Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers wireless LAN.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Free Trial
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Considered Both Products
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cost and ROI over Meraki was better with the Cisco gear even though Cisco owns Meraki.
HPE Aruba AP's were also considered but due to being a Cisco switch site ROI was also in Cisco's favor.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Not sure why "Ruckus WLAN controllers" is not listed above but that is another major WLAN controller solution I've used in the past. Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide the most flexibility when it comes to designing a large WLAN deployment. They also have some of the best …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco products are easier to manage and build off tools we have
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are easy to manage, and easy operate. Also Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers devices can manage lots of Access Points at the same time. And they have lots of wireless features especially Cisco specific ones (application visibility control). Last but …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco Wireless LAN controllers provide solid performance and security. Configuration can be overwhelming but if taken in small chunks is not that difficult to accomplish.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
These were extremely difficult to initially configure and get online. Once they were online we had no real issues with them. Cisco deployment has been much easier as well as having a much deeper configuration available. We also like the quick deployments we are able to do with …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Because of the features and flexibility it brings with it.
Business has less downtime since we implemented it.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers the choice for on-prem deployments. We have experienced stability issues with other products such as meraki cloud wireless solutions (althouth it also comes from Cisco). Huawei is offering very competitive wireless solutions but they are yet to be …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
We looked at Meraki, Ubiquiti and Aruba along with Cisco. At the time, all of the systems were decent well designed systems. Cisco was decided upon because of the depth of products, the support and recommendations of others. We are very happy with the system, and plan to …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Just Cisco. I didn't use any other product.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
The newest one we're moving to is the 9800 series. And I just have a very limited experience with those. It seems to be better so far. We'll see more options I guess for configurability on the new ones as well, which is nice. And I like the way that the controllers pair …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
The integration with Cisco solutions are excellet, with WLC 9800 plus Cisco DNAC the troubleshoot are made easy, if you have 3D maps on DNAC, you can navigate on the place were the problem is marked and see how the signal are near it. All connections are stable and trustfull.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
The unified one controller eases working against many in switch included.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco provides better security and ease of use with multiple solutions compared to other vendors. Cisco also has additional features which can support small businesses. It also offers cloud-based solutions at a cheaper rate compared to other solutions available. Another …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
The Aironet access points are used for employee WiFi access, and they integrate well with Meraki. They would offer a separate guest network, too, but the decision was made to physically separate the guest network, so even if a bad actor would gain access to the ethernet port of …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
We did not stack them with this as it was an a kind of isolated location. may be later we go for extended and advance solution but not now as we already deployed other competitor products. So right there is no chance for this changing in such large scale, but we will preform …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
To be honest I've never used any other WiFi products except Cisco. Even at home. I'm a firm believer in their product lines, durability, and stability. I've attended seminars about Juniper Mist, Aruba but nothing caught my eye that our Cisco products couldn't do.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Unifi Controllers are not much stable in terms of connectivity and user handling, also Unifi controllers are installed on VM which is also a dependability whereas Cisco WLC is a separate appliance.
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
I would say the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers would be a top contender as the best enterprise wireless controller that I have used. It has so many features and settings that can be controlled compared to other vendors. The newer Cisco 9800 is a different technology. At …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are used to manage the APs and these APs can be connected to the switches, based on the ap power consumption these switches will be used and they are very easy to configure. And cisco switches are more compatible with the APs like configuring the …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
D-Link Wireless network solution is a good solution for small businesses. It has all the features of an enterprise-class wireless solution. However, it does not perform well with a high number of users and devices. Cisco Wireless [LAN Controllers] Solution, on the other hand, …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
The feature set was better in Cisco wireless solutions as compared to Motorola Wireless and Ubiquiti. In cost comparison, Cisco was cheaper than Motorola but Ubiquiti was even cheaper, build quality and hardware specs were also better in Cisco, and we used the D-Link product …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
D-Link Provide Good services but day by day users are increased in our wireless network we need to be improved our network connectivities as well as we face issues in communication and face production lose so we decide to move on Cisco, we study and implemented in our …
Chose Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
The Cisco equipment is miles better than the comparable Aruba Networks Wireless LAN devices. I would not quite put them in the same category as not all features are comparable. You also gain a lot of support on the back end by going with a large brand like Cisco, including more …
Best Alternatives
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Small Businesses
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
Score 9.1 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
Enterprises
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(75 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(11 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
I believe that Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are well suited for the enterprise environment for medium sized to very large companies. While there are smaller WLC appliances for smaller sized businesses, a case can be made for simpler or more cost effective wireless licensing solutions (e.g. Cisco Meraki). Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are extremely well suited for dense deployments like stadiums, arenas, hospitals, theaters, and large offices because of their ability to support a large number of APs with a very diverse technology feature set.
