Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs iBwave Wi-Fi comparison

The compared Cisco and iBwave solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #3 in Wireless LAN , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 12.9% mindshare in the category. iBwave is ranked #3 in NM , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 10.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of iBwave 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

iBwave Wi-Fi

Read 12 iBwave Wi-Fi reviews

1,289 Views
772 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

iBwave Wi-Fi

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and iBwave Wi-Fi are competitors in the wireless networking space. Cisco Meraki has the advantage with streamlined management, while iBwave Wi-Fi is preferred for detailed network planning in complex deployments.

Features: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers cloud-based management, scalability, and robust security. It ensures seamless integration with other Meraki products and provides a simplified management dashboard. iBwave Wi-Fi stands out with advanced RF planning tools, detailed signal coverage predictions, and multi-floor network optimization, ideal for dense environments.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Meraki could enhance its RF planning capabilities and improve its compatibility with non-Meraki products. It might also benefit from more advanced heatmapping features. iBwave Wi-Fi could improve user interface simplicity for easier use, offer better support for cloud management, and enhance integration with third-party solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki offers a straightforward deployment model with intuitive cloud management and responsive customer service, making it suitable for widespread deployments. iBwave Wi-Fi, while providing comprehensive planning tools, requires depth in expertise and offers detailed support for complex projects, catering to intricate configurations.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Meraki’s premium costs reflect its strong ROI due to efficient management and reduced maintenance expenses. iBwave Wi-Fi's pricing aligns with its advanced features, offering significant ROI in specialized network environments, justifying the cost for high-density and tailored installations.

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

Buyer's Guide

Wireless LAN

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

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

119

Ranking in other categories

Wireless LAN (3rd)

iBwave Wi-Fi

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Modeling and Simulation (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and iBwave Wi-Fi aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is designed for Wireless LAN and holds a mindshare of 12.9%, up 12.2% compared to last year.
iBwave Wi-Fi, on the other hand, focuses on Network Modeling and Simulation, holds 10.9% mindshare, down 12.1% since last year.

Wireless LAN

Network Modeling and Simulation

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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Gopi R S

Senior Radio Frequncy DAS Design Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Enhanced accuracy in design projects with advanced three-dimensional modeling and great support

I am using iBwave Wi-Fi for a project where we are designing on campus. It is used for large venue designs such as a university campus, and my work involves optimizing and validating the designs for accuracy before site surveys Using iBwave Wi-Fi, I am able to provide more accurate results for…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the status page Cisco added that shows you the health of the wireless connection."

"The management and upgrades are very simple and straightforward."

"The dashboard to keep track of 30 or so APs, switches, routers and logs, is invaluable. I liked the UX on this."

"It makes the process much easier by providing visibility and centralized control over the network."

"The automatic VMware update is very useful because you don't have to worry about outages and planning for VMware updates. It is very advantageous from a management point of view. The ability to restrict and review the clients connected to each of our segments. Additionally, the solution is easy to use."

"It improved the installation time."

"The network security the solution provides is its most valuable aspect."

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

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pros

"The 3D Coverage is a good feature that shows the signal propagation in three dimensions."

"The solution's 3D imaging is amazing."

"iBwave Wi-Fi's tech support is great. They pick up their phones. I have no complaints."

"The stability and feature set of the application are top notch and can't be matched."

"I find the high-quality Heatmap generation, multi-floor, and wire mapping features to be most valuable."

"Compared to other tools, iBwave Wi-Fi provides 95% accuracy and generates heatmaps."

"The most valuable features of iBwave Wi-Fi include the critical three dimensional modeling capabilities, which are necessary for tasks like locating access points, determining their height, and cable routing."

"It can speed up design."

Cons

"Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN could improve by having more granularity in terms of the data displayed. However, I understand that with Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, you need to have a compromise point to what are the functions that you're going to provide to the users versus ease of use. More granularity in terms of the data and the things that you can do to the devices would be helpful. For example, when we wanted to make a change, restriction, or segregation within Palo Alto, we can go to the level of detail that we want. The amount of detail provided is amazing, it is very granular. However, it comes with much more difficulty, it requires a technical understanding of the environment compared to Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN."

