Aruba Airwave vs Huawei eSight comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Huawei are both solutions in the Network Management Applications category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.1, while Huawei is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.0. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 4.0% mindshare in NMA, compared to Huawei’s 3.8% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 72% of Huawei users who would recommend it.

Aruba Airwave

Read 26 Aruba Airwave reviews

1,305 Views
1,161 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Huawei eSight

Read 10 Huawei eSight reviews

2,218 Views
821 Comparison Views

72% willing to recommend

Aruba Airwave

Huawei eSight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Aruba Airwave and Huawei eSight compete in network management solutions. Aruba Airwave seems to have the upper hand due to its wider vendor support and enhanced network visibility features.

Features: Aruba Airwave includes multi-vendor support, robust monitoring, and the Clarity and Visual RF features for optimized troubleshooting and network visibility. Huawei eSight integrates management tasks efficiently for Huawei devices, provides strong monitoring and reporting features, and is noted for its user-friendly simplicity.

Room for Improvement: Aruba Airwave could improve seamless integration with other platforms and enhance transparency in troubleshooting errors, also addressing licensing cost concerns. Huawei eSight needs more automation features, better integration with third-party devices, especially non-Huawei systems, and improvements in user experience and device compatibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both primarily support on-premises deployment, with Aruba also offering a private cloud option. Aruba's technical support is efficient but slower than competitors, while Huawei is praised for effective support, though its documentation could be improved. Aruba's cloud capability may present more flexibility.

Pricing and ROI: Aruba Airwave is considered expensive compared to Huawei eSight, despite being more cost-effective than Cisco. Users highlight concerns over Aruba's rising costs, though its ROI is significant due to reduced troubleshooting time. Huawei eSight offers competitive pricing and reasonable licensing but can be complex. Both products show solid ROI, with Aruba's efficiency justifying its higher cost.

To learn more, read our detailed Aruba Airwave vs. Huawei eSight Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Airwave vs. Huawei eSight

December 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

Aruba Airwave

Ranking in Network Management Applications

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Huawei eSight

Ranking in Network Management Applications

9th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (34th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Aruba Airwave is 4.0%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Huawei eSight is 3.8%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Management Applications Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Aruba Airwave	4.0%
Huawei eSight	3.8%
Other	92.2%

Network Management Applications

Featured Reviews

Edward Zeng

Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology

Troubleshooting obstacles occur but technical support excels

My general opinion on Aruba Airwave is that it's acceptable, but it's not ideal because we are accustomed to Cisco. We didn't use Aruba much, but once you set it up, you probably don't need to worry about it too much. The version we are using is quite old now, probably around version four. I can't remember the version exactly because a lot of the products require Aruba Central, but we haven't used Aruba Central yet. I face challenges with Aruba Airwave, particularly with troubleshooting. When someone has a problem, we try troubleshooting, but the end-to-end users' messages show some details that are not always up-to-date, and sometimes the information from the GUI is not exactly aligned with what's on the website. If Aruba Airwave can apply AI capabilities, that would be even more perfect. I'd appreciate integration with Aruba Central; it would be great if they could incorporate it into Airwave.

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Gary Strydom

Desktop Analyst at Transnet

Used to monitor devices and provides the hardware alarms feature

Huawei eSight has helped me overcome many monitoring aspects of the hardware. From a single view, I can monitor all the hardware. Instead of logging on to each piece of hardware and monitoring it individually, I can monitor them from one single point. I would recommend the solution to other users because it provides a single point of view of the hardware. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It contains valuable features for engineers to C-level executives, who want visibility, performance, statistics, and a platform which can take action for them without manual intervention, saving time and money."

"The technical support services are good."

"The Clarity feature makes it easy to use and understand what is going on with your network in a nice dashboard."

"It facilitated creating floor maps."

"What I like best about Aruba Airwave is its orchestration feature because it saves configuration time. I also like that it allows you to do ZTP installations for new Aruba equipment."

"The monitoring and administration allow configurations for checking the association of the user to the network, then to the AP, then to the switch, and back to the controller."

"The solution's most valuable features are its usage, bandwidth existence, device capacity, and utilization."

"All the technical support goes through our contractor. It is a local support, and it is perfect."

More Aruba Airwave pros

"One of the most beneficial features of Huawei eSight is its simplicity and ease of use."

"The solution's most valuable dashboard features include monitoring storage, resource availability, and hardware alarms."

"The product is stable."

"eSight allows me to monitor and solve any problem in the backbone and any switch in real-time."

"I like that it supports all our Huawei devices. Unlike other network monitoring tools that monitor Huawei devices, it provides more details when it comes to monitoring or management. We can get complete details about the devices, and management is also simple."

"We use Huawei eSight to monitor devices like Wi-Fi controllers, LAN switches, and routers."

"I like the real-time location monitor or RTLS feature. It is similar to the monitoring feature in Cisco Prime."

"The most important features are alarm management and the visualization of the health of our network devices."

More Huawei eSight pros

Cons

"More devices or vendors should be onboarded to Aruba Airwave."

"When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers."

