Aruba Airwave vs Fortinet FortiManager comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Fortinet are both solutions in the Network Management Applications category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1, while Fortinet is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 5.7% mindshare in NMA, compared to Fortinet’s 5.3% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Aruba Airwave

Read 26 Aruba Airwave reviews

1,387 Views
1,318 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Fortinet FortiManager

Read 69 Fortinet FortiManager reviews

4,942 Views
741 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Aruba Airwave

Fortinet FortiManager

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Aruba Airwave and Fortinet FortiManager compete in the network management sector, each offering unique advantages. While Aruba Airwave is known for its broad vendor compatibility, Fortinet FortiManager stands out for its strong focus on security and automation features.

Features: Aruba Airwave provides rich reporting, zero-touch provisioning, and support for multivendor environments. It's designed for ease of use, accommodating various network products, and offering effective troubleshooting tools. Fortinet FortiManager offers centralized management, integrates well with other Fortinet products, and provides automation tools that simplify deployment and management tasks for up to 100,000 devices.

Room for Improvement: Aruba Airwave could improve its integration with third-party systems, refine synchronization between CLI and GUI, and enhance multi-platform compatibility, though cost remains a user concern. Fortinet FortiManager needs better documentation, improved real-time traffic monitoring, increased compatibility, and more streamlined interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Aruba Airwave and Fortinet FortiManager are mostly used on-premises, with Fortinet also supporting cloud environments. Aruba's customer service has mixed reviews, with customers noting quicker response times from competitors like Cisco. Fortinet is known for reliable support but could enhance regional availability and technical query management.

Pricing and ROI: Aruba Airwave is considered costly, especially regarding scalability and additional licensing, but provides good ROI through operational efficiency. Fortinet FortiManager is competitively priced relative to other firewalls, appreciated for its flexible licensing and robust security, leading to a positive ROI but there is demand for more competitive future pricing.

To learn more, read our detailed Aruba Airwave vs. Fortinet FortiManager Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Airwave vs. Fortinet FortiManager

July 2025

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Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

5.8

Aruba Airwave provides long-term ROI with efficient troubleshooting, significant cost savings, and improved productivity despite initial hardware costs.

Sentiment score

6.3

Fortinet FortiManager offers competitive pricing, comprehensive security, and high returns, despite not showing immediate ROI during deployment stages.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report

Fortinet provides a strong ROI for organizations focused on comprehensive security.

Apaar Bhola

Network Security Engineer/ Firewall Engineer at Charter Communications

For more quotes and insights, download the Fortinet FortiManager report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.4

Aruba Airwave technical support is praised for effective service, knowledgeable staff, and multilingual communication, despite occasional slower responses.

Sentiment score

6.8

Fortinet FortiManager support is praised for efficiency, but some users report delays and complex case response time issues.

I would rate their technical support as a nine or ten, as it's quite good.

Edward Zeng

Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology

Angie was very kind and communicated well in both Spanish and English, making it pleasant to connect with her.

reviewer1877184

TI at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report

Fortinet's support has proven to be reliable, particularly as we've been engaged with them since the project's initiation.

Dhanang K. Wardhana

ICT Project Management Office Manager at PINS

They are responsive and resolve issues quickly when I raise a ticket.

DINESHKUMAR9

Senior Associate at City Union Bank Ltd

The level of support for P2 and P1 is wonderful.

MohamedTalbi

Security Architect at Bouygues Telecom Mobile

For more quotes and insights, download the Fortinet FortiManager report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.0

Aruba Airwave is scalable, supporting different user counts and environments, often used with Cisco tools, rated highly for scalability.

Sentiment score

7.3

Fortinet FortiManager offers scalable, centralized management, ideal for expanding Fortinet environments, favoring virtual machines over hardware.

Aruba Airwave is fully scalable, as we have a large number of tenants using the network with approximately six thousand end users.

reviewer1854369

Executive at a government with 201-500 employees

Aruba Airwave gives good information about SNR value, signal value, and you can get extensive information.

Ahmet Bulbul

Senior Network Consultant at Data Market

For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report

You can raise the capacity as you go, and there is no limit for hardware.

