AirMagnet Survey PRO vs LinkRunner comparison

AirMagnet Survey PRO and LinkRunner are both solutions in the Network Troubleshooting category. AirMagnet Survey PRO is ranked #5 with an average rating of 6.5, while LinkRunner is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0. AirMagnet Survey PRO holds a 10.0% mindshare in NT, compared to LinkRunner’s 9.4% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of AirMagnet Survey PRO users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of LinkRunner users who would recommend it.

AirMagnet Survey PRO

Read 39 AirMagnet Survey PRO reviews

3,525 Views
705 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

LinkRunner

Read 20 LinkRunner reviews

1,991 Views
1,991 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

AirMagnet Survey PRO

LinkRunner

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

LinkRunner and AirMagnet Survey PRO compete in the network testing and analysis domain. While LinkRunner is cost-effective, AirMagnet Survey PRO holds the upper hand due to its extensive feature set and detailed capabilities.

Features: LinkRunner delivers instant network connectivity testing, PoE testing, and an intuitive AutoTest feature. Its speed in producing results and ease of use enhances on-site efficiency. AirMagnet Survey PRO provides comprehensive wireless network planning and performance assessment tools, including RF spectrum analysis and heat map generation, allowing users to predict and optimize coverage accurately.

Room for Improvement: LinkRunner could benefit from enhanced integration with more advanced network diagnostic tools and an extended range of supported devices. Its cloud-based result storage can be improved for greater flexibility. Additional training resources would support new users in leveraging all device functionalities. AirMagnet Survey PRO might improve its user interface for simpler navigation and streamline data sharing capabilities. Expanding the range of supported adapters could provide a more realistic assessment of network conditions. Enhanced mobile device compatibility would also be beneficial for onsite assessments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: LinkRunner offers quick deployment with straightforward configuration, supported by a reliable and responsive customer service team. AirMagnet Survey PRO requires a longer setup due to its comprehensive features but provides extensive resources and dedicated support to tackle complex network issues effectively, catering well to detailed project deployments.

Pricing and ROI: LinkRunner's lower cost ensures a fast return on investment by cost-effectively diagnosing network issues. While AirMagnet Survey PRO is priced higher, potentially around $36,000 for full capability, its extensive features justify the expense by preventing downtimes and optimizing network performance, ensuring long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed AirMagnet Survey PRO vs. LinkRunner Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AirMagnet Survey PRO vs. LinkRunner

February 2026

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Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

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

AirMagnet Survey PRO

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Modeling and Simulation (2nd)

LinkRunner

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of AirMagnet Survey PRO is 10.0%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LinkRunner is 9.4%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Troubleshooting Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
LinkRunner	9.4%
AirMagnet Survey PRO	10.0%
Other	80.6%

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

Mark Witherspoon

Wireless Services Manager at Veritas Managed Solutions

A solution for site verifications and enhanced with adapters that provide more realistic readings, but needs to support Wi-Fi 6E

Ekahau and AirMagnet Survey have their own pros and cons, in my opinion. For example, the APs are not visible in Ekahau but AirMagnet Survey allows us to see what APs and channels are being used in a live view, which Ekahau lacks. In Ekahau, the signal from the AP it's capturing at that time is visible which is a bit of an inconvenience. The predictive planner of AirMagnet's is better. However, Ekahau has advantages over AirMagnet because it groups all the SSIDs into one AP, whereas with AirMagnet, one needs to group them manually. Ekahau also supports Wi-Fi 6E, but its licensing is restrictive and more costly.

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Jesse_B

Manager of networks and infrastructure at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

Impressive ease of use, gives comprehensive results in seconds, and saves a lot of time and resources

I've found the VLAN test feature to be most valuable. That's because not many devices do VLAN tests. Normally, I have to send a center technician to check a line and see if it's alive. If it's working, then I have to send a network technician out to log into a switch and see which port it's on and on which VLAN that port is. That's two persons and two separate visits. This device does all of this in a matter of seconds, and that has saved me a lot of time, troubleshooting, and resources. Its ease of use is very impressive. LinkRunner allows me to have my technicians run tests that are normally too complex and require a network specialist. AutoTest works with just one click. AutoTest does a lot of testing that would normally require a network specialist to log in to a switch and check out VLAN based on a port. My technicians don't have to log in to the switch anymore. They can just do AutoTest and information is provided online. So, I no longer have to send a specialist. I can have my technician run these very complex tests. It saves me on resources, time, and site visits. When it comes to troubleshooting, based on my experience, it has given very useful and very helpful information, especially for my field technicians. It has reduced my visits and the amount of presence because it gives a very comprehensive report on your network tests. It tests multiple variables and multiple parameters and gives a very informative report that makes it easy to pinpoint what is the root cause. There are many tools in this one solution. It's basically a bunch of toolkits or tool sets in one device, which makes it very powerful testing equipment.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It allows us to prepare more real designs. Later, we validate them with actual surveys."

"Clear and easy to use maps."

"The heat maps are quite good, and some features are easy to use."

"The most valuable features are the survey, spectrum analysis, and reporting."

