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Cisco Wireless vs Fortinet FortiAP comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 1, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.0
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points' support is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, though some report occasional slower response times.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
7.6
Fortinet's support quality is mixed, with premium services preferred, local partners praised, and common service queue complaints.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
8.3
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points need enhanced features, better integration, improved security, adaptive connectivity, and simplified processes for market success.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
5.8
Fortinet FortiAP users face high pricing, installation challenges, and performance issues, recommending integration and configuration improvements.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points are praised for their seamless scalability, supporting thousands across industries, simplifying cloud-based expansions.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
7.4
Fortinet FortiAP offers high scalability, though adding new units can be complex, with users experiencing varying challenges.
 

Setup Cost

No sentiment score available
Juniper Mist pricing is higher but justified by advanced features; varies by scale, sometimes cheaper than Cisco, pricier than Fortinet.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.1
Fortinet FortiAP offers competitive pricing, considered cost-effective compared to major competitors, with various licensing options available.
Juniper Mist is cheaper than Meraki, placing it in the middle of the pack.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points are praised for exceptional stability, reliability, and quick performance, even without cloud connectivity.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
6.5
Fortinet FortiAP stability varies, with mixed reviews, occasional disconnections, and updates addressing previous vulnerabilities, depending on usage.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.5
Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points provide AI-driven network management, offering easy setup, centralized control, and enhanced user experience.
No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.5
Fortinet FortiAP offers seamless integration with centralized control, ensuring efficient and user-friendly management without separate controllers.
It's a cloud solution with Mist, which helps troubleshoot and provides visibility to look at different access points.
 

Categories and Ranking

Juniper Mist Wireless Acces...
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Ranking in Wireless LAN
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
150
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiAP
Ranking in Wireless LAN
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points is 5.6%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Wireless is 12.5%, down from 16.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiAP is 2.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Gyan Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Michael Lees - PeerSpot reviewer
Affordable, resilient, and performs better than other solutions in the market
Assurance capabilities must be improved. There should be more Assurance features on the Wireless LAN Controller. A lot of it is bundled into the DNA Center. Having a little more Assurance regarding what the RF Spectrum looks like will be good. Juniper Mist has a lot of analytical data on the dashboard. The customers would be compelled to look at DNA Center as a longer-term and more comprehensive solution if Cisco were to give them an insight into some of the Assurance capabilities that might be available in DNA Center. The tool must provide something like RF Neighbor. It must enable organizations to receive signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio and see how clients perform in their wireless network. It must have a cap. If we want additional functionality to see our entire network, that's where DNA Center fits in.
Yati Gharat - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrates well with Fortinet products, but there are signal issues in the outdoor environment
FortiAP is very good in an indoor environment, but we are struggling with the outdoor environment. That is where we are having certain issues. We are not 100% happy with it. With the indoor environment, we are okay, but we are facing some issues when certain voice-related calls go from wireless points. There are certain drops, and we have faced these issues on an ongoing basis. We also have other vendors such as Aruba and Meraki, and we do not face any issues when there is a Teams or Zoom meeting going on. It could be that FortiAP is okay, but that particular device or appliance is not capable of handling that much load of voice and video. This might be the issue. RF Spectrum Analysis helps to understand what is the coverage and hotspots related to a particular access point, but then when we bought it, we did heat mapping through different vendors. If there are any rogue APs, we can identify them with RF Spectrum Analysis. We can see what the coverage area is, but there are some issues with that. Some of the offices have thick glasses, or the cabins are different, so in the RF coverage, what is shown is not what we get on the practical grounds. There are some issues with signal performance. It has the basic functionality that is mostly used, but there are certain devices that are not able to interconnect. When there is any issue or problem, if the administrator can get some information about that, that will be good. With Meraki and Aruba, we get certain beautiful things. If those can be integrated into this solution, it will be more beneficial, but we understand that being a security company, Fortinet's focus is on security.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Wireless LAN solutions are best for your needs.
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Comparison Review

it_user212721 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 24, 2015
Cisco vs. Aruba Wireless Solutions
Cisco or Aruba Networks? If you are considering wireless access solutions, this is a common question that you are probably asking. You probably have sales people knocking at your door. How do you make sense of all the stories that you are presented with. If you have done any research, you are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series)?
If a customer has a budget of around five lakhs in Indian currency, they can afford Juniper products. But for a new c...
What needs improvement with Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series)?
HP recently acquired Juniper, and I'm not happy about that. Juniper is a brand, and HP acquired them because of Junip...
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...
Which is better - Ruckus Wireless or Cisco Wireless?
Ruckus Wireless offers users the benefit of being both easy to set up and get running as well as being very user frie...
How does Cisco Wireless compare with Aruba Wireless?
On the most basic level, Cisco Wireless can offer a rather straightforward initial setup. In the span of about three ...
What do you like most about FortiAP?
If we have FortiClient installed on multiple devices, it is seamless to connect with FortiAP. It supports passwordles...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiAP?
The pricing for Fortinet FortiAP is good compared to other competitive vendors.
What needs improvement with FortiAP?
The radio band support could be improved, especially for legacy devices. We have faced issues where older devices are...
 

Also Known As

Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series), Mist Access Points
Cisco WLAN Controller
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Aegean Motorway, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Brunel University London, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Chartwell School, Children's Hospital Colorado, Cisco Live Milan, City of Biel, City of Mississauga, Dundee Precious Metals, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Erickson Living, Goldcorp, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS)
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Wireless vs. Fortinet FortiAP and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.