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Cisco Wireless 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
151
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ExtremeWireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Wireless is 11.7%, down from 15.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeWireless is 1.6%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

GulfrazAhmad - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Guest feature is pretty good."
"Support is fantastic. They are helpful and responsive."
"Cisco is one of the leading brands, particularly in the commercial sector. Other brands such as Extreme, cater to different categories at lower levels. Cisco maintains a comprehensive product range across all levels and excels in comparison to other networking sites. They also boast a team of highly qualified professionals, a feature that sets them apart from competitors like Netgear, which lacks such expertise."
"The support is very good. Technical support is very helpful."
"I'm very satisfied with Cisco's technical support."
"Cisco's technical support is very good, I've never had an issue with their technical support."
"Good connectivity and easy to configure."
"There are a lot of valuable features and functions. One example is CleanAir to detect and troubleshoot interference issues. Another is RX-SOP to optimize roaming."
"ExtremeWireless offers profiles, policies, and tags."
"The central control is valuable."
"I like Cloud IQ, ExtremeWireless' cloud controller and analytics platform. It's full of information, easy to use, and provides excellent visibility into my network."
"ExtremeWireless is known for its strong security engine, Air Defense, which provides necessary wireless security assistance to many of my customers."
"The product's price is competitive. It is an impressive and reliable product."
"ExtremeWireless provides us with enterprise-level authentication methods at an excellent cost. It supports all the latest authentication methods. Another advantage is the built-in DHCP server. We don't need third-party DHCP servers to get the IPF."
"The monitoring system is integrated with AI features."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
 

Cons

"The solution should introduce natural language troubleshooting processes. It will identify possible problems or errors due to the symptoms."
"In the future, it would be great if the solution had a GPS feature that could have the ability through access points to locate cell phone users inside a local wireless network, for example in a stadium."
"Many wireless controllers' firmware have bugs in their new releases, which are not stable, especially in an environment with many wireless AP (WAP) types."
"There needs to be an access point that is compact and more suitable for small and medium-sized businesses."
"Sometimes, in some rooms the signal could be a bit better, a little stronger."
"Older versions are complex to configure and implement."
"Cisco is costlier relative to other solutions."
"They should introduce zero interference capabilities."
"The troubleshooting feature for the cloud version is challenging."
"They could provide different product models. Additionally, there could be a feature to manage devices."
"The solution needs to improve its portfolio."
"The management portal is in need of improvement."
"They should develop more troubleshooting tools for system management."
"ExtremeWireless should fix some general bugs and make the user interface more user-friendly."
"Wireless products, in general, have room for improvement compared to wired ones, which are more stable."
"Many companies prefer Aruba over ExtremeWireless, possibly due to Aruba's broader range of products or their thorough approach to understanding customer needs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a need to renew the licenses for Cisco Wireless every three years. My company needs to pay around 25 percent of the budget meant for the tools we purchase towards the price of Cisco Wireless."
"The solution is very costly."
"We have to pay for the hardware and support is extra and we do pay for the support."
"Cisco WiFi 1572 is very expensive locally and our budget for this year is used."
"Never pay the full GPL price."
"The product could be priced better."
"The price of this product is reasonable."
"It might be around $100 for a license. The internal ones are far cheaper than that."
"The price of the solution overall is expensive. Additionally, the controller and license are expensive. We pay for an annual subscription."
"We pay approximately $30,000 per year."
"There are both paid and free licenses of the cloud environment, with only basic functionality in the free version."
"I rate the price of Extreme Wireless a three out of five."
"I rate the product's pricing a three or four out of ten."
"Extreme isn't the most expensive, but it's not a low-cost solution, and because there are no big volumes, you don't receive significant discounts, making the final price higher."
"It's not as expensive as some and is scalable to our needs."
"The pricing is reasonable."
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Wireless LAN solutions are best for your needs.
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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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
11%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
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...
What needs improvement with ExtremeWireless?
They should develop more troubleshooting tools for system management. Additional troubleshooting tools should be created by the engineers.
 

Also Known As

Cisco WLAN Controller
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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)
St. Xavier High School, Americatel, Diamond Light Source
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Wireless vs. ExtremeWireless and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.