Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs Cisco Wireless comparison

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Cisco Wireless are both solutions in the Wireless LAN category. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3, while Cisco Wireless is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN holds a 12.9% mindshare in Wireless LAN, compared to Cisco Wireless’s 11.5% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Cisco Wireless users who would recommend it.

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Read 119 Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN reviews

15,495 Views
12,588 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cisco Wireless

Read 151 Cisco Wireless reviews

15,312 Views
14,009 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Cisco Wireless

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Cisco Wireless compete in the wireless LAN domain. Cisco Meraki seems to have the upper hand with its user-friendly cloud-based management, ideal for organizations with limited IT capacity, while Cisco Wireless offers superior integration and traditional management features.

Features: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers centralized management, cloud-based configuration, and ease of deployment, making it business-friendly for smaller IT teams. Users benefit from its simplicity and comprehensive security features, such as Layer 7 protections, and detailed tracking and reporting capabilities. Meanwhile, Cisco Wireless provides robust security, high network performance, and seamless integration with other Cisco products for a comprehensive enterprise solution.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN could enhance its offerings by improving error logs, expanding enterprise-level features, and offering more customization options while addressing support consistency and pricing concerns. Cisco Wireless is perceived as costly and less accessible for SMBs, with user calls for a better user interface, improved support for advanced features, and competitive pricing models.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN benefits from seamless cloud deployment, generally well-rated customer service, and responsive technical support. Cisco Wireless, typically deployed on-premises, also has a strong support reputation, though users note slower response times and higher management complexity compared to Meraki’s cloud services.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is considered high-priced but justified through feature-rich offerings and ROI from resource savings and management efficiency, although its licensing model could be improved. Cisco Wireless is noted for its high cost as well, deemed justifiable for enterprises due to robust features and good support, offering ROI mainly through operational efficiencies and security advantages.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Cisco Wireless Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Cisco Wireless

March 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

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Ranking in Wireless LAN

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

119

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Wireless

Ranking in Wireless LAN

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

151

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 12.9%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Wireless is 11.5%, down from 15.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Wireless LAN

Featured Reviews

RezaPradipta

Sr. Officer Network Managed Service Product Management at PT. Indosat Tbk

Streamline network management with a unified dashboard for seamless device integration

The primary use case for Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is mostly for enterprise wireless, including guest Wi-Fi and enterprise Wi-Fi. I use it across various industries with a focus on retail Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers a single pane of glass management. It only comes with a controller on the…

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GulfrazAhmad

Division Head Enterprise Infrastructure (SVP) at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Integrates with ISE, and is secure, reliable, and easy to deploy

The main concern is the length and overlapping. We have to put on four to six access points on the same floor, and we face the issue of overlapping areas. If Cisco can extend the range of their indoor APs, we would need to install just one or two access points, and it would eliminate the problem of the overlapping area. They should provide built-in features for safe authentication. Right now, we integrate with ISE and FortiClient for this feature. We first check the NAC, and after the NAC and before the domain, a token password installed on their mobile or a physical token is required to join the network. If Cisco had built-in authentication, we would be able to eliminate one product from our network.

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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

"The solution is trustworthy. I find it easy and secure."

"This product has allowed us to easily create custom SSIDs for clients and carve out the necessary bandwidth for clients needs."

"I have found it to be stable."

"The user interface is very simple and easy to use — our customers are very satisfied."

"The solution has worked very well in our campus environment."

"The management console is valuable."

"We rarely encounter any issues. The solutions have been very stable."

"The cloud manageability feature is valuable."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pros

"It integrates with Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA)."

"The tool is mainly improving our productivity."

"The CleanAir features and the fast transition."

"It is good, and it works."

"It can provide support for real-time applications, such as VoIP and Video Conferencing over wireless infrastructure."

"It is a very stable solution."

"It is an extremely stable and scalable solution. Its documentation and support are also very good."

"I like that it's a standard wireless solution that can be rolled out throughout the campus. I also like that it is easy to manage. It is a good end-to-end solution."

More Cisco Wireless pros

Cons

"Quality of technical support varies."

"Its price should be reduced."

"It would be useful to have a service management platform integrated within this solution where we can measure the customer experience."

"The initial setup of the solution can be improved and made easier."

"It lags a bit in providing reports for Wi-Fi performance."

"There is only one particular thing that needs improvement. Sometimes, for example, when you need to open a ticket, although it's under the umbrella of Cisco, you still need to go to the Meraki support."

"The stability could be better. We have experienced many instances where we have experienced a lag in our network, and I am not sure if it is due to their devices or our network."

