Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center vs NETGEAR Switches comparison

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2,408 views|1,799 comparisons
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86% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center and NETGEAR Switches based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Ethernet Switches solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center vs. NETGEAR Switches Report (Updated: May 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
"Configurations between FortiGate and FortiSwitch have to link to each other. We need configuration. The configuration is not like a Cisco switch. It has a unique configuration.""I like the solution's technical support. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.""The single pane of glass that helps us manage everything through FortiManager is the most important feature.""Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center's scalability is good.""The initial setup was simple.""A valuable feature of FortiGate is its management integrity.""Based on my use cases, Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center was a great product that was easy to manage and work with while being a powerful tool.""I have found the solution to be scalable."

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"The tool is very easy to deploy as it is a very basic switch.""It's nice, if there is an issue, to be able to go in through the remote. The fact that the remote doesn't require a static IP... is nice. They initiate the contact to the outside world, without requiring a static to get in.""This is a cost-effective solution.""Comes preconfigured and designed specifically for AV.""There is a lot of helpful documentation that helps with the configuration process.""We have a wide range of switches for various applications, including a collection specifically designed for ProAV, as well as Multi-gig Switches, which are also quite well-known or unique.""The company provides a lifetime warranty.""The most valuable feature is the fact that Insight is cloud-managed. The whole reason behind it is that there is one central place to manage it. You can pre-configure everything and you can get access to it without having to get onto the client's network. That makes it easy to use and deploy."

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Cons
"We need to understand a bit more about certifications and knowledge for understanding capabilities. The solution should make that more clear to its users.""Routing is an area in Fortinet FortiSwitch with certain shortcomings where improvements are needed.""Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center needs to improve its UI and stability.""The FortiSwitch product was initially quite complex.""They could improve availability and security by detecting and preventing switch attacks.""When there are many switches being used, the speed declines noticeably.""There could be more porting software options for easy deployment in the product.""The solution’s pricing could be improved."

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"The web interface has been a little sketchy on occasion. Sometimes I have to reload the page to get things to show up properly, but the switch itself seems fine. The web user interface is a little wonky at times.""There are some design issues on which they really missed the boat. The problem has to do with rack mounting them because the lights and jacks should all be on the front, and the power on the back. The way they did it makes it really difficult to use them in a rack environment, because when the lights are on the opposite side of the jacks... you usually can't see the back side of a rack. You can't get back there to see, so it's just crazy.""NETGEAR Switches could be more secure. Scalability could also be better. This infrastructure is a bit old, and we need something that will be more secure. Something that will introduce WLAN, and we will need the knowledge to go with that. Some of the switches were used for more than seven years. I think it was just their lifespan that was exhausted. But other than that, there haven't been any issues that required us to complain or get concerned.""The scalability and warranty should also be improved.""I'd like to see a little bit of slowdown on the firmware updates. They've been doing a lot of them. I don't know if that's just because it's such a new product line, but the firmware updates have been a little annoying because they've been coming once a week. For a switch, that's a little extreme.""Lacks switches with additional ports that provide room for new protocols of communications.""One area that has room for improvement, and I know NETGEAR is working on it, is adding more features to the products lines in terms of what we can manage through the Insight portal... not all Layer 2 or Layer 3 settings are there yet.""What I'd like to see is more compatibility with virtual stacking, so that 4300-series switches and 3300-series switches will actually stack together and that virtual switch stacks, themselves, are not limited to just six devices, so that they can create larger loops with more bandwidth and more redundancy."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Cost-wise, Fortinet solutions are cheaper than those offered by Cisco."
  • "This solution is expensive but it does not require a license."
  • "It is reasonably priced."
  • "The solution's pricing is a little high. The solution deserves the current price it receives from its users."
  • "The product is less expensive than one of its competitors."
  • "Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center is expensive."
  • "The solution is not expensive."
  • "We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution, which is expensive."
  • More Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing for what you get with the Insight product line is very fair and the value is there, including the annual licensing fees for the Insight Pro for each device... the Insight Pro level, which is their highest level, where you get a lot of features with the Insight, is a bargain. You get a lot of good features for what you're paying there annually."
  • "We used HPE previously. The reason I switched to NETGEAR was because of pricing differences, which are huge, when you go into 10GB networking... The pricing is quite good... The total cost of the deployment was about 11,000 euros or so. If I had gone with HPE it would have been at least twice as much."
  • "It's a great price-to-performance solution. I think it's singularly the best price-per-performance we can find, if not just straight performance to begin with... The cost of hardware and additional services is lower, absolutely. I wouldn't say "low," but we found it to be lower than other options, and that helps us resell this back to customers who are looking at other things like a Cisco Meraki..."
  • "Insight pricing is okay. It's very competitive. The costs of the hardware and additional services weren't low because Unify is much cheaper, but the costs conformed to the market. When you look at the hardware specs, the price and the warranty, the complete package was much better than any other vendor. If you consider those three main aspects of Netgear Insight and Netgear Insight devices, and you put them next to Ubiquity or Cisco Meraki, or even TP-Link, in our opinion, it's better hardware, it has a better warranty, and for the price you have to pay, it's a pretty good product."
  • "NETGEAR pricing is the best on the market by far. I was shocked when I saw what their price came out as for their subscription. It's extremely reasonable."
  • "The great thing about the Insight product is that the renewable subscription is much cheaper than the competitors in the market. It is not over $50, per year, so customers buy the equipment and don't have to worry so much about the renewable fees that go along with having such access into their switch, with a cloud-managed solution. There are some other manufacturers where you'll essentially pay the same in hardware as you do in software, just for the cloud solution that supports it; just to keep getting the firmware updates and all of that information. With NETGEAR, you can do multi-year and that is something like 90 percent cheaper than if you're looking at Meraki, for example. It is extremely competitive. It's one of the main reasons we liked it so much."
  • "The price to performance of this solution is very good. When it comes to pricing, as far as I'm concerned, they're very comparable with Ubiquity. NETGEAR has pricing that is as good as it gets. That's why I use them."
  • "There are two parts to the pricing. There's the pricing of the device itself, which is good. Their licensing model needs work, though. The licensing model doesn't fit the way MSPs do business."
  • More NETGEAR Switches Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The product has a mid-range price. Generally, switches are expensive. I rate the pricing a five out of ten.
    Top Answer:Enabling management through Fortinet self-service could enhance the product by simplifying operations. Having a unified interface for managing all aspects would be beneficial. They could improve… more »
    Top Answer:NetGear switches have a lot to offer. They have high availability, zero-downtime stacking, L2 and L3 functionality, and are AV-over-IP ready. NetGear switches also have a command line interface and… more »
    Top Answer:Ubiquiti Unifi offers a great set of features. For starters, it is easy to configure and implement, and also doesn’t require a learning curve because it is easy to use. It is also simple to… more »
    Top Answer:Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. I have not faced any issues with the product whatsoever.
    Ranking
    16th
    out of 34 in Ethernet Switches
    Views
    2,408
    Comparisons
    1,799
    Reviews
    7
    Average Words per Review
    273
    Rating
    7.9
    4th
    out of 34 in Ethernet Switches
    Views
    19,288
    Comparisons
    13,717
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    426
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    NETGEAR Insight Managed Switches, NETGEAR GC Series, NETGEAR M Series
    Learn More
    Overview

