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Aruba Access Points vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi comparison

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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
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi
Ranking in Wireless LAN
22nd
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 September 2026, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Aruba Access Points is 2.9%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi is 1.2%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba Access Points2.9%
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi1.2%
Other95.9%
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.
reviewer2562924 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT System Support Administrator at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees
Configuration offers flexibility but response to incidents needs improvement
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 incident. We are still trying to identify the cause, which is why I would rate it seven out of ten. Without this incident, I might have rated it eight to nine. Overall, I give the solution a rating of seven.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Aruba is a controller-based solution. We have some multi-story buildings. We only need to maintain one controller, and we can manage it from a single IP address."
"Aruba Access points easily integrate with existing network infrastructure."
"The integration with robust network switches is valuable."
"We had a very great experience with the technical team."
"I'm very pleased with Aruba Access Points."
"The manageability of both on-premise and cloud versions is valuable."
"The product’s most valuable feature is its ability to offer wireless connectivity to any service provider."
"Aruba Access Points provides secure and transparent access points for all users"
"Cloud analytics that provide all its attributes."
"All you have to do is take it out of the box, plug it in and you're ready to go."
"We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use."
"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 is priced high compared to competitors, however, for the features that are included in the solution, the price becomes more reasonable."
"They're very easy to set up and get running."
"The configuration part of WatchGuard is very flexible."
"If I were tasked to set up new WiFi at a single site, or at multiple locations for hundreds of sites, I would make this solution my first choice."
 

Cons

"The solution's lead time is very slow and should be improved."
"Aruba sometimes redesigns Aruba Central and the web interface, which is sometimes an annoyance."
"I have to go via HP's process, which is not as good as Aruba's used to be."
"The product's prices are an area of concern. The product should be available at a lower price point."
"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 price could be a bit lower."
"The product's stability and technical support services needs improvement."
"The product fails to provide better and extended coverage, making it in an area where improvements are required in the tool."
"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."
"I don't think they're available at the best price."
"One of the things is if you buy it with a certain subscription, you can't easily change the subscription level."
"The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention."
"Inability to import a user with one click."
"The solution can be scaled but it has limitations from my experience. The access points are rated for 500 people but I think the max is closer to 200."
"In terms of improvement, one issue I have is that I can't import a user with one click."
"The price of this solution needs to reviewed, as it is currently high enough to deter customers from trying it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is not expensive. It is perfect as per the features."
"Users have to pay a licensing fee for Aruba Access Points, which could be cheaper."
"The tool is available in the market at a reasonable price"
"Although not cheap, Aruba Access Points is a reasonably priced solution."
"Aruba Central is a bit overpriced for some customers."
"It is a reasonably priced tool."
"The price compared to other brands is slightly higher."
"The product is expensive if you want it to have a long life."
"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."
"The solution is priced high compared to competitors. However, for the features that are included in the solution, the price becomes more reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

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 Business5
Midsize 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 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

Information Not Available
Portsmouth Grammar School, HILOTEC
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Access Points vs. WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.