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

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
The 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
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
The 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 Catalyst 9100 Access Points
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
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
The newer generation of APs are less bulky, heavy and have an improved aesthetic look.
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.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
I like them and I think they are a nice product.
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.
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.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Because to secure network access.
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.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Nothing compares to Cisco APs. Meraki is owned by cisco, but they are a poor mans cisco. Combined with the 9800 series controllers the 9000 series aps are unbeatable. i would recommend them to anyone, because they are easy to set up and are secure. they broadcast a long way and …
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
They are Similar in functionality and price, but free of charge vWLC is a killer feature.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
We selected the 9100 access points because the wi-fi 6 coverage and throughput that they delivery.
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Cisco is more industrial grade
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 …
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Since we are only upgrading to the newest generation, we have all benefits from that (like performance)
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Small Businesses
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
Score 9.2 out of 10
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Score 9.8 out of 10
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
Score 9.1 out of 10
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access PointsCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(70 ratings)
8.7
(99 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(5 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(99 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(63 ratings)
8.2
(99 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(63 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.3
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 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.
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Cisco
I think any size organization can benefit from them. The smaller "L" models work well for a smaller organization and of course, the same answer for the larger platforms. The failover/redundancy options are quite nice and the unified setup and UI is always nice for consistency.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Cisco
  • The only downside I would say is the GUI performance is a little bit slow, even with a newer 9800, performance still lags a bit even compared to the previous generations. So I would like to see that improved. But aside from that, that's really the only issue that we have with it.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
No answers on this topic
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
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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.
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Cisco
It's not simple, but this is the result of being very deeply configurable
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Reliability and Availability
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
Due to our HA set up we have always managed to access our wireless networks without problems, when issues occur. When we have lost access to the GUI, due to internal network problems, console access is always welcomed and brings with it the normal Cisco CLI syntax. From previous versions of CLI, it is now a lot simpler and reflects other Cisco products, making it easier to troubleshoot and navigate when necessary.
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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.
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Cisco
Monitoring is very good Seamless integration with Cisco ISE RRM configuration very easy. It has REST API support IOS-XE is very powerful operation system. Multicasting and mDNS features are really good and very easy to configure. It supports Pyats and Genie so getting constructed data from python script calls very helpful.
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Support Rating
Cisco
Cisco has been very good at correcting early issues with their code. Their TAC support has been fantastic when I would open a case with issues I was facing. Even though the hardware was new, they were very familiar with the interfaces and issues I was having. In the past I've been concerned about adopting a new product right away because of support issues. That was not the case here. Once I had the deployment up and running, they have had a good run of reliability.
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Cisco
When it's a config issue, TAC is usually useful. If it's some bug and BU needs to be involved, it might take forever.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
You need to understand wifi basics
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Cisco
There are different vesrions for different requirements, there's HA as well.
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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
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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.
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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