Ruckus Wireless Reviews

I am a Ruckus reseller and this wireless product is one that we provide for our customers.

My customers are all in industrial environments, so I have worked with a lot of different controller-based models. I primarily handle warehouse management and manufacturing, so these are installed in big warehouses, the oil sector, solar-powered Wi-Fi, and other businesses.

Many of the wireless devices are by vendors like Honeywell and Zebra. They are handheld units and the network packet size is small.

The most valuable feature is the coverage, which is exceptional.

I feel that the vendor needs to have better control of who is selling the product online, especially when the reseller doesn't know anything about the product. It is frustrating when customers tell me that they have found it on Amazon for a cheaper price.

I would like to see newer on-premises controller-type models, similar to the 3000. 

We have been working with Ruckus Wireless for about nine years, since 2011. I have about 24 years of experience with wireless solutions in general.

I haven't had any issues with maintenance, long-term. They have never had any trouble holding up in the environment that they're in.

The scalability of Ruckus is excellent. I have some very, very large customers.

I have experience working with Cisco, Aruba, and other types of Wi-Fi that my customers have installed.

For somebody who knows what they're doing, the initial setup is very straightforward.

Sometimes, people take an easy approach to implementing the system, but it is not as efficient as it could be. Generally, I find that you can put it in the easy way or the right way, and you need to have a little more skill than just plugging it in to get it working efficiently.

My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is not to become obsessed with bandwidth or throughput. It is more important to look at coverage and roaming capabilities than simply the bandwidth. I find that when it comes to schools, people who are implementing wireless usually overdo it.

For me, this is the best wireless product on the market. Every customer where I have put it in to replace an existing system loves it.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Ruckus Wireless provides good coverage.

The delivery device, and the warranty, need improvement. They offer a three-year warranty.

It takes a long time to return the RMS delivery device.

It is extremely difficult to send videos in Ruckus live sessions. Zoom streaming, or using Teams Streaming live sessions to send videos, for example, could be more effective.

I would like to see Cloud Control, and Wi-Fi 6 added as new features in the next release.

Ruckus Wireless is a stable solution.

Ruckus Wireless is scalable.

Ruckus Wireless has very good technical support in Jordan.

When compared with Cisco, and Aruba, Ruckus Wireless is less expensive. 
Cisco is expensive, and there is no support in Jordan.

It is reasonably priced. I would rate the price a three out of five.

With Wi-Fi 6 the price is more expensive than Aruba Wireless.

Wireless and Devices, use Wi-Fi 6. The 2.4 or the five is in the same range as Aruba.

I would rate Ruckus Wireless a six out of ten. It's a mid-ranged solution that is best suited for medium-sized companies.

I work for a small school. In fact, I've worked with two separate schools with different administrations and they both had Ruckus — they both had the same equipment. There's probably one controller and maybe six, seven, eight access points.

We're running teacher PCs, might be about ten PCs on there, and then a bunch of student Chromebooks. We weren't one-to-one at the one school — they had carts they wheeled around. They might have had maybe 40 of them, but now they're one-to-one and they probably have a couple of hundred users — 200 to 300 users on there. The other school's been one-to-one, but it's a smaller school. They probably have a couple of hundred computers on the whole network — Chromebooks. That school's pretty much all Chromebooks.

I have been using this solution for five years.

I haven't heard any complaints about the WiFi equipment at all causing problems. We've had issues with the ISP, not enough bandwidth. At one place, the firewall equipment failed us, but with Ruckus, no complaints on the controllers. It's just been a solid performer for us.

I have very limited experience with support because the vendor takes care of all of that. They're kind of pricey, especially when you look at Ubiquiti. 

Interestingly enough, the vendor who sold us Ruckus is now quoting an upgrade and he's no longer quoting Ruckus, he's going with Ubiquiti. I asked them why they did that, he said "Oh, it's a better value." Maybe Ruckus dropped them and now they're representing Ubiquiti. They have some staff turnover, so we keep seeing new people. And that's the local vendor. I haven't dealt with Ruckus directly at all, so I don't know what the company would provide.

I logged into the system to look at it. That was a number of years ago, so my memory is vague. The only thing I really changed when I looked at it was to set up a separate sub-network for the students. They had a guest network already set up and they already had the staff networks. I set up a student WiFi network to segregate them from the staff.

