# Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Reviews **Vendor:** Cisco **Category:** [Networking Hardware](https://www.g2.com/categories/networking-hardware) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 23 ## About Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Get your network digital-ready with our intelligent controllers. They'll help scale a small, midsize, or large enterprise network. ## Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Reviews ### 1. They're decent **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ryan B. | Forklift Operator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2022 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** So the product I use is out of date an but still supported (and customer service is helpful) and still works great! Connection time is a little slower than new, but not by much. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** I really haven't ran into any major issues. A few bugs here and there but restarting the device(s) works out most issues. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Really not helping solve issues but it does what I need it to do ### 2. A necessary part of work **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sarah F. | P, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2022 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** I like that it is all controlled by one software [cisco]. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The originality isn't there between different components **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's solving for efficiency ### 3. A fairly effective controller for ministering access points. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeannine G. | Human Resources Management, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Undoubtedly the greatest advantages in its ease of use and ease of administration, as well as easy access point configuration, allows you to easily configure new guest users as well as the security functions, it is easily usable from anywhere, allows you to change global settings of AP as well as the HA configuration in addition to solving the different problems in a very short time and quickly. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** There are things that this product still lacks because not everything can be good in all its aspects, for example the details seen in the system cannot be exported in pdf format, and there are limitations in the AP when we want to use SSH. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Without a doubt it would be quite good to pay attention to the different Cisco websites because they can have a lot of information from seminars to courses through explanations of all the products and the capabilities of each one without a doubt this is essential for any team . **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** In general, what mainly draws the attention of this product is the easy administration that allows, as well as its simple way to solve problems, offers many services such as Wi-Fi for guests and allows you to know exactly what is happening on your network Wi-fi certainly is not far behind in terms of greatness this incredible brand. ### 4. Cisco 5520,3504 is an excellent WLC **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User **Reviewed Date:** December 01, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Support for 802.11ac APs. Manages and automates the park of APs Great stability of access to the network. Strong authentication and entry permission. Good for roaming between different environments. It has the ability to manage up to 1,500 access points on the wifi network. High Availability Controller does not need licenses. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Incompatibility with some browsers. Bug patches updates and outages are frequent. RTU license not able to convert into smart license without SO number **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are used across our entire organization to manage multiple wireless network across 5 different sites. It allows us to centrally manage, control, and configure these networks from one easy to use interface ### 5. The best solution for managing large scale wireless devices **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marina B. | Network support analyst, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The excellent scalability of this device in vast networks. You can forget about having Access Point configured in Standalone mode, if you have an extensive network distributed in different locations is easier to standardize your network and associate a large number of Ap's, configure different Ap and flexconnec groups to manage the vlan, and SSID'S. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** I find that the GUI is not fully customizable or easy to understand. It does not show consumption information in applications as other brands do. It only allows you to add AP's with licenses and they are really very expensive, in the current market there are already less expensive options. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Cisco represents quality and innovation in the networking world. It is undoubtedly the best brand of network devices, and you get quality and support with every device. It is a reliable brand. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** In my current job it is what we use the most. Wireless networks are the most used in the workplace; we constantly hold meetings with users for any failure or any change to implement in the network. ### 6. Amazing but could work on the customer experience in the coming years. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Charit A. | Digital Marketing Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 02, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The service, the valuable features it offers at such a low price for firms **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Nothing as such. I believe with a few fixes they would be the go-to product for most businesses. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quicker response time (very crucial in our business) ### 7. WiFi and high security **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Antonio R. | Software engineer **Reviewed Date:** November 23, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** High response from distant devices and guaranteed speed in data transfer. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** I have no problem with my connection between network devices. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Device connection, high frequency for large files, and good user management. ### 8. With CISCO in the name you know its going to be good! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 18, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** So This service enables you to use lan and suitalbe for all kind of size like small medium and large entreprises **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Been using this service for a while now, nothing to dislike as such **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Certainly, It just makes work so fluent and connected **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are creating a company bases lan solution where employees can connect to plan and work from anywhere using company services ### 9. Easy to use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 22, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Easy management connections. manage light-weight access points in large quantities by the network administrator or network operations center. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Sometimes it does not show access points. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reduce the threat of hackers. ### 10. Great wireless controllers **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeffrey A. | Director of Infrastructure Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The controller is very powerful, and the GUI has become much easier to manage. The amount of data available from the GUI is very helpful. The controller's are very stable, and we have very little issues with the controllers. The update process is much better than it was on previous models. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Setup is pretty cumbersome, but that is the same for most of Cisco's product lines. Price is a tad more than a lot of other vendors, but the support, reliability, and features we get are worth the additional cost. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** We provide wireless capabilities to our community in a secure and stable fashion. ### 11. Best of Breed **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kevin L. | Sr. Programmer/Financial Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The Application Visibility Control indicates which wireless applications are QoS. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Occasional and intermittent browser compatibility issues. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Cisco setup is very simple and easy to access & manage the Access Points. HA Configuration, Global Configuration of AP, etc. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Management of all Access Points is seamless and intuitive. ### 12. Managing the wireless network with great practicality. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vinicius S. | RPA Developer **Reviewed Date:** August 07, 2020 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** What I like most is the console of the Cisco WLC 5520. The interface is great, easy to learn and use. The controller has infinite security, acceleration, automatic access point provisioning features. Roaming is also important and with this equipment it is possible. It manages up to 20 thousand access points and already works on the new 802.11ac standard. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The wireless network so far has had no problems and falls. Intelligent radio frequency change features like the clientlink help APs change channels. No problems so far. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Cisco warranty and support for at least three years I recommend. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have two units of the WLC 5520. One active and one standby for backup in case of failure. The wireless network is very important to us and we prioritize it a lot. With this controller we are able to manage, control and administer the entire wireless network without difficulty. Everything is implanted and configured automatically and optimally. ### 13. Great technology, very reliable and minimal bugs. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2021 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Reliability, flexibility and efficiency. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** A bit difficult to set up, and onboarding takes time. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are furthering security at the organization. ### 14. Full control of accesspoints. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Antonio S. | Analista de segurança **Reviewed Date:** March 20, 2020 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The WLAN Controller we use is the 3504 from Cisco. We have one active and one on standby. It's great because we can quickly configure and manage all Cisco access points and resolve technical issues. Without any work, the controller is very useful and worth every penny in the wireless network design. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** We have had no problems with our WLAN Controllers so far. I see no difficulty in its graphical configuration interface or technical problems. It's all easy to set up and use the services. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Buy with warranty and support for at least 3 years for troubleshooting. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** At the controller we were able to monitor and configure all 15 access points that we have at this branch. The Wlan Controller configures the radio, frequency, range, speed automatically in order to avoid interference from the 2.4Ghz frequency. ### 15. Cisco WLC"s solid choice **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michael R. | Manager Information Technology, Mining & Metals **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** I've been using Cisco WLC's for several years and they have been the most in depth WLC's I've ever seen. When you need a Wifi to have max up time and the maximum amount of customization it would seem Cisco is one of the best. Once you get the interface down you wont have trouble navigating it. There are not shortage of features or capabilities in the units either. We also have a dedicated WLC for the OEAP function. It allows you to issue teleworkers an AP for in their house to extend your office network into their house. It's an easy deployment and if you dont want a bunch of small routers hanging out you can use these. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** It can be complex compared to others if you not familiar with their interface beyond the initial setup from the CLI you will be on your own to figure out how to do everything. Newer code does have a smoother initial interface but it is limited on what you can do. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Do your homework and dont be afraid to get help from a partner if you've never used them before. There is a learning curve that having someone help you will ensure it is installed correctly. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** My company has a terrible environment for Wifi. The air quality is very poor for RF and we utilize the clean air feature which is a spectrum analyzer to mitigate problems. We do a voice Wifi calling which is hard in itself. The WLC's are crucial to get this to work. We also use the OEAP feature for our teleworkers they work fantastically. It avoids the need to have routers or other units for your teleworkers. ### 16. Over 12 years with those units, and still strong! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nicolas M. | District Technology Services Supervisor - Systems **Reviewed Date:** May 16, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** We've have 5508's WLCs for over 12 years now, and those appliances are rock solid. We've have nothing but good experiences with them. Best of all is the support if you get SmartNet on it. Cisco Engineers are very specialized on their support. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Not that I dislike the granularity of the system, but the fact that you can select specific features and really drilled into wireless routing via IP or MAC address with it grouping APs , and mDNS multicast devices makes it great if you understand the basic concept of these type of routing. If you don't, Cisco WLCs won't make your admin task easy to manage. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Make sure you get SmartNet with it. I know it's not on the cheap side, but its worth when you have specific projects to accomplish, and you want fast resolutions. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having Apple TVs on our environment (over 800 of them) for mirroring into projectors, Cisco Wireless Lan Controllers really made it easy to route the correct mDNS traffic to specific AP groups. Not a lot of documentation are out there to make it work property, but once you figure out, you can solve a lot of issues with mDNS, and Apple TVs. Being channel utilization, or mDNS routing. ### 17. Cisco's WLC Documentation is Excellent **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Scott M. | Scott McDermott, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Cisco has excellent documentation and are very popular, so finding information on what the various settings do and how to implement them is easy. Support for the latest APs continues in all but the oldest controllers. Cisco is focussed on investment protection. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Code quality is a bit hit and miss. This will be great for a while, then things will be bad for a while, then we'll do it again. The UI of the controller works, but could do with a refresh and could see some improvement on layout and organization. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Make sure you evaluate your controller choice to ensure it will meet both the needs for today and your requirements for the future. Definitely research Software Defined Access (SDA) and where that is going before you make your final decision on the best model for your needs. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cisco controllers enable centralized control of the wireless network and allow you to manage your APs centrally. This makes management far easier and faster than the old days of managing individual APs. ### 18. Wireless for Enterprise **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Benjamin S. | Technical Analyst III, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The best part is that we are able to provide enterprise grade wireless to all of our locations with the same software interface even though we have various ages and sizes of controllers in play. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Software quality has not been the greatest lately (8.2/8.3). **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Be sure to work with your VAR and/or TAC to determine stable software releases. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have been a Cisco wireless shop for most of the wireless age, but we were able to bring in Cisco to replace other systems at hospitals we acquired and the ease of support compared to the replaced systems has been great. ### 19. This is a fantastic product that has continued to stay ahead of the competition **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The ease of configuration compared to other manufacturers. The advanced functionality and integration with other products. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The constant code/firmware upgrades and the QA of new code could be better. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** We solve connectivity across the campus and provide a seamless experience to all users. ### 20. Cisco Software Based Controllers **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Al S. | Vice President of Information Technology, Banking **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** These controllers are extremely reliable for my business pirposes **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** There really is not anything that I am not happy with **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Great product great reliability **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** There reliable networking handled by these controllers play a significant role in our sucess ### 21. Dynamic WLC deployments with Cisco WLC **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 07, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers allows you to deploy a wireless network with multiple choices **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Maybe the only I dislike is the compatibility with old Cisco Access Points, but it's normal in all kind of deployments **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** - Features - Compatibility - Integrations with others **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cisco allows to deploy wireless service with different configurations, and in big deployments you can use Flexconnect configuration, this configuration mode allows to save WAN traffic and dynamically apply QoS and Security on WLC or AP layer ### 22. NG WLC **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 11, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Cisco WLC allows you to deploy your environment on different ways (centralize, local, converged and flexconnect), with them you can do all you need **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Cisco wireless lan controllers help you to solve all your needs, I don’t dislike anything **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers:** Cisco WLC capabilities Security Support Third party integrations **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** We can deploy Flexconnect local switching configurations, so we can assign vlan access dynamically in combination of Cisco ISE, to apply secure access rules ### 23. Remote Access **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** Cisco Connect is great for connecting to your work computer from a remote location. **What do you dislike about Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers?** The connection can become disconnected easily, for example if you let your computer idle for five minutes. **What problems is Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reduces travel, allows for a better work to life ratio. ## Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Discussions - [What are the features of a wireless LAN controller?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-features-of-a-wireless-lan-controller) - [View Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/cisco-wireless-lan-controllers/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-13+01%3A19%3A34+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=681f6656-5490-4161-ac74-e2ad0e17cf53&secure%5Btoken%5D=6b237bdb386480ba2401db8244383df2fc0b655e95127a249cc7c125fd83f8c7&format=llm_user) ## Top Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Alternatives - [Huawei Routers](https://www.g2.com/products/huawei-routers/reviews) - 4.8/5.0 (31 reviews) - [MikroTik](https://www.g2.com/products/mikrotik/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (30 reviews) - [Netgear Wireless Management](https://www.g2.com/products/netgear-wireless-management/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1 reviews)