MohamedTalbi

Security Architect at Bouygues Telecom Mobile

If you are working with a private or public cloud, it is very scalable.

Mfsdf Ksfks

Presales Consultant at Redington (India) Ltd

The problem is cloud connectivity and roaming profiles are not working, as there is no option for them.

LIJIL PY

Network engineer at JOYALUKKAS

For more quotes and insights, download the Fortinet FortiManager report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.6

Aruba Airwave is stable, reliable, and highly rated, with minor manageable issues during high usage and integration.

Sentiment score

7.9

Fortinet FortiManager is stable and reliable, with minor glitches that require reboots and depend on proper resource allocation.

I have found Aruba Airwave to be stable.

reviewer1854369

Executive at a government with 201-500 employees

As it is centralized, sometimes it disconnects from the cloud, and I need to reboot.

Arun-M

Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report

I rate the solution's stability ten out of ten.

Juan Frias

CISO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

95% of the time, there are no problems interacting with other devices.

MohamedTalbi

Security Architect at Bouygues Telecom Mobile

For more quotes and insights, download the Fortinet FortiManager report

Room For Improvement

Aruba Airwave requires cost reduction, system integration, UI simplification, pricing changes, and better synchronization, support, and compatibility.

Fortinet FortiManager needs better documentation, simplified UI, enhanced integration, and clearer pricing to improve user experience.

The end-to-end users' messages show some details that are not always up-to-date, and sometimes the information from the GUI is not exactly aligned with what's on the website.

Edward Zeng

Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology

I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive.

Ahmet Bulbul

Senior Network Consultant at Data Market

When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers.

reviewer1877184

TI at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report

FortiManager is a good tool, but there is a lack of really advanced documentation.

MohamedTalbi

Security Architect at Bouygues Telecom Mobile

If you have a couple thousand policies for FortiGate firewalls, it can take a few minutes to receive a response from the remote devices.

Slawomir Napiorkowski

Architect at IT Systems and Solutions sp. z o.o.

In such cases, their CPE or other devices on-site may become unreliable, leading to occasional configuration discrepancies.

Dhanang K. Wardhana

ICT Project Management Office Manager at PINS

For more quotes and insights, download the Fortinet FortiManager report

Setup Cost

Aruba Airwave licensing is seen as complex and costly, yet often cheaper than Cisco, with variable pricing flexibility.

Fortinet FortiManager is considered reasonably priced, with potential negotiation, though costs vary with device volume and features.

The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.

Edward Zeng

Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology

For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report

Fortinet has the best pricing currently on the market.

ChristianBenjamin

Pre-Sales Engineer at Cable & Wireless Communications

It isn't the most expensive solution.

Slawomir Napiorkowski

Architect at IT Systems and Solutions sp. z o.o.

It's neither cheap nor expensive.

Mfsdf Ksfks

Presales Consultant at Redington (India) Ltd

For more quotes and insights, download the Fortinet FortiManager report

Valuable Features

Aruba Airwave provides multivendor support, robust reporting, real-time analysis, and easy network management with zero-touch provisioning and Visual RF.

Fortinet FortiManager centralizes management, automates tasks, and enhances network performance with scalability, visibility, and integration features.

It provides near real-time monitoring using AIMON and AURO protocols, which is robust with multiple models and brand support.

reviewer1877184

TI at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aruba Airwave provides good visibility, offering extensive data on network dynamics, such as access point connections, usage, signal strengths, and potential interference from neighboring Wi-Fi networks.

reviewer1854369

Executive at a government with 201-500 employees

The most helpful feature I noticed, yet did not utilize, allowed us to add our Cisco switches for monitoring.

Lulzim Islami

IT Network Operations Manager at KEDS

For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report

I can automate the installation of configurations using different programming languages like Python or HPE, and it's a GUI solution, so it's pretty easy to use, even for basic users.

MohamedTalbi

Security Architect at Bouygues Telecom Mobile

Being able to push consistent firewall rules and configuration changes across multiple FortiGates saves a ton of time and reduces errors compared to managing each device individually.

Apaar Bhola

Network Security Engineer/ Firewall Engineer at Charter Communications

Without FortiManager, you cannot manage a complex environment across several sites with multiple firewalls.

