1

Hi All,

I’m looking for a wifi solution and spoke to Meraki who gave me a free demo to play around with that I have yet to set up and configure.

What I don’t like about their service is you have to pay yearly to manage their devices from the cloud, but I don’t mind this if it’s a more user friendly solution to deploy and manage.

I wanted to hear from the community who has experience with other vendors, and if there is a better alternative out there. I’m mainly looking for something that’s easy to manage in house or remotely.

@Cisco @Aruba @Cisco_Meraki_1

10 Spice ups
2

Ubiquiti. Same features, cheaper, no annual extortion fee.

11 Spice ups
3

When I’ve deployed the Meraki units in the past, I haven’t had a problem, and their support has been on top of any issues I’ve called or put a ticket in for, including device replacements, should one be needed.

While the yearly fee can be a turn-off, I look at other devices where I pay the same fee, namely firewalls. Included in that fee is your support contract which covers hardware failure and replacement.

Another good brand to look at, and at a much lower price point, is Ubiquiti. Their units are managed from a program on a local computer (but you don’t have to keep it running, just fire it up when you need to make a change).

4 Spice ups
4

Contractor put in Meraki. When the initial support ends, I’ll be replacing them with Ubiquiti.

1 Spice up
5

I, too, will recommend Ubiquiti.

Just installed a three pack of their least expensive APs in a recent office move and they more than adequately handle all the wireless traffic.

2 Spice ups
6

Ruckus just launched a new line xclaim I think was the name. They look interesting APs are affordably priced and they are cloud managed like meraki but without the hostage taking yearly renewal fees.

Ubiquiti is also a good option they have been my goto fo years

2 Spice ups
7

Another vote for Ubiquiti here.

2 Spice ups
8

I’d go with Cisco, I installed a Ubiquiti AP and I was disappointed with the UniFi software. Yes it’s cheap but you get what you pay for. If you have the resources go Cisco.

4 Spice ups
9

Have a look at out Comodo Device Manager from which you can manage 'droid, IOS and Windows devices > https://mdm.comodo.com has the blah, blah, blah

1 Spice up
10

All these yearly subscription will drain you eventually - I also would go Ubiquity or other ones that don’t take your soul along with their pricey hardware.

11

Wow it looks like Ubiquiti is the winner. I never heard of it but I will definitely take a look. This will be powering office spaces with 50 people per floor (2 floors) Can this handle commercial applications and where I can have control of traffic like the Meraki’s? Seamless changeover from one hotspot to another?

12

So bridging? Almost all AP devices do that these days. Yes it’ll be able to handle whatever you throw at it. Go with AC since thats the latest in greatest WiFi signal type. Meraki is alright but like others have said they dig deep into your pockets…

13 
What I don't like about their service is you have to pay yearly to manage their devices from the cloud, but I don't mind this if it's a more user friendly solution to deploy and manage

Why pay yearly? Why not 3 yearly or 5 yearly? I’m sure the price comes down the longer you buy in. It’s worth asking.

Ubiquiti doesn’t have anywhere near the same feature-set as Meraki. Back-up/suppot from Meraki is going to be vastly better and remember they are backed by the biggest, most successful networking company in the world. You are not comparing apples with apples.

7 Spice ups
14

I don’t think the Ubiquity will do the same layer 7 application controls and traffic shaping like Meraki does (if that’s what you’re asking about). Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

As far as “seamless changeover”, what you’re talking about is talked about at great length in various marketing materials but I’ve never seen a company be able to implement a truly seamless process. There’s always a bit of a blip that occurs as you disconnect from one AP to another and that may or may not be an issue for you depending on what hardware will be doing the roaming. Where you may see this have the most effect is with VoIP. Sometimes this blip is enough to disconnect the call. If this roaming is very important you may want to test this out first.

1 Spice up
15

Not apples to apples at all. Ubiquity is little more then modified dd-wrt on consumer grade hardware and has no phone support. If you are a DIY type and don’t mind spending some hours sifting through forum posts to get things setup and working how you want then I guess Ubiquity is fine. If you want something that works exceptionally well, has full features and support then go Meraki. The license and support is well worth the low cost, especially if you purchase 3 or more years in advance. Also note that you should get at least 30% off list for any Meraki gear.

5 Spice ups
16

I have Ruckus and like their Zone Director for managing the wireless AP and clients. I looked at Meraki and didn’t like the yearly fee, plus check out performance stats on their AP’s before you buy. The Ruckus have been great with no failures since they went in over two years ago.

17

Hi all,
I’ll add a bit more clarification :slight_smile:

The Ubiquiti UniFi Zero-Handoff feature really provides a seamless roaming experience. The APs communicate with each other and decide which AP the client would be best connected to.

The clients “see” the APs as one AP (same MAC, etc), so the client doesn’t even know it’s roaming between the APs. There are no special driver/software updates required on the client side, it’s all handled by the AP. There will be no lost packets, and no “blips”.

If you have any other questions, let me know. We also have 24/7/365 support available at support@ubnt.com (and we’re launching live chat soon).

Thanks,
Matt

2 Spice ups
18

If you go Ubiquiti use the Pro or AC models. Especially with 50 or more users per floor

2 Spice ups
19

We have about 6 Meraki’s deployed now and are slowly replacing our old AP’s with them now. I just got 10 that need to be setup and iinstalled. Very easy to deploy and manage.

20

Another vote for Ubiquiti here.

@Ubiquiti_Inc