Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs ExtremeWireless comparison

Cisco and Extreme are both solutions in the Wireless LAN category. Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3, while Extreme is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.3. Cisco holds a 12.9% mindshare in Wireless LAN, compared to Extreme’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Extreme users who would recommend it.

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Read 119 Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN reviews

15,495 Views
12,588 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

ExtremeWireless

Read 29 ExtremeWireless reviews

1,738 Views
1,516 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

ExtremeWireless

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

ExtremeWireless and Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN compete in the wireless LAN market. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN stands out due to its advanced features like integrated security and cloud management, while ExtremeWireless is favored for its competitive pricing and strong customer support.

Features: ExtremeWireless offers robust connectivity, customizable configurations, and flexibility, making it appealing for enterprises seeking adaptive solutions. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN features integrated network security, centralized cloud-based management, and high in-depth visibility of network activities, providing a comprehensive solution.

Room for Improvement: ExtremeWireless could benefit from faster deployment options, enhanced integration with cloud-based systems, and broader support for diverse environments. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN might improve by reducing the initial cost, offering more personalization in support services, and expanding customization capabilities for advanced users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers streamlined deployment with centralized cloud management, simplifying oversight. ExtremeWireless needs manual configuration, which can extend setup time, but compensates with more personalized and responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: ExtremeWireless is known for competitive pricing and a favorable return on investment, appealing to budget-conscious enterprises. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN has higher initial costs, but robust features and efficient management tools provide significant long-term value, justifying the investment despite a larger upfront cost.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. ExtremeWireless Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. ExtremeWireless

March 2025

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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

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Ranking in Wireless LAN

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

119

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

ExtremeWireless

Ranking in Wireless LAN

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 12.9%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeWireless is 1.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Wireless LAN

Featured Reviews

RezaPradipta

Sr. Officer Network Managed Service Product Management at PT. Indosat Tbk

Streamline network management with a unified dashboard for seamless device integration

The primary use case for Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is mostly for enterprise wireless, including guest Wi-Fi and enterprise Wi-Fi. I use it across various industries with a focus on retail Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers a single pane of glass management. It only comes with a controller on the…

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Seungho Yang

Network Engineer at KOREAN AIR

Enhanced employee access with effective wireless monitoring and seamless roaming

Our use case for ExtremeWireless is to allow our employees to access the company systems The monitoring systems in ExtremeWireless have been very effective, and they are cheaper than other products. It provides better monitoring logs and detailed logs compared to Cisco Wireless. The most…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"The most important feature is flexibility."

"It's a stable product."

"The captive portal feature is my favorite. It allows us to keep track of how many people are entering our client's businesses."

"We can deploy it and check in on our customers without having an on-site connection or an on-site infrastructure for elderly customers."

"The management and upgrades are very simple and straightforward."

"The most valuable feature is cloud management."

"The solution's most valuable features at that time were the ease of managing on the cloud without having a server and the authentication using RADIUS integrated with the server on the cloud."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pros

"It's cloud-based and very easy to deploy."

"In terms of the most valuable features, I like the integration with the fabric. The network fabric completely integrates with wireless as well."

"The customer service and support provided by Extreme are excellent."

"ExtremeWireless offers profiles, policies, and tags."

"The cloud-based solution allows for easy management and monitoring of traffic and congestion."

"The most useful feature is how the product integrates with the Microsoft directory in the cloud."

"The wireless security solution is the most valuable feature of ExtremeWireless."

"Based on my experience, I would recommend ExtremeWireless to others."

More ExtremeWireless pros

Cons

"The customization needs to be improved because it's pretty locked down."

"Currently, only a limited number of clients can connect to these devices."

"If you lose connectivity with the controller, your Wi-Fi network is immediately impacted."

"It is not a very stable solution."

"The throughput of the switches for wireless could be improved."

"The price could be slightly lowered to make it more competitive in the market."

"The most important improvement needed is to eliminate the limitation of uplinks."

"Its price should be reduced."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN cons

"The APs have quite a low signal compared to other brands."

"Wireless products, in general, have room for improvement compared to wired ones, which are more stable."

"The ExtremeWireless WiNG Access Point on-premise is not as good as the cloud and many of my customers are switching. It is easier for my clients to manage everything from the cloud. I currently use a model of the controller that does not support any cloud functionality."

"The performance of the access points could be improved. ExtremeWireless coverage and signal stability could be enhanced to match the level of Ruckus Wireless and other vendors."