I'm not the person who really configures them, our vendor did all that. When they first went in, I took a look at the configuration, but I haven't really touched them since then. You can configure them and just leave them to do their thing.

I went in once and set up a guest network — it was pretty straightforward. I didn't even have to look at the manual to do it.

The vendor is responsible for all maintenance-related issues.

With Ubiquiti, there's no annual cost to keep the software upgraded, whereas with Ruckus, you have to pay an annual fee or three-year fee. That makes it a little more pricey.

Ubiquiti is quite a bit cheaper, just on the upfront costs than the Ruckus equipment. I mean the Ubiquiti quote we got, we're not only doing the access points, but we're also doing our switches. If one person is doing Ubiquiti switches and Ubiquiti access points, another vendor's doing Ruckus equipment. We're seeing half the cost with the Ubiquiti equipment. I worked for Ubiquiti on a very small installation where cost was at a premium and they needed to get in as cheap as possible. It worked for them. It was a church. Dropped in about four access points and they were happy.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven. The cost is the only thing dragging them down.

We belong to the hotel industry. In the hotel itself, we have deployed WIFI fully throughout the establishment. So far, it is working perfectly.

The solution offers a lot of great features to its users.

The multiple FSIVs is great. 

The meshing is very effective.

The solution has a very high bandwidth.

We've found the initial setup to be straightforward.

The solution is very user friendly.

It offers good customization capabilities.

We have found the dashboards to be quite good.

Occasionally, we have found some controllers malfunctioning. However, that is rare, and largely the solution works perfectly.

They should work to make their licensing more affordable.

I've been using the solution for five to six years at this point. It's been a while for sure.

The solution is quite stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. I've found it to be extremely reliable.

The solution scales quite easily when you need it to. We use and mix and match the old and new versions as we change rapidly. We have our older equipment that hits its end of life, and we deploy new ones to cover the old. We are able to do this pretty seamlessly, and, if we need to, we can just continuously add on based on our requirements.

Everyone who works in our organization uses the solution.

We've been in touch with technical support multiple times. When we create a ticket, they are quite responsive. We're satisfied with their level of service.

The initial setup is not complex. It's pretty straightforward. A company shouldn't have any issues with the implementation.

We deployed almost 420 pieces and in total it only took us about a month and a half.

The licensing is paid on a yearly basis. We are working with three yearly licenses.

The pricing is okay, however, it could be more affordable.

We have looked at Aruba and Cisco as well as ExtremeWireless and compared them all to Ruckus.

We are a large partner.

We don't use the latest version of the solution every single time. Often we mix and match versions.

I would recommend the solution to other organizations. We've been largely very happy with the product overall.

I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for our wireless network services.

The solution manages and updates itself.

The price has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

I give Ruckus Wireless's stability a ten out of ten.

I give Ruckus Wireless's scalability a ten out of ten. We can install 100 APs before installing more, which is enough for a small business.

We also use MikroTik as a cheaper option for customers that can't afford Ruckus. 

Configuring MikroTik is more complex compared to Ruckus, where we only need to create an SSID, and the rest is automatically handled in the background.

The initial setup is straightforward. I give the setup a ten out of ten. The deployment takes up to 15 minutes to complete.

The implementation was completed in-house.

The price is high and I give the price a four out of ten.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

The solution is for small and medium clients.

For customers that can afford Ruckus, it is a great product and I recommend it.

We use Ruckus Wireless for wireless network connectivity in a hotel.

I have been using Ruckus Wireless for approximately five months.

Ruckus Wireless is a reliable solution.

The scalability of Ruckus Wireless is good.

There are approximately 500 users using the solution.

I have not contacted the technical support from Ruckus Wireless.

The initial setup is straightforward, it did not take very long to do. All you need to do is plug it in.

The price of Ruckus Wireless could be better. I have heard it is more expensive than other solutions.

I rate Ruckus Wireless a nine out of ten.

The system is used in reporting as a vital business tool for collecting, analyzing, parsing, presenting, and storing unprecedented

The solution automatically detects network anomalies. SmartCell Insight uses advanced machine learning algorithms to automatically establish a pattern of normal behavior for each network element. The system requires no input from IT. Its predictive analytics capability automatically detects anomalous behavior in network elements—helping you to proactively address issues that might affect service levels.

