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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN 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
1.0
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers financial savings and scalability, justifying initial costs, though competitors may offer similar features cheaper.
Sentiment score
8.5
ExtremeWireless provides scalable, cost-effective solutions with 30% ROI savings, easy deployment, and excellent support for long-term use.
The monitoring access and excellent support provide significant value.
The best ROI is achieved over a three-year term.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
3.0
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN support is generally prompt and knowledgeable, but inconsistencies and delays exist, especially with complex issues.
Sentiment score
7.2
ExtremeWireless support is helpful but inconsistent, with slow response times and limited availability affecting user satisfaction. Ratings vary.
It would be better if the SLA of technical support was less than four hours.
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 response time and quality could be better, and updates can be troublesome at times.
I would rate the customer service as a ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.3
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers seamless scalability, easy expansion, and strong adaptability, despite some cost and licensing challenges.
Sentiment score
6.7
ExtremeWireless is scalable and adaptable for medium to large enterprises but may face stability issues at higher user thresholds.
Meraki is not scalable enough since it straightforwardly maps its products to segmented specifications.
The Extreme access points handle high-density connectivity needs very well, managing lots of traffic efficiently.
ExtremeWireless is suitable for companies with a user base below three hundred.
The scalability of ExtremeWireless is average.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
4.6
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is stable and reliable, but may experience issues during firmware updates and in high-density areas.
Sentiment score
7.0
ExtremeWireless is praised for its stability and reliability, though some encounter challenges with firmware updates in high-density environments.
Stability is not an issue for me because it comes with Cisco's proven manufacturer quality.
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.
They work well without failures.
I experienced issues during firmware upgrades, as some devices required a physical restart, which affects system stability.
The stability of ExtremeWireless is somewhat weaker compared to previous solutions, like Motorola before its acquisition.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN needs improved features, integration, scalability, security, and competitive pricing to match competitors' offerings.
ExtremeWireless must enhance affordability, integration, security, support, and performance to improve competitiveness and meet small business needs.
The most important improvement needed is to eliminate the limitation of uplinks.
Some of the newer models of the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN access point have encompassed the new wireless protocols and increased the strength of their antennas.
I wish for ExtremeWireless to optimize the roaming capability between access points, especially for IoT devices.
Another area that could use enhancement is the clarity and implementation of updates, as they can be troublesome sometimes.
They should develop more troubleshooting tools for system management.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is costly with annual licenses, but valued for quality despite limited renewal discounts and coterminous issues.
ExtremeWireless provides good value with both free and paid options, despite medium-high pricing and substantial hardware costs.
The pricing of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is not competitive enough for the SMB market compared to other brands.
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is on par with other devices in that category, offering competitive pricing.
Each customer typically buys around 100 APs, which makes it quite expensive.
Initially, the switch from Cisco to ExtremeWireless was financially favorable due to attractive pricing.
The pricing is a weak point for Extreme; it is very high.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers cloud management, ease of deployment, security features, and real-time monitoring for versatile network management.
ExtremeWireless offers cloud management, strong security, seamless integration, and stability, making it ideal for security-focused sectors.
It also manages security clients and switches, providing a single dashboard to manage multiple network infrastructures.
The ability to program all access points from the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN dashboard, view the status of all of them, and examine the individual devices connected to each access point is very valuable.
A single license can be used for on-premises, hybrid, or cloud, allowing for easy transition between solutions without losing investment.
The most valuable features of ExtremeWireless include the management through the one dashboard management with ActionCloud IQ, integrated with Site Engine.
Extreme access points perform very well in high-density environments, and we use them at sites with our customers.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN
Ranking in Wireless LAN
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ExtremeWireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 12.3%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeWireless is 1.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

RezaPradipta - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
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
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Wireless LAN solutions are best for your needs.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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...
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 be very reliable and to consistently run very efficiently. Cisco Wireless helpe...
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...
What needs improvement with ExtremeWireless?
There are concerns regarding the stability of ExtremeWireless. It could be an area of improvement, especially when compared to previous solutions such as Motorola before their acquisition. Another ...
What is your primary use case for ExtremeWireless?
We mainly use ExtremeWireless ( /products/extremewireless-reviews ) for the warehouse, specifically for the Zebra handheld devices and printers.
 

Also Known As

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
St. Xavier High School, Americatel, Diamond Light Source
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. ExtremeWireless and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.