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ExtremeCloud IQ vs Ruckus Wireless comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ExtremeCloud IQ
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (10th), Network Access Control (NAC) (10th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (18th)
Ruckus Wireless
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Wireless LAN (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

ExtremeCloud IQ and Ruckus Wireless aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ExtremeCloud IQ is designed for Network Management Applications and holds a mindshare of 3.0%, down 3.1% compared to last year.
Ruckus Wireless, on the other hand, focuses on Wireless LAN, holds 14.3% mindshare, up 12.4% since last year.
Network Management Applications
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Sriman L - PeerSpot reviewer
One of the best cloud-based wireless solutions that helps manage multiple APs from a single dashboard across multiple locations
ExtremeCloud IQ’s user interface needs to be improved, and its current bugs need to be fixed. Sometimes, AP details, like the AP firmware and the AP hostname, are not updating properly because of a few bugs in the current version, which they might fix in the next version. Compared to the central and other cloud solutions, a couple of bugs still running on these portals need to be rectified. For ExtremeCloud IQ's next releases, I expect to get all the users and the events alerts. Also, if any AP goes down, I should be able to do some scheduled reports specific to the site because it is currently in beta. If any AP goes offline, that's an event. If you want to do the filter for a specific site event, we don't have that filter option. I expect specific site-level and category-level events and alert filters to get reports.
Xander Janse Van Rensburg - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable and high-performance wireless networking with exceptional stability, scalability, and robust feature set
One of the most valuable features I appreciate is auto channelization, facilitated by a proprietary product called ChannelFly. This feature enables APs in a specific zone to automatically adjust their channels, optimizing performance. Additionally, Ruckus Wireless stands out for its ability to reuse certain beams, resulting in smaller data spots. In my experience with various products, Ruckus Wireless consistently delivers unparalleled throughput, coverage, and reliability in wireless networking across different environments. As a noteworthy point, the newly launched WiFi 7 standard is measured against Ruckus's WiFi 7 AP, establishing it as the global benchmark. When it comes to WiFi, Ruckus sets the standard, outperforming competitors with its superior performance and capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"ExtremeCloud IQ is an intuitive platform. The tool's ability to streamline network operations depends on the end customer. Sometimes it's quicker, and sometimes it takes much longer. It helps me to address network problems."
"Extreme is transitioning to 802.11ax facilities running the 2G and the 5G cloud, allowing for higher density in education use cases, and ExtremeCloud IQ provides you with novel ways to manage everything. In the old days, you used to have a controller on-site for your access points, but everything is easier now."
"Integrated Firewall in every AP (with DPI inspection) is a killer feature and it is included already in the price of licence (with others, this feature is an add-on licence)."
"The few times we have needed help, Aerohive has been there for us and I am confident that If I need them they will be there again."
"The deployment made my life very easy."
"The HiveManager integration with the VPN Gateway is awesome."
"I like ExtremeCloud IQ's unified single-pane-of-glass dashboard. It offers a lot of visibility of performance, and it's great for troubleshooting. You don't have to go to 55 different places. You can get the information you need with just a few clicks."
"The cloud-based management interface allows us to fully manage all our wireless radios, ensuring consistency and ease of access."
"The product can scale."
"The most valuable feature is the portal."
"The solution has many innovative features."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"It's reliable wireless equipment."
"The beamforming has been the most valuable aspect of the solution for our organization."
"Key features are integrated WiFi client performance tools, sophisticated user access controls, and easy and understandable controls and interfaces."
"The list of options you have is great: throttling guest networks, the controller dashboards for administration, on-the-fly configuring, settings, hours of use."
 

