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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

Edward Zeng - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology
Troubleshooting obstacles occur but technical support excels
My general opinion on Aruba Airwave is that it's acceptable, but it's not ideal because we are accustomed to Cisco. We didn't use Aruba much, but once you set it up, you probably don't need to worry about it too much. The version we are using is quite old now, probably around version four. I can't remember the version exactly because a lot of the products require Aruba Central, but we haven't used Aruba Central yet. I face challenges with Aruba Airwave, particularly with troubleshooting. When someone has a problem, we try troubleshooting, but the end-to-end users' messages show some details that are not always up-to-date, and sometimes the information from the GUI is not exactly aligned with what's on the website. If Aruba Airwave can apply AI capabilities, that would be even more perfect. I'd appreciate integration with Aruba Central; it would be great if they could incorporate it into Airwave.
ZeeshanAli1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Robust, cost-effective, and provides good visibility, but the scalability could improve
We are extremely satisfied with the reliability and robustness of Cisco Prime Infrastructure, which we have been using for many years. Compared to newer products such as DNS centers or others, it has proven to be much more stable, which is important for large-scale operations. Stability is a primary concern for us, and we are glad that Cisco Prime Infrastructure meets our expectations in that regard. Furthermore, in regards to Legacy Plus new hardware, Cisco Prime has proven to be a reliable and adaptable solution thus far. Not only can it support older hardware, but it also has the capability to handle new features with the latest updates. If we consider new solutions such as DNS Center, we may have to sacrifice some legacy features that we still rely on. We may need to continue using these legacy features for a few more years due to various reasons such as budget constraints or the site not being a high priority. However, if we switch to a new product at this stage, we may lose a lot of the monitoring and other capabilities that we have with Cisco Prime. We have a close relationship with Cisco and understand that they are not prioritizing investments in Cisco Prime as they are encouraging customers to adopt the Cisco DNA Center. This means that we don't anticipate many new features to be added to the product in the future. While we know that we will eventually have to transition to a new solution, in the meantime, we plan to do a quick refresh of our legacy products.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It contains valuable features for engineers to C-level executives, who want visibility, performance, statistics, and a platform which can take action for them without manual intervention, saving time and money.​​"
"The powerful features we can put forward in Aruba Airwave are clarity, report creation, and VisualRF."
"I would rate the overall solution nine out of ten."
"The Clarity feature makes it easy to use and understand what is going on with your network in a nice dashboard, and it contains valuable features for engineers to C-level executives, who want visibility, performance, statistics, and a platform which can take action for them without manual intervention, saving time and money."
"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."
"One of the main advantages is its ability to draw building floor plans and analyze Wi-Fi signal behavior in real-time."
"The most valuable features are the error log and intrusion log. It also provides an overview of your assets. It gives a good database for wireless coverage."
"It can interact with other vendors better than Cisco, which is a good point of AirWave, it is easy to use, and its reporting is good."
"Cisco Prime has been around for a long time, and it keeps getting better and better."
"The VLAN mapping function has been most impactful in simplifying our network management tasks."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"Our clients are happy with Prime, the stability is good and it's easy to manage."
"We use this solution to troubleshoot our wireless systems, specifically regarding signal strength."
"Cisco Prime is a one-stop place to log in and manage our entire wireless infrastructure."
"Has a good wireless heatmap and search management features."
 

Cons

"They should make it cheaper. By doing that, they can replace Cisco, which is also very expensive. If it is equivalent to Cisco in the features, with a reduced price, they can sell it more than Cisco."
"Cost is always a big issue for partners."
"We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices."
"The integration with other platforms like Cisco needs to be improved."
"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."
"The overall monitoring of this solution could be improved."
"When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls. It's somewhat annoying since other Wi-Fi design software we use is easier for drawing walls and including floor plans."
"Pricing for Aruba Airwave could be cheaper, which is an area for improvement in the solution."
"The reporting feature of Cisco Prime should be improved."
"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."
"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."
"The onboarding process could be improved and developed to enhance compatibility for non-Cisco devices."
"The onboarding process could be improved and developed to enhance compatibility for non-Cisco devices."
"The product needs to improve its stability."
"The product's pricing can be cheaper."
"We would like to see the inclusion of detailed alerts."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The licensing cost for Aruba Airwave increased from $72 to $210 within a few months. It would be better if the pricing for the solution were cheaper."
"Aruba Airwave's licensing cost is not that expensive."
"Aruba Airwave is an expensive solution."
"The licensing is on an yearly basis."
"Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."
"The tool is expensive. If one is bad or expensive, and ten is very good or cheap, I rate the product's price as a six."
"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."
"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Construction Company
6%
Transportation Company
6%
Government
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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...
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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: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.