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ExtremeWireless vs Fortinet FortiAP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.5
ExtremeWireless provides cost-effective scalability, significant ROI and time savings, easy deployment, excellent support, and optimal value over three years.
Sentiment score
8.0
Fortinet FortiAP offers strong ROI through secure features, reduced maintenance, high reliability, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced productivity.
The monitoring access and excellent support provide significant value.
The best ROI is achieved over a three-year term.
I do not have to continuously manage them, and their reliability means they are consistently up and running.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.3
ExtremeWireless customer service is praised for reliability but criticized for response speed, global coverage, and inconsistent support availability.
Sentiment score
7.8
Fortinet FortiAP support is mixed; premium service praised, but standard service disappoints with varied customer experiences and long wait times.
I rate their support as a nine because they are very helpful when we need assistance and they strive to help, even if not the fastest.
The technical support sometimes closes cases without resolution.
I would rate the customer service as a ten.
We keep a support contract open with Fortinet, so we have instantaneous response from them.
The technical support from Fortinet FortiAP is rated 7.5 out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
ExtremeWireless is highly scalable and flexible, effectively supporting organizations of all sizes with seamless expansion and high-density management.
Sentiment score
7.4
Fortinet FortiAP offers effective scalability for different organizational sizes, though complexity may arise when expanding units.
The Extreme access points handle high-density connectivity needs very well, managing lots of traffic efficiently.
The scalability of ExtremeWireless is average.
ExtremeWireless is quite scalable.
We have good scalability with Fortinet FortiAP because we have multiple ISPs connected to it through FortiManager.
There could be constraints where a product can't be scaled further without purchasing a new model.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
ExtremeWireless is lauded for its stability and reliability, though firmware updates occasionally require physical restarts for resolution.
Sentiment score
7.2
Fortinet FortiAP's stability is generally rated high, with some issues arising post-upgrade or after two years of use.
They work well without failures.
I experienced issues during firmware upgrades, as some devices required a physical restart, which affects system stability.
I have not experienced any issues, outages, or problems and have not had to interfere with them at all.
The stability of the solution is very high.
 

Room For Improvement

ExtremeWireless must enhance usability, security, and signal stability while optimizing costs, integration, and market visibility for smaller businesses.
Fortinet FortiAP requires better security integration, improved functionality, responsive support, competitive pricing, and enhancements in performance, configuration, and legacy support.
I wish for ExtremeWireless to optimize the roaming capability between access points, especially for IoT devices.
They should develop more troubleshooting tools for system management.
There is some delay in firmware upgrades for access points.
I know they're going up to six soon, which will enhance reliability.
Security is always a concern for any business, and the network should not be compromised easily.
 

Setup Cost

ExtremeWireless provides reliable solutions with annual subscriptions, though pricing and additional fees can make it costly.
Fortinet FortiAP offers competitive pricing, seen as cost-effective compared to Palo Alto and Check Point, with varied value opinions.
Each customer typically buys around 100 APs, which makes it quite expensive.
The pricing is a weak point for Extreme; it is very high.
The pricing is favorable due to its flexible licensing model.
The license costs for Fortinet are more affordable when considering licensing costs with other leaders like Cisco.
The pricing is much better than Cisco pricing.
The pricing is a little bit high, and I would rate it a ten on the scale where ten is the highest price.
 

Valuable Features

ExtremeWireless excels in cloud management, security, performance, integration, scalability, flexibility, and offers user-friendly tools for multi-site organizations.
Fortinet FortiAP integrates with FortiGate and FortiAnalyzer, offering streamlined management, robust connectivity, and cost-effective deployment for enterprises.
A single license can be used for on-premises, hybrid, or cloud, allowing for easy transition between solutions without losing investment.
The support from Extreme is very good and helpful.
The most valuable features of ExtremeWireless include the management through the one dashboard management with ActionCloud IQ, integrated with Site Engine.
Compatibility with Fortinet firewalls allows clients to set up new businesses with integrated firewalls and access points, offering a cost-effective solution while providing excellent wireless coverage.
FortiAPs are an enterprise-level device capable of handling a large number of users and connections, ensuring quality.
We can do more with one Fortinet FortiAP in two areas instead of having multiple devices.
 

Categories and Ranking

ExtremeWireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiAP
Ranking in Wireless LAN
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of ExtremeWireless is 1.6%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiAP is 4.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

Seungho Yang - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced employee access with effective wireless monitoring and seamless roaming
Our use case for ExtremeWireless is to allow our employees to access the company systems The monitoring systems in ExtremeWireless have been very effective, and they are cheaper than other products. It provides better monitoring logs and detailed logs compared to Cisco Wireless. The most…
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
11%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with ExtremeWireless?
There is some delay in firmware upgrades for access points. When there is a problem with the firmware of one access point, the correction might be too late.
What is your primary use case for ExtremeWireless?
We work with some end customers, and we use ExtremeCloud IQ ( /products/extremecloud-iq-reviews ) for the administration of the wireless platform. We use Wi-Fi 6 E for many users.
What do you like most about FortiAP?
If we have FortiClient installed on multiple devices, it is seamless to connect with FortiAP. It supports passwordless authentication as well. That is a great thing about it.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiAP?
The pricing is a little bit high, and I would rate it a ten on the scale where ten is the highest price. They are a bit more expensive compared to other solutions, however, it is worth it if you ca...
What needs improvement with FortiAP?
There is nothing that particularly comes to mind for improvement. The management is controlled by Fortinet firewalls, so specific improvement needs do not jump to mind.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

St. Xavier High School, Americatel, Diamond Light Source
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about ExtremeWireless vs. Fortinet FortiAP and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.