Cons

"The tool has simplified things, but it also adds a complexity that sometimes stumps some users."
"We have had some mediocre to poor experiences with tech support: Conflicting information, condescending attitudes, and reluctance to work to resolve an issue."
"For me, the only issue is the potential delay in the tool statistics updating in real time after making changes."
"Its price could be lower. It is a simplified solution, but it has price challenges. It is costly as compared to other solutions. It has almost everything. The only thing is that MAC is not possible on the cloud, and it has to be on-premises."
"They can improve just the onboarding process. More user information about the introduction to the product would be helpful. It would be good if they have a better user introduction to the new product because it is different than the prior version."
"The solution will show us that there are some issues, but when we try to find those issues, we can't see them."
"Their firewall configuration gets funky and it can be difficult to understand."
"The Virtual Appliance crashed once while doing an upgrade. The good thing here is, even if the management system fails, all our networks and features still remain 100% stable and working."
"The pricing needs to be more clear and licensing could be less expensive."
"I would like to see better mapping capability because it can be really difficult, especially if you are deploying on a remote island."
"The cost could be improved."
"They lack in some hardware stratification."
"Mounting options for outdoor access points, I think they could easily improve on that."
"APs should be more adaptable to denser client regions and, most important, the logs on the ZoneDirector should be classified into groups, such as type of logs and alerts."
"Their support has been lacking a little bit and needs to be improved. I have had a ticket open for a month, and it is really hard to get a resolution out of them. They haven't really come out with anything that is much of an improvement in a long time. It has mostly just been fixes and things like that. We used to have a ZoneDirector or a physical controller for the wireless network, and that was kind of end of life. It was very old, and at the time, we were expanding the wireless network, and we didn't want to rely on one piece of hardware that was pretty old. So, we went to SmartZone Cluster, which has two VMs in a cluster. Unfortunately, we lost the feature ability for guest networks and other things that we were using before, and Ruckus just kind of told us that they weren't supporting that feature in the newer product, which is not really great. I was told initially that SmartZone was an upgrade to ZoneDirector. It is the logical thing to think that it is going to have all the same features, but it didn't. The issue that we have right now is onboarding BYOD devices. It is not really great for us, and we're looking for a new product to make that easier. We did have Cloudpath, which was a product that Ruckus purchased from another company that was an onboarding solution, but it just didn't really work very well for us. So, we discontinued using it, and it actually created more confusion for people. They should make BYOD or guest network portals a lot easier and better. In some areas, we have been having issues because there are just so many WAPs that are so close that we had to manually turn down the radio of power because the automatic feature of the AP wasn't really doing it right. It should also have a little bit better RF analysis capability to be able to see on the controller side. The front end for our staff, students, and guests has also not been quite as good as we had hoped."
"The delivery time of the hardware needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For example, if you compare Aruba vs Aerohive, you need to check which licences from Aruba you need to match the functionality of Aerohive (usually you need at least three types of licences and a controller with redundancy). The same goes with Cisco, where you need buy additional licences for central management, firewall, spectral analysis, WIPS, PPSK, etc. Aerohive has a very simple model - one licence for all the functionalities - and you can believe that there are many. One licence makes it easy to maintain, scale, renew and you can plan your costs 10 years in advance."
"Price-wise, it is a reasonable tool."
"The pricing is so cost-effective that it leaves no room for competition with other vendors."
"I did a multi-year license. It was a three-year license. It compares well with others in terms of the price. It is about a hundred dollars per year on a three-year scale."
"Start small and grow big. You can choose the basic Aerohive Connect free subscription solution and, later, if needed (in terms of functionality) you can upgrade to Aerohive Select."
"Buy near the end of Q4 in order to get a deal."
"It is easy for customers to use this product because they are able to interchange the license depending on their usage rather than having to buy individual licenses for each asset."
"It is costly as compared to Meraki, Aruba, Juniper, and Cisco. Cloud IQ is an enterprise solution, whereas Meraki is specifically a single solution."
"This is a very expensive solution."
"The price is high and I give the price a four out of ten."
"The price of Ruckus Wireless could be better. I have heard it is more expensive than other solutions."
"We found it a little more expensive than the other competitors on the market."
"Its price is reasonable for me."
"Regarding pricing, Ruckus Wireless is a five out of ten. Though it's cheaper than Aruba Wireless, pricing for Ruckus Wireless, when you look at its functionality, could be more affordable."
"Cost-wise, the product is priced above average, considering its competitors in the market."
"It is not cheap, but it also doesn't carry the high price tag of some other products on the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
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...
What do you like most about ExtremeCloud IQ?
The Client 360 feature provides a comprehensive view of your clients and their activities, including the devices they use. Additionally, a feature called Network 360 offers a 360-degree view of the...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeCloud IQ?
The licensing was a challenge due to budget constraints, and I used ExtremeCloud IQ without a license for a period. The documentation and training courses were also costly, impacting how easily I c...
Aruba Wireless or Ruckus Wireless?
At my organization, we researched Ruckus Wireless among other solutions but ultimately chose Aruba wireless. What did we like about Ruckus? First, it was very easy to use, and anybody with minimal...
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 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...
 

Also Known As

Aerohive Networks, Aerohive HiveManager, HiveManager, ExtremeCloud , ExtremeSecurity
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henry Ford Health System, Baltimore Ravens, Brandili, Federal University of Alagoas, CEDAE, Caxias do Sul, UNISC Concurrency, CenturyLink Field, Louisiana College, Cricket Tasmania Stadium, Moscow Internet Exchange
American University of Sharjah, Baruch College, Centro Escolar Liceo Santo Tomšs, Chevalier College, Chico Unified School District, Colegio de Fomento El Prado, Columbia Public Schools, Delta School District, Dordt College, Douglas County School District, Drew University, Armonea, Central Utah Clinic, Grove Hill Medical Center, Inner South Community Health Service, Midwest Surgical, Satilla Regional Medical Center, Lyndoch Living, Polonus, Roaring Fork School District, Sonora State, Vivid, Sydney, Players Club, Sandals, Scandic Hotels, Sheraton LAX, Sunbird
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetScaler and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: March 2025.
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