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Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs Fortinet FortiAP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN
Ranking in Wireless LAN
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.1
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiAP
Ranking in Wireless LAN
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is 12.3%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiAP is 5.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

RezaPradipta - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamline network management with a unified dashboard for seamless device integration
The primary use case for Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is mostly for enterprise wireless, including guest Wi-Fi and enterprise Wi-Fi. I use it across various industries with a focus on retail Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers a single pane of glass management. It only comes with a controller on the…
JayPrajapati - PeerSpot reviewer
Room for improvement in customer support as overall satisfaction remains low
We earlier expected that Fortinet FortiAP could be managed through the cloud, which would be very good, but nowadays, FortiNet is providing FortiAPs with cloud management also. That requirement has been covered. Currently, I cannot see any areas for improvement because it fulfills my requirements, and I can do everything I need with it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The fact that Cisco Meraki is cloud based and is reasonably priced has been most valuable."
"It's a stable product."
"What I liked about these is that they worked. I didn't touch them or do anything with them. They were up and running when I came here. Once they are set up and running, you don't have to worry about them."
"The graphic user interface is very nice."
"The monitoring device enables you to see the network health."
"Cisco's technical support is very good and better than other vendors."
"The automatic VMware update is very useful because you don't have to worry about outages and planning for VMware updates. It is very advantageous from a management point of view. The ability to restrict and review the clients connected to each of our segments. Additionally, the solution is easy to use."
"Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is a user-friendly solution that has good performance and stability."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy, especially with FortiGate or your FortiManager in place."
"The integration is efficient, allowing for management through the firewall."
"Fortinet FortiAPs are useful for small to medium-scale companies where there are budget concerns."
"The stability of the solution is very high."
"The product's deployment phase is very easy since its documentation part is available in the public domain."
"The most valuable aspect of Fortinet FortiAP is the support."
"I like FortiAP's performance and stability. The reporting is also quite good."
"The pricing is reasonable for what it offers."
 

Cons

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The way Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN groups certain things, as far as the devices for either monitoring and or configuring them should be done better. They should be grouped a little bit differently because if I want to configure something, a different setting on an SSID, I have to go to their specific area where I would have thought it should be clumped as a dropdown menu in another area."
"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."
"The cost of the devices and the solution itself could be more competitive."
"We'd like to have better mapping to showcase low-coverage areas."
"In a future release, they should offer a next-generation UTM, where you can manage all items and the network, and have it include a lot of security features like fingerprinting functionality."
"Cisco Meraki must improve the integration between its own family of products."
"They're great. If there's anything that they need to change, it is just simplifying the site to which you go to make changes on the admin side."
"I would like to have automation capabilities that would help us reduce the configuration steps."
"The support offered by the solution has certain shortcomings, making it in areas where improvements are required."
"The wireless functionality is not the best."
"There is nothing that particularly comes to mind for improvement."
"I am not satisfied with Fortinet FortiAP's technical support in India. Whenever we call them, they only provide KB articles first."
"The product fails to offer default access points to deal with the areas revolving around configurations."
"There is room for improvement in the product by expanding the number of SSIDs that can be broadcast."
"There could be constraints where a product can't be scaled further without purchasing a new model."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is not so much for Wireless LAN, but when you have to get the security license, it costs a lot."
"Pricing could be better."
"The tool is reasonably priced."
"The pricing is based on a subscription and is a bit high at the moment."
"The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
"This solution is slightly more expensive than others, such as Ruckus Wi-Fi."
"The box itself is very cheap. The question here is about the subscription because this is what you will pay every year. In the initial year, for purchasing, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN gives you an attractive price. While during renewal, we are not given much discount."
"Having a good price is important when we are providing quotations for projects."
"We purchased perpetual licensing, and additional costs may vary depending on the services acquired from Fortinet."
"If I compare it with the other enterprise products, the price is good."
"On a scale of one to ten with ten being the most expensive, I would rate FortiAP a six."
"Fortinet FortiAP offers a more cost-effective solution compared to Palo Alto and Check Point."
"The product is available at a very comfortable price for my company compared to the other products available in the market. The prices of products from Meraki and Aruba are high compared to those of Fortinet."
"FortiAP is more expensive than some other options."
"The devices under Fortinet are not expensive. The solution's licensing part is expensive."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 have some feature that I need or want, I wouldn't consider them. Do you have expe...
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 be very reliable and to consistently run very efficiently. Cisco Wireless helpe...
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 a great feature. The dashboard is a simple interface and easy to learn. It feat...
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 needs improvement with FortiAP?
We earlier expected that Fortinet FortiAP could be managed through the cloud, which would be very good, but nowadays, FortiNet is providing FortiAPs with cloud management also. That requirement has...
 

Also Known As

MR18, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR66, MR72, Meraki Wireless LAN, Meraki WLAN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs. Fortinet FortiAP and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,825 professionals have used our research since 2012.