Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs Fortinet FortiWLM comparison

Cisco and Fortinet are both solutions in the Wireless LAN category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Fortinet is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 13.0% mindshare in Wireless LAN, compared to Fortinet’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 8, 2024

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Fortinet FortiWLM are top competitors in wireless network management. Cisco Meraki is more suitable for smaller IT teams due to its cloud-based, user-friendly management system, while Fortinet FortiWLM excels in security features and seamless integration with security products, catering to organizations with strict security requirements.

Features: Cisco Meraki offers cloud-based management with an easy-to-use dashboard, supporting multiple SSIDs, RADIUS, and seamless systems integration. Its centralized management simplifies deployment and updates. Fortinet FortiWLM uses Fortinet’s Security Fabric for secure management, integration with firewalls, switches, and access points, providing robust analytics and centralized management, ideal for end-to-end security.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Meraki could refine its pricing, enhance logging details, and address GDPR compliance, while sometimes lacking the depth of non-cloud solutions. Fortinet FortiWLM could improve reporting capabilities, ease of setup, and guest management without relying on additional tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki facilitates deployment across various cloud environments with generally positive customer service. Fortinet FortiWLM, mostly on-premises, offers strong technical support and easy access to assistance, receiving high service ratings.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Meraki is perceived as costly due to its licensing model requiring annual renewals, although it offers powerful features and stability. Fortinet FortiWLM provides competitive, transparent pricing with cost-effectiveness, beneficial for budget-conscious organizations like schools.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Fortinet FortiWLM Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Fortinet FortiWLM

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Juniper Mist Wireless Acces...

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points is 5.7%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 13.0%, up from 12.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiWLM is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Wireless LAN

Featured Reviews

Gyan Sharma

Assistant Programmer at Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha

Offers good performance, good solution and smooth implementation

I do have a suggestion: 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. If there are access points from other brands installed nearby; they can cause interference and disrupt the range of our Mist access points. So, the security features could be stronger, especially in terms of authentication. The connectivity is excellent, but security needs improvement. In future releases, integrating more AI features would be beneficial. If Mist had stronger AI features, it could provide better security against network threats and cyberattacks. So, this solution still needs to improve its AI capabilities. It would be great if the AI could improve the range of the access points, and auto-protect functionality should be there to avoid interference by other nearby access points and enhance threat detection. In the future, I'd like to see stronger threat detection features integrated with Mist, as well as better detection of nearby access points that might cause interference.

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Danila Fradeani

Strategie, Innovazione e Customer Experience â€“ Analytics & Customer Experience (CEX) Manager at Telecom Italia

Simple-to-use platform with a centralized management system

Deploying Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is relatively easy for our colleagues in the delivery department. They face challenges in planning, learning critical issues, and finding solutions during deployment. However, our team has gained valuable experience handling such deployments over the past three to four years. Currently, I am not directly involved in the configuration, design, or delivery analysis. However, maintenance may present more challenges for us. Our primary proposal for network solutions typically involves Cisco Meraki because our team has a long-standing familiarity and confidence in Cisco technologies. However, we also work with Fortinet, depending on the specific requirements of our customers. We offer both options to ensure we meet the diverse needs of our clients. I rate it an eight out of ten.

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Zachary Wheeler

President / CEO at Secure Solutions Center LLC

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The simplicity is great."

"The solution is very secure."

"For the most part, it does what it's supposed to do, and I like it. It's a great product."

"The most valuable feature of Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) is the ability to troubleshoot ports on the network. Additionally, when there is an update on the APs they are able to reboot quickly reducing downtime. Other solutions have a longer downtime when updates are done."

"You can easily monitor, manage, and cover all your IT equipment."

"The artificial intelligence feature is very good."

"The most useful feature of Juniper Wireless AP is the reporting Marvis."

"Juniper Mist offers valuable features like comprehensive network insight, granular policy control, fast device setup, strong security, and efficient SSL traffic management."

More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points pros

"The interface is excellent. We've been really happy with it."

"From a security perspective, this product has several advantages."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the application visibility, which is one of the main features."

"The ability to manage it remotely is the most valuable. If it has an internet connection, you can get to it. It is a great product for remote clinics. We kind of thought about doing this kind of standalone technology. Meraki is easy to manage. From a management perspective, it is the easiest to use, especially in the cloud. I like Meraki. I even have it in my home."

"Multiple access ID capabilities, meshing, and the quality of the product itself are all valuable features."

"It is very handy to have a support number to call."

"It's simple to manage when there's a problem."

"I really love their cloud-based dashboard which allows me to see all my locations from one location."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pros

"The setup was easy."

"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."

"The firewall integration is very important for the security of the connection."

"If you do have a FortiGate Firewall somewhere in the network, you can connect the wireless controller to that... You get 100 percent visibility from a single point... You can see everything that's connected to the FortiGate, whether it's a switch or a wireless AP or a wireless controller or any other Fortinet product."

"The security is a valuable feature."

"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."

"The most valuable features of this solution are its speed, reliability, and integration with the firewall."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiWLM is the single management pane and integrated controller inside the firewall."

More Fortinet FortiWLM pros

Cons

"If you want to do more specific stuff, it's a bit limited."

"There is room for improvement in terms of support and installation."

"Though certain security features are integrated into the product, my company has to always look forward to tightening certain security functionalities in the solution."

"Improvement is needed in the user-friendliness of Juniper Mist, particularly in enhancing the interaction with AI features."

"Enrolling into the tool is a tedious process."

"The price could be better."

"Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) could improve if the MIST platform had a built-in master key. This would be an advantage."

"The pricing should be made cheaper."

More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points cons

"The dashboard could be a bit better. I'd like to see more information about the whole controller and APs. It should be as simple and convenient."

"I'd like better integration with security providers."

"We would like the solution to work on the pricing of the solution. It would be ideal if it could bring the overall costs down."

"The licensing could be a bit better."

"The licensing isn't very customer-centric. They may have improved it, but previously, if you forgot to pay on a certain day, your service would be shut off."

"It would be better if they enable full integration with Cisco's cloud-based network in the next release."

"Unfortunately, we have to deal with European privacy laws and as far as we can see, the solution is not compliant with these. It's why we're not able to continue with Cisco Meraki. They need to become compliant with GDPR laws."

"The price could be slightly lowered to make it more competitive in the market."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN cons

"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."

"The interface could certainly do with some improvement. We have other customers with WiFi networks, and they always use Ubiquiti. With Ubiquiti, it's a much better user interface, and it is much easier to configure."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The solution should improve user capacity."

"Areas for improvement would be the compatibility with Apple products and cross-platform integration."

More Fortinet FortiWLM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the pricing an eight out of ten."

"If a customer has a budget of around five lakhs in Indian currency, they can afford Juniper products."

"The solution is expensive."

"The pricing is something Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) can work on. The pricing is very high compared to the competition."

"I rate Juniper Mist's pricing a ten out of ten since it is expensive."

"The pricing is fair."

"Juniper Wireless AP's price is a little more expensive than other solutions, but you get what you pay for."

"We pay maybe 1000 SEK per year, per access point."

More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points pricing and cost advice

"Since it's been acquired by Cisco, it's an even higher cost."

"It is an expensive solution."

"It is expensive."

"I would say that they have adequate pricing."

"This solution is quite costly and there are costs in addition to the licensing fees."

"The platform is highly priced."

"We pay licensing fees."

"If you are wondering if Meraki can work for you, contact one of their representatives because they will do onsite trials where you can set up their system. If it does not work, you can send it back to them for no charge."

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN pricing and cost advice

"Fortinet FortiWLM's pricing is regular and competitive."

"In the last few years, due in part to the impact of COVID on the market, Fortinet has increased its prices by 35 percent."

"To save yourself from increased setup and maintenance costs, I highly recommend undertaking a proper site survey from the beginning."

"Licensing costs are reasonable. There are so many different types of licenses with Fortinet, but the licensing and the 24/7/365 support are so reasonable that I automatically include it with every transaction. I never line item it without it. There are no additional costs."

"The price of Fortinet FortiWLM is reasonable compared to the other vendors. We are using a five-year license."

"Fortinet would do something with their pricing model to attract smaller business users and eliminate the mandatory service contracts."

"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."

More Fortinet FortiWLM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series)?

The solution is very secure.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series)?

Juniper Mist is cheaper than Meraki, placing it in the middle of the pack.

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What needs improvement with Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series)?

Supporting multiple protocols would be beneficial.

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What are pros and cons of Aruba 515 Series AP vs. Cisco Meraki or Extreme Networks?

Depends. I have personally used both Cisco and Aruba so I am familiar with them. Extreme I am not, so unless they h...

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Which is better - Cisco Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?

Cisco Wireless is very robust, very rugged, and can handle indoor and outdoor coverage extremely well. We found it to...

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How does Ruckus Wireless compare to Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?

Cisco’s Meraki Virtual MX is a virtual instance of the Meraki SD-WAN appliance. We liked the Meraki. The Wifi APs are...

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What do you like most about Fortinet FortiWLM?

The security is a valuable feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiWLM?

The product is highly expensive. I rate the pricing a ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiWLM?

The platform's pricing needs improvement.

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba Wireless vs Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points

Compared 18% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Wireless vs Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points

Compared 4% of the time

Fortinet FortiAP vs Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points

Compared 4% of the time

Ubiquiti WLAN vs Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points

Compared 4% of the time

More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points Competitors

Aruba Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 32% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 10% of the time

Mist AI and Cloud vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 7% of the time

Ubiquiti Wireless vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiAP vs Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Competitors

Aruba Wireless vs Fortinet FortiWLM

Compared 26% of the time

Cisco Wireless vs Fortinet FortiWLM

Compared 21% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs Fortinet FortiWLM

Compared 15% of the time

Omada Access Points vs Fortinet FortiWLM

Compared 8% of the time

Ubiquiti Wireless vs Fortinet FortiWLM

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiWLM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points

December 2024

Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points report

Download Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN

December 2024

Download Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiWLM

December 2024

Download Fortinet FortiWLM product report

Also Known As

Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series), Mist Access Points

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN

FortiWLM, FortiAP, Fortinet AP/OAP, Meru Wireless LAN

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Juniper

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Cisco

Fortinet

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.

Cisco Meraki access points are built from the highest grade components and carefully optimized for a seamless user experience. The outcome: faster connections, greater user capacity, more coverage, and fewer support calls. The Cisco Meraki dashboard gives visibility into the network users, their devices, and their applications. Armed with rich analytics, administrators can quickly create access control and application usage policies, optimizing both the end-user experience and network security.

Consolidate security and wireless LAN management with our integrated wireless solutions. Single-pane-of-glass management for security and access without the need to add point products simplifies deployment and reduces management complexity. These solutions are highly scalable to support even the largest organizations and distributed enterprises.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Fortinet FortiWLM

December 2024

Free Report: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Fortinet FortiWLM

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Fortinet FortiWLM and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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