Cisco Wireless vs NETGEAR Insight Access Points comparison

Cisco and Netgear are both solutions in the Wireless LAN category. Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6, while Netgear is ranked #22 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 11.0% mindshare in Wireless LAN, compared to Netgear’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Netgear users who would recommend it.

Cisco Wireless

Read 154 Cisco Wireless reviews

9,954 Views
9,854 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Read 12 NETGEAR Insight Access Points reviews

1,295 Views
1,295 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Cisco Wireless

NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Cisco Wireless and NETGEAR Insight Access Points compete in the wireless networking space. Cisco Wireless seems to have the upper hand due to its robust support and integration, whereas NETGEAR Insight Access Points attracts with cloud-based management and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Cisco Wireless is notable for its comprehensive network management and high-level security features, making it ideal for enterprises. It offers integration with Cisco products, scalability, and powerful tools like CleanAir to detect interference. NETGEAR Insight Access Points excels with its cloud-based management system, allowing remote control and flexibility. It also provides advanced throughput speeds, easy configuration via mobile apps, and excellent remote monitoring capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Wireless could improve in terms of cloud integration and offering more user-friendly interfaces for non-IT professionals. Pricing could also be optimized for smaller businesses. NETGEAR Insight Access Points could enhance enterprise-level security features, expand scalability options, and offer more robust IT support and documentation to assist in complex deployments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NETGEAR Insight Access Points facilitates simplified deployment through its intuitive cloud platform, reducing complexity for small businesses. Cisco Wireless, while slightly more complex to deploy, offers robust customer service and detailed documentation, aiding enterprise-level IT environments with structured support channels.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Wireless generally involves higher initial setup costs due to its feature-rich services, leading to a longer ROI period suitable for enterprises seeking advanced functionalities. Conversely, NETGEAR Insight Access Points offers competitive pricing, attractive for businesses aiming for quicker ROI through cost-effective solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Wireless vs. NETGEAR Insight Access Points Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Wireless vs. NETGEAR Insight Access Points

September 2025

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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 Wireless

Ranking in Wireless LAN

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

4.9

Number of Reviews

154

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Ranking in Wireless LAN

22nd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Wireless is 11.0%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETGEAR Insight Access Points is 1.3%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Wireless LAN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Wireless	11.0%
NETGEAR Insight Access Points	1.3%
Other	87.7%

Wireless LAN

Featured Reviews

EvansEsezobor

Group IT Head at Euracare

Has enabled centralized user management and improved wireless access point aggregation

To improve Cisco Wireless, the ports on the access points are all 100 Meg, not 1 gig. We have not gotten a gigabyte interface of about 1,000, but the controller we have is just 1 gig. We would prefer if we could increase the controller to a 10 gig interface because we want to connect our controller to a 10 gig interface, which currently limits us to 1 gig. When we want to move higher capacity data via wireless, it limits us to 1 gig.

Read full review

Calvin Ong

Business Manager at KAIRA Technologies pte ltd

Reasonably priced product with a straightforward deployment process

I never thought about what could be made better in the product since my company is a customer-centric organization where we provide Aruba or NETGEAR, depending on the demands and needs of our customers. The product's UI needs to be simplified and made more straightforward. It would be great if it was possible to send notifications regarding some errors related to the product that can be sent from our company to our clients through the organization's post-sales team.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can provide support for real-time applications, such as VoIP and Video Conferencing over wireless infrastructure."

"The stability is great. It's very reliable."

"The FlexConnect feature is the most valuable."

"This is a very stable solution that solves complex issues."

"Cisco Wireless is easy to use."

"We've found the technical support to be helpful and responsive."

"The solution offers very good stability."

"The advantages of Cisco Wireless include helping me aggregate all the access points, managing one point connection for my users easily, controlling rogues, and addressing hotspots effectively."

More Cisco Wireless pros

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The initial setup of NETGEAR Insight Access Points was straightforward."

"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..."

"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."

"[Being] able to configure the WiFi devices and to see utilization remotely, or from the cloud."

More NETGEAR Insight Access Points pros

Cons

"The classic Cisco wireless interface is difficult for users to learn."

"The interface could be better."

"The configuration interface could be easier. They should make roaming easier and should fix it so that when you cross a building you can keep the signal."

"The installation is very tiring and painful, the process could be easier."

"Apple is definitely causing a lot of issues by turning on more security features on its equipment. It is causing more problems on the business side. One is what they call a randomized Mac address that Apple has put out. As far as I know, Cisco doesn't have a fix for that."

"Older versions are complex to configure and implement."

"The flexibility on the controllers isn't that great."

"Its licensing has been very frustrating. There is also the complexity of managing the product. These are probably the two reasons why we're looking at Aruba. The way they license this product is not simple. There are some good features in the latest version, but there are additional license costs as well, which is frustrating for us. It is not really a feature issue for us. It really comes down to cost and licensing. They should make it a bit simpler to manage. We find the overall solution a little bit more complex than we would like to deal with. Its troubleshooting is a bit difficult, and it does require a high skill set. Comparatively, Aruba seems quite simple. One of the benefits of the Aruba product is that it is cloud-managed. We don't have to manage the management platform itself, whereas Cisco is on-premise. Its user interface could also be better."

More Cisco Wireless cons

"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."

"Due to certain shortcomings in the solution's stability, I feel that the solution's stability requires improvement."

"The product's UI needs to be simplified and made more straightforward."

"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."

"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."

"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."

More NETGEAR Insight Access Points cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"Cisco is not a cheap solution. Their licensing cost is higher than that for others."

"The price for this product is a little bit high, which is why I am not using the most recent version."

