Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs Juniper WLC Series comparison

Cisco and Juniper are both solutions in the Wireless LAN category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Juniper is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.7. Cisco holds a 13.0% mindshare in Wireless LAN, compared to Juniper’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Juniper users who would recommend it.

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Read 118 Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN reviews

16,460 Views
13,308 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Juniper WLC Series

Read 14 Juniper WLC Series reviews

985 Views
1,052 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Juniper WLC Series

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Juniper WLC Series are strong contenders in the wireless network market. Cisco Meraki has the upper hand in ease of use due to its centralized cloud management, while Juniper WLC Series excels in performance and security for more technical enterprises.

Features: Cisco Meraki offers centralized cloud management, easy network segmentation, and user-friendly tracking and reporting tools, making it ideal for both small organizations and larger enterprises seeking intuitive solutions. Juniper WLC Series provides high-speed connectivity, strong security, and templates that ensure network consistency, appealing to technically inclined enterprises.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Meraki could improve its error logs, support process consistency, and connectivity to European privacy laws. Pricing and limited customization options are also concerns. Juniper WLC Series needs enhancements in traffic monitoring, ease of use, and security, along with assurance of future development for reliability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki's deployment is straightforward across different cloud environments, with generally reliable technical support. However, some users mention delays. Juniper WLC Series provides on-premises solutions with efficient support, directly connecting users to technical staff, though integration with other products could be improved.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Meraki's pricing is seen as high, with concerns about the subscription model impacting budgets. Despite this, its robust features deliver a positive ROI. Juniper WLC Series, also considered pricey, provides reliability and performance that justify the investment, with upfront and ongoing costs catering to varied business needs.

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

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Juniper WLC Series

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

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

118

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Juniper WLC Series

Ranking in Wireless LAN

18th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 13.0%, up from 12.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper WLC Series is 0.8%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Wireless LAN

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S

Solution Architect at Bharti Airtel ·

Enables organizations to control many sites globally with a lean IT team and provides visibility into the user activities

The solution can handle only medium and small businesses. We face a bottleneck on the gateway while using the solution for large enterprises. The solution must be able to expand to larger enterprises. Currently, the MX device can support only up to 10,000 users. It would be good if it can go beyond 1 lakh users. Catalyst 9300 is coming on the Meraki Dashboard. The vendor must also bring in the 9400 and 9600 Catalyst series. It will be very helpful. We will not have any choke on the gateway. There is no active-active concept. It will be very helpful if the solution provides active-active. Now, we are doing an active-passive setup, which is a warm spare. If it is an active-active setup, the gateway bottleneck issue can be resolved. I would be able to segment the Wireless LAN IPs. It will help support 20,000 devices at a go. Meraki does not have a single dashboard. I need to port an on-premise controller. There is a bottleneck while scaling the product. I need to consider a lot of things.

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Matilda Elwell

Technical Team Leader - Network &Security at STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Offers visibility and cost benefits

The tool has given us more visibility, but I'm not very technical, so I can't comment on specific features. However, the diagnostic tools for identifying system issues have greatly improved, which we appreciate. We still use Cisco ICE for authentication on the Juniper network, as we did before. We've seen cost benefits with the Juniper WLC Series, which was a key factor in our decision-making during the proof of concept. Besides cost improvements, we've also noticed better resolution of issues and faults in our help desk, thanks to the enhanced features.

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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

"Cisco provides 24/7 support"

"It is cloud-based. It has a GUI rather than a command line, and it just works."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

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

"It is a scalable solution."

"The settings of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN can be very granular. You can lock down and block devices with the controls. For example, we have four different wireless settings, such as guest, employee, security, and backup. For example, the settings for the employees, if they use laptops, they're required to have certain settings, such as an antivirus installed. If they do not then Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN will not let them connect. This is very good protection because the network works on the bringing your own device(BYOD) principle. It's a BYOD environment now, and you also don't want them to bring infection into the environment because these people are connecting to the LAN via wireless connections. We have to be careful because we're managing it, we have to be very strict with regards to the rules and policies."

"The captive portal feature is my favorite. It allows us to keep track of how many people are entering our client's businesses."

"Integrating with the router, firewall, and Wireless Controller is advantageous."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pros

"It is a very stable solution."

