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ExtremeWireless vs Ruckus Wireless comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

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

ExtremeWireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Ruckus Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of ExtremeWireless is 1.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Ruckus Wireless is 14.1%, up from 13.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Seungho Yang - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced employee access with effective wireless monitoring and seamless roaming
Our use case for ExtremeWireless is to allow our employees to access the company systems The monitoring systems in ExtremeWireless have been very effective, and they are cheaper than other products. It provides better monitoring logs and detailed logs compared to Cisco Wireless. The most…
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

"The cloud-based solution allows for easy management and monitoring of traffic and congestion."
"The cloud-based management system is valuable."
"The central control is valuable."
"One of the most valuable features of ExtremeWireless is its centralized control, which influenced our choice."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"The technical support from Extreme Networks is perfect."
"ExtremeWireless offers profiles, policies, and tags."
"The solution is easy to use and manage. Overall it is very simple to understand and users do not know it is a cloud solution."
"It gives you the whole user session, and you can tell that the client connected at the traffic post."
"In general, all implementations are standard and pretty straightforward."
"The product has some very awesome patents on their radios and their antennas and antenna patterns and how their signaling works. That's why nobody can touch them. If they go head to head with anybody."
"Analyzes real-time, in-depth network performance."
"Comprehensive availability and performance of monitoring and reporting for WISP network monitor."
"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 mesh technology is the solution's most valuable aspect. Ruckus originally had the patent for it. They might've lost it because I see now that other people are doing it, however, they were the ones who came out with the smart mesh technology first, which is phenomenal."
"Ruckus features a centralized architecture solution with ultrasound technology, which helps us with communication and roaming."
 

Cons

"The ability to integrate with network devices from other vendors would be helpful."
"They could provide different product models. Additionally, there could be a feature to manage devices."
"The main area for improvement is the company's local visibility."
"It is a subscription model, so it is maybe a bit pricey."
"The cost is a little high."
"The product must be provided at a cheaper price."
"The onsite controllers are not as good as the cloud controller. I would also like ExtremeWireless to add web filtering on the access point. This feature is available from other vendors but not ExtremeWireless."
"The troubleshooting feature for the cloud version is challenging."
"o make it a ten I would like the ability to replace it if we do have a faulty device. Getting one faster might be helpful. I would like to have autoconfiguration where instead of having to configure a new network, we would be able to push all configuration out a little easier with the interface."
"It could be cheaper."
"The delivery time of the hardware needs to be improved."
"It would be nice if there was a way to compare access points and hardware so you can always get the same level of performance."
"Their support has been lacking a little bit and needs to be improved. I have had a ticket open for a month, and it is really hard to get a resolution out of them. They haven't really come out with anything that is much of an improvement in a long time. It has mostly just been fixes and things like that. We used to have a ZoneDirector or a physical controller for the wireless network, and that was kind of end of life. It was very old, and at the time, we were expanding the wireless network, and we didn't want to rely on one piece of hardware that was pretty old. So, we went to SmartZone Cluster, which has two VMs in a cluster. Unfortunately, we lost the feature ability for guest networks and other things that we were using before, and Ruckus just kind of told us that they weren't supporting that feature in the newer product, which is not really great. I was told initially that SmartZone was an upgrade to ZoneDirector. It is the logical thing to think that it is going to have all the same features, but it didn't. The issue that we have right now is onboarding BYOD devices. It is not really great for us, and we're looking for a new product to make that easier. We did have Cloudpath, which was a product that Ruckus purchased from another company that was an onboarding solution, but it just didn't really work very well for us. So, we discontinued using it, and it actually created more confusion for people. They should make BYOD or guest network portals a lot easier and better. In some areas, we have been having issues because there are just so many WAPs that are so close that we had to manually turn down the radio of power because the automatic feature of the AP wasn't really doing it right. It should also have a little bit better RF analysis capability to be able to see on the controller side. The front end for our staff, students, and guests has also not been quite as good as we had hoped."
"It is very difficult to convince the customer to choose Ruckus because of the price."
"The pricing needs to be more clear and licensing could be less expensive."
"Some customers have issues with the price because it's more expensive than Ubiquiti, but they can accept the cost because it's reliable and has more features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the price of Extreme Wireless a three out of five."
"There are both paid and free licenses of the cloud environment, with only basic functionality in the free version."
"We pay approximately $30,000 per year."
"It's not as expensive as some and is scalable to our needs."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The solution has a yearly subscription, and we have to pay additional costs for technical support."
"ExtremeWireless is subscription-based for both cloud and on-prem solutions, and it's quite expensive."
"The solution is priced well and we currently are only paying for a license for maintenance."
"The cost per AP license should be worked on."
"I rate the product price as six to seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"Not all of our clients can afford a fully corporate solution like Ruckus. But for many of our clients, pricing is the only factor that prevents them from choosing Ruckus, as we have found Ruckus to be a very suitable and reliable solution for integrating wireless access points to a company's network."
"The price could be better. Normally, if you find customers paying for cost-effective wireless solutions, Ruckus devices are a little expensive compared to other vendors."
"​Pricing is very competitive for an enterprise solution. Regarding licensing, always carry the support contract on the controller (not needed on APs)​."
"Ruckus Wireless pricing is reasonable. On a scale from one to five, I would give Ruckus Wireless pricing a four."
"Licensing is subscription-based."
"I would rate their pricing 3 out of 5. There is no annual licensing cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with ExtremeWireless?
There are concerns regarding the stability of ExtremeWireless. It could be an area of improvement, especially when compared to previous solutions such as Motorola before their acquisition. Another ...
What is your primary use case for ExtremeWireless?
We mainly use ExtremeWireless ( /products/extremewireless-reviews ) for the warehouse, specifically for the Zebra handheld devices and printers.
Aruba Wireless or Ruckus Wireless?
At my organization, we researched Ruckus Wireless among other solutions but ultimately chose Aruba wireless. What did we like about Ruckus? First, it was very easy to use, and anybody with minimal...
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...
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...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

St. Xavier High School, Americatel, Diamond Light Source
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 ExtremeWireless vs. Ruckus Wireless and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
861,390 professionals have used our research since 2012.