"Cisco Wireless solutions should have a price reduction for educations centers. Education centers are there to help people grow and there are not large budgets. The solution tends to be expensive and it can cause difficulties when purchasing them here in Africa."

"I rate the tool's pricing a nine out of ten."

"The product is expensive."

"There is a need to renew the licenses for Cisco Wireless every three years. My company needs to pay around 25 percent of the budget meant for the tools we purchase towards the price of Cisco Wireless."

"It might be around $100 for a license. The internal ones are far cheaper than that."

More Cisco Wireless pricing and cost advice

"Their pricing is perfect for smaller businesses who are money and budget conscious. There are a lot of other solutions out there that are two to three times more expensive."

"I think that the price of the product is reasonable."

"We have some basic models they give without a license."

"I can source the stuff pretty quickly wherever I go through the distributor. There is pricing available at NETGEAR if you can spend between $2,000 and $5,000 on a solution. So, there is special pricing that they can help with. The vendor's reps are very responsive. They have a good channel system."

"It wasn't much more than 100 dollars a year. For the devices that we have, the pricing was pretty fair."

"Price-wise, it is a little too high, about $20 higher than what it should be, but it's worth it. It's cheaper than Cisco's access point, but the products are not apples to apples."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The pricing seems to be reasonable."

More NETGEAR Insight Access Points pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user212721

President at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Mar 24, 2015

Cisco vs. Aruba Wireless Solutions

Cisco or Aruba Networks? If you are considering wireless access solutions, this is a common question that you are probably asking. You probably have sales people knocking at your door. How do you make sense of all the stories that you are presented with. If you have done any research, you are…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	76
Midsize Enterprise	41
Large Enterprise	74

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

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...

See all answers

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 friendly. This user-friendly quality also renders it easy to learn how to use and ma...

See all answers

How does Cisco Wireless compare with Aruba Wireless?

On the most basic level, Cisco Wireless can offer a rather straightforward initial setup. In the span of about three hours, the basic framework can be set up. Step-by-step instructions are availabl...

See all answers

What do you like most about NETGEAR Insight Access Points?

The product's deployment is straightforward.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETGEAR Insight Access Points?

We have some basic models they give without a license.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NETGEAR Insight Access Points?

The pricing and standard connectivity can be further improved.

See all answers

Comparisons

Ruckus Wireless vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 25% of the time

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 25% of the time

Fortinet FortiAP vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 8% of the time

Huawei Wireless vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 7% of the time

Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess Stellar vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 1% of the time

More Cisco Wireless Competitors

Ubiquiti WLAN vs NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Compared 21% of the time

Omada Access Points vs NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Compared 18% of the time

Aruba Wireless vs NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Compared 15% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs NETGEAR Insight Access Points

Compared 8% of the time

More NETGEAR Insight Access Points Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Wireless

October 2025

Download Cisco Wireless product report

Buyer's Guide

NETGEAR Insight Access Points

October 2025

Download NETGEAR Insight Access Points product report

Also Known As

Cisco WLAN Controller

No data available

Overview

Cisco Wireless is a comprehensive suite of wireless solutions designed to deliver secure, high-performance connectivity for enterprises of all sizes. Offering a range of access points, controllers, and advanced management tools, Cisco Wireless ensures seamless and reliable network access, enhancing mobility and productivity.

Cisco Wireless solutions provide robust, scalable wireless networks capable of supporting high-density environments and diverse applications. With features such as seamless roaming, advanced security protocols, and detailed analytics, Cisco Wireless addresses the needs of modern businesses. The solutions include the Cisco Catalyst and Aironet series access points, wireless LAN controllers, and the Cisco DNA Center for centralized management and automation.

What are the key features of Cisco Wireless?

High-Density Performance: Optimized for environments with a high number of devices, ensuring reliable connectivity and performance.
Advanced Security: Incorporates robust security measures such as WPA3, Secure Boot, and segmentation to protect data and devices.
Seamless Roaming: Enables uninterrupted connectivity as users move across different areas within the network.
Centralized Management: Cisco DNA Center provides a single pane of glass for managing and automating wireless networks, enhancing operational efficiency.
Flexible Deployment Options: Supports various deployment models, including on-premises, cloud-managed, and hybrid solutions.

What benefits should users look for in reviews when evaluating Cisco Wireless?

Improved Mobility and Productivity: Users often highlight how Cisco Wireless enhances user mobility and productivity through reliable and consistent connectivity.
Scalability: Reviews frequently mention the scalability of Cisco Wireless, making it suitable for growing businesses.
Ease of Management: Many users appreciate the centralized management capabilities, which simplify network administration and troubleshooting.
Enhanced Security: The advanced security features are often noted for providing peace of mind and compliance with industry standards.
User Experience: The overall user experience, including ease of use and seamless integration with other Cisco products, is a common point of praise.

Cisco Wireless solutions are implemented across various industries, including healthcare, education, retail, and manufacturing. In healthcare, they support critical applications like patient monitoring and electronic health records. Educational institutions use Cisco Wireless to provide reliable internet access for students and staff. Retailers benefit from enhanced customer experiences through in-store connectivity, while manufacturers use wireless networks to improve operational efficiency and automation.

Pricing and licensing for Cisco Wireless solutions are typically based on the scale of deployment and specific product selections. Cisco offers various support plans, including 24/7 customer service, technical support, and access to software updates and patches.

In summary, Cisco Wireless provides robust, scalable wireless networking solutions that enhance connectivity, security, and management for diverse enterprise environments.

Cisco

At NETGEAR, we turn ideas into innovative networking products that connect people, power businesses, and advance the way we live. Easy to use. Powerful. Smart. And designed just for you.

Netgear

Sample Customers

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)

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Buyer's Guide

Cisco Wireless vs. NETGEAR Insight Access Points

September 2025

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