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Aruba Wireless vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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 Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
150
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi
Ranking in Wireless LAN
24th
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 January 2026, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Aruba Wireless is 13.9%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Aruba Wireless13.9%
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi0.8%
Other85.3%
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

UM
IT Infra Deputy Vice President at ESFB
Strong performance supports network team effectively but guest access compatibility needs improvement
We connect the network using Aruba Wireless. We connect our office network, and we use it primarily within our network team Aruba Wireless has many features, especially their state-of-the-art controller, which can be connected to the cloud. They also have an unlimited lifetime warranty, which is…
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

"It has an aesthetically pleasing GUI for configuration."
"For my organization, the most critical feature of Aruba Wireless is guest management."
"With the central management system, I'm able to access each device. I can configure one device and then it provisions all the other devices with the same configuration, rather than my having to configure them one by one."
"The functionality is very high and we can properly meet the clients' requirements."
"The Aruba Wireless solution has excellent roaming capabilities, ensuring seamless connectivity."
"If we really want to know where a specific user is connected, it gives us the ability to see that and how that user is actually receiving. We can know the speed and their IP, their MAC address and, most of the time, how much bandwidth they're using per day."
"The most valuable feature of Aruba Wireless is the controller. It is easy to use."
"Enterprise wireless LAN solution with good visibility and amazing scalability. Aruba Wireless also offers good technical support."
"We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use."
"Cloud analytics that provide all its attributes."
"It makes it easy to obtain all information about the client experience."
"They're very easy to set up and get running."
"The solution has been stable."
"The configuration part of WatchGuard is very flexible."
"The Wi-Fi security features of this solution have been great for our customers who need to strictly control access to their network."
 

Cons

"I wish the APs had the ability to enter in notes about a specific AP."
"The dashboards that represent the network access control in Aruba Wireless could improve."
"Better integration between the controller and the ClearPass portal would be a nice change."
"I need more access. I only install the hardware and the software part for the client. However, there are no admin privileges, which is an issue. You need to contact them and make a special request."
"They need to work on reducing prices as they are currently on the higher side."
"I had some problems with Wi-Fi coverage in the workshop, which required purchasing more devices."
"Currently, the stability of the code is the basic underlying problem for us. They had an 8.6 release that came out two weeks ago, but we had to migrate twice because the code wasn't stable. We can't get things to work the same way. Version 8 was a big change for them. They made a change so that it is forced to be a managed hierarchical system. It means that you make changes at the top, and it pushes them downstream. There are a lot of problems with the 8.6 version code. I ran into four bugs in one week and was informed that we should just move onto the next one because all of those fixes have taken place. The feedback loop for fixes is not always really relayed back to you. I don't have a lot of strong things to say about version 8.6. When we had version 6, the controller was pretty much rock solid. We had no problems. We made a heavy investment to migrate a lot of stuff to take advantage of things like WPA3, Wi-Fi 6, and all that kind of stuff, and we haven't been able to turn those features on because we are not confident that they are going to work just yet. So, right now, we're still very much stumbling through the version 8.6 code and just trying to make sure that it is safe before we turn on some of those features. In terms of the marketplace, they are one of the top three leaders. In some respects, one of the things that they focus on is wireless. Therefore, there are some things that should be beyond reproach, as far as I'm concerned. In terms of the stability of the code, there are always going to be bugs, but the core stability of the code needs to be there. When it is not stable, that's a real problem for me because you lose a lot of confidence in the products."
"Sometimes the configuration is difficult."
"The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention."
"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."
"One of the things is if you buy it with a certain subscription, you can't easily change the subscription level."
"I don't think they're available at the best price."
"Inability to 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."
"The solution can be scaled but it has limitations from my experience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Aruba Wireless has a more competitive price than other solutions."
"The system was very good, but we needed to upgrade in order to adapt for our needs, and doing so with Aruba would have been more expensive. ​"
"It's not expensive. That is the reason we switched to Aruba."
"The product is expensive."
"Aruba is comparable to competing solutions when it comes to price."
"The price point is pretty high compared to Ubiquiti and other equipment."
"Licencing can be surprising and needs improvement. Look into all features, what you need versus what you want, and know that nothing comes without some kind of license."
"The price of Aruba Wireless should be cheaper."
"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."
"WatchGuard is on the upper scale for pricing."
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Comparison Review

it_user212721 - PeerSpot reviewer
President at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Mar 24, 2015
Cisco vs. Aruba Wireless Solutions
Cisco or Aruba Networks? If you are considering wireless access solutions, this is a common question that you are probably asking. You probably have sales people knocking at your door. How do you make sense of all the stories that you are presented with. If you have done any research, you are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
10%
Non Profit
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business77
Midsize Enterprise47
Large Enterprise74
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What are pros and cons of Aruba 515 Series AP vs. Cisco Meraki or Extreme Networks?
Depends. I have personally used both Cisco and Aruba so I am familiar with them. Extreme I am not, so unless they have some feature that I need or want, I wouldn't consider them. Do you have expe...
Aruba Wireless or Ruckus Wireless?
At my organization, we researched Ruckus Wireless among other solutions but ultimately chose Aruba wireless. What did we like about Ruckus? First, it was very easy to use, and anybody with minimal...
How does Cisco Wireless compare with Aruba Wireless?
On the most basic level, Cisco Wireless can offer a rather straightforward initial setup. In the span of about three hours, the basic framework can be set up. Step-by-step instructions are availabl...
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...
 

Also Known As

Aruba WLAN, HP WLAN, HP Wireless, Aruba Instant On AP Series Access Point
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Consulate Health Care, Los Angeles Unified School District, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), San Diego State University, KFC, ACTS Retirement-Life Communities
Portsmouth Grammar School, HILOTEC
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Wireless vs. WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.