"The benefit is with the ease of use of the software, I am able to show the customer, "Here is what your wireless coverage looks like." It is set up in a fashion that non-technical people can understand it."

"The addition of the AirMapper software on the nXG and our AirCheck G2s has helped a lot because we're mostly not drilling down into the data. Local managers only need to see the coverage on their end and whether there are performance bottlenecks. These things are easy enough for us to ascertain with iPerf."

"It is reliable and easy to use (user-friendly). The heat mapping, passive network surveying, and doing the heat mapping of a building's wireless network allows me to see what level of coverage an area has."

"We use the solution for Wi-Fi and networks."

More AirMagnet Survey PRO pros

"I like that LinkRunner is an all-in-one device with a touchscreen interface. You don't have to pair it with a phone or anything else to get the full functionality. The built-in tests are one of the most significant advantages. It will pull an IP, ping the gateway, ping out to the intra, and report everything on the screen. It will tell you when a test completes or fails and why."

"I've found the VLAN test feature to be most valuable. That's because not many devices do VLAN tests. Normally, I have to send a center technician to check a line and see if it's alive. If it's working, then I have to send a network technician out to log into a switch and see which port it's on and on which VLAN that port is. That's two persons and two separate visits. This device does all of this in a matter of seconds, and that has saved me a lot of time, troubleshooting, and resources."

"In terms of documenting ad hoc additions and other changes to wired ethernet connections, this product is very good. It keeps the information in the cloud and I have the ability to name it. This makes it very nice and easy to see."

"LinkRunner 10G is very handy for onsite troubleshooting and implementations. We can quickly identify the links in terms of 1G, 2.5G, 5G, and 10G on the copper side, and also from 1G up to 10G on the fiber side. It is very handy for me because we deal with a lot of banks. Especially for the provisioning of new services, we use this tool to identify the link capacity and do the necessary testing to ensure all the circuits are ready before the handover to the next team to operate the technology. This is something that saves a lot of time as compared to the old days."

"I like the fact that I can tell the equipment to stop at a certain point during the test of a cable, to see whether or not there is basic connectivity. I can stop it before it starts pinging the outside world, such as Google or, perhaps, our core network switch. Those basic results—do I have a basic connection and power—finish up fast and I can move on."

"AutoTest is very helpful. It's very streamlined and it's very easy to set up and very easy to identify what we want to achieve. It's probably the feature we use the most. It provides us with LLTD, which is very useful."

"The LLDP decoding is better than on some of the other devices that we've used. Specifically, it goes beyond the minimum of the LLDP data to decode, and it shows the LLDP port descriptions. That makes it vastly simpler to identify which port you're connecting to on a switch that's patched back to some other building, rather than having to figure out an SNMP index or something else."

"Having the results sent directly, via email, from the LinkRunner itself makes it really great for logging different things that you're trying to document within your organization. You can have a paper trail of what your organization has as far as infrastructure goes."

Cons

"The surveying features are in need of improvement, along with general usability."

"It would be nice to have some more training resources for younger techs. We can use them if we need some assistance, but that usually requires one of us who knows what we're doing to calibrate the programs properly."

"But it's definitely a more expensive solution than other ones."

"AirMagnet Survey doesn't cover certain devices in the system."

"Less time consumed doing the real surveys."

"I would say some of our newer techs that are going out to job sites can be a little bit intimidated by the interface."

"The throughput should be more advanced in the future. They need to add more versions of WiFi than just one."

"When you conduct an active survey and then want to use it for design work, it's actually not very useful."

More AirMagnet Survey PRO cons

"One area where LinkRunner could be improved is the battery life. Depending on which tests are run, it gets a decent six to eight hours. However, sometimes we need to do back-to-back shifts to meet a deadline, and we need access to an outlet to keep it plugged in and charging. It takes about an hour or two to charge."

"Unlike using an application like Wireshark, this device gives us no way to see network packets specifically to look at what's going on. It doesn't have the capability."

"Being really nitpicky about the LinkRunner G2, I wish the form factor was a little bit smaller. However, I'm sure that the size of the unit is compromised by the fact that the battery is large. If that were to mean having less battery life, I would not change it."

"One of the things I'd like to see in future versions of LinkRunner is a wireless dongle embedded into the product so that I don't need to have a separate wireless dongle. It should be built into that."

"If it weren't for the battery, it would probably get an eight out of 10. But because of the battery, it's infuriating and it's not reliable."

"It runs tests quickly, but it takes a while to boot up. It's somewhat disappointing that LinkRunner takes some time to turn on. When I arrive in the space, I usually spend the first two minutes waiting."

"They should allow firmware updates even if you don't have an AllyCare contract. I'm in a situation right now where they've released firmware for bug fixes, but we cannot access those, which makes the device almost useless. You almost want to just throw it out the window because they're not supporting their product unless you have an AllyCare contract."

"It's a bit bulky. It would be nicer if it were a little bit smaller and packed with all its features. I would also like it if the screen were a bit bigger."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For technical support, you need an annual license, but it is not worth it."

"The licensing of AirMagnet Survey is different when compared to Ekahu. It is a third of the cost of Ekahau but there are no dedicated laptops to the Sidekick. AirMagnet allows you to license an adapter and share that adapter."