Slawomir Napiorkowski

Architect at IT Systems and Solutions sp. z o.o.

For more quotes and insights, download the Fortinet FortiManager report

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Airwave

Ranking in Network Management Applications

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Fortinet FortiManager

Ranking in Network Management Applications

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Aruba Airwave is 5.7%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiManager is 5.3%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Management Applications

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Bulbul

Senior Network Consultant at Data Market

Reports generation remains efficient while support and updates require attention

The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it. I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive. Customers start to complain and get annoyed about the license price. For example, when customers have 500 access points and features about access point licenses, moving to Central requires purchasing new licenses. This makes customers annoyed and complaining about this situation. It's hard to move from on-premises to Central because they always compare costs. If Aruba gave free licenses, they could move. But going to cloud and Central means more investment, and their budget doesn't cover the new investment. This creates problems for local partner companies.

Read full review

Damitha Anuradha

Head of Presales at AcSys Networks Private Limited

Manage multiple devices with ease but experience complexity in deployment and limited AI features

I use Fortinet FortiManager to manage multiple devices in a single location. Although it does not provide a security posture itself, it depends on the firewall policies and settings in their respective firewalls. Fortinet FortiManager is primarily meant for the management of devices Fortinet…

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Airwave?

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Airwave?

The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?

See all answers

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiManager?

The most valuable feature is the centralized management console.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiManager?

The pricing for Fortinet FortiManager is good and not expensive. It is competitively priced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?

There are some aspects that Fortinet FortiManager could improve upon. The user interface can feel clunky, especially for more complex tasks such as managing large-scale policy packages or custom sc...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco DNA Center vs Aruba Airwave

Compared 32% of the time

HPE Intelligent Management Center vs Aruba Airwave

Compared 21% of the time

Aruba ClearPass vs Aruba Airwave

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Center vs Aruba Airwave

Compared 9% of the time

More Aruba Airwave Competitors

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 69% of the time

Fortinet FortiOS vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco DNA Center vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 7% of the time

AlgoSec vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 4% of the time

SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 1% of the time

More Fortinet FortiManager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Airwave

August 2025

Download Aruba Airwave product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiManager

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiManager product report

Overview

Offering granular visibility into wired and wireless networks, AirWave is the only management platform designed with mobile devices and apps in mind. By proactively monitoring the health and performance of all things connected, AirWave lets IT gain the insights they need to support the digital workplace.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Fortinet FortiManager is used for centralized management of FortiGate firewalls, utilizing zero-touch deployment techniques to optimize configuration and deployment, reducing installation time and errors while improving network security and efficiency.

By centralizing policy management and monitoring across devices and locations, Fortinet FortiManager enhances security and operational efficiency. Automation tools simplify management, control, and consistent configuration across environments. It offers scalability for managing large numbers of devices, beneficial for organizations seeking unified threat protection and streamlined administration from one console. The platform integrates effortlessly with Fortinet products, supporting zero-touch provisioning, SD-WAN, and traffic analysis. Although intuitive, the graphical interface and overall performance require refinement, alongside enhanced support and documentation for troubleshooting and configuration.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiManager?

Centralized Management: Streamlines device configuration across multiple systems.
Automation Tools: Simplifies implementation and maintenance of configurations.
Zero-Touch Provisioning: Reduces setup time and minimizes errors.
SD-WAN Support: Enhances wide-area network efficiency and effectiveness.
Traffic Analysis: Monitors network traffic for improved security insights.
Policy Pushing: Facilitates efficient deployment of security rules.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Operational Efficiency: Reduces installation time and configuration errors.
Scalability: Supports management of numerous devices.
Improved Security: Centralized management enhances threat protection.
Time Savings: Automation reduces manual intervention needs.
Cost-Effectiveness: Simplified administration can lower management costs.

Fortinet FortiManager is implemented across diverse industries like telecommunications, finance, and healthcare, where centralized management and enhanced security are crucial. Its ability to streamline processes and integrate with existing Fortinet products makes it ideal for organizations looking to maintain robust network security standards.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Airwave vs. Fortinet FortiManager

July 2025

Free Report: Aruba Airwave vs. Fortinet FortiManager

Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Airwave vs. Fortinet FortiManager and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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