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Aruba Airwave vs Cisco Prime [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Airwave
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (4th)
Cisco Prime [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Bulbul - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Consultant at Data Market
Reports generation remains efficient while support and updates require attention
The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it. I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive. Customers start to complain and get annoyed about the license price. For example, when customers have 500 access points and features about access point licenses, moving to Central requires purchasing new licenses. This makes customers annoyed and complaining about this situation. It's hard to move from on-premises to Central because they always compare costs. If Aruba gave free licenses, they could move. But going to cloud and Central means more investment, and their budget doesn't cover the new investment. This creates problems for local partner companies.
AR
Network Engineer at Edmonton Catholic School Board
Has an easy implementation process, but the performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive
The project implementation was easy overall. Adapting Cisco's solutions to our specific environment required effort, as their documentation only covers some network scenarios. The deployment didn't happen all at once; it was staged and controlled to ensure a smooth transition. We started with a small test environment before gradually rolling it out to all campuses. This gradual approach helped mitigate the risk of any issues arising across multiple locations simultaneously, especially on a critical day like Monday morning. We have a team of three executives working on the process. Their job roles included network specialists and a manager. It requires maintenance, which is included in the annual cost. We receive updates and support as part of the renewal process.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution gives you a lot of reporting capabilities, and it has a very good interface."
"What I like best about Aruba Airwave is its orchestration feature because it saves configuration time. I also like that it allows you to do ZTP installations for new Aruba equipment."
"It's scalable because it's licensed per device and we bought licenses with each device. I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its dashboard and simplicity."
"The technical support services are good."
"The solution's most valuable features are its usage, bandwidth existence, device capacity, and utilization."
"I would rate the stability a nine out of ten."
"We are a solution provider and Aruba Airwave is one of the products that we implement for our customers, and most of our customers use this product to manage and monitor their networks."
"The solution is very easy to use, and I absolutely advise using it, as long as your budget has no limits."
"The most valuable is the assistance for network support."
"Operationally, Prime is quite easy to use and I like the wireless heatmap and search management features."
"The solution's configuration management tool is amazing because it centralizes and pushes configurations which saves a lot of volume and effort."
"We use the solution to control the physical service station that is part of the SCADA network. We connect and control them remotely."
"As a large organization, it is difficult to individually monitor every device. Instead, we use Cisco Prime to keep an eye on the network and services. We do not use it as a node tool, as we have other tools for network operation centers. When services go down, it can cause issues, we rely on Cisco Prime to monitor and notify us of any service disruptions. We mainly use Cisco Prime Infrastructure for configuration-level tasks."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat maps."
"What I found most beneficial from Cisco Prime is that it gives you an insight into what your network does, even when you're not actively monitoring what's going on with your network."
 

Cons

"We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"We sometimes have problems with troubleshooting between the GUI and the CLI manipulation."
"My general opinion on Aruba Airwave is that it's acceptable, but it's not ideal because we are accustomed to Cisco."
"Support is good, but it is not as good as Cisco. Cisco's support is faster."
"Whenever you get an error it doesn't immediately tell you what the thing is that is causing the error. You have to sit down and research it. If it could say what error is causing the issue, it would make my troubleshooting a lot quicker."
"Stability of GUI Stability of instant access point management"
"We encounter delayed ETAs in the manufacturing of hardware."
"It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions."
"The solution is considered legacy and DNAC has overcome it because of centralized controls that allow a complete LAN network to be moved to centralized management."
"Cisco needs to improve Prime's monitoring tab. If any device goes down, there is a 15-second lapse before we know. It would be much better if we were alerted two or three minutes before a device is about to fail, so we can dispatch a field engineer and avoid network downtime. I would like to see a feature that allows you to access the devices directly from Prime's monitoring tab. That would make work easier for us."
"Cisco Prime needs to have lower prices and more customization options."
"If you think about a centralized monitoring system, Cisco Prime is not good because it does not support third-party vendors like Palo Alto or FortiGate."
"Cisco Prime is slow at times, we often have to restart the database to run reports or to gain access."
"The solution needs to include centralized management that aligns with the Greenfield network and its focus on real-time, scenario-based applications."
"They can also improve the management of more enterprise devices."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We must buy a new license to connect more devices to scale up the solution."
"This product is not expensive."
"AirWave is a very expensive solution. If you implement it in a wide range network, it will cost a lot. There is no option to sell it outside that price segment, which is a problem."
"Run a 90 day free Proof of Concept (PoC) for each product by implementing and using it fully in your environment. This way you will be educated on its features, functionality, and manageability."
"The licensing is on an yearly basis."
"Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."
"I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The price of Cisco Prime was reasonable because we purchased it as part of a Cisco One package. The package was a bundle of Cisco solutions together, such as Cisco ISE and CMX. The price is reasonable com compared to other solutions."
"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
12%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
They have other sensors which can manage and control all the sites. There is an IoT component where we can restrict internet services such as Facebook and YouTube. These things can also be managed....
What is your primary use case for Aruba Airwave?
For Aruba Airwave, I am using the wireless devices for the Wi-Fi for the full company with access points. This is the top product I feel, and I see in the Gartner also. It is a good product and eas...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

No data available
Cisco Prime Infrastructure
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: June 2026.
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