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Aruba Networks Wireless WAN vs Ubiquiti Wireless comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Networks Wireless WAN
Ranking in Wireless WAN
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Ubiquiti Wireless
Ranking in Wireless WAN
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Wireless WAN category, the mindshare of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is 2.4%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Ubiquiti Wireless is 39.8%, down from 40.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless WAN
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Colly - PeerSpot reviewer
Reasonably priced and offers a good GUI
The product is very scalable. When it comes to some schools, they start with the solution's proof of concept in certain sections. My company aims to improve the throughputs in the schools where the product is installed. If the rest of the School wants the product, it is easy to set up the solution. My company uses Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for schools and warehouses but not in the retail sector. The product offers reliability and uptime twenty-four hours and seven days a week. My company gets notified if the reliability offered by the product goes down. My company also gets notified if we are getting hacked.
Brian Massey - PeerSpot reviewer
It's cheap and easy to use but isn't suitable for large deployments or complex use cases
Ubiquiti isn't as good for larger networks as any of the other wireless solutions. It lacks performance, coverage, and some of the advanced capabilities other solutions have. Take, for example, integration with FortiNAC. Cisco, HP, and the other big names can move devices from one wireless subnet to another with FortiNAC on the fly, but Ubiquiti cannot. When we connect them to this special network, I have to turn them off and on, disconnect them from the wireless, and then reconnect. Then, it can be put into the correct location, but that's it. It's a small thing, but it's noticeable, It's hard to describe it in terms an end user would understand, but on the back end, it lacks some of those capabilities. It's not a true large enterprise solution. They're fantastic for small and medium-sized businesses, especially for the price, and they perform well when needed. For my part, I would actually like to move to something more appropriate for the size of our network, but again, Ubiquiti is so cheap.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is centralized management capability. You don't have to have wireless LAN controllers at every location."
"There is a clustering feature, so the APs immediately switch back to the next available controller. The users will not notice any impact and will feel connected to the network. They will not notice any disconnection."
"All the features are available, even including the security. The access point enables the matching of any connectivity."
"The most valuable features are price, quality, and performance."
"It's quite stable."
"I rate the support an eight out of ten since it is good."
"The most valuable feature is reliability."
"The most valuable feature of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is centralized management. It has features like other solutions, but it's easier to manage. Aruba Networks Wireless WAN also has a tax asset benefit which is good."
"The product is extremely stable."
"Ubiquiti devices are centrally managed, and you can log into the access points via SSH. If the GUI isn't working for some reason, you can intervene via SSH."
"It is a highly scalable platform."
"I like the fact that you can set it up like a wireless connection. Previously, we used to connect from one SSID to another. When we started using Ubiquiti, everyone was so happy because even if they moved from one place or another, say from the pantry to a meeting room, they didn't need to connect manually to another SSID. This is one of the features that I really like about it. It is doing a great job. It offers a free controller that you can use to see if the devices are connected or not and if they are up or down."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a simple and useful tool that offers good performance."
"It's very easy to use. The hardware is very easy to use, compared to Microsoft. Microsoft is more complicated. It has software that is okay if you are familiar with it. In my opinion, Ubiquiti hardware is more heavy duty then Microsoft."
"I have found the most valuable features to be how user-friendly it is and how simple it is to do the configurations."
"The solution offers us good situational awareness by providing information on user activity, signal strength, and all the data that you need to manage the system and understand issues."
 

Cons

"The solution has bugs. It really has bugs, and you have to wait until it happens, then you realize it."
"We do not have direct access to Aruba’s Mesh portal."
"From the commercial-side the pricing side is fine but in other aspects, it could be lowered."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing, it's quite a premium."
"Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is expensive."
"The initial setup has a lot of options, which makes it very versatile yet very complicated to install. There should be two modes: a basic mode and then a more advanced mode to help make implementation easier. Most of the time, if it's a small installation, you don't need the complexity. You shouldn't need higher expertise in order to install a couple of access points in a single place."
"This solution needs different models that are more specialized for certain customers."
"In a meshed environment, the handoff between access points is sometimes not smooth when users are mobile. For example, a connection is occasionally interrupted when a user takes their laptop from the gym to the cafeteria."