"Recently I have seen that the Meraki access point, maybe due to congestion, just kicks off my customers, mostly when they are in Zoom meetings or Teams meetings and they have to reconnect."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN cons

"Assurance capabilities must be improved."

"In the next release, they should add a better reporting feature. The reporting will tell you if you have a problem. That will make the diagnostics easier."

"Probably more in terms of how much power it's using. Right now it just seems like it doesn't have enough power. Maybe that is all indicated, but says exactly how much power it's using."

"In Latin America, Cisco is very expensive in comparison to other technologies."

"Cisco's architecture is becoming complex."

"The current issue with Cisco is I don't have centralized management."

"The coverage area of Cisco Wireless could improve. Additionally, the reports when a problem arises could be better, such as how it is done in Aruba Wireless solutions. In the Aruba wireless solutions, there are reports that are provided regarding uploads, downloads, and other internet activity that are useful. If this feature was added to Cisco that would be a benefit."

"Code stability is something that needs to be improved."

More Cisco Wireless cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Users have to pay a yearly license fee for the solution."

"It is an expensive solution."

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

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

"You have to renew your contract every year, or for three or for five years. If you do not pay right away they will suspend your subscription."

"The price of the product could be cheaper."

"We do a three-year or five-year license and support. Its price could be better, but overall, we get competitive prices. A lot of times, Cisco puts itself out of range, especially with Meraki. I've dealt with a lot of business development from Cisco, and they have always been accommodating, especially in dealing with hospitals or government. There is also a right time to buy it. July is when they are eager to sell a lot of things because that is the end of their calendar year."

"Its price is high and should be reduced."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pricing and cost advice

"Its price is a bit high. It is more expensive than its competitors, but when I look at the return on investment, it is worth it."

"The pricing is a bit high."

"The price is a little high. However, you get what you pay for. The quality of the product is high, you will find it is worth the money. There is some additional cost, for example, customer support."

"As far as I know Cisco is very competitive, price-wise. Talk to your third-party vendor. It all depends on the company size - how many employees, how big the building is. If it's wireless, and you have only 50 employees but you're using a large building floor, in that case you need many access points. But if you have 50 employees using two or three rooms, then you probably don't need it and it's going to be high density, so there is a different design. So you need to talk to a subject matter expert. Talk to them and design accordingly."

"Pricing is a bit on the high side compared to its competitors but we have to consider the support and usages of the solution. Licensing is now RTU and smart licensing. We need three types of licenses. One for each of the: APs, HA, controller."

"The price of Cisco Wireless is in the high range compared to other solutions. The solution could be less expensive."

"This solution is expensive, but you get value for your money."

"Pricing is a little higher for Cisco Wireless than all other vendors. Cisco should work on improving the pricing because there are some other vendors out there in the market which may have the same features or equivalent features that Cisco has at a lesser price."

More Cisco Wireless pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user212721

President at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Mar 24, 2015

Cisco vs. Aruba Wireless Solutions

Cisco or Aruba Networks? If you are considering wireless access solutions, this is a common question that you are probably asking. You probably have sales people knocking at your door. How do you make sense of all the stories that you are presented with. If you have done any research, you are…

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Answers from the Community

Netanya Carmi

Content Manager at PeerSpot

Nov 10, 2021

Which is better - Cisco Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?

See 2 answers

Aws Al-Dabbagh

IT Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Sep 7, 2021

The standard answer to such a question is: it depends. The pricing for both solutions is very similar: per-AP, Meraki is more expensive than Cisco Wireless. Cisco APs are cheaper, but the controller raises the solution price to be almost equal to Meraki. Meraki is subscription-based and requires constant internet access to manage the system. If the annual license expires, the APs will work, but you can't manage them or read reports of the Meraki portal. Cisco Wireless is a one-time payment for the hardware with annual support payments. if you have a small office with only a few APs needed, you can use the Cisco Mobility Express Controller (which uses one of the APs or a Catalyst Switch as the controller) but that has a limit of 100 APs.