Read full review
Pros
Cisco
  • The cisco wireless controller allows for very granular access to internal and external systems.
  • The system allows for allowing special needs uses (medical, security, guest) very easy.
  • The system allows for various levels of bandwidth to a variety of users.
  • The security, flexibility and ease of use is phenomenal.
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • Configuring wireless settings is very confusing because various settings are scattered all over the interface in different tabs
  • Lots of settings use Cisco's technical verbiage rather than common phrasing, so it's confusing what a lot of settings will do and requires researching the meaning before modifying the setting
  • The interface could be easier to use to do simple tasks such as reboot an access point
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
Although it is a very good product, support is easy and can manage by Level 1 support persons and downtime is too much less but still there is a cost factor matters which is consider by each organization. Furthermore, organizations also compare with other competitors so it is hard to pursue and defend the high prices.
Read full review
Usability
Cisco
As I said before, the only thing we miss in our old model is the fact that the management interface never received an improvement in design. It has the same look and feels since it was launched. It's not that it's hard to use. It's just the case of could be modernized.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Cisco
Downtime fear is the first fear which IT persons look and want to eliminate as much as they can but eventually you have to face it as nothing is perfect. Cisco Wireless Lan controller are feasible to use and easy to manage and other than this their issue reported are pretty low so you can get the best up time. now it also depends on scenario as well as environment.
Read full review
Performance
Cisco
Cisco Wireless Lan controller are feasible to use and easy to manage and other than this their issue reported are pretty low so you get the better uptime. if your get the uptime then it means its a stable product in your environment. Product performance also depends on the product management and Cisco Wireless Lan controller management is easy so you can get the great output.
Read full review
Support Rating
Cisco
As usual, the support from Cisco's TAC (Technical Assistance Center) is lacking. Granted, they always get the job done, but the amount of lead time on a non-emergency is enough to make you just handle it yourself. The good news is that if you ask for Cisco's assistance and forget about it, they'll jump on by the time you've forgotten where you were in troubleshooting it and have it fixed for you.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Cisco
Originally, when we deployed our first controller it was on a very limited basis. We only deployed it to our administration building and our High School. It was pretty straight forward. Because this was new to us we leaned heavily on our Cisco partner to assist us. With our last upgrade, we upgraded the controllers, added redundancy and expanded the building count along with new SSID's and restrictions. It went much easier, but again, we did rely on Cisco TAC and our partner to clarify and assist as needed. Having already been familiar with the product help tremendously.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
The Aironet access points are used for employee WiFi access, and they integrate well with Meraki. They would offer a separate guest network, too, but the decision was made to physically separate the guest network, so even if a bad actor would gain access to the ethernet port of the AP, they'd still not see any company traffic.
Read full review
Scalability
Cisco
Cisco is a brand name and people trust on it. if any one thing about the networking then Cisco is among those brand which is count as trusted brand and people rely on it. Also it support is good so people can use it. Cisco Wireless Lan controller are easy to use and manage so it requires less effort.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Cisco
  • We have had our [Cisco Wireless LAN Controller] 5508s for a very long time now and although they are getting dated, they have earned us our money's worth with consistency, stability, and ease of use. Users have minimal wireless complaints and when they do seldom are they WLC-related.
Read full review
ScreenShots