"There is an annual cost of the solution. There are some additional charges, such as support and maintenance."

"The moment we began needing more of the vendor's support, the cost became very high; we switched to another solution."

"The pricing needs improvement."

"The tool's pricing is medium."

"This product is very expensive."

"The cost of this device is very expensive, especially with the NetAlly Care on top of the costs. It is not for personal use and would be very expensive for smaller businesses."

"The area where the product could be improved is by having a lower cost so that I could have more than one. The price is competitive, but everybody would always like to see the price go down. I'd buy another one if it were cheaper."

"It's expensive but you definitely get what you pay for. I would buy another one if I had to."

"They offer one price. I do like paying for support because I get software updates that way."

"It's reasonably priced in my market. It provides good value for money. The device is competitively priced as compared to other solutions. It gives you a lot of functionality and saves you a lot of time and resources. I see it as a good buy and good value for money. I stand for it."

"Its pricing is all right. Of course, from the business point of view, the cheaper it is, the better it is, but I prefer to spend a bit more money to get a quick response, which is helpful especially when we are onsite or in a very critical situation. We are not only paying for the product. We are paying for the people behind the product in terms of developers and technical support. When you need some help, they will be behind it, and they'll support you. There are no additional costs other than the standard licensing fee."

"It's an expensive device. Don't expect it to be cheap. But the pricing is good. It certainly seemed in line with anything else I was looking at at the time."

"It was difficult to sell this to my management because the price is really high compared to other testing tools. However, we've seen a pretty good return on investment considering our outcomes and the time we have saved. The first year has been great."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

15%

University

11%

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AirMagnet Survey?

We use the solution for Wi-Fi and networks.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AirMagnet Survey?

AirMagnet Survey needs to support Wi-Fi 6E otherwise they can lose to the competition. They also need to allow better grouping of SSIDs to one AP, removing the need to filter manually. At the momen...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for AirMagnet Survey?

We use AirMagnet Survey, for site verifications after the wireless system has been installed. We conduct pre and post-install surveys with it. We have reduced the use since now our customers requir...

See all answers

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Comparisons

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Compared 41% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

AirCheck G3 vs AirMagnet Survey PRO

Compared 6% of the time

AirMagnet Spectrum XT vs AirMagnet Survey PRO

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 25% of the time

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Compared 19% of the time

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Compared 19% of the time

AirCheck G3 vs LinkRunner

Compared 16% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AirMagnet Survey PRO

February 2026

Download AirMagnet Survey PRO product report

Buyer's Guide

LinkRunner

January 2026

Download LinkRunner product report

Overview

AirMagnet Survey PRO provides efficient wireless network surveying and design capabilities, optimizing access point placement with dual passive-active surveys, spectrum integration, and real-time analysis.

AirMagnet Survey PRO offers comprehensive tools for wireless coverage optimization. It facilitates accurate SNR/RSSI data collection and features multi-floor planning with robust reporting capabilities. The software enables efficient spectrum analysis, predictive mapping, and simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz surveys, saving significant time. Users appreciate its intuitive interface, which aids technical assessments and visual displays. However, they suggest improvements in multi-floor integration, file import options, and a more dynamic license system. Enhanced cloud storage support, improved auto-placement features, and better device compatibility are also on the wishlist.

What are the key features of AirMagnet Survey PRO?

Dual Passive-Active Surveys: Streamline access point placement with dual survey types.
Antenna Customization: Tailor antenna parameters for optimal performance.
Predictive Mapping: Visualize potential coverage areas before deployment.
Spectrum Integration: Analyze interference and optimize signal paths.
Simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Surveys: Conduct faster, comprehensive surveys across frequency bands.

What benefits should users look for in reviews of AirMagnet Survey PRO?

Accurate Data Collection: Highly precise SNR/RSSI measurements improve network assessments.
Time Efficiency: Reduce survey duration with dual-band simultaneous assessments.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies complex tasks with intuitive visual tools.
Comprehensive Reporting: Offers detailed analysis and insights into network performance.
Cost Savings: Efficient planning and troubleshooting lead to reduced deployment costs.

In industries like hospitality, education, and healthcare, AirMagnet Survey PRO is instrumental in wireless network surveying and design. These sectors rely on the software for precise Wi-Fi coverage assessments, spectrum analysis, and real-time signal checks, using heat maps to identify dead zones for pre and post-installation verifications. Some opt for alternatives to support newer technologies like Wi-Fi 6E.

NetAlly

LinkRunner AT 3000 & 4000. Next Generation Copper and Fiber Ethernet AutoTester. Fast and comprehensive validation of network links and powerful copper and fiber network connectivity troubleshooting. Tests from 10Mbps to 10Gbps, PoE, VLAN, switch port, path analysis, packet capture, topology mapping and so much more!

NetAlly

Sample Customers

Houston Methodist Hospital, Love's Travel Stops

Philips Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, University of South Dakota, Memorial Hermann, Baltimore County Public Schools, Aaramrak.

Buyer's Guide

AirMagnet Survey PRO vs. LinkRunner

February 2026

Free Report: AirMagnet Survey PRO vs. LinkRunner

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