Dashboard floor plans
Upload a floor plan (JPEG, GIF or PNG) and pin the access points that are in your network to it.
- Before you install?
- No. It maps access points you already have.
- What it needs
- A Meraki licence for every device
Cisco makes no free predictive planner for Meraki: the dashboard maps networks that are already installed. WiFi Heatmap predicts Meraki coverage from your own floor plan, free in the browser, with no account.
The gap
Read from Cisco Meraki’s own documentation and tools on 26 October 2026. The question for each one: can it show you coverage before the access points are bought and mounted?
Upload a floor plan (JPEG, GIF or PNG) and pin the access points that are in your network to it.
Shows where clients are, worked out by the installed access points.
Measures the signal from a real Meraki access point set up for the survey.
Source: documentation.meraki.com, "Conducting Site Surveys with MR Access Points"
Meraki’s own site-survey guide sends you to Ekahau for predictive surveys.
In short: Everything in the Meraki dashboard describes a network that is already installed. To see coverage before you buy, Meraki’s own guide points to a paid third-party planner.
Free vendor planners do exist for other brands: UniFi, TP-Link Omada and Cambium each make one for their own hardware. If your whole job is one of those, read our honest comparisons with UniFi Design Center and Omada Design Hub.
Pick your access point
Each model carries its datasheet antenna gain and the transmit power Cisco Meraki publishes. Tap one and every access point you place starts as that model; you can change any of them later, or mix in other brands.
The Meraki-branded range, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E.
Cisco’s newer indoor line, run from the Meraki dashboard or a Catalyst controller.
Model not listed? Older MR models and outdoor units are not in the list yet. Pick “Custom” and type the transmit power and antenna gain from the datasheet, and the heatmap treats it like any other radio.
Open the editorHow it works
A PNG, JPG or PDF. Set the scale from one wall you know the length of, so distances are real metres.
Trace them by material, or let the editor detect them. At 5 GHz a brick wall costs 11 dB and plasterboard 4, so materials decide where the signal stops.
The heatmap updates as you drag, at 2.4, 5 or 6 GHz, with the usable-signal line drawn on it. Move one and watch the dead zones move.
It is a prediction, not a survey: expect about ±6–10 dB in homes and small offices. How the model works, and what it leaves out, is on the accuracy page. The same editor plans 79 access points from 11 vendors, so you can price Meraki against anyone else on the same plan.
Free: as many access points as you like while you plan; the PNG export includes the first 5, on one floor, with a watermark. Pro (€9 for a 7-day pass, €39 once, or €29/year) exports every access point on every floor without the watermark, and adds the branded client PDF report.
See pricingFAQ
Not a predictive one. The Meraki dashboard lets you upload a floor plan and pin installed access points to it, shows a location heatmap of clients, and has a Site Survey Mode that measures with a real access point. For predicting coverage before you buy, Meraki’s site-survey guide points to Ekahau, which is paid. Vendor-neutral planners fill the gap; WiFi Heatmap (wifiheatmap.app) is one, free in the browser with Meraki MR and Cisco CW models built in.
No. Its heatmaps come from access points that are installed and licensed: the location heatmap shows where clients are. A predicted heatmap is computed from the floor plan, the walls and the access point models instead, so it works before anything is bought. That is what WiFi Heatmap makes.
The Meraki MR models MR28, MR36, MR36H, MR44, MR46, MR57, and Cisco CW models CW9162I, CW9164I, CW9166I, CW9171I, CW9172I, CW9172H, CW9174I, CW9176I, CW9178I, each with the antenna gain from the datasheet and the transmit power the vendor publishes (estimated where Cisco prints none). For any other model, type its transmit power and antenna gain by hand.
Yes. Every access point on the plan can be a different model from a different vendor, which is useful when you are pricing Meraki against UniFi, Aruba or Ruckus for the same building.
Planning is free with no account: place as many access points as you like and the heatmap updates live. The free PNG export includes 5 access points on one floor, with a watermark. Pro, from €9, adds every floor, full exports and a branded client PDF report. The floor plan never leaves your browser, on any plan.
Other brands
Aruba Instant On WiFi heatmap →
2 Instant On and 3 Aruba campus models, and what Aruba Instant On offers for planning.
RUCKUS WiFi heatmap →
5 RUCKUS models, and what RUCKUS offers for planning.
Every free planner, compared →
Which ones are free, which lock you to one vendor, and which beat us for a given job.
Measured or predicted heatmap? →
What each kind can tell you, and which one you need before an install.
Upload the floor plan, place Meraki access points and read the heatmap in a few minutes. Free, in your browser, no account.