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ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
28th
Average Rating
6.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiAP
Ranking in Wireless LAN
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless is 0.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiAP is 4.7%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiAP4.7%
ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless0.7%
Other94.6%
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1397640 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President of Business and Finance at a university with 201-500 employees
Access points work but there are problems with support, scalability, and keeping technology current
Having a better dashboard management system that the client can use to access and control their environment would be a nice addition to the product. They said it was going to be part of one of their updates, but we did not get it. We thought we should have in one of the updates that we did. With that, we would have been able to control the environment if we needed to do something like adding more bandwidth in certain areas. Not getting that update became kind-of problematic for us. That was one of the reasons why we had to try to find a solution with a better dashboard management system. I think they need to get the product to the next Gen. Currently they are running on Generation 5. I know that they have a new product almost ready to come out, but they are not really ready for Gen 6 yet. Support could be enhanced as well. With any one of their solutions, they are the means that provides the client with the flexibility and scalability to help manage the product. Instead of the current system where you have to send them a support ticket and then have to go back and forth to get something done, I just think that users should have better control over the process. Their current process does not allow you to have that kind of control. That may be just my limited experience.
Shahnawaz Nusrat - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Technical Operations at ITE
Has simplified wireless integration while needing better throughput and captive portal features
The product can be improved depending on the model selected as per requirements. Support is good and throughput is good. What we need to do is select a better product as per our requirement and environment. If proper working is done in terms of wireless heat map or radio connectivity in our environment, I believe it's good. There is always a chance to improve. Throughput can be better in terms of other vendors, but currently, it's working fine. One feature that I still need to explore is the captive portal. When we deploy a unit in a public environment, users need to sign in with a pop-up box to connect.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Adtran 3448, Adtran 1531P, and Adtran 160 AP are deployed for a customer in their retail clothing environment, constituting the network infrastructure on each retail site location and supporting IP cameras, Mobile POS on iPads, people counters, and traditional POS registers."
"I believe the initial setup was straightforward."
"I believe the initial setup was straightforward."
"Being able to centralize the wireless environment using virtual machines and having all AP management in the same place (our data centers) is very big because now we don't have to manage multiple devices out in the field and costs also go down because now you don't have to worry about maintenance on those controllers."
"It has allowed our SMB team to provide an easy wireless solution."
"The setup was straightforward."
"The stability of the solution is very high."
"Fortinet FortiAPs are useful for small to medium-scale companies where there are budget concerns."
"I always recommend to customers who have a FortiGate firewall to choose Fortinet FortiAP instead of deploying any other wireless controller or OEM because it provides a single posture of security and a single management console, is easy to use, easy to deploy, and offers central management with FortiGate."
"Fortinet FortiAP's zero-touch deployment feature with FortiManager is utilized in the current deployment, enabling deployment and configuration that is very useful, leading to huge cost savings."
"The solution supports recent security components like encryption or hashing algorithms. We can control the APs from FortiGate Firewalls and integrate those APs into FortiGate. You don't have to purchase a separate controller for it."
"Fortinet FortiAP provides value for money, and I can quantify the savings at about 80%."
"I would give FortiAP a rating of ten out of ten so far."
 

Cons

"Support is not really up to par in quickly addressing issues."
"From my knowledge, we feel that this solution is not scalable enough for us."
"Additional features other vendors have might be useful as well as an MDM integration."
"The AP160 is dated and not yet integrated into the Bluesocket family and we can't run a good Bluesocket cloud solution with the router 3448."
"Having a better dashboard management system that the client can use to access and control their environment would be a nice addition to the product."
"Customer Service: Moderate. Technical Support: Moderate."
"FortiAP could be a little cheaper."
"The wireless functionality is not the best."
"Throughput can be better in terms of other vendors, but currently, it's working fine."
"FortiAP is very good in an indoor environment, but we are struggling with the outdoor environment."
"The improvement factor could be in APs. Also, it could have a control, like MAC address."
"There is nothing that particularly comes to mind for improvement."
"Technical support is a pain. Fortinet has to get its act together. If you don't pay for premium service, you will have issues."
"A point for improvement for Fortinet FortiAP would be improvements in the GUI, which is adequate but could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It cost over $30,000 for us for 260 access points."
"We purchased perpetual licensing, and additional costs may vary depending on the services acquired from Fortinet."
"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."
"The devices under Fortinet are not expensive. The solution's licensing part is expensive."
"FortiAP is more expensive than some other options."
"If I compare it with the other enterprise products, the price is good."
"Fortinet FortiAP offers a more cost-effective solution compared to Palo Alto and Check Point."
"On a scale of one to ten with ten being the most expensive, I would rate FortiAP a six."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with FortiAP?
A point for improvement for Fortinet FortiAP would be improvements in the GUI, which is adequate but could be improved. Additionally, wireless coverage and the mapping area are fairly static and co...
What is your primary use case for FortiAP?
Fortinet FortiAP is currently used mainly on branch deployments because of the single pane of management across the whole branch using the FortiGate, FortiAP, and FortiSwitch. I have utilized Forti...
 

Also Known As

Adtran WLAN, Bluesocket Wireless
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Thomas College, North Cobb Christian School, Archbishop Riordan High School, Dickson Public Schools, Hamilton Heights School Corporation, North Idaho College
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless vs. Fortinet FortiAP and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.