"The main challenge we've faced with Aruba Airwave is its high cost, especially regarding high availability and failover licenses, which can be relatively expensive for customers. As for recommendations for improvement, considering that Aruba is planning to retire Airwave soon and introduce a new solution, it's crucial that the new product meets or exceeds the current Airwave's feature set. Customers expect a seamless transition without losing any functionality, so Aruba needs to ensure that the new solution is ready with all the essential features and capabilities from day one to avoid any gaps or dissatisfaction among users and partners."

"I want a management solution to manage and monitor everything from a single dashboard. This is not there with Airwave."

"They should make it cheaper. By doing that, they can replace Cisco, which is also very expensive. If it is equivalent to Cisco in the features, with a reduced price, they can sell it more than Cisco."

"I would like to see an integration of services into one system, rather than having multiple systems to do multiple things."

"We sometimes have problems with troubleshooting between the GUI and the CLI manipulation."

"We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices."

More Aruba Airwave cons

"The solution and the operating system come separately. It would be easier if we did not have to deploy anything. A bundle feature would be better."

"Huawei eSight should work on the option to have the email notification working on Office 365 Exchange."

"It is not a very flexible product."

"This solution could be improved by offering monitoring for all devices and not only Huawei devices."

"eSight has many features and options, but sometimes, we feel that it should be more advanced, like Cisco. It would be good if they can enable some automation part in eSight. Most of our customers want automation in their network. They don't want a dependency on everything. That's why the automation part must be improved in Huawei. It will be beneficial for customers. Cisco has different products, and there are multiple products for monitoring, automation, etc. In the software-defined network, Cisco has ACI, and VMware has NSX. Such options must be there in Huawei to move to a software-defined network. Unlike Cisco, in the case of eSight, there is only one product. I am not aware of any other product. It would be good to enhance it with at least some automation options so that we can use it effectively in the campus network or big data center environment. When I implemented this Huawei solution, I faced some limitations in particular areas like wireless scanning. This is another part that they can improve. Wireless reporting option is not as effective as other monitoring solutions. For a particular use case, if a customer is asking for some reports, sometimes they are not 100% satisfactory. The reporting structure must be improved."

"Something that could be improved is the lack of integration with Cisco switches. In the next release, I would like to see better reporting."

"It will be better if they can make the simple network topology part more presentable. It would also be better if they had API integration and integration with third-party devices."

"The solution needs to improve it's user interface to make it more modern and stylish. They need to design proper menu positions, features, etc. Right now the layout is complicated."

More Huawei eSight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."

"Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."

"It's device-based licensing. One device requires one license."

"This product is not expensive."

"The tool is expensive. If one is bad or expensive, and ten is very good or cheap, I rate the product's price as a six."

"The licensing is on an yearly basis."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The cost is perfect because the devices have a lifetime warranty, and the licensing is good as well."

More Aruba Airwave pricing and cost advice

"Its pricing is better than any other Huawei product. Some products are cheaper in Huawei, and some products are cheaper in Cisco. Cisco has more benefits and options than Huawei if you consider different network environments."

"The pricing for Huawei eSight is reasonable, especially with the base license and incremental licenses for additional devices. However, the variety of license types can be a bit complex. We used to sell eSight but switched to another solution, so we're not actively trading it anymore."

"The price is very expensive."

"I would rate this solution a nine out of ten for pricing. The pricing depends on which features you use and can become expensive."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"Pricing depends on the competition. If your competitor is like Cisco, then Huawei is much more competitive when it comes to pricing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

10%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	1

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Airwave?

I think the solution is quite affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?

They have other sensors which can manage and control all the sites. There is an IoT component where we can restrict internet services such as Facebook and YouTube. These things can also be managed....

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Aruba Airwave?

For Aruba Airwave, I am using the wireless devices for the Wi-Fi for the full company with access points. This is the top product I feel, and I see in the Gartner also. It is a good product and eas...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Huawei eSight?

Huawei eSight should work on the option to have the email notification working on Office 365 Exchange.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Huawei eSight?

We use the solution to monitor the hardware environment of our data center. We mainly use Huawei eSight to monitor the devices. It assists in monitoring our devices in terms of utilization and moni...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Huawei eSight?

See all answers

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Compared 21% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Center vs Aruba Airwave

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper vs Aruba Airwave

Compared 5% of the time

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Cisco DNA Center vs Huawei eSight

Compared 15% of the time

Zabbix vs Huawei eSight

Compared 9% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Huawei eSight

Compared 7% of the time

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Huawei eSight

Compared 6% of the time

More Huawei eSight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Airwave

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Network Management Applications

January 2026

Download Huawei eSight product report

Overview

Offering granular visibility into wired and wireless networks, AirWave is the only management platform designed with mobile devices and apps in mind. By proactively monitoring the health and performance of all things connected, AirWave lets IT gain the insights they need to support the digital workplace.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Huawei's eSight is a unified software suite for planning, operating, and maintaining complex enterprise ICT infrastructure from global, converged networks and data centers to multimedia and video communications that includes the facilities necessary for delivering performance and IT services. eSight provides a platform that supports infrastructure and devices from third-party providers, to develop custom management applications and improves O&M efficiency.

Huawei

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa

Marina Bay, CITIC Pacific Mining

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Airwave vs. Huawei eSight

December 2025

Free Report: Aruba Airwave vs. Huawei eSight

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