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Ruckus Wireless vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi 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

Ruckus Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi
Ranking in Wireless LAN
25th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Ruckus Wireless is 13.5%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Ruckus Wireless13.5%
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi0.6%
Other85.9%
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

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.
WarrenWilliams - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution that offers excellent support and makes it easy to manage networks
To utilize the solution properly, you need some training and guidance on that. Getting it working is easy, but if you're going to use it with feature sets that make WatchGuard worthwhile to use, it's probably not the easiest to set up. I'd rate the initial setup a seven out of ten. The time taken to deploy the solution depends on the project scope you're doing. Do you need ten WiFi access points or one? You could deploy the solution in an hour. We need one person to deploy the solution. But the number of people required for deployment depends on where the access points are deployed. Like, if it's the ceiling or whatever. The way we do it, we usually have an on-site technician who sets up the backend. We usually have two people when deploying the solution, but you can do it with one person. We have a team that manages the solution. But if you have ten people on a site to manage the solution, 15 minutes daily is enough.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Zero-handoff is one of the top features. The client balancing between the access points is good. Its security is also fine."
"We rarely had access points fail in the field. They were rock solid, durable, and had the best signal penetration from any we tested.​"
"It's stable."
"The APs themselves have been pretty solid. We haven't had too many of them go bad or anything like that. The wireless performance seems pretty good. The ability to provision the devices is pretty good, and the back end is also pretty good."
"The most valuable feature of Ruckus Wireless is the Beamforming feature."
"Provides us with the features we need: walled garden, client isolation, 802.1x with dynamic VLAN, guest passes, etc."
"Mesh networking and antenna patterns are the most valuable features of the solution."
"Analyzes real-time, in-depth network performance."
"The configuration part of WatchGuard is very flexible."
"Cloud analytics that provide all its attributes."
"The Wi-Fi security features of this solution have been great for our customers who need to strictly control access to their network."
"The solution has been stable."
"We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use."
"It makes it easy to obtain all information about the client experience."
"They're very easy to set up and get running."
 

Cons

"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."
"​They need more products in the lower-end range for smaller clients​."
"If the system could directly download and update, that would be much easier. It could be more automated."
"An area for improvement in Ruckus Wireless is automating its guest WiFi access function. Currently, the product requires token generation, so it would be better if there's a portal for the guest to log in and get the password rather than the IT team needing to give passwords to guests."
"The price is an area that requires improvement. The pricing could be better."
"I would like to see more detailed network performance, monitoring, and reporting tools or information. This would improve the deployment of multi-site networks and help administrators to progress on a timely efficient manner."
"The price is one area for improvement."
"Wi-Fi 6E and the cloud are areas with shortcomings in the solution that need improvement."
"One of the things is if you buy it with a certain subscription, you can't easily change the subscription level."
"Inability to import a user with one click."
"The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention."
"The price of this solution needs to reviewed, as it is currently high enough to deter customers from trying it."
"If a client device had issues with authentication due to out of date browser or similar difficulties, it would be nice to have the ability to migrate the client onto the portal via one click."
"The solution can be scaled but it has limitations from my experience."
"I don't think they're available at the best price."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is subscription-based."
"The price of Ruckus Wireless could be better. I have heard it is more expensive than other solutions."
"Ruckus Wireless is not an expensive solution."
"​The cost can be prohibitive for many as it is a high-end product in the WiFi market.​"
"Ruckus is an expensive solution."
"We don't pay any licensing fees, we purchase them."
"It is decently priced."
"It depends on the client. You have an initial license cost that you need to buy to bind the access point with the controller. This is a one-time fee. You also have to pay the support fee that, if I remember correctly, is about $25 per access point. Its pricing and licensing can be improved."
"The solution is priced high compared to competitors. However, for the features that are included in the solution, the price becomes more reasonable."
"WatchGuard is on the upper scale for pricing."
"Your licensing and cost, as would be required for many other solutions, being considered for eighty to two hundred and eighty different physical locations, is just about the same amount per access point."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Retailer
9%
Non Profit
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What needs improvement with WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?
The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention. Also, when an incident occurs, the impact can be significantly huge. A recent p...
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?
We use WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi because we have used different tools as well, like Ubiquiti. The complexity of Ubiquiti is much more compared to WatchGuard, which provides more flexibility and is ea...
What advice do you have for others considering WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?
We recommend using WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi, but when incidents occur, it can be very difficult to identify why they happen. Normally, the issues are simple to fix, but we recently faced a major inc...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Portsmouth Grammar School, HILOTEC
Find out what your peers are saying about Ruckus Wireless vs. WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
873,003 professionals have used our research since 2012.