The Ruckus SCI has transformed traditional network reporting into a vital business tool, collecting, analyzing, parsing, presenting, and storing unprecedented amounts of user, traffic, session, and location information. Data from the large networks can be stored and retrieved for several years. Ruckus SCI collects and aggregates statistics, providing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as upstream and downstream traffic, number of sessions, unique clients, or even the throughput customers can expect to achieve over periods of time on a per-AP basis, and filtered by time as well as a wide variety of other metrics

The most useful aspects include:

• Powerful Wireless Network Reporting and Analytics
• Network intelligence from applications, clients, access points, and controllers
• Predictive analytics powered by machine learning to automatically detect network anomalies
• Variety of standardized reports with drill-down capability for highly granular detail
• Data Explorer tool to customize reports and dashboards with drag-and-drop ease
• Ruckus SmartCell Insight (SCI) is the industry’s first Big Data Wi-Fi analytics and reporting engine that is purpose-built to help service providers make informed business decisions regarding the operation of their Wi-Fi networks. It makes use of Big Data technology and storage innovations found in columnar database repositories which greatly enhance the scale and performance of a system when used to process historical data.
• Easy to integrate/configure with old systems.

I would like to see more location-based services on the Smart Cell Insight on access points.

I've used the solution since about May 2021.

It is very scalable. You can add more controllers as long you have license capacity.

Customer service is excellent and the service is prompt.

You can also raise the level of your issue if you need to.

You can get to choose your type of support and they can communicate with you via e-mail or a direct phone call.

I did not use a different solution just yet.

It is a straightforward setup. There is documentation for the system, which makes it easy.

It was an in-house combination of the IS team and the system users.

I'm still considering other platforms.

This a good solution for an enterprise network.

Mainly for large, residential home automation systems. 

It allows us to deploy systems and not deal as much with support, because it just works.

• It's reliable.
• The company is amazing - the support and service are amazing.
• It outperforms anything else on the market.
• It's easy to use.

Mounting options for outdoor access points, I think they could easily improve on that. 

I think that Web management, global management, could be improved. Unfortunately, there's not one solution that does everything. There are something like six different solutions, and each of them do something better than the others.

Very stable.

Not at all. Scalability is one of the things that they excel at, beyond everybody else.

It depends. It's hard for us to say because we have a very close relationship with them, so we have back-channel access to their top people. In fact, we're the first ever gold service partner, so we basically are the support now. For any systems that we sell, we're the direct support for that product. 

I think if you're a new person starting out, you can get close relationships with the local sales engineers, which is great. When I first started, the first time I even looked at the product, a sales engineer met me out in the field, took some demo gear, put it up, showed me everything. Even within that first year, I had an engineer walk three high-rise courthouses for Miami Dade County; walked every single floor with me. I was a new partner and they did that for me, which is amazing.

I think the phone support is okay, if you're just a regular partner. And it works. I would say if somebody got to know their local rep, that would be the best way to get help if you really need it in a bind.

We used to use Cisco's enterprise wireless, but I kept hearing about Ruckus and I just couldn't believe that some upstart company was better than Cisco. Once we started using it, we saw that it outperformed Cisco and, on top of that, the difference in configuration between Cisco and Ruckus is night and day. Cisco is a pain to configure, where Ruckus is pretty much already set up out of the box. There are a few tweaks here or there, but the configuration time is 10 times faster with Ruckus versus Cisco.

An engineer met me out in the field, put some gear up, and it just blew the Cisco away. And it was just so much easier to configure, that it was a no-brainer. It was cheaper. We had better coverage, it was more reliable, it was faster, and it was easier to configure. It's one of the best companies I've ever dealt with in my life. I have nothing but good things to say about them, which is the only reason I'm doing this review, because I think they deserve it.

It's very straightforward.

It's definitely a good value. It's more expensive than some of the other offerings out there, but when you compare it to other enterprise-class gear, it's very well priced. And the beauty of it is, because it has better range because of their patented BeamFlex - which is the way they can send and receive and listen to signals - you can actually use fewer access points. That means that it's a cheaper overall project.

Aruba, Meraki - and this was Meraki before Cisco, at the time. But since then we always look to see what else is out there, see if something's better, and so far we haven't found anything. Once something better comes along, we'll use it because we only want to use the best for our clients.

Don't wait, do it now.