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Aruba Instant vs ExtremeWireless 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.5
Aruba Instant enhances productivity, stability, and user experience, supporting many connections despite high cost, providing a competitive business edge.
Sentiment score
8.5
ExtremeWireless provides cost-effective scalability, significant ROI and time savings, easy deployment, excellent support, and optimal value over three years.
The monitoring access and excellent support provide significant value.
The best ROI is achieved over a three-year term.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Aruba Instant support is generally satisfactory, with prompt assistance noted, though enterprises occasionally experience delays, especially post-HPE transition.
Sentiment score
8.3
ExtremeWireless customer service is praised for reliability but criticized for response speed, global coverage, and inconsistent support availability.
The technical support from Aruba is of high quality, and I would rate it a ten.
I rate their support as a nine because they are very helpful when we need assistance and they strive to help, even if not the fastest.
The technical support sometimes closes cases without resolution.
I would rate the customer service as a ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Aruba Instant offers scalable solutions for small to medium businesses, enhancing performance and compatibility for diverse environments.
Sentiment score
7.0
ExtremeWireless is highly scalable and flexible, effectively supporting organizations of all sizes with seamless expansion and high-density management.
I find Aruba Instant to be highly scalable.
The Extreme access points handle high-density connectivity needs very well, managing lots of traffic efficiently.
The scalability of ExtremeWireless is average.
ExtremeWireless is quite scalable.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
9.2
Aruba Instant is highly praised for its stability and reliability, outperforming competitors despite minor access point and latency issues.
Sentiment score
7.7
ExtremeWireless is lauded for its stability and reliability, though firmware updates occasionally require physical restarts for resolution.
They work well without failures.
I experienced issues during firmware upgrades, as some devices required a physical restart, which affects system stability.
 

Room For Improvement

Aruba Instant needs enhanced documentation, UI, more security, better IoT compatibility, improved features, and competitive pricing.
ExtremeWireless must enhance usability, security, and signal stability while optimizing costs, integration, and market visibility for smaller businesses.
An important missing feature is the console port, which allows direct management without the cloud.
I wish for ExtremeWireless to optimize the roaming capability between access points, especially for IoT devices.
They should develop more troubleshooting tools for system management.
There is some delay in firmware upgrades for access points.
 

Setup Cost

Aruba Instant offers competitive pricing with one-time costs, appreciated for its enterprise functionality and minimal licensing complexity.
ExtremeWireless provides reliable solutions with annual subscriptions, though pricing and additional fees can make it costly.
We do not sell very expensive devices as we move to other products.
However, when compared to entry-level market segments, the price is higher.
Each customer typically buys around 100 APs, which makes it quite expensive.
The pricing is a weak point for Extreme; it is very high.
The pricing is favorable due to its flexible licensing model.
 

Valuable Features

Aruba Instant provides scalable, user-friendly network management with robust security and seamless integration, ideal for small to medium businesses.
ExtremeWireless excels in cloud management, security, performance, integration, scalability, flexibility, and offers user-friendly tools for multi-site organizations.
I highly value Aruba Instant for its ClearPass feature, which is an exceptional product for network access control and works as a NAC solution.
The most beneficial features for network management are the price and the cloud console.
A single license can be used for on-premises, hybrid, or cloud, allowing for easy transition between solutions without losing investment.
The support from Extreme is very good and helpful.
The most valuable features of ExtremeWireless include the management through the one dashboard management with ActionCloud IQ, integrated with Site Engine.
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Instant
Ranking in Wireless LAN
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ExtremeWireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Aruba Instant is 2.0%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeWireless is 1.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Prashant-Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly stable and easy-to-deploy solution that is free and provides excellent deployment guides
The setup is very straightforward. There is no complexity at all. It took us 15 minutes. We need IP address details, DNS, a gateway, DHCP servers, and SSIDs. Single access points can act as controller-based, controller-less, and cloud-based solutions. That is the beauty of Aruba. If I have an on-premise solution and want to move to the cloud, I don't need separate hardware. The same hardware can be utilized in the cloud. The deployment guides that we get from Aruba are excellent. We have every piece of detail.
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…
report
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845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Ubiquiti WLAN or Aruba Instant?
We researched Ubiquiti and Aruba when looking for a WLAN solution. Ubiquiti offers good WLAN access both indoors and outdoors. It provides an enterprise-level WIFI while remaining cost-effective. U...
What do you like most about Aruba Instant?
I find network management features related to monitoring Wi-Fi usage and visited sites particularly valuable. Content filtering is also important to prevent access to malicious or inappropriate web...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Instant?
The licensing costs depend on the product. The smaller switch is around one hundred and twenty euros. We do not sell very expensive devices as we move to other products.
What needs improvement with ExtremeWireless?
There is some delay in firmware upgrades for access points. When there is a problem with the firmware of one access point, the correction might be too late.
What is your primary use case for ExtremeWireless?
We work with some end customers, and we use ExtremeCloud IQ ( /products/extremecloud-iq-reviews ) for the administration of the wireless platform. We use Wi-Fi 6 E for many users.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Purdue University, Orlando Magic, Brussels Airport Company, Molecaten Holiday Parks
St. Xavier High School, Americatel, Diamond Light Source
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Instant vs. ExtremeWireless and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.