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Aruba VPN vs Fortinet FortiClient comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 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

Aruba VPN
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
34th
Average Rating
5.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiClient
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (8th), Endpoint Compliance (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Aruba VPN is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiClient is 4.9%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiClient4.9%
Aruba VPN0.7%
Other94.4%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Zoltán Nagy - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Infrastructure Manager at Provident Pénzügyi Zrt.
The appliance would crash because of the large number of connections, but its stability was fine
We purchased a relatively small Aruba VPN appliance. Unfortunately, it was not a well-designed VPN appliance product. I think the vendor did not provide us with the best solution. At that time, the world and our company faced the first COVID lockdown, and everybody had to work from home. During this time, the small VPN appliance was overwhelmed by the number of connections, and we experienced many issues. Firstly, it turned out that the firmware was buggy. When around 100 to 300 users tried to connect at the beginning of the day, the appliance would crash, and the users would not be able to connect. We had to escalate the issue to the manufacturer, and they had to release new firmware to resolve the problem, which took around one week. As you can imagine, during the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone had to work from home, and we were struggling to connect to the VPN because of the firmware bug. It took Aruba at least one week to resolve the issue. Another major pain point we faced was with the VPN client. At the time, we were using the Windows 7 operating system on the client machines. Unfortunately, we could not identify the precise circumstances in which the Aruba VPN client could not establish a connection. This was very, very disappointing for us and caused a lot of problems for our department. We had around 500 to 600 users who wanted to connect, and at least 50 to 60 users, or about 10% of the users, were unable to connect each day due to this anomaly. We were not able to identify the root cause of the problem. We collected and provided all the logs that the local support partner requested. Unfortunately, neither the Hungarian local support partner nor the Aruba headquarters could identify the root cause of how and why the Aruba VPN client could not establish a connection. So, it felt like a bad spot. Each day, users were praying to connect over the VPN and to be able to work that day. Aruba VPN sometimes worked, and sometimes it