We performed a comparison between Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Fortinet FortiWLM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Wireless LAN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The solution is pretty generic and easy to use."
"In terms of reporting, in terms of all the user reports, it's very rich."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Mist is the Virtual Network Assistant, powered by artificial intelligence."
"The artificial intelligence feature is very good."
"It provides private network access, helping us protect our company’s devices."
"With Mist, every Wednesday they roll out new features."
"You can easily monitor, manage, and cover all your IT equipment."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is Marvis, the AI-driven network management system."
"Allows for cloud-based management of your Wi-Fi network."
"The solution provides good coverage and identity management. Additionally, the user interface is straightforward."
"It improved the installation time."
"The most valuable features in Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN are that we were able to see all the registered users for each particular WAP, which is a big help. The roaming allows us to have continuous wireless throughout the building. The signal can carry over from one WAP to another. Which is probably the most important feature."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN are the ease of use and the ability to manage it from the cloud."
"We use the solution's bandwidth shaping, URL filtering, and group policy configuration features."
"Cisco's technical support is very good and better than other vendors."
"The most valuable thing to me is the stability of the product."
"Security is the feature we like most from Fortinet. In general, their security architecture is really great, because it involves everything: firewalls, wireless LANs, the user. Everything is really secure."
"The most valuable features are the roaming profile, the mesh, and the performance."
"Seamless roaming by leveraging Virtual Cell is a major advantage which reduces roam times and issues related to roaming. Code stability has been excellent and the hardware quality is second to none."
"Having the single pane of glass, by using the Fortinet Security Fabric, allows us to tighten security, and more easily and quickly create additional VLANs to help protect data. Rules in the firewall mean we can protect data and systems so that, should anything go wrong, any security issue is held to an individual device."
"Although there are a few steps, the initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"I found that It's really good when comparing it to any other product or it is much better in terms of features that the customer requires."
"With Fortinet, there is a feature called Network-In-Control. It's the AP controller that decides what the clients are going to connect to... Even though your phone sees, let's say, two APs, since the wireless controller has visibility into and access across all the APs, it knows the best AP for the client to connect to. This way, the controller makes sure that none of the APs is over-crowded, and the spectrum is used properly."
"I use Fortinet FortiWLM for wireless communication and the internet."
"The product should include adaptive Wi-Fi to show a more accurate location."
"Juniper Wireless AP can improve by continually improving its reporting and integration with other systems."
"They should include SD-WAN features to it."
"There is room for improvement in terms of support and installation."
"I need a bit more time with it before criticizing the features."
"The pricing is very high in the Indian market."
"If you want to do more specific stuff, it's a bit limited."
"The price could be better."
"The initial setup was simple. However, the full deployment could be easier."
"The price could be slightly better, but then again, we negotiate deals every time so the market price isn't really relevant."
"They should introduce a grace period of 60 days after license expiry because as it is now, it automatically goes down and there is no grace period."
"When it comes to switching, Meraki lacks categories of features."
"The product's pricing needs improvement."
"We face a bottleneck on the gateway while using the solution for large enterprises."
"It is expensive. Juniper seems to have a lot more to offer for future expansion. Juniper has some features that are not there in this solution."
"The biggest pain point is that they limit you through firewall throughput. I understand why they do it, but that really grates me. For instance, for 450 Mbps throughput, you're looking at £800 for a router, whereas if you look at the one gig connection, for some of us are lucky enough to have a gig connection, you could almost be spending £3,000 for the option to have one gig connectivity. That's one of the pain points I've got. I don't mind paying for throughput, but I should at least have the option to be able to update that throughput, maybe through extra licensing or something else. It is crazy expensive to jump through to the next one."
"The initial setup is complex and has room for improvement."
"Technical support is very poor. We are not satisfied with the technical support because there is not any direct person from Fortinet for any troubleshooting, which we expected."
"They need to do more with their marketing. That's what's wrong with them. Nobody knows they do all this other stuff. I love the product. For an enterprise-level system, you never have to explain why you're recommending Fortinet, whereas you might have to do that if you want to use the Ubiquiti Professional or the new Netgear line, but you don't have to explain Fortinet. It has been remarkable to work with."
"I have used Cisco previously and I don't see any specific differences from Fortinet FortiWLM or other vendors."
"One of the main features that I see as lacking in any of the Fortinet products is the reporting. If you want to have proper, end-to-end reporting, you must purchase the FortiAnalyzer... If Fortinet could offer some better, built-in reporting, that would be a point of improvement."
"When using the FortiGate as the wireless controller, you cannot have automatic user registration, which is something that they should offer."
"There is very little publicly available information about Virtual Cell and Single Channel Architecture. Promotion of the overall technology is limited as well. Being more vocal about a product that has many advantages would go a long way to eliminating a lot of the confusion and negative perception about Virtual Cell and Single Channel Architecture."
"Licensing is the only area that I think they are below average. They need enterprise licensing, an all-encompassing license to cover all products for a company."
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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is ranked 4th in Wireless LAN with 115 reviews while Fortinet FortiWLM is ranked 15th in Wireless LAN with 22 reviews. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiWLM is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN writes "Offers good mobility, stability and scalability ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiWLM writes "Impressive manufacturing quality, highly durable, and very easy to deploy". Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Ubiquiti Wireless, Mist AI and Cloud, Ruckus Wireless and Ekahau Site Survey, whereas Fortinet FortiWLM is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Ruckus Wireless, Cisco Wireless, Ubiquiti Wireless and Omada Access Points. See our Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Fortinet FortiWLM report.
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