"The AI integration with Marvis is very valuable."

"There weren't any scalability issues, the product did what it had to do."

"The AI integration with Marvis is very valuable."

"The tool has given us more visibility, but I'm not very technical, so I can't comment on specific features. However, the diagnostic tools for identifying system issues have greatly improved, which we appreciate. We still use Cisco ICE for authentication on the Juniper network, as we did before. We've seen cost benefits with the Juniper WLC Series, which was a key factor in our decision-making during the proof of concept. Besides cost improvements, we've also noticed better resolution of issues and faults in our help desk, thanks to the enhanced features."

"The installation process is nice and easy."

"The Artificial Intelligence on offer is very useful."

"The installation process is very easy."

More Juniper WLC Series pros

Cons

"Cisco offers pretty expensive devices."

"if there is a better feature, they write it as beta so you have to be careful."

"When we are using SSID roaming, it is not flexible in terms of which AP it connects to."

"The way Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN groups certain things, as far as the devices for either monitoring and or configuring them should be done better. They should be grouped a little bit differently because if I want to configure something, a different setting on an SSID, I have to go to their specific area where I would have thought it should be clumped as a dropdown menu in another area."

"Its price should be reduced."

"The solution's pricing could be improved."

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

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

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN cons

"Juniper WLC Series has certain shortcomings in traffic monitoring."

"Juniper lacks a network access control agent similar to solutions like Alubakya Path and Cisco ISE."

"There could be a high level of security."

"In my region, access to the product is very difficult and presents a logistical nightmare."

"There could be more information from the controller, and it could be easier to work with the controller lights. It's not easy to bring up the upgrades."

"The support on offer to other vendors switching - like Aruba or Ruckus - could be improved."

"We would prefer it if the solution could be less expensive."

"The solution should create configuration documentation."

More Juniper WLC Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Higher subscription fee may be necessary if extra features are required."

"The pricing is on the higher side."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

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

"The solution is pretty expensive."

"The price is negotiable."

"I would say that they have adequate pricing."

"The pricing is based on a subscription and is a bit high at the moment."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pricing and cost advice

"The licensing cost is quite high, but considering it's an enterprise solution, the complexity justifies the price."

"Juniper WLC Series is a bit pricey but worth its cost."

"The product is relatively affordable for enterprise companies."

"There is a certain amount that needs to be paid towards the licensing charges associated with the product, but though I am not sure, I feel the licenses that we have in our company are for three years."

"The solution's pricing is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

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...

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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 Juniper WLC Series?

Juniper WLC Series is a very high-performance device designed for indoor wireless deployment.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Juniper WLC Series?

Juniper lacks a network access control agent similar to solutions like Alubakya Path and Cisco ISE. There should be a network access control engine. Some customers find it challenging as they do no...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Juniper WLC Series?

I work with Juniper service provider solutions. I have a service provider customer and some enterprise customers in retail.

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 32% 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

Cisco Wireless vs Juniper WLC Series

Compared 44% of the time

Aruba Wireless vs Juniper WLC Series

Compared 28% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Juniper WLC Series

Compared 23% of the time

Mist AI and Cloud vs Juniper WLC Series

Compared 5% of the time

More Juniper WLC Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

March 2025

Download Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Wireless LAN

March 2025

Download Juniper WLC Series product report

Also Known As

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

Juniper WLAN

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

WLC Series Wireless LAN Controllers deliver and manage wireless local area networks with the highest level of reliability, performance, security, and management in the industry. They integrate secure, wireless LANs with any size wired infrastructures, from small branch offices to the largest enterprise or university campus.

Juniper

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

Apollo Hotel Papendrecht, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Bajaj Capital, Baloise Insurance, BAS Group, Borealis, Danish Crown, Deloitte Belgium, Jan Yperman Hospital, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, MercaSID, S.A., NHTV Breda University, Parklands College and Christopher Robin Pre-Primary, San Antonio Community Hospital, Sandia National Laboratories, Springfield Public Schools (SPS), St. Catherine University, TalkTalk, The Education Village, University of Copenhagen, University of the Highlands and Islands, University of the West of Scotland (UWS), Valdosta State University, Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), zulily

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Juniper WLC Series

March 2025

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