Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs ExtremeCloud IQ comparison

The compared Cisco and Extreme solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #4 in Wireless LAN , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 13.1% mindshare in the category. Extreme is ranked #9 in NMA , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Extreme users who would recommend it.

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Read 118 Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN reviews

18,236 Views
14,660 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

ExtremeCloud IQ

Read 75 ExtremeCloud IQ reviews

646 Views
472 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

ExtremeCloud IQ

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and ExtremeCloud IQ based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ruckus, Cisco and others in Wireless LAN.

To learn more, read our detailed Wireless LAN Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Wireless LAN

December 2024

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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 Meraki Wireless LAN

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

118

Ranking in other categories

Wireless LAN (4th)

ExtremeCloud IQ

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Management Applications (9th), Network Access Control (NAC) (11th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (20th)

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and ExtremeCloud IQ aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is designed for Wireless LAN and holds a mindshare of 13.1%, up 12.2% compared to last year.
ExtremeCloud IQ, on the other hand, focuses on Network Management Applications, holds 3.0% mindshare, down 3.4% since last year.

Wireless LAN

Network Management Applications

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S

Solution Architect at Bharti Airtel ·

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.

Read full review

Sriman L

Senior Network Engineer at Nipun Net Solutions

One of the best cloud-based wireless solutions that helps manage multiple APs from a single dashboard across multiple locations

ExtremeCloud IQ’s user interface needs to be improved, and its current bugs need to be fixed. Sometimes, AP details, like the AP firmware and the AP hostname, are not updating properly because of a few bugs in the current version, which they might fix in the next version. Compared to the central and other cloud solutions, a couple of bugs still running on these portals need to be rectified. For ExtremeCloud IQ's next releases, I expect to get all the users and the events alerts. Also, if any AP goes down, I should be able to do some scheduled reports specific to the site because it is currently in beta. If any AP goes offline, that's an event. If you want to do the filter for a specific site event, we don't have that filter option. I expect specific site-level and category-level events and alert filters to get reports.

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 is easy to set up. You can do everything on the GUI. You don't need to trace cables. You don't need to connect to the switch. Everything is there, right in front of you."

"The stability of the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is very good."

"It is more robust for me to deploy networks. And because of the field we are in where offices open up and others close, it helps my turnaround time to deploy these networks for the customers."

"I really love their cloud-based dashboard which allows me to see all my locations from one location."

"It's easy to manage and provides a clear network view, allowing efficient navigation down to the network details."

"It is cloud-based. It has a GUI rather than a command line, and it just works."

"The most valuable feature is the stability. It works and doesn't stop."

"For Meraki, the ease of deployment and management is most valuable."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pros

"What's most valuable for me in ExtremeCloud IQ is easy management. It also has centralized administration, so you don't have to go to the customer site to program it. It can be programmed remotely."

"What our customers like the most is that this device is so rugged. It has very good performance and throughput. Its console is very easy to use and has many features, which makes it different from its competitors. Cloud IQ has all the features built into the console, whereas other solutions require you to integrate multiple solutions with their consoles. You don't need to add anything extra with Cloud IQ. With this single solution, you can do almost everything."

"ExtremeCloud offers features that not a lot of other vendors do like their data storage and the ability to swap licenses."

"The cloud-based management interface allows us to fully manage all our wireless radios, ensuring consistency and ease of access."

"Ability to assign zero trust policies from the user."

"Extreme is transitioning to 802.11ax facilities running the 2G and the 5G cloud, allowing for higher density in education use cases, and ExtremeCloud IQ provides you with novel ways to manage everything. In the old days, you used to have a controller on-site for your access points, but everything is easier now."

"It's extremely easy to deploy. Even our access points are behind the net, not using real, public IP. We can easily add to the cloud. For deployment, we just need to let the access point take the DSCP from IP and then, even if it's not a requirement, we can see the serial number from the access points and add the serial number to the cloud directly."

