Cisco Wireless vs Fortinet FortiWLC comparison

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Juniper Logo
5,118 views|3,582 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Cisco Logo
27,556 views|25,563 comparisons
88% willing to recommend
Fortinet Logo
676 views|552 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Wireless and Fortinet FortiWLC based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Aruba Networking, Cisco, Ruckus and others in Wireless LAN.
To learn more, read our detailed Wireless LAN Report (Updated: June 2024).
772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most useful feature of Juniper Wireless AP is the reporting Marvis.""Overall, we've been very pleased with the performance.""You can easily monitor, manage, and cover all your IT equipment.""The solution is very secure.""Juniper Mist offers valuable features like comprehensive network insight, granular policy control, fast device setup, strong security, and efficient SSL traffic management.""It provides private network access, helping us protect our company’s devices.""The AI capabilities of Mist Wireless are superior to other OEMs.""The artificial intelligence feature is very good."

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"The initial setup is straightforward.""Device profiling allows us to have different policies applied by ISE to wireless clients.""Good manageability, and stability.""Cisco Wireless solutions are easy to use.""Cisco Wireless gave us the ability to deploy and seamlessly manage wireless devices at our corporate office and remote locations.""The support offered by Cisco is excellent. They are very responsive and knowledgeable.""The tool is mainly improving our productivity.""The product enables mobility and centralized control."

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"It's easy to set everything up during implementation.""The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiWLC is the overall high quality."

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Cons
"Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points’ support services need improvement.""Improving third-party integration is key for Juniper Mist's next release.""Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) could improve if the MIST platform had a built-in master key. This would be an advantage.""The price could be better.""I need a bit more time with it before criticizing the features.""They should include SD-WAN features to it.""It would be helpful to have even stronger security features to help protect against interference from other nearby access points that aren't part of our network.""Juniper Wireless AP can improve by continually improving its reporting and integration with other systems."

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"Sometimes I've seen some issues come up with the interference. That's an issue users face at times. It becomes very complex when you have a lot of wireless interference in the area, or in your office. It's because of the environment of Cisco. Maybe, in the future, they can work on this area, and fix this issue.""Requires a firewall body to improve security.""The solution doesn't have much coverage area.""This solution is very expensive, which means we often have to go for cheaper options instead.""The price should be reduced. It should be cheaper.""The biggest reason why we could no longer continue with Cisco Wireless was because of the high cost to upgrade everything. It was disappointing that Cisco treated us as just another big company, and did not offer any leeway on their pricing given that we are an educational institute. And although the system we had in place from Cisco Wireless was good enough over the last ten years, it started to show its age when pushed to its limit during the pandemic.""The current issue with Cisco is I don't have centralized management.""Before deploying a wireless solution, you have to read and plan every role, every windows system, put in your access point, and then make the audit. This solution is not the best one to do this. We use another solution that is called Eko. In the future, if this solution could have better auditing capabilities it would be better."

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"Fortinet FortiWLC is not simple to configure when compared to other solutions. The design could be better.""One thing that is lacking is, compared with some other brands, the signal is a bit weaker. Ruckus has much wider signal coverage."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "We pay maybe 1000 SEK per year, per access point."
  • "Juniper Wireless AP's price is a little more expensive than other solutions, but you get what you pay for."
  • "The pricing is something Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) can work on. The pricing is very high compared to the competition."
  • "The pricing is too high."
  • "The solution is expensive."
  • "I rate Juniper Mist's pricing a ten out of ten since it is expensive."
  • "I rate the pricing an eight out of ten."
  • "The pricing is fair."
  • More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It is an expensive solution."
  • "Expensive."
  • "As far as I know Cisco is very competitive, price-wise. Talk to your third-party vendor. It all depends on the company size - how many employees, how big the building is. If it's wireless, and you have only 50 employees but you're using a large building floor, in that case you need many access points. But if you have 50 employees using two or three rooms, then you probably don't need it and it's going to be high density, so there is a different design. So you need to talk to a subject matter expert. Talk to them and design accordingly."
  • "Cisco is more on the expensive side, as compared to Aruba, but I must say Cisco's quality is unmatched, for sure."
  • "I am not a fan of Cisco's software pricing model. Their management software is far too expensive."
  • "The pricing is high. It could be cheaper."
  • "Never pay the full GPL price."
  • "Pricing is a bit on the high side compared to its competitors but we have to consider the support and usages of the solution. Licensing is now RTU and smart licensing. We need three types of licenses. One for each of the: APs, HA, controller."
  • More Cisco Wireless Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The price of Fortinet FortiWLC is high. The solution will be out of the market for us because the price is too high for the features it provides."
  • More Fortinet FortiWLC Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Juniper Mist is very reasonable in terms of pricing, especially when compared to competitors like Cisco.
    Top Answer:Someone enrolled in the tool will deploy it in our organization. Later, I could not enroll in the account until they… more »
    Top Answer:Cisco Wireless is very robust, very rugged, and can handle indoor and outdoor coverage extremely well. We found it to be… more »
    Top Answer:Ruckus Wireless offers users the benefit of being both easy to set up and get running as well as being very user… more »
    Top Answer:On the most basic level, Cisco Wireless can offer a rather straightforward initial setup. In the span of about three… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiWLC is the overall high quality.
    Top Answer:The price of Fortinet FortiWLC is high. The solution will be out of the market for us because the price is too high for… more »
    Top Answer:Fortinet FortiWLC is not simple to configure when compared to other solutions. The design could be better.
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series), Mist Access Points
    Cisco WLAN Controller
    Learn More
    Overview

    Juniper Wireless Access Points work in conjunction with Juniper Mist Cloud Services and Mist AI to deliver premier wireless access capabilities. The Juniper Mist Edge extends microservices to the campus to bring agility and scale while enabling new applications at the edge.

    With Cisco Wireless you will successfully plan, deploy, monitor, troubleshoot, and report on indoor and outdoor wireless networks - all from a centralized location.

    Fortinet controllers for infrastructure Wi-Fi manage authentication and encryption of our enterprise-class infrastructure access points. These controllers are powered by Fortinet’s System Director operating system for seamless mobility and high-density environments.

    Sample Customers
    Information Not Available
    Aegean Motorway, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Brunel University London, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Chartwell School, Children's Hospital Colorado, Cisco Live Milan, City of Biel, City of Mississauga, Dundee Precious Metals, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Erickson Living, Goldcorp, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS)
    Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Educational Organization25%
    Computer Software Company25%
    Newspaper13%
    Healthcare Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    Educational Organization6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Government11%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Government10%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise53%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise40%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise66%
    Buyer's Guide
    Wireless LAN
    June 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Aruba Networking, Cisco, Ruckus and others in Wireless LAN. Updated: June 2024.
    772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco Wireless is ranked 2nd in Wireless LAN with 148 reviews while Fortinet FortiWLC is ranked 25th in Wireless LAN. Cisco Wireless is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiWLC is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Wireless writes "Allows us to deploy a wide range of wireless products with stable WiFi". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiWLC writes "Quick support, overall high quality, and reliable". Cisco Wireless is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Ruckus Wireless, Ubiquiti WLAN, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Omada Access Points, whereas Fortinet FortiWLC is most compared with Fortinet FortiWLM.

    See our list of best Wireless LAN vendors.

    We monitor all Wireless LAN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.