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Fortinet FortiExtender vs Ruckus Wireless WAN comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Fortinet FortiExtender
Ranking in Wireless WAN
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Ruckus Wireless WAN
Ranking in Wireless WAN
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Wireless WAN category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiExtender is 8.2%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Ruckus Wireless WAN is 15.7%, down from 31.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless WAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Ruckus Wireless WAN15.7%
Fortinet FortiExtender8.2%
Other76.1%
Wireless WAN
 

Featured Reviews

SyedQuadri - PeerSpot reviewer
IT director at Sajaya Medical Care Services
Has supported multi-branch connectivity effectively and still has potential for deeper feature utilization
Centralized management via FortiManager for my organization is very useful and a must-have. I have used Sophos Central as a manager and Fortinet manager as well. I believe Fortinet Manager has more in-depth features compared to Sophos or some other manager. The threat intelligence integration in Fortinet FortiExtender helps me to meet my industry's compliance standards. Fortinet FortiExtender brought many benefits to my organization. It was a very useful solution for us to have such a service.
DT
Networks Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Has struggled to justify the investment but performs well in challenging installation environments
I work more extensively with some other wireless products. I am partners with Ruckus Wireless WAN and have some partnership with them. I do not work with SmartMesh technology within the product. I use only on-premise management options. Real-time insights and predictive analytics do not help to manage my network more efficiently. The intelligence is very low. I do not prefer cloud deployment as you have to provide your own host for cloud deployment. I would recommend looking at something else if you are considering purchasing Ruckus Wireless WAN. I do not have data points or metrics to share. I am a Networks Manager in the company and prefer to stay anonymous. My overall review rating for Ruckus Wireless WAN is five out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Management can be carried out from a central point."
"The initial setup was was just beautiful. It was straightforward."
"Having the FortiExtender as a part of an SD-WAN topology is a major competitive value."
"The product is easy to use and easy to integrate."
"The ease of the setup and integration into the entire Fortinet solution is seamless."
"The integration is easy and it works as a normal internet connection."
"The solution is extremely user-friendly."
"Centralized management via FortiManager for my organization is very useful and a must-have."
"The connectivity, speed, and reliability are very good."
"I have found that WiFi coverage is the most important aspect."
"The analytic solution is good and should be improving further."
"The stability provided is very nice."
"The scalability of Ruckus Wireless WAN benefits your operations since it is pretty good."
"This is a technology-orientated product and the management features are awesome as compared to other products."
"The performance of this solution is amazing in terms of radiofrequency technology."
"It's highly scalable as long as the licenses are in place. You can expand it easily."
 

Cons

"I would like to see them make it smaller in the next release so that it has a smaller footprint for mobile clients."
"The support could be faster and more responsive."
"The Fortinet FortiExtender should be more suitable for outdoor use. Currently, the vehicle model can be used outdoors, but there are no dedicated outdoor devices."
"What most of my clients are telling me is the price is a problem."
"The solution would be a lot better if it was a little bit more intuitive. Additionally, the help menu would be a lot better if it was easier to identify the items that I was looking for. I find the graphical interface a little bit difficult to navigate. And I find the font that is used on the HTML interface not conducive to being able to be read in low light situations."
"They could improve the remote console server feature and make it more user-friendly for more users."
"Though Fortinet FortiExtender has some security features, the product could still be improved by adding features similar to those in FortiGuard, such as antivirus, intrusion, prevention, and detection, as well as web filtering features. The product is also not as user-friendly, so that's another area for improvement. In the FortiGate UTM solution of Fortinet, there's software-defined or SD-WAN, and in the next release of Fortinet FortiExtender, I'd like to see SD-WAN embedded in the product. Most of the communication in Fortinet FortiExtender is related to WAN and Edge, so having an SD-WAN function in the product would be useful for integrating and controlling WAN communication."
"The engineering of the solution has some negative points, especially in terms of troubleshooting. It's difficult to troubleshoot when we have a problem. It's not like other products like Cisco or Palo Alto which make troubleshooting much easier."
"There is a significant issue with wireless functionality in Apple devices, particularly during video calls."
"I would like to see IoT device support available with WiFi six. IoT is used by all businesses. They are now using IoT devices. It is required."
"The interface has to be more automated."
"The pricing could be cheaper."
"Really, it's just about centralizing manageability across multiple sites, but like I said, that's me commenting on the old product that we've got. I know they've addressed that now with cloud controllers, but that would've been my main thing."
"Of course, we'd always like it to be cheaper, but that's for every product."
"Pricing could be improved in Ruckus Wireless WAN because obviously, everybody wants things to become cheaper. Another room for improvement in the product is from a delivery perspective, particularly the heavy delivery delays because of the chip shortage that a lot of manufacturers have to deal with. The chip shortage is not coming to an end, but Ruckus Networks has to make a plan because the ETA has slipped out from the average of three months on switches to fourteen months, which is very, very rough on the industry at the moment. Ruckus Wireless WAN could lose business to Chinese competitors, for example, HTC has a good wireless solution that I haven't tested yet, other than on POC, and it works great. I haven't yet experienced the HTC wireless solution in large deployments, so you never know how it's going to go, but HTC has managed to circumvent the chip shortage, so the ETA provided by HTC is much more preferred than the ETAs provided by Ruckus Networks, Cisco, and Aruba products."
"Physically, Ruckus Wireless WAN is easy to set up, but when it comes to the configuration and the top, it's quite challenging."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I've only used the open-source version of Fortinet FortiExtender, but I know that it has some features that require you to pay for a license."
"I'm not sure what the cost is. However, I anticipate that the purchase price will range between $2,500 and $5,000."
"The solution is not that expensive."
"It's expensive but you get more coverage."
"The product's pricing is aggressive."
"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"This solution offers a yearly subscription. The price is not high, other solutions are much higher than Ruckus."
"Compared with Cisco Wireless WAN, the pricing for Ruckus Wireless WAN is two out of five. Ruckus Wireless WAN is twice the price of Cisco Wireless WAN."
"The product has competitive pricing."
"The price of Ruckus Wireless WAN is in the middle price range compared to competitors. You will find Cisco is the most expensive, the second is HPE and Aruba, and the third is Ruckus Wireless WAN. You then have all the follower solutions."
"I am not satisfied with the pricing of the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
17%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiExtender?
The price for Fortinet FortiExtender deserves the highest rating.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiExtender?
In future updates of Fortinet FortiExtender, I would definitely want to see AI. They are working on the AI feature, but so far it is a great, amazing product.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiExtender?
Since I was having FortiManager and everything, Fortinet FortiExtender was suggested by the vendor. I went through it and appreciated the product. There are plenty of things we are using Fortinet F...
Is Ubiquiti Wireless better than Ruckus Wireless WAN?
Ubiquiti Wireless is extremely easy to set up and is an excellent option for small businesses, offering enterprise features for a one-time fee and no ongoing licensing fees. Ubiquiti Wireless is ve...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Ruckus Wireless WAN?
These are not cheap access points. If you want to go cheap, Ubiquiti is an option. I knew they were worth it because once deployed, they wouldn't require additional attention. They're not at Cisco ...
What needs improvement with Ruckus Wireless WAN?
Ruckus Wireless WAN is overpriced. Compared to others at the moment, Ruckus Wireless WAN does not have many valuable features. Compared to everyone else, everyone else comes self-hosted, either wit...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
American University of Sharjah, Dordt College, Drew University, Lamar University, Raroa School
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiExtender vs. Ruckus Wireless WAN and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,181 professionals have used our research since 2012.