"I would like to see more cloud features that some of the other competitors such as Cisco Meraki have that are very nice."
"The external devices, the outdoor devices, are not so rugged. For example, for the weather that we have here in Florida, it doesn't hold up well even though it is supposed to be designed for outdoor use."
"A contract solution with 24/7 support would greatly benefit users, especially in critical situations requiring immediate assistance."
"The solution needs to improve its features and offer more to the customer."
"Difficult to see error logs and locate the problem."
"I would prefer if the solution offered more integration capabilities."
"There's one feature missing and that is automatic channel assignment."
"We tried to create an access point with built-in voice and sound that we could use in schools, for example. We tried to create something that could play sounds or messages out of the access points. We wanted to, for example, use it as a school bell instead of using other equipment. It didn't work very well. It turns out when you connect to the Ubiquiti Wireless access point, it's not possible to send simple messages (like what is going on in the canteen, or some news update for the school, etc.). We had to use the on-premises version, as the cloud version wouldn't allow for this."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is less expensive than Ruckus and Cisco."
"I rate the pricing a seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where ten is the highest and one is the cheapest."
"Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is pretty cost-efficient than Cisco ISE when my company did a PO, but for a single-party tender, its pricing was on the higher side, so it depends. I rate the pricing for Aruba Networks Wireless WAN as six out of ten."
"The licenses are available as both perpetual or yearly."
"The price of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN depends on how you buy it. From a pricing perspective, if you choose to buy Aruba Networks Wireless WAN as an MRC, it's dependent upon the radio and the solution that you choose what your MRC is. If you choose to buy it outright, they're competitive with their competitors, and they're probably four percent or five percent lower than their largest competitor."
"With some vendors, the access point is not manageable anymore if you don't maintain the license. It's more or less a doorstop because you can't configure and control it. You can't troubleshoot it unless you maintain the license. That's not true with Aruba."
"On a scale f one to ten, where one point is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing as eight. Cloud licenses are quite expensive."
"Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is cheaper than Cisco, and the web experience is great."
"The most valuable aspect of Ubiquiti is the price. Compared to competing solutions like Cisco Aironet, HP Aruba, ExtremeWireless, or Ruckus, Ubiquiti is the cheapest by far. It's not even close. That's their biggest selling point."
"Right now the product is less expensive and of higher quality than other solutions."
"From a pricing point of view, Ubiquiti is excellent."
"Its price is reasonable for a basic device."
"We mostly use Ubiquiti solutions due to their affordable price."
"We initially spent around 10,000 euros on this solution and have been running it for several years. An access point costs approximately 160 to 180 euros."
"Its pricing ranges from 1,000 euros to 30,000 euros. The average price might be 10,000 euros."
"There aren't any license costs attached to the product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Media Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Aruba Network Wireless WAN?
I recommend Aruba Networks Wireless WAN. I have been using Aruba for approximately a decade. It has a great centralized management system, which means we don’t need wireless LAN controllers at ever...
Is Ubiquiti Wireless better than Ruckus Wireless WAN?
Ubiquiti Wireless is extremely easy to set up and is an excellent option for small businesses, offering enterprise features for a one-time fee and no ongoing licensing fees. Ubiquiti Wireless is ve...
Which is better - Cambium or Ubiquiti Wireless?
For me, Ubiquiti was easy to install, configure, set up, and maintain, while also providing solid coverage and better handoffs between APs. This is especially relevant if you are using Apple produc...
Which is better - Ubiquiti Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?
Ubiquiti Wireless offers a wide range of WLAN products. We tested their devices before ultimately choosing Cisco Meraki. Ubiquiti devices have good outdoor performance and the connection is very st...
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Pittsburgh Golf Club, Rio Rancho Public Schools, Amwaj Rotana - Jumeirah Beach Residence - Dubai, Trevecca Nazarene University
NASCAR Grand-AM, Maritime Parc, Outdoor Music Festival, British Armed Forces, Arcadia School District, Moscow - Enforta
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Networks Wireless WAN vs. Ubiquiti Wireless and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.