"It excels in Wi-Fi and switch management, as well as other internal management aspects, offering speed and efficiency that surpass what other competitors provide."

More ExtremeCloud IQ pros

Cons

"Meraki should share their viability roadmap. It is really hard to know which functionality will appear or when they will be available. It is also hard to know which features are available now but are not visible on the dashboard."

"We would like the solution to work on the pricing of the solution. It would be ideal if it could bring the overall costs down."

"Concern when there are a number of concurrent users."

"Despite being enabled, I've encountered an issue where the alert main dashboard fails to detect when any of the devices go down. Hence, the tool's notification feature should improve. We have also faced issues with integration."

"The ease of use is average. It could be more user-friendly."

"Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN's management tools need enhancement."

"The way Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN groups certain things, as far as the devices for either monitoring and or configuring them should be done better. They should be grouped a little bit differently because if I want to configure something, a different setting on an SSID, I have to go to their specific area where I would have thought it should be clumped as a dropdown menu in another area."

"The licensing isn't very customer-centric. They may have improved it, but previously, if you forgot to pay on a certain day, your service would be shut off."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN cons

"Lacks cyber asset tracking."

"ExtremeCloud IQ’s user interface needs to be improved, and its current bugs need to be fixed."

"The certification costs from suppliers are getting out of control, and it's not just Extreme. We have the same problem with Cisco and Huawei."

"The Virtual Appliance crashed once while doing an upgrade. The good thing here is, even if the management system fails, all our networks and features still remain 100% stable and working."

"I would like to see a remote phone application for monitoring APs when on the road."

"Integrating the network access control solution can be complex, as it essentially combines two separate products."

"The managing of switches within this solution could be improved."

"An area for improvement in ExtremeCloud IQ is its technical support. Support could be better, especially when you need help concerning ExtremeCloud IQ and WinG."

More ExtremeCloud IQ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform is more expensive than other solutions."

"The price is good, but it could be improved."

"Having a good price is important when we are providing quotations for projects."

"The platform is highly priced."

"As is always the case, the price could be better, although I do not recall exactly how much this comes out to."

"Meraki is a very good solution, but the price is quite high for small markets."

"The cost is not so much for Wireless LAN, but when you have to get the security license, it costs a lot."

"This solution is slightly more expensive than others, such as Ruckus Wi-Fi."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pricing and cost advice

"ExtremeCloud IQ's pricing is medium, but its support contract costs more."

"The pricing is so cost-effective that it leaves no room for competition with other vendors."

"Buy near the end of Q4 in order to get a deal."

"It is easy for customers to use this product because they are able to interchange the license depending on their usage rather than having to buy individual licenses for each asset."

"This solution offers annual licensing that is middle of the range in terms of cost."

"Bring the cost down."

"For example, if you compare Aruba vs Aerohive, you need to check which licences from Aruba you need to match the functionality of Aerohive (usually you need at least three types of licences and a controller with redundancy). The same goes with Cisco, where you need buy additional licences for central management, firewall, spectral analysis, WIPS, PPSK, etc. Aerohive has a very simple model - one licence for all the functionalities - and you can believe that there are many. One licence makes it easy to maintain, scale, renew and you can plan your costs 10 years in advance."

"Extreme is twice as cheap compared to Cisco due to the currency exchange. Normally, I think Cisco would be a little bit more expensive, but there wouldn't be that much of a difference."

More ExtremeCloud IQ pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Eric Biller

Network Systems Administrator at County Of Summit Board Of DD

Aug 10, 2021

What are pros and cons of Aruba 515 Series AP vs. Cisco Meraki or Extreme Networks?