    With 10 or 40 GE access ports and a high-throughput backbone, FortiSwitch Data Center Switches are ideal for the top-of-rack (ToR) server or firewall-aggregation applications. The high-speed switching fabric is also well suited for enterprise network core or backbone network installations.

    NETGEAR Ethernet Switches is an Ethernet solution that offers businesses of all sizes the ability to easily set up secure and highly scalable networks. Small to medium-sized companies have the option to choose from three different switching options. The three options that are most appropriate for businesses of this size are the NETGEAR Unmanaged, Plus, and Smart Switch solutions. If you're managing a large enterprise network or a campus network, then NETGEAR Fully Managed Infrastructures is the solution for you. All the NETGEAR Ethernet Switches and solutions are innovative, easy to install and use, reliable, and very cost-effective.

    NETGEAR Ethernet Switches have many features that make them a most effective product. Included in these is the ability to virtually stack IP addresses in such a way that users can scale their network up with ease. These IP addresses are grouped together. Once additional data ports are connected, you have only a single switch to manage and you gain both a much higher level availability of data and a greater level of network resilience.

    Benefits of NETGEAR Ethernet Switches

    Some of the benefits of using NETGEAR Ethernet Switches include:

    • The ability to control and track the performance of your network from a single centralized location. NETGEAR Ethernet Switches has a “single pane of glass” interface that enables administrators to track their network’s data in real time, allowing them to manage everything from one place. If a problem is detected, this management interface will alert the appropriate administrator.

    • A wide array of security features allows you to manage user access, filter incoming traffic for potential threats, and monitor your network for unauthorized traffic. The switches have security capabilities built in in an effort to maximize network protection, while at the same time allowing you to minimize the expenditure of resources required to keep you secure.

    Reviews from Real Users

    There are a number of characteristics that make NETGEAR Ethernet Switches extremely effective. Two major ones are its inherent flexibility and its user-friendly nature. 

    PeerSpot user Kevin W., a network delivery architect at a tech-services company, notes that NETGEAR Ethernet Switches gives users the ability to tailor the switches to fit their needs. He writes, "The big winner for NETGEAR is their modular switch: the 96X version. That is something that you don't see in the market anywhere else, except for Cisco who has it at a high level for a high expense. The ability to customize your own switch with their modules is a big plus for what we do in the market right now. Instead of having to piece together standardized switches, trying to make something work, or fitting the design into the mold, the modular switches are aware that you can make a mark in the industry because you purchased one switch and design with different modules added and removed later on for functionality."

    PeerSpot user Chris W., a system engineer at Diversified, notes just how easy they are to use when he writes, "The ease of use of these switches is very good because of the Cisco CLI. If you are familiar with CLI, then you can configure the switch that way. It also has a relatively straightforward web interface. Using the web interface is good for beginners or people who aren't familiar with Cisco CLI. However, having a common command line interface method is great for some of our more advanced guys who are familiar with it."

    Sample Customers
    Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
    Blaze Networks
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider22%
    Insurance Company22%
    Renewables & Environment Company11%
    Marketing Services Firm11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company17%
    Construction Company17%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Agriculture6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Educational Organization7%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise21%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise44%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business75%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise17%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business34%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise51%
    Buyer's Guide
    Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center vs. NETGEAR Switches
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center vs. NETGEAR Switches and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center is ranked 16th in Ethernet Switches with 19 reviews while NETGEAR Switches is ranked 4th in Ethernet Switches with 51 reviews. Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center is rated 8.0, while NETGEAR Switches is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center writes " Handles network connectivity between data centers and supports internet applications". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NETGEAR Switches writes "You can stack different models of switches which makes the scalability great". Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center is most compared with Aruba Switches, Cisco Ethernet Switches, Huawei Ethernet Switches and Ubiquiti UniFi Switches, whereas NETGEAR Switches is most compared with D-Link Ethernet Switches, Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches, Ubiquiti UniFi Switches, Cisco Ethernet Switches and MikroTik Routers and Switches. See our Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center vs. NETGEAR Switches report.

    See our list of best Ethernet Switches vendors.

    We monitor all Ethernet Switches 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.