Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, a short review
February 12, 2025

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, a short review

Jakub Pelka | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-40 Wireless Controller
  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL Wireless Controller
  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-EWC Wireless Controller

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

Wireless connectivity across about 30 sites with centralized networking. About 1000 users, with about 3000 devices daily on average. We run a cluster of two Cisco Catalyst 9800-40s in HA. Primarily phones and laptops, with a handful of IoT products on the network as well. The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers were placed as a direct replacement for our old AiroAPs.

Pros

  • iOS XE makes it consistent with other Cisco products in our lineup
  • Onboarding APs + automatic tagging
  • Documentation

Cons

  • The GUI has bugs at times
  • Easier support for mixed Meraki/On-Prem environments
  • The GUI can be clunky and hard to navigate at times
  • Incompatibility with our DHCP server resulting in perceived IP thefts that caused downtime
  • Easy and flexible deployment of APs in the field
  • Allow us to save money by having facility workers deploy APs rather than relying on IT, through the provisioning mechanisms
While it works well in general, there are some bugs in both the GUI and functionality. It has caused spikes of downtime in our network. The HA also is quite cumbersome and specific to set up, while not having the most reliable working around.
The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers (9800-40) itself is available. The HA cluster makes it easier to work with too. The clustering however isn't perfect and it isn't terribly difficult to collapse it. Updates are quick which is nice. A GUI bug has resulted in difficulty to access the GUI and make changes through it at times.
Automatic application of policy and site tags depending on AP name is a brilliant add-on, it makes management of basic policies seamless.

User policies are managed through ISE, which does work quite well when it does work. ISE is unfortunately a terrible, cumbersome, laggy and heavy to run application but that's outside the scope of this review.
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.

Do you think Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers again?

Yes

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Cisco NX-OS, Cisco IOS
Any wireless deployment with non Meraki Cisco Access Points. vWLC for smaller deployments, the -40 for medium sized deployments and -80 for larger ones, and the ability to cluster multiple for HA makes it a very flexible and dependable platform. It's a welcome and good replacement for the old WLC lineup.

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Feature Ratings

Wireless LAN
7.0
Zero-Touch Provisioning
7
WLAN Performance Monitoring
Not Rated
Layer 7 Visibility
Not Rated
Wireless Security
7

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