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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 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
Ranking in Wireless LAN
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi
Ranking in Wireless LAN
23rd
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 July 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 12.3%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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…
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

"Cisco's technical support is very good and better than other vendors."
"I can control any number of sites globally with a lean IT team."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of deployment."
"The graphic user interface is very nice."
"I have found the scalability to be very good."
"The most valuable feature is the stability. It works and doesn't stop."
"The solution is very easy to use."
"There are many valuable features of Cisco Meraki, including the switches, stacking, and layer 3 routing."
"We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use."
"The configuration part of WatchGuard is very flexible."
"They're very easy to set up and get running."
"It makes it easy to obtain all information about the client experience."
"The solution has been stable."
"Cloud analytics that provide all its attributes."
"The Wi-Fi security features of this solution have been great for our customers who need to strictly control access to their network."
 

Cons

"The product's coverage area could be expanded. It would help ensure better connectivity."
"The customization needs to be improved because it's pretty locked down."
"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 error logs need to be much more comprehensive."
"The solution cannot be looked upon for one year or short term because you will pay back all the discounts they offer the next time you pay for renewal."
"The most important improvement needed is to eliminate the limitation of uplinks."
"We'd like to have better mapping to showcase low-coverage areas."
"Unfortunately, we have to deal with European privacy laws and as far as we can see, the solution is not compliant with these. It's why we're not able to continue with Cisco Meraki. They need to become compliant with GDPR laws."
"The price of this solution needs to reviewed, as it is currently high enough to deter customers from trying it."
"The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention."
"Inability to import a user with one click."
"One of the things is if you buy it with a certain subscription, you can't easily change the subscription level."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is not a reasonably priced product for home use. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is a reasonably priced product for enterprise-sized businesses."
"Meraki is a very good solution, but the price is quite high for small markets."
"The pricing is based on a subscription and is a bit high at the moment."
"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."
"We do a three-year or five-year license and support. Its price could be better, but overall, we get competitive prices. A lot of times, Cisco puts itself out of range, especially with Meraki. I've dealt with a lot of business development from Cisco, and they have always been accommodating, especially in dealing with hospitals or government. There is also a right time to buy it. July is when they are eager to sell a lot of things because that is the end of their calendar year."
"Cisco products are generally recognized for their performance and quality, which may justify the higher price point compared to other options on the market."
"Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is expensive."
"This solution is quite costly and there are costs in addition to the licensing fees."
"WatchGuard is on the upper scale for pricing."
"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."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
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...
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 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

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
Portsmouth Grammar School, HILOTEC
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
862,499 professionals have used our research since 2012.