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Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points vs. Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points includes the 9115 and 9117, and designed to meet high demand network access.N/A

    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 is a modular wireless controller with optional 100 Gigabit Ethernet (G) modular uplinks boasting seamless software updates for large enterprises and campuses, and security with ETA and SD-Access.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Cisco Aironets are a different tool compared to Meraki MRs namely due to management styles at the time of purchase. The organization was cloud hesitant at the time, which necessitated the decision of Aironet.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    It has the perfect security fit for my company.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Our environment is pure Cisco; other brands make no sense.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Because I worked with APs that were already deployed and they got my attention and trust.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Cisco product is more secure than other and also very robust when it comes to hardware. Other OEM devices are not as rugged as Cisco
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points was a replacement for Meraki. the biggest challenge with Meraki that Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points solved was the licensing and purchase model. meraki was much more expensive and carried a lifetime license that Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points support more standards and are easier to configure than Ubiquiti APs. Ubiquiti APs also have some strange quirks or bugs if wired connection is lost.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Previously we used 3800 series access points within our infrastructure. These access points have been supported within the 9800 wireless controller and are currently being used still as we work to replace access points in the near future. These access points have provided …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    This allows us to upgrade seamlessly to new models without the need for special procedures to transition and with less impact to operations.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    We have knowledge that Cisco APs will fit our necessities. A very good range of options and configuration that help to IT Team to setup the network. The use of the new Wifi 6 technlogy is also other fact to select this brand. The users will have devices that will use wifi 6 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Meraki, but we decided not to go with Meraki. We went away from Meraki due to different case uses.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    So that's our company policy to go with the standard products. We have tried a couple of other vendors, but we didn't actually get a proper alignment with our requirements. So Cisco actually passed our standard requirement. So that's the reason why we go with Cisco. And also I …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    The Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points are way better for implementation and supports more features that we can use for our customer.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    The newer generation of APs are less bulky, heavy and have an improved aesthetic look.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    I like them and I think they are a nice product.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    We are migrating from Aironet platform to Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points. That's more flexible, and we do it to sync switching, SDWAN, and wifi under one family.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    1852 series is already too old technology and not performing as well as the Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    They are equal and Aruba seems to have an easier out the box setup. Adding APs is much simpler on Aruba.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Because to secure network access.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Of all the different APs that I have implemented the Cisco APs are still the most feature rich. The analytics that they provide sets them apart from all other vendors I have tested.
    Incentivized
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    We just upgraded from the old Cisco 3800 Series Wireless Controller, but I haven’t reviewed it.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Cisco is more industrial grade
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers is more modern, looks better, supports newer access points. Using different tags - site tags, policy tags, etc. is a nice way to configure different access point groups or locations. Also Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Since we are only upgrading to the newest generation, we have all benefits from that (like performance)
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    103 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    84 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    92 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    103 Answers
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    101 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    76 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    95 Answers
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    83 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Small Businesses
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.1 out of 10
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (107 ratings)
    9.0
    (109 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    8.7
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    8.9
    (107 ratings)
    Performance
    9.2
    (100 ratings)
    8.7
    (108 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.4
    (3 ratings)
    8.5
    (3 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.5
    (100 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    4.6
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    4.6
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points are well suited for dense Client solutions. We have used these in areas where we have a large number of guests that need top-notch connectivity without ever losing connection. The one area where we do have difficulty is in outdoor deployment, where large areas need to be covered, but we do not have physical connectivity in order to get the access points connected. This is not an access point issue but more of a physical connectivity limitation.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    Well suited for most of our customer base because it is a versatile, scalable, large multi-campus organizations. Not so: Brandish deployments where there's a much more simplified feature set needed. So where we can basically rely on Meraki as a cloud base with easier to deploy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • So this product actually helps in healthcare facilities where we have a wireless, we call this WOW monitors. It's Wireless On Wheels. So we use those monitors to the patient's room to room. So in that case, rather than connecting it to wire, so it really helps us to connect through the WIFI and access the patients whenever we be needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • I think the updates are great. ISSU upgrading code is fantastic. I think the speed with which CAPWAP converges or reconverges, I think the redundancy mechanisms for roaming APs to other controllers is very good. I think overall, getting away from more of a monolithic processor where subprocesses handle what they call the WNCD tasks, I think fundamentally is an improvement in performance.
    • The radioactive tracing, all of the troubleshooting and all of the logging and all of the importing and exporting features for logging and analytics within the controller itself is really, really good compared to the predecessor AireOS.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • They could definitely download their code faster. When we first get them out of the box and join them on the network, it takes probably 20, 30 minutes per access point to download the new code from the wireless controller and then reboot itself and then come back online.
    • When you're configuring it on the controller, if you want to switch access point groups, we have them broken out per site. Every time you add it to one of those groups, it also has to reboot. That's like downtime for us. That could be improved, I think.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • The biggest issues we have had have been software related. Requiring code upgrades or reloads to fix an unfixable problem.
    • Some of the troubleshooting utilities aren't perfectly clear as to what theyre doing or how to set them up or what to expect results wise or resource wise.