2 out of 5 answers

Ralph Malone

Network Engineer with 51-200 employees

Mar 25, 2021

I have Extreme and chose them years ago when they were Aerohive for one reason PPSK they are still the only company that has this. I put out a bid this year and was ready to forklift my entire extreme system because of their outrageous maintenance costs Aruba had a great maintenance cost but to achieve what I needed I would have to purchase clearpass an excellent product I might add. TCO for Aruba was about 10% of my original Extreme quote. The bid for extreme came in and they had dropped the maintenance cost to 10% of the original cost for 5 years. I would like to have purchased Aruba but I have 125 Extreme WAPs deployed so the cost of Aruba forklift would have been higher and the need to retrain techs on how to configure Aruba is now not an issue. If I was doing a system from scratch I would choose Aruba hands down for their service, price and ease of use. I have a full Aruba network of routers and switches as well as all HP printers so it would have been a good fit. I must add this is based on educational prices I am the network Engineer for a residential High School ASMSA. Your prices may vary. I have heard from other extreme users that their support is not what it was when Aerohive was a stand alone company, I have a very knowledgeable vendor so I rarely have to contact Extreme.

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Michael Fulton

Systems Administrator with 501-1,000 employees

Mar 25, 2021

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 experience with any of these brands? If so, based on your experience would you use that brand again? Also what other equipment do you have on your network? Firewall? Router? APs? Security (Cameras, door locks etc.)? Are there any functions with one of these brands of switches that would enhance the products you already have? Sometimes you get more bang for your buck by sticking with the same manufacture as they will have features on different products that work together well or feed off of each other. If all of that comes down to the same three brands still, then look at performance claims, features sets, cost. We have the Meraki AP's and I like the cloud management portion of them. But if you don't renew with them to use the cloud then the AP's are worthless as the require the cloud management. But it is nice to have that central, visual representation and central management feature Meraki has to offer. I don't know if Extreme Networks or Aruba has that.

Read full answer

See all 5 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

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...

See all answers

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

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about ExtremeCloud IQ?

The Client 360 feature provides a comprehensive view of your clients and their activities, including the devices they use. Additionally, a feature called Network 360 offers a 360-degree view of the...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeCloud IQ?

Price-wise, it is a reasonable tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ExtremeCloud IQ?

There can be an improvement by incorporating two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication for security. Advanced network access control features and application control features should ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 32% of the time

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 17% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 11% of the time

Ubiquiti Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 7% of the time

Cambium Networks Wireless LAN vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Competitors

Ubiquiti Wireless vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 12% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco DNA Center vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 10% of the time

Mist AI and Cloud vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 7% of the time

Aruba Wireless vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 7% of the time

More ExtremeCloud IQ Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

January 2025

Download Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN product report

Buyer's Guide

ExtremeCloud IQ

January 2025

Download ExtremeCloud IQ product report

Also Known As

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN

Aerohive Networks, Aerohive HiveManager, HiveManager, ExtremeCloud , ExtremeSecurity

Overview

Cisco Meraki access points are built from the highest grade components and carefully optimized for a seamless user experience. The outcome: faster connections, greater user capacity, more coverage, and fewer support calls. The Cisco Meraki dashboard gives visibility into the network users, their devices, and their applications. Armed with rich analytics, administrators can quickly create access control and application usage policies, optimizing both the end-user experience and network security.

Cisco

ExtremeCloud is a resilient and scalable cloud-based network management solution offered by Extreme Networks as a subscription service.

The network is your platform of engagement for clients and staff. We have designed ExtremeCloud to provide superior user experience by empowering you and the applications that drive your business. The combination of Extreme Networks’ smart wired and wireless edges and the elasticity, resilience and scalability provided via state-of-the-art datacenters distributed strategically for worldwide availability allows you to respond to the changing needs of your business, at the speed of cloud, through a simple, multi-site aware user interface.

Extreme

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

Henry Ford Health System, Baltimore Ravens, Brandili, Federal University of Alagoas, CEDAE, Caxias do Sul, UNISC Concurrency, CenturyLink Field, Louisiana College, Cricket Tasmania Stadium, Moscow Internet Exchange

Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ruckus, Cisco and others in Wireless LAN. Updated: December 2024.

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