, so you don't have to deploy too many APs to get the same level of Wi-Fi coverage and stability. It's not about how many clients the solution can handle, but it is more about stability and coverage. Another room for improvement in Ubiquiti Wireless, compared to other brands, is that it doesn't do well when used in an office network. It has a limitation on how reliable the AP of the system is."
"t does not have traffic shaping or traffic policies in its wireless requirements."
"Their stock is a bit low compared to others, making it difficult to purchase."
"The mesh configuration and WiFi 6 coverage should be improved."
"After upgrades to the interface, some features disappear."
"The solution needs to improve its features and offer more to the customer."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay licensing fees."
"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."
"Its price is higher than other products. It is above the expectation of customers. So, every time we need to fight for a good price."
"It is expensive, but it is a good product."
"We are on a SmartNet contract. All of our Cisco products are licensed under one contract. I do not think there are any additional costs."
"Higher subscription fee may be necessary if extra features are required."
"There are multiple licensing options including three months, six months, and one year."
"Its price is okay for an enterprise. Its licensing is the most painful. If you hear anything bad about Cisco, it's about that. We're supposed to be one of the resellers but had to come back down to become a user. It's really bizarre."
"Ubiquiti Wireless is a cheaply priced product."
"The most valuable aspect of Ubiquiti is the price. Compared to competing solutions like Cisco Aironet, HP Aruba, ExtremeWireless, or Ruckus, Ubiquiti is the cheapest by far. It's not even close. That's their biggest selling point."
"Its pricing ranges from 1,000 euros to 30,000 euros. The average price might be 10,000 euros."
"Its price is more attractive when compared to competitor pricing."
"I rate the price of Ubiquiti Wireless a three out of five."
"The price of Ubiquiti Wireless is affordable, we pay approximately $100 and $150 per access point."
"Ubiquiti Wireless has reasonable pricing."
"There are no additional expenses apart from the standard licenses."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

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...
Is Ubiquiti Wireless better than Ruckus Wireless WAN?
Ubiquiti Wireless is extremely easy to set up and is an excellent option for small businesses, offering enterprise features for a one-time fee and no ongoing licensing fees. Ubiquiti Wireless is ve...
Which is better - Cambium or Ubiquiti Wireless?
For me, Ubiquiti was easy to install, configure, set up, and maintain, while also providing solid coverage and better handoffs between APs. This is especially relevant if you are using Apple produc...
Which is better - Ubiquiti Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?
Ubiquiti Wireless offers a wide range of WLAN products. We tested their devices before ultimately choosing Cisco Meraki. Ubiquiti devices have good outdoor performance and the connection is very st...
 

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
NASCAR Grand-AM, Maritime Parc, Outdoor Music Festival, British Armed Forces, Arcadia School District, Moscow - Enforta
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ruckus, Cisco and others in Wireless LAN. Updated: March 2025.
842,010 professionals have used our research since 2012.