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Aruba Networks Wireless WAN vs Fortinet FortiWLM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Networks Wireless WAN
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Wireless WAN (5th)
Fortinet FortiWLM
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Wireless LAN (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is designed for Wireless WAN and holds a mindshare of 2.5%, up 1.8% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiWLM, on the other hand, focuses on Wireless LAN, holds 2.0% mindshare, down 2.2% since last year.
Wireless WAN
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Colly - PeerSpot reviewer
Reasonably priced and offers a good GUI
The product is very scalable. When it comes to some schools, they start with the solution's proof of concept in certain sections. My company aims to improve the throughputs in the schools where the product is installed. If the rest of the School wants the product, it is easy to set up the solution. My company uses Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for schools and warehouses but not in the retail sector. The product offers reliability and uptime twenty-four hours and seven days a week. My company gets notified if the reliability offered by the product goes down. My company also gets notified if we are getting hacked.
Zachary Wheeler - PeerSpot reviewer
Impressive manufacturing quality, highly durable, and very easy to deploy
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. It would be nice if they had some smaller switches or hubs. They should offer two-port, three-port, or four-port devices so that you don't have to buy an eight-port switch, and you don't have to use an unmanaged element, but their product line is very complete, and I can't say enough about it.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I appreciate the ease of deployment and management through the centralized console."
"I have found the technical support to be one of the most valuable features."
"From the performance perspective, I'm happy with the solution. Also, from the technical side, it seems to be pretty good."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of setup and deployment."
"Aruba Wireless's best feature is that it's very, very robust."
"The security feature and the signal are good as they is dependent on our needs."
"Once Aruba Wireless is set up and configured correctly, you just walk away. That's what we like about it. We have some devices that are six or seven years old, which is rare in the wireless world because everything changes so quickly, but in some banks and municipalities, it just keeps working."
"It integrates with the Aruba portfolio very easily, and it's a vendor-agnostic solution, and that's brilliant."
"The most valuable features are the roaming profile, the mesh, and the performance."
"The most valuable features are central management and the many other features available."
"The product is a stable solution."
"The solution is controlled from one device and one GUI for all devices."
"At the moment, particularly with the COVID-19 situation, the most valuable feature is probably the IPsec VPN, which is easy to implement with Fortinet."
"We're using SD-WAN at all of our locations now, which helps increase and aggregate and lower response time and improve application performance."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiWLM is the single management pane and integrated controller inside the firewall."
"The greatest advantage is the security fabric Fortinet offers."
 

Cons

"In the next release, the security should be improved by including support for WPA3."
"From the commercial-side the pricing side is fine but in other aspects, it could be lowered."
"Deployment can take some time if you haven't planned well."
"Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is expensive."
"We have had stability issues with some types of portable devices."
"Aruba Networks Wireless WAN could improve the solution availability. The selection of mounting hardware for the various radios is limited and poor. Often, you have to create and manufacture your own mounting hardware in certain situations."
"Sometimes, the configuration part of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN can be complex, and if you fail to understand the product at once, you may not even know about some features that you can apply to your network, and they may go unused."
"It works. We don't look at it any deeper than that and don't find any features ar missing."
"There are currently issues with Fortinet's software quality."
"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."
"The roaming of Fortinet FortiWLM could improve when comparing it to other solutions. We are missing some of the functionality in the controller. Additionally, they should offer more logs instead of using FortiAnalyzer because all the users will not be using the same thing."
"The range needs some improvement and also the stability."
"Improving support and firmware upgrades is necessary. Firmware upgrades and bug improvements need to be tested well."
"Documentation could be improved."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is cheaper than Cisco, and the web experience is great."
"That's really subject to the type of environment you're deploying. If you're doing a full controller model with 200 APs, the initial deployment could be 150 grand. Maintaining that or maintaining support for that per year could be something like 10 to 15 grand per year. In the cloud sense, the cloud is by the number of APs. So, everything is readily available."
"The product's price is within range since it has a lower price."
"The pricing of the product is pretty good."
"Aruba Wireless comes with the controller."
"On a scale f one to ten, where one point is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing as eight. Cloud licenses are quite expensive."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"If a customer already is a FortiGate customer, the cost to go to the FortiAP is incredibly affordable, because you already have the controller."
"There is a perpetual license required for this solution and the price could be reduced."
"The solution is fairly priced."
"Fortinet would do something with their pricing model to attract smaller business users and eliminate the mandatory service contracts."
"The product is highly expensive. I rate the pricing a ten."
"In the last few years, due in part to the impact of COVID on the market, Fortinet has increased its prices by 35 percent."
"For indoor access points, there is a one-time cost, upfront, whereas outdoor access points have an annual fee."
"To save yourself from increased setup and maintenance costs, I highly recommend undertaking a proper site survey from the beginning."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Real Estate/Law Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Aruba Network Wireless WAN?
I recommend Aruba Networks Wireless WAN. I have been using Aruba for approximately a decade. It has a great centralized management system, which means we don’t need wireless LAN controllers at ever...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Networks Wireless WAN?
I am not paying anything more apart from the licensing. The only thing I am paying for is the implementation cost.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiWLM?
The pricing for Fortinet products has increased. While historically there was a bundle price available, it's now gone, making Fortinet less affordable than before. However, they are not the most ex...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiWLM?
There are currently issues with Fortinet's software quality. We have concerns regarding the frequent updates needed because of short software cycles. More cloud orientation like that seen in compan...
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiWLM, FortiAP, Fortinet AP/OAP, Meru Wireless LAN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Pittsburgh Golf Club, Rio Rancho Public Schools, Amwaj Rotana - Jumeirah Beach Residence - Dubai, Trevecca Nazarene University
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Ubiquiti Networks, Ruckus, Cambium Networks and others in Wireless WAN. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.