Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points vs Meraki MR

Likelihood to Recommend

As any Cisco Aironet Access Points, the 3800 model is more for power users than beginners. It is for sure very more complex to maintain and trouble shoot than solutions like Cisco Meraki APs.

By the way, there are a lot of settings that can be customized and it is really interesting for difficult environments like industrial factories.

The 3800 model is also robust so it should stay durable and reliable.

But if you want to use the mesh mode or make a wireless bridge, this model is not appropriate as it is not supported for now.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Computer Networking Company, 10,001+ employees

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The Cisco Meraki line of products is an excellent option for anyone who is looking for an easy to use line of Switches, Routers, Wireless Accesspoints, Cloud security and beyond. Not only will you find the Cisco Meraki console easy to use, but the hardware is top notch quality and comes with all the bells and whistles that you might expect from an enterprise level of service such as Cisco.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Airlines/Aviation Company, 501-1000 employees

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Pros

Cisco APs are managed very easily from a Cisco WLC controller.
Cisco APs provide lots of enterprise-grade options such as rogue detection and automatic power configuration.
Cisco APs have many different mounting options, which makes them very versatile in a healthcare environment.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Cloud-managed - as all Meraki products are, very easy to manage.
Mesh technology allows clients to easily roam from one AP to another.
Very easy to add AP's, just get it online and add it to a network. Done.
Great tools to troubleshoot problems clients.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Mechanical Or Industrial Engineering Company, 201-500 employees

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Cons

Outdoor capabilities. We have actually blown up a few outdoor units. Water got inside the outdoor units and had visible rust
Costs compared to other AP’s in the market. Ruckus and EnGenius work out a bit cheaper
Mounting options are limited

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Ashveen Nandan

Manager Information & Communications Technolofy

Fiji AirportsAirlines/Aviation, 501-1000 employees

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There needs to be an easier way to see which devices are being heavier used, so as to determine needed adjustments.
It would be good to have more in-depth access to what locations connected devices are navigating to.
Cost. These devices could be a little more competitive if the cost were lower. Meraki prices itself out of some sales.

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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Law Practice Company, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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Likelihood to Renew

Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points 7.9

Based on 3 answers

We are all happy with Aironet and Prime.

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Montasir Azad

Sr. Information Security Lead

Choice Hotels InternationalHospitality, 1001-5000 employees

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Meraki MR 9.0

Based on 1 answer

Cause its intuitive, very clear and easy of use (no brainer) interface. It's whole portfolio in one portal aproach. Also cause the new features cycle release and the cisco Meraki comprehension of WiFi market. Also cause the fastest deployment available on the market that also comes with a easy to scale platform adding features and services in the same interface thats unique and awesome.

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Victor Rivera

Senior Information Technology Manager

Grupo VinteConstruction, 1001-5000 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Meraki MR 8.5

Based on 2 answers

The Cisco Meraki MR web interface is best in class when it comes to network management. While some networking knowledge is needed to understand what you are doing, no specialized training in any one specific operating system is required to design a whole network.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 51-200 employees

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Performance

Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points 9.4

Based on 2 answers

The Cisco 3802 product performance is excellent. Not only for the speed and range of the wireless it provides, but also for the fact that - when deployed in a large scale environment - the performance does not fail. It provides the same network connectivity for users ranging from 1 to 30-plus concurrent connections.

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Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Meraki MR 8.8

Based on 25 answers

Meraki support is usually top notch. The are quick to respond and stick with an issue until it is resolved. One of the difficulties I've had with Meraki MRs is the limited ability the customer has in troubleshooting. Much of the more technical aspects of resolution can only be accessed by the Meraki support team, meaning dedicated IT teams are reliant on them when more complicated issues arise.

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Dennis Chwee

Senior Network Engineer

Clark ConstructionConstruction, 1001-5000 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Our selection of Cisco Aironet Access Points versus the Meraki Access Points was entirely on a political basis with our vendor. In the future, we are actually looking to migrate towards the Meraki system. Even though the Meraki feature-set is lacking, we really only require those features, and our cost would be largely cut by this migration. It would be a solid win, but maybe not recommendable to everyone.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Cisco Meraki Stacks give us the ability to implement an entire network and security solution that impacts tremendously in the productivity of our employees, just because we have 1 Dashboard to manage an entire company network and security with ML include an easy-to-use web view. Any other brand in the industries has the ability to merge Switches, Wireless LAN, UTM, MDM, Video Surveillance in one intuitive dashboard HTML or Mobile App.

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Jose De Jesus

IT Hospitality Manager

NovalogiqComputer Networking, 11-50 employees

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Scalability

Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points 8.2

Based on 2 answers

Contrary to a solution like the Cisco Meraki access points, the Aironet access points like the 3800 are linked to the Controler. And depending on the version of the controller, it will support only some models of access points.

For big sites, it may be difficult to upgrade the controler to support new ap models like 3800 because we still have old access points.

And it is also the same between new access points and old client devices so it is always a bit tricky.

After that, if the access point model is supported by the controller, it is really simple to install a new one

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Computer Networking Company, 10,001+ employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Users are able to carry on with their work while moving, changing seats, rooms or having an ad-hoc Skype meeting on the way to lunch. It is always hard to justify the value of connectivity but be assured, when it is not working the business impact is immediate.

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Verified User

Consultant in Customer Service

Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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For bigger organizations ROI is really good, because the network is always operational, and no time is spent fixing the network.
The users do not need to power cycle devices or do anything else, everything can be managed remotely from the Meraki dashboard.
For small businesses with only 1 AP, the ROI is not that great since a cheaper AP can do the same job, and it may need occasional reboot which the staff can do easily without any hassle.

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Syed Iqbal

Network Engineer

Not Just NetworksInformation Technology & Services, 1-10 employees

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