"They should introduce a grace period of 60 days after license expiry because as it is now, it automatically goes down and there is no grace period."

"I would like to see more cybersecurity. I would like the ability to go in and enhance security. Because WPA2 is becoming obsolete, many devices are now WPA3, but the challenge is that a lot of devices are not yet there. I would like to be able to go in and do monitoring, similar to ASPM. ASPM has the ability to monitor who's joining and who's active. It supports two-step monitoring. The stability of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN can also be improved."

"The wireless infrastructure scalability has room for improvement."

"Initially, I liked some of the filtering features, but that's one of the components that we ran into problems with."

"The product doesn't effectively do its job anymore since some issues crop up in it once you run out of your subscription licensing...Improvements are needed in the licensing part of the tool."

"This solution could benefit from a heat mapping ability so that you can tell where the hotspots are, and where the good signals are."

"It would be good to integrate with ISE in the future."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN cons

"Areas of improvement would include more functionality in the Mobile App, expanded reporting features, and some shortcut features."

"I would like to be able to see two buildings at the same time so that you can create a campus view."

"iBwave Wi-Fi doesn't have a distributor feed platform."

"The cost of the solution could be improved. It's extraordinarily expensive."

"iBwave Wi-Fi could be improved by adding a plot for overall improvement, allowing us to see where we are failing in design parameters, similar to features in Ekahau."

"I am currently looking for an alternative due to my reluctance with the reliability of this product."

"It would do iBwave well to become more involved with their clients."

"It would be good if we could involve a visual while designing the backhaul."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is not so much for Wireless LAN, but when you have to get the security license, it costs a lot."

"It is expensive."

"We pay licensing fees."

"We don't like the licensing model and we think that it needs to be improved significantly."

"The solution could improve the licensing structure and the price is expensive."

"It is super expensive for what you get. You also have to buy a license every year. Otherwise, it stops working."

"The price of the product could be cheaper."

"The cost of both the hardware and licensing is high, and it is more than what I would prefer to spend currently."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pricing and cost advice

"iBwave Wi-Fi is an expensive solution, but it is worth the cost."

"The solution's pricing is cheap."

"I advise others to treat the cost as you would any tooling cost and use the monthly option as needed."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

13%

Construction Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

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...

See all answers

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...

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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What do you like most about iBwave Wi-Fi?

Compared to other tools, iBwave Wi-Fi provides 95% accuracy and generates heatmaps.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iBwave Wi-Fi?

Both iBwave Wi-Fi and Ekahau are costly tools. They're considered high in cost because the license needs to be renewed yearly.

See all answers

What needs improvement with iBwave Wi-Fi?

iBwave Wi-Fi could be improved by adding a plot for overall improvement, allowing us to see where we are failing in design parameters, similar to features in Ekahau.

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

Mist AI and Cloud vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Competitors

Ekahau Site Survey vs iBwave Wi-Fi

Compared 70% of the time

Forsk Atoll vs iBwave Wi-Fi

Compared 12% of the time

AirMagnet Survey vs iBwave Wi-Fi

Compared 10% of the time

RedSeal vs iBwave Wi-Fi

Compared 9% of the time

More iBwave Wi-Fi Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

March 2025

Download Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Modeling and Simulation

March 2025

Download iBwave Wi-Fi product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

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

iBwave has been the industry standard software for designing indoor wireless network for over 13 years. Used by hundreds of operators, OEMs, enterprises and system integrators around the world. The iBwave Wi-Fi Suite is a powerful Wi-Fi network design solution that gives you a significantly more productive way to design carrier-grade indoor Wi-Fi networks. Consisting of a mobile app, a powerful PC based software and 10GB of cloud connectivity to easily share and synchronize project information.

Key Features include:

Advanced 3D Predictive design
Advanced capacity planning
Calibrated prediction for extremely accurate prediction results
Ability to model incline surfaces
Comprehensive reporting
Cloud connectivity to easily share and access projects anytime
Free read-only project viewer for customers and project partners

iBwave

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

ARRIS

Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ruckus, Cisco and others in Wireless LAN. Updated: March 2025.

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We monitor all Wireless LAN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.