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Cisco Meraki Systems Manager (MDM+EMM) vs Fortinet FortiGate comparison

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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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
246
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Remote Access (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Cisco Meraki Systems Manage...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Device Management (MDM) (3rd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (6th)
Fortinet FortiGate
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
318
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)
Firewalls
 

Q&A Highlights

CV
Jun 12, 2024
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi - PeerSpot reviewer
Everything has worked better since we started using it
Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.
GaneshKhutwad - PeerSpot reviewer
A central portal where you can add, stack, configure, and maintain your devices
Nearly 35,000 users are connected to Systems from America because their network is configured to cover worldwide areas. I have approximately 450 devices connected, which can scale based on requirements. For instance, if you have around five hundred to six hundred users in one office, the MR14 and MR24 series are suitable. For environments with a larger number of standard device users, the MR24 series is recommended. Cisco Meraki provides various series to meet your requirements, allowing you to manage your users efficiently. I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten.
EhabAli - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable
In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I appreciate Intune's autopilot feature, which allows us to enroll devices and install applications to meet corporate requirements seamlessly."
"Stable product that's easy to set up compared to other MDM products."
"As an IT administrator, I appreciate Intune's ability to implement granular device-level policies for our organization's employees."
"The central administration con dashboard is very easy to use and provides very good oversight on all that needs to be monitored."
"The overall user experience is quite nice. I have no complaints from end users regarding their devices enrolled in Intune."
"Intune provides full endpoint visibility and IT control across device platforms. You can individualize it for your company with the Intune Company Portal app."
"One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Intune is the detection and remediation script capability."
"It's easy to deploy a configuration or policy to a system, especially when you don't have Azure AD. Now we are talking to all these small and medium-sized customers who don't necessarily have an on-premise Windows Active Directory. If they have invested in Office 365 Premium, this functionality becomes available to them."
"Security is the main feature because the company is reliable."
"The most significant benefit is that the deployment is quick and painless. You don't need a specialized IT department to implement and scale the network. It's easy to maintain, too. It only requires one or two network administrators."
"The solution is used for monitoring and configuring access points and BYOD (bring your own device)."
"The solution is easy to use and support."
"The central management console on the cloud is fast and is the solution's most valuable feature."
"They can provide detailed information about your devices, including their validity, license status, etc."
"Initial setup was easy."
"The product provides a universal dashboard."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution."
"It has a good UI and overall integration, including FortiGate Manager for controlling all firewalls from a single place."
"It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature of the solution revolves around SSL VPN."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."
"Customers want to load balance more than eight lines or six internet lines. FortiGate is the only solution that can accomplish this."
 

Cons

"Could benefit from user having more control over devices."
"There is room for improvement in integrating additional features such as Purview and SharePoint activities into Intune."
"The synchronization of devices takes a significant amount of time, between 15 minutes and two hours. Microsoft should work on reducing this sync time to improve efficiency."
"The Mac integration has room for improvement."
"I also hope the cost of Remote Help will decrease because it's a much-needed Intune function."
"Setting up Intune Autopilot can be a little complicated."
"It should be simplified. I've worked with many different mobile device management solutions, and Intune is one of the more complex ones. It could be more simplified, and some of it is related to the wording that is being used, such as a configuration profile versus a policy. They really should have had different names to make it less confusing."
"Microsoft Intune has a latency response time issue. The latency has room for improvement."
"There are problems with the connection on the client side, and the app that was deployed could be better."
"The solution's integration with other products could be improved."
"The solution can be expensive."
"Meraki Systems Manager lacks scripting capability compared to Workspace. I've seen the product focused mainly on mobile solutions. They might need more development in endpoints like Windows desktops."
"If Cisco Meraki Systems Manager integrates with other solutions or models, such as ACA's radio solution, on the same equipment or within the same cloud environment, it will offer significant benefits.""
"It would be beneficial to have better integration with other OS."
"Cisco's authorized scripting can be complicated. For example, we sometimes enter the wrong code using this script, and then we had to dictate to find the problem."
"They could include bandwidth-based policies."
"To some degree, it's almost a question as to why some of this stuff isn't simpler. For example, for an AP deployment, while it's integrated, the number of steps that you have to go through in order to get the AP up, seems like a lot."
"There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract."
"There are SD-WAN network monitoring, SD-WAN features, Industrial Databases, Internet of Things, Detection, etc., however, we do have not licenses for those features. We thought that if you bought a product, you should have all of the features it offers. Why should you need to make so many extra purchases to enable features? They should have one price for the entire offering."
"Maybe they could make some features more accessible, such as a way to translate directions between two networks that share the same subnets."
"Technical support for this solution can be improved."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It comes as a bundle, so you do not really know what the prices are. Microsoft does not break it down to the user cost for us. It is just bundled with our E5 license."
"No one can compete with Microsoft when it comes to price, and the features it is offering."
"It is expensive. The cost depends on the license that we choose."
"Microsoft Intune is reasonably priced for large organizations that already have Microsoft Enterprise licenses, but it is less affordable for smaller businesses."
"The solution is cost-efficient."
"I rate Intune an eight out of ten for affordability. It's bundled with the 365 licensing, which is competitive overall."
"Every customer used to purchase licenses based on their needs."
"It is not a cheap solution. The price for a device when you start using it at a large scale can be improved. It is covered under our enterprise agreement. We pay once a year. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"My clients find it a bit expensive compared to other systems."
"This product is reasonably priced."
"Meraki MDM is the cheapest solution we have used."
"My customers at times have issues with the price of the solution. It is expensive, but overall it is worth it. The licensing model cost is based on how many devices you require."
"Cisco Meraki Systems Manager is an expensive solution."
"The cost of installing this solution can be more expensive depending on who is doing the installation. Cisco is very expensive."
"It's extremely competitive and very good for a product in this sphere."
"The price is high for the market."
"Its licenses cost the same for different subscription plans."
"When you look at these end security systems and firewalls, these firewalls even five years ago were $50,000 or perhaps $25,000 to implement in some types of customer sites. Now we're talking about tools that are $1,000. In this case, it might have been $500 or something like that."
"It is more expensive than Sophos. Fortinet is overall more expensive than Sophos. The small range of Fortinet, such as 60F and 80F, is more expensive than the small range of Sophos. Sophos is cheaper. In addition, if you jump from 80F Series to 100F Series, the price doubles."
"It is an inexpensive solution."
"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."
"We just pay a flat monthly fee to the vendor for the support."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate could improve, it is expensive."
"Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
48%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Government
4%
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Meraki Systems Manager (MDM+EMM)?
The pricing sits at a mid-level range, around five or six. There are cheaper and more expensive tools available, but ...
What needs improvement with Cisco Meraki Systems Manager (MDM+EMM)?
While the graphical user interface is user-friendly and easy to configure, I see room for improvement in integration ...
Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Meraki MDM
FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Hafen Hamburg & Empire Riverside Hotel, Eastview Church, Tourism Holdings, Colegio Sagrada Familia Hijas de Jesús, Tommy Bahama's, Canadian School Mexico, Rosebank College
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, JAMF, Omnissa and others in Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM). Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.