"The cost is a little high."

"The main area for improvement is the company's local visibility."

"ExtremeWireless support isn't very good."

"The product must be provided at a cheaper price."

More ExtremeWireless cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."

"As is always the case, the price could be better, although I do not recall exactly how much this comes out to."

"These units cost between $800 and $900 per device and on top of that, you have to pay yearly fees for maintenance."

"Negotiate the deal put in front of you!"

"My client has made comments on the price, indicating it is expensive, however you do receive a lot for the money that you did spend on the solution. The price of the annual renewal of the licensing of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is a little high. We wish the price would drop."

"If you are wondering if Meraki can work for you, contact one of their representatives because they will do onsite trials where you can set up their system. If it does not work, you can send it back to them for no charge."

"The solution's pricing is a little higher."

"The pricing is based on a subscription and is a bit high at the moment."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pricing and cost advice

"There are both paid and free licenses of the cloud environment, with only basic functionality in the free version."

"The price of the solution overall is expensive. Additionally, the controller and license are expensive. We pay for an annual subscription."

"The solution has a yearly subscription, and we have to pay additional costs for technical support."

"Extreme isn't the most expensive, but it's not a low-cost solution, and because there are no big volumes, you don't receive significant discounts, making the final price higher."

"The purchase of 350 access points cost approximately $250,000 USD."

"ExtremeWireless isn't budget-friendly. The hardware costs around 20,000 Indian rupees. We're still using an older controller, so it doesn't require a license, unlike the newest versions of the ExtremeWireless controller."

"The solution is priced well and we currently are only paying for a license for maintenance."

"Our access points device is at its end of life. I can buy one more and then I must buy a new device, but if it is a new device it will not support the old virtual appliance. I would need to upgrade our virtual appliance to the next version or build a new virtual appliance with new devices, and it's not good for us. The overall licensing subscription could be better."

More ExtremeWireless pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

See all answers

Which is better - Cisco Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?

Cisco Wireless is very robust, very rugged, and can handle indoor and outdoor coverage extremely well. We found it to be very reliable and to consistently run very efficiently. Cisco Wireless helpe...

See all answers

How does Ruckus Wireless compare to Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?

Cisco’s Meraki Virtual MX is a virtual instance of the Meraki SD-WAN appliance. We liked the Meraki. The Wifi APs are a great feature. The dashboard is a simple interface and easy to learn. It feat...

See all answers

What do you like most about ExtremeWireless?

The initial setup process is simple.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ExtremeWireless?

There is some delay in firmware upgrades for access points. When there is a problem with the firmware of one access point, the correction might be too late.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ExtremeWireless?

We work with some end customers, and we use ExtremeCloud IQ ( /products/extremecloud-iq-reviews ) for the administration of the wireless platform. We use Wi-Fi 6 E for many users.

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 31% of the time

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 16% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 11% of the time

Ubiquiti Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 7% of the time

Ekahau Site Survey vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 1% of the time

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Competitors

Ruckus Wireless vs ExtremeWireless

Compared 40% of the time

Aruba Wireless vs ExtremeWireless

Compared 19% of the time

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points vs ExtremeWireless

Compared 8% of the time

Huawei Wireless vs ExtremeWireless

Compared 5% of the time

ExtremeCloud IQ vs ExtremeWireless

Compared 4% of the time

More ExtremeWireless Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

March 2025

Download Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN product report

Buyer's Guide

ExtremeWireless

March 2025

Download ExtremeWireless product report

Also Known As

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN

No data available

Overview

Cisco Meraki access points are built from the highest grade components and carefully optimized for a seamless user experience. The outcome: faster connections, greater user capacity, more coverage, and fewer support calls. The Cisco Meraki dashboard gives visibility into the network users, their devices, and their applications. Armed with rich analytics, administrators can quickly create access control and application usage policies, optimizing both the end-user experience and network security.

Cisco

Extreme ExtremeWireless Access Points deliver wired-like performance, at scale for high-density in every environment. Smart Access Points are equally adept for both distributed and centralized deployment models. ExtremeWireless Controllers provide advanced functionality to allow organizations to define how wireless voice/video/data traffic is processed without architectural constraints and in accordance with business needs.

Extreme

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins

St. Xavier High School, Americatel, Diamond Light Source

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. ExtremeWireless

March 2025

Free Report: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. ExtremeWireless

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. ExtremeWireless and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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