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Aruba Access Points vs NETGEAR Insight Access Points 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

Aruba Access Points
Ranking in Wireless LAN
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NETGEAR Insight Access Points
Ranking in Wireless LAN
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Aruba Access Points is 3.0%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETGEAR Insight Access Points is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba Access Points3.0%
NETGEAR Insight Access Points1.6%
Other95.4%
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

HJ
Telecommunication Engineer at Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia
Wireless connectivity has remained reliable and supports flexible, cloud‑independent management
As I already mentioned, the ability to stay with self-hosting solutions for central management is what I think could be improved about Aruba Access Points. If this becomes available in the future, I think it should change the game. However, I don't currently see this because I see nothing about AirWave anymore on your roadmap. I don't understand what happens next. There are some problems in assessing the performance of Aruba Access Points in environments with high user density. If there is a dense environment, a mobility controller would be the one you should go with because this needs more telemetry to calculate. I suspect this will be easier to do with local administration or local management because if everything goes over the internet through Aruba Central, it takes time. Every decision the central management makes takes extra latency to send over to the local area network. I think this is not a good approach to move to central management that is hosted somewhere far away. It should still retain the functionality to use Instant AP functionality that is available until 500 and maybe 600 as well. If you go to software version 10 and future versions, then you lose this functionality and you can't go back anymore. It would be good to assist with local location management and BLE-based functionalities as additional features I expect from future Aruba Access Points. There were some attempts to support third-party integrations through cooperation between Aruba and Meridian. However, I don't understand what happened there, and nothing is clear in this area. IoT will also be very important for people. You should add functionality to the platform that will support third-party IoT devices.
DG
Owner at ERIM S.A.
Centralized management has simplified our home Wi‑Fi setup and supports multiple users reliably
Given my experience with NETGEAR Insight Access Points, my piece of advice for other organizations considering it is that they have to look at the rest of their system because NETGEAR Insight Access Points is quite useless with anything but the Wi-Fi system. I rate this product an 8 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's initial setup phase is very simple and very easy to use."
"It has been a stable solution since its installation."
"One of the most valued aspects of Aruba access points is their price competitiveness; they are available at half the price of Juniper access points."
"The product is quite accessible and reliable."
"The Adaptive Radio Management feature is quite good."
"It is relatively easy to deploy Aruba Access Points, so from the box to operation is straightforward."
"The interest funds are valuable."
"Aruba Access Points is an economical solution."
"The biggest lesson that I've learned from using the Insight access points is that there is no need for expertise."
"This solution has been a big return on investment."
"I am all about simplicity. With the Insight management solution, I don’t need an additional cloud controller, appliance, network manager, or PC/server to configure and manage my access points. You have to look at cost, and everything has a cost. There is a cost to using Insight. But if the cost is reasonable, I don't want another layer. The ability to deploy a network and then have that software built-in, without having to go to a third-party, is big. Also, the less pieces that I have to call in on, the better. So, when I'm calling NETGEAR, it's not like I'm using some third-party piece of software to manage their product. It doesn't add that layer of complexity, which is key."
"The product's deployment is straightforward."
"The internet connectivity is good."
"From the WiFi aspect, it's very intuitive and easy to use, and the solution enables me to manage my entire WiFi from anywhere in the world."
"We use NETGEAR's Insight management solution to do off-property controls. It is user-friendly and provides network management, monitoring, and service deployment across multiple remote and local sites. That means I don't have to be physically at a location to do things if I want to make any changes to the network. It saves time and money."
"The solution enables me to manage my entire network from anywhere in the world."
 

Cons

"The delivery timeline is a major problem. There are also configuration and integration issues since not many engineers are available in the market who has expertise with the product. Some of our customers also experience network slowness."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The tool could be cheaper."
"There should be enhancements to support open Wi-Fi technology for seamless authentication across different access points."
"Aruba Access Points should improve its automation."
"The product is highly priced. They could improve pricing."
"I am not able to integrate Aruba Access Points in Azure AD. It is also quite expensive."
"I have to go via HP's process, which is not as good as Aruba's used to be."
"The product's UI needs to be simplified and made more straightforward."
"I have some frustrations with the ease of use. It tends to be sluggish. The graphical interface is pretty, but not useful. They have this tree that shows connected devices, which makes no sense whatsoever because the labeling field of the tree truncates all the items to the point that it's almost useless. You can't even tell what it is. I would prefer a spreadsheet list of the gear as opposed to a graphical representation."
"Managing users could be improved as it is quite difficult to block someone, and it is impossible to block someone on one specific access point."
"A con is the backend system which is very, very slow."
"The registration is annoying. I have to go back to NETGEAR and log tickets. Access points and router registration are something that they need to address in Insight. They need to fix the bug of getting the devices activated and enrolled in Insight without fighting with them. I have probably done about six of these in the last month. You get to see patterns."
"The registration is annoying. I have to go back to NETGEAR and log tickets."
"The biggest issue I've had is that it works very well with the WiFi, but it does not offer any assistance at all with the routers. You can't control them or manage them at all. As soon as you want to use anything on the network side—because I have multiple 28-port switches—you can't manage them using this app."
"I put in a NETGEAR BR200 router and it gave me a lot of headaches when trying to create VLANs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is reasonable."
"I implemented seven access points in 2015, and I only spent $6,000 for the whole project."
"The tool is priced the same as its competitors."
"Users have to pay a licensing fee for Aruba Access Points, which could be cheaper."
"The product is expensive if you want it to have a long life."
"The solution is expensive and licensing costs are yearly. Customers have to pay extra costs for service and subscription apart from the hardware cost."
"The price compared to other brands is slightly higher."
"The product is costly and comes with a lifetime license. There is neither renewal nor subscription. It is a one-time solution."
"Their pricing is perfect for smaller businesses who are money and budget conscious. There are a lot of other solutions out there that are two to three times more expensive."
"For what you get, the price of Insight access points is very reasonable."
"It wasn't much more than 100 dollars a year. For the devices that we have, the pricing was pretty fair."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The pricing seems to be reasonable."
"I think that the price of the product is reasonable."
"My company does not need to pay anything related to the solution's licensing costs."
"We have some basic models they give without a license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Retailer
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Access Points?
I would rate the price for the product as two, with one being high and ten being low.
What needs improvement with Aruba Access Points?
AI is only in Aruba Central, and we don't use Aruba Central yet. Integrating AI in the controller would be a good point for improvement. Performance is an area that could be improved and represents...
What advice do you have for others considering Aruba Access Points?
Aruba Access Points work fine with another product called ClearPass. I integrated it with the Access Point. Overall, I would give a final rating of eight for Aruba Access Points. I would recommend ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETGEAR Insight Access Points?
My impression of the pricing aspect of NETGEAR Insight Access Points is that it is not exactly cheap. I find the pricing reasonable, but it is at the upper end of the reasonable bracket.
What needs improvement with NETGEAR Insight Access Points?
Managing users could be improved as it is quite difficult to block someone, and it is impossible to block someone on one specific access point. Regarding specific features that I would like to see ...
What is your primary use case for NETGEAR Insight Access Points?
We are using NETGEAR Insight Access Points in a domestic environment with four or five users.
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Access Points vs. NETGEAR Insight Access Points and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.