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reviewer1650858

Works

Nov 10, 2021

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 helped us get more network access to more people wirelessly across some very large spaces. It is expensive, though. The Cisco Wireless portal, like many Cisco products, can be very complex. The flexibility of the controllers needs fixing and Cisco Wireless requires a bit of tweaking to get the stability right. We would also like to see the reporting improved - this would help make troubleshooting easier. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is very user-friendly. You don’t have to be a wireless engineer to set it up. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is cloud-based, which is very convenient as you don’t have to have a physical controller, saving valuable space, power, and redundancy. This solution offers advanced configurations that are a great fit for small to medium-sized businesses that can’t employ an advanced tech team. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is high-performance, stable, scalable, and very easy to deploy, and offers a dashboard that makes managing the solution very easy. Some of the built-in capabilities and filtering with Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN needs to be made easier to use. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN needs to better identify devices, and the TAC reading and interpretation capabilities are not always accurate. There are also some processing limitations when you have multiple SSIDs. Conclusion As these are both Cisco products, they offer brand recognition you can trust, great quality, and good durability. We found that Cisco Wireless offered slightly better access points and improved coverage, allowing the creation of better networks. Cisco Wireless takes a one-time payment for the hardware, and then annual payments. If you employ Cisco’s knowledgeable team members, this will be a good fit for you. The huge selling point for Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is its ease of use. You don’t need to have a lot of knowledge to deploy or manage processes, which makes this a great product for smaller businesses with a less tech-savvy team.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

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...

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Which is better - Cisco Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?

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...

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Which is better - Ruckus Wireless or Cisco Wireless?

Ruckus Wireless offers users the benefit of being both easy to set up and get running as well as being very user friendly. This user-friendly quality also renders it easy to learn how to use and ma...

See all answers

How does Cisco Wireless compare with Aruba Wireless?

On the most basic level, Cisco Wireless can offer a rather straightforward initial setup. In the span of about three hours, the basic framework can be set up. Step-by-step instructions are availabl...

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What do you like most about Cisco Wireless?

Cisco Wireless improves mobility and flexibility. The only case we are working on is with hospitals, focusing on the mobility of doctors within the hospital. Everywhere, doctors need to be connect...

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 31% of the time

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 16% 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

Huawei Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Competitors

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 31% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 26% of the time

Huawei Wireless vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiAP vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 6% of the time

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points vs Cisco Wireless

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Wireless Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

March 2025

Download Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Wireless

March 2025

Download Cisco Wireless product report

Also Known As

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

Cisco WLAN Controller

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

Cisco Wireless is a comprehensive suite of wireless solutions designed to deliver secure, high-performance connectivity for enterprises of all sizes. Offering a range of access points, controllers, and advanced management tools, Cisco Wireless ensures seamless and reliable network access, enhancing mobility and productivity.

Cisco Wireless solutions provide robust, scalable wireless networks capable of supporting high-density environments and diverse applications. With features such as seamless roaming, advanced security protocols, and detailed analytics, Cisco Wireless addresses the needs of modern businesses. The solutions include the Cisco Catalyst and Aironet series access points, wireless LAN controllers, and the Cisco DNA Center for centralized management and automation.

What are the key features of Cisco Wireless?

High-Density Performance: Optimized for environments with a high number of devices, ensuring reliable connectivity and performance.
Advanced Security: Incorporates robust security measures such as WPA3, Secure Boot, and segmentation to protect data and devices.
Seamless Roaming: Enables uninterrupted connectivity as users move across different areas within the network.
Centralized Management: Cisco DNA Center provides a single pane of glass for managing and automating wireless networks, enhancing operational efficiency.
Flexible Deployment Options: Supports various deployment models, including on-premises, cloud-managed, and hybrid solutions.

What benefits should users look for in reviews when evaluating Cisco Wireless?

Improved Mobility and Productivity: Users often highlight how Cisco Wireless enhances user mobility and productivity through reliable and consistent connectivity.
Scalability: Reviews frequently mention the scalability of Cisco Wireless, making it suitable for growing businesses.
Ease of Management: Many users appreciate the centralized management capabilities, which simplify network administration and troubleshooting.
Enhanced Security: The advanced security features are often noted for providing peace of mind and compliance with industry standards.
User Experience: The overall user experience, including ease of use and seamless integration with other Cisco products, is a common point of praise.

Cisco Wireless solutions are implemented across various industries, including healthcare, education, retail, and manufacturing. In healthcare, they support critical applications like patient monitoring and electronic health records. Educational institutions use Cisco Wireless to provide reliable internet access for students and staff. Retailers benefit from enhanced customer experiences through in-store connectivity, while manufacturers use wireless networks to improve operational efficiency and automation.

Pricing and licensing for Cisco Wireless solutions are typically based on the scale of deployment and specific product selections. Cisco offers various support plans, including 24/7 customer service, technical support, and access to software updates and patches.

In summary, Cisco Wireless provides robust, scalable wireless networking solutions that enhance connectivity, security, and management for diverse enterprise environments.

Cisco

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

Aegean Motorway, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Brunel University London, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Chartwell School, Children's Hospital Colorado, Cisco Live Milan, City of Biel, City of Mississauga, Dundee Precious Metals, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Erickson Living, Goldcorp, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS)

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Cisco Wireless

March 2025

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