We performed a comparison between Cisco Wireless and Ruckus Wireless based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: As competitors, Cisco Wireless and Ruckus Wireless come in at a close tie. Both products offer a really strong set of features. However, their pricing is where each stands out, with Cisco being more expensive and Ruckus being affordable. In addition, users of Ruckus Wireless report seeing an immediate ROI.
"The solution is stable."
"You can easily monitor, manage, and cover all your IT equipment."
"The solution is very secure."
"Overall, we've been very pleased with the performance."
"The artificial intelligence feature is very good."
"The AI capabilities of Mist Wireless are superior to other OEMs."
"The most useful feature of Juniper Wireless AP is the reporting Marvis."
"It provides private network access, helping us protect our company’s devices."
"Cisco Wireless gave us the ability to deploy and seamlessly manage wireless devices at our corporate office and remote locations."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it can be integrated into other solutions in a particular environment, including where there are wired and wireless connections."
"The most valuable features are mobility and security."
"Cisco has good support services."
"I've found it to be quite secure."
"Cisco is one of the leading vendors and is at the top of many lists. The access software is robust, and the performance of the devices is excellent."
"Identity PSK helps save SSIDs."
"The ability to deploy wireless access points with templates."
"Because of Zero-IT, it is easier to get people connected to the correct SSID without providing a passphrase."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature is the coverage, which is exceptional."
"I like the price and its capacity."
"Zero-handoff is one of the top features. The client balancing between the access points is good. Its security is also fine."
"The solution has great network intelligence from applications, clients, access points, and controllers."
"Unproblematic"
"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."
"Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points’ support services need improvement."
"It would be helpful to have even stronger security features to help protect against interference from other nearby access points that aren't part of our network."
"I need a bit more time with it before criticizing the features."
"There is room for improvement in terms of support and installation."
"The pricing is very high in the Indian market."
"Enrolling into the tool is a tedious process."
"Juniper Wireless AP can improve by continually improving its reporting and integration with other systems."
"Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) could improve if the MIST platform had a built-in master key. This would be an advantage."
"The price of Cisco Wireless could be lower."
"Even though the tool offers a cloud-based central management option, the product needs to work on improving the security part a bit since it is an area of concern."
"Cisco is costlier relative to other solutions."
"The integration with our CM and other technologies could improve this solution."
"What my company doesn't like about the product is related to the coverage it provides to access points, an area which is one of the most important ones for us."
"The software quality could be improved, in particular for the new Cisco Aironet Series 2800/3800 Access Point which is pretty Linux-based."
"They should introduce zero interference capabilities."
"In Latin America, Cisco is very expensive in comparison to other technologies."
"It could be cheaper."
"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 would be helpful to have a wizard when you are setting up a new access point or a wireless guest network."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"They need more products in the lower-end range for smaller clients."
"The initial setup was not simple. We were installing indoor and outdoor wireless and this is why it took us three months."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward. It would be better if we could seamlessly integrate security tools like a firewall or IPS with Ruckus Wireless."
"I think that Web management, global management, could be improved. Unfortunately, there's not one solution that does everything. There are something like six different solutions, and each of them do something better than the others. Unfortunately, there's not one global solution that does everything."
More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco Wireless is ranked 2nd in Wireless LAN with 147 reviews while Ruckus Wireless is ranked 3rd in Wireless LAN with 97 reviews. Cisco Wireless is rated 8.2, while Ruckus Wireless is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco Wireless writes "Allows us to deploy a wide range of wireless products with stable WiFi". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Ruckus Wireless writes "Great wireless, good reliability, and excellent connectivity". Cisco Wireless is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Ubiquiti WLAN, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, Mist AI and Cloud and Omada Access Points, whereas Ruckus Wireless is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, Ubiquiti WLAN, ExtremeWireless and Omada Access Points. See our Cisco Wireless vs. Ruckus Wireless report.
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We monitor all Wireless LAN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
They both do a great job. But it depends on the application scenario.
For corporate environments probably Cisco will perform better not only because of Cisco Wi-Fi features but especially because you can be integrated with all Cisco infrastructure and manage it all.
In heavy-duty environments, like public hot-spot, stadiums, exhibition centers, etc, Ruckus should be considered. In this type of applications, pure Wi-Fi performance is more important than management features or security, and therefore, it could be the better choice.
If you care more about performance and stable communications, Ruckus Wireless is definitely better.
Ruckus Wireless APs have;
- Adaptive antenna technology (called BeamFlex). This technology analyzes different paths to reach the client and electronically turns itself to a directional antenna, choosing the path that gives the best performance to reach each specific client. If the client is mobile or if the environment changes (such as a warehouse) the selection of paths/direction also changes instantly.
Transmitting in a directional way allows a good Signal-to-Noise Ratio and also causes less interference for other nearby APs outside the path of the directional transmission.
- ChannelFly technology. This technology chooses the best channel based on performance rather than background scanning for noise.
- Polarization Diversity. This technology allows the clients not to lose signal strength when held at different angles (important for mobile devices such as tablets and telephones).
- Better receive sensitivity compared to the competitors.
All these features make Ruckus Wireless a better choice than any other competitor (better performance, better coverage area, more stable and surprise-free communication especially in not so easy conditions such as noise, too many clients, too much traffic).