    • I think there is a lack of filtering in certain displays where you cannot use the "contains" option for certain device type filtering. But those options should be universal in all views.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    On a scale of 1–10, we would rate our likelihood to renew Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points as a 9. The access points have provided reliable wireless connectivity, strong security features, and consistent performance, which are critical for supporting both in-office and hybrid work. Minor improvements could make the experience fully seamless.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Despite common software and hardware issues this is still the best product on the market for large scale enterprise deployments. Cisco has worked with us extensively to reduce the amount of bugs in every iteration however new bugs are introduced or new incompatibilities always arise with major releases. Thus, while I'm hesitant to recommend the product it's still much better than all the other competitors such as Aruba and Juniper in the WIFi space. There is also extensive integration with DNAC/Catalyst Center and ISE in an SDA deployment. Recently there has been a number of critical issues with the controller software and Cisco has proved themselves to be incapable of timely troubleshooting and diagnosis. This has reduced our confidence in the product and it's current and future stability and maintainability. At it's current state the product is taking up too much of our engineering resources to maintain despite also paying for premium support from Cisco. As such I have reduced by rating as we are likely to look at alternative vendors for our long-term wireless management solution
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    The Cisco Catalyst 9120 Access Points have been a solid deployment for me. Using their interface is a mix of new and old. They run IOS, so if you know the CLI, you can easily navigate around them. You can join them to an older controller if it supports a certain version, you can join it to a new 9800 controller--very straight forward--and you can run the embedded wireless controller on them directly. I've found this to be very useful at smaller sites. The Cisco Catalyst 9120 Access Points are not limited to feature sets like the older generations' mobility express platform.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    It's not simple, but this is the result of being very deeply configurable
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    On a scale of 1–10, I would rate the overall usability of Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points as an 8. The interface is intuitive, and common tasks like monitoring and basic configuration are straightforward. While some advanced features and troubleshooting functions remain complex, the majority of operations are user-friendly, making the system efficient for IT teams managing hybrid and in-office environments.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Honestly, in the six years that we've been using it, we've had one, I would say show stopping event. There was an issue with in an HA setup they would every so often when rebooted lose all configuration. So that was a bit disappointing, required quite a few hours to resolve, but Cisco had to fix very quickly and once we implemented that, we've not had any further additional issues.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    Using Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points you can expect good performance, if not excellent. Coupled with other tools and managment systems you can easily gain good insight and ease of management. Flexible deployment variations help you adopt the equipment to work for most any required scenario you could think of. It's a well designed and evolved product.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    We have been using the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers for over 2 years and the whole system has been very stable. We currently run them in HA and have found when this has been activated (due to power issues etc.) the units change roles seamlessly, minimising the downtime to almost nothing. Except when we have had major issues, our wireless networks have a solid uptime and keeps our whole borough up 24/7 without problems.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    We rate Cisco support 8/10 because the response time is generally very good, with most cases receiving attention and feedback within the same business day. When hardware replacement is required, delivery can sometimes take longer than expected, but replacements are consistently provided. Overall, the service remains credible, reliable, and essential for maintaining business continuity and network availability.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    the overall support on the 9800 Wireless lan controller is good. Wireless issues are sometimes hard to troubleshoot since it's the RF that make it complex and the diversity in clients and requirements. The engineers do a good job in understanding the scope and issue, altough not all issues can be solved
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    On a scale of 1–10, I would rate the in-person training for Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points as an 8. The sessions were interactive and provided hands-on experience, which helped IT staff understand configuration, troubleshooting, and advanced features. Greater depth in real-world scenario exercises could make the training even more effective.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    On a scale of 1–10, I would rate the online training for Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points as a 6. While the training materials were comprehensive and covered essential topics, some modules were overly technical and not always intuitive for all users. Additional practical examples and interactive exercises would improve understanding and make the training more effective.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Key insights from implementing Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points include the importance of thorough planning, pilot testing, and involving both IT teams and end-users early in the process. Centralized management and robust security features simplify long-term operations, but adequate training and clear documentation are essential to maximize adoption and ensure smooth, reliable connectivity across hybrid work environments.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    You need to understand wifi basics
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We are migrating from Aironet platform to Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points. That's more flexible, and we do it to sync switching, SDWAN, and wifi under one family.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Ubiquiti WLAN is very much a consumer platform. It is not production ready, it is buggy, it has issues. It is cheaper than Cisco, but you get what you pay for. Aruba doesn't integrate nicely with our existing largely Cisco based networks, so when time came to replace AireOS, the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers came out on top.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    These access points offer flexibility in deployment scenarios, supporting both standalone and controller-based architectures. Organisations can choose the model that best suits their current needs and scale as their requirements grow. Cisco Aironet Access Points are compatible with Cisco's Wireless LAN controllers, allowing for centralized management and monitoring of a large number of access points across the network. With the recent changes, it will even support cloud base controllers.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    There are different vesrions for different requirements, there's HA as well.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • problem with delivery time for the product - 12 months
    • we extended our WiFi network - is easy with Cisco AP
    • Connection new area\sites with AP is easy, we have got same location with only WiFi access - no wired cables
    • increase secutity
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • Positive impacts, yeah, is good to have a central location to control all these profiles for different countries and locations. And the drawback, like I said to you really because of the too many integrations that have a dependency on the software version. For example, Cisco ONE for Access have certain software that can run through and then this scatter center need to make sure it's working with the others APS version that is currently working. And we also, the Cisco Catalyst Center also have some kind another version of software that you need to support this controller. So it's like two tier three tiers of the software version that we need to match. Then only it can work.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points Screenshots

    Screenshot of C9117AXI-B Catalyst 9117AX Access PointScreenshot of C9117AXI-B Catalyst 9117AX Access PointScreenshot of C9117AXI-B Catalyst 9117AX Access PointScreenshot of C9117AXI-B Catalyst 9117AX Access Point