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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs Cisco Wireless comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 2, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.0
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points' support is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, though some report occasional slower response times.
No sentiment score available
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN support is praised for efficiency but criticized for inconsistencies and varying responsiveness.
No sentiment score available
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
8.3
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points need enhanced features, better integration, improved security, adaptive connectivity, and simplified processes for market success.
Sentiment score
2.7
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN faces challenges in support, customization, pricing, privacy compliance, and requires improvements in features and scalability.
No sentiment score available
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points are praised for their seamless scalability, supporting thousands across industries, simplifying cloud-based expansions.
Sentiment score
8.5
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is praised for scalability and integration, though some find costs and licensing to be challenging.
No sentiment score available
 

Setup Cost

No sentiment score available
Juniper Mist pricing is higher but justified by advanced features; varies by scale, sometimes cheaper than Cisco, pricier than Fortinet.
Sentiment score
6.5
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers quality products but faces criticism for high prices and subscription-based licensing compared to competitors.
No sentiment score available
Juniper Mist is cheaper than Meraki, placing it in the middle of the pack.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points are praised for exceptional stability, reliability, and quick performance, even without cloud connectivity.
Sentiment score
3.3
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is stable, reliable, secure, but requires careful management during firmware updates to maintain connectivity.
No sentiment score available
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.5
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points provide AI-driven network management, offering easy setup, centralized control, and enhanced user experience.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers cloud management, user-friendly control, easy deployment, network analytics, reliable security, and seamless connectivity.
No sentiment score available
It's a cloud solution with Mist, which helps troubleshoot and provides visibility to look at different access points.
 

Categories and Ranking

Juniper Mist Wireless Acces...
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Ranking in Wireless LAN
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN
Ranking in Wireless LAN
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
150
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points is 5.6%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 13.0%, up from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Wireless is 12.5%, down from 16.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Gyan Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good performance, good solution and smooth implementation
I do have a suggestion: it would be helpful to have even stronger security features to help protect against interference from other nearby access points that aren't part of our network. If there are access points from other brands installed nearby; they can cause interference and disrupt the range of our Mist access points. So, the security features could be stronger, especially in terms of authentication. The connectivity is excellent, but security needs improvement. In future releases, integrating more AI features would be beneficial. If Mist had stronger AI features, it could provide better security against network threats and cyberattacks. So, this solution still needs to improve its AI capabilities. It would be great if the AI could improve the range of the access points, and auto-protect functionality should be there to avoid interference by other nearby access points and enhance threat detection. In the future, I'd like to see stronger threat detection features integrated with Mist, as well as better detection of nearby access points that might cause interference.
JoseAlmonte - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good mobility, stability and scalability
The main company is a hotel resort with around 120 rooms. They have approximately 90 devices deployed throughout the complex, and they haven't had any issues with the streamlined version or established information Cisco offers a service where they provide internet access to clients. This allows…
Michael Lees - PeerSpot reviewer
Affordable, resilient, and performs better than other solutions in the market
Assurance capabilities must be improved. There should be more Assurance features on the Wireless LAN Controller. A lot of it is bundled into the DNA Center. Having a little more Assurance regarding what the RF Spectrum looks like will be good. Juniper Mist has a lot of analytical data on the dashboard. The customers would be compelled to look at DNA Center as a longer-term and more comprehensive solution if Cisco were to give them an insight into some of the Assurance capabilities that might be available in DNA Center. The tool must provide something like RF Neighbor. It must enable organizations to receive signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio and see how clients perform in their wireless network. It must have a cap. If we want additional functionality to see our entire network, that's where DNA Center fits in.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Wireless LAN solutions are best for your needs.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user212721 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Answers from the Community

NC
Nov 10, 2021
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...
See 2 answers
AA
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.
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.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series)?
If a customer has a budget of around five lakhs in Indian currency, they can afford Juniper products. But for a new c...
What needs improvement with Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series)?
HP recently acquired Juniper, and I'm not happy about that. Juniper is a brand, and HP acquired them because of Junip...
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 h...
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...
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...
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 frie...
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 ...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series), Mist Access Points
MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN
Cisco WLAN Controller
 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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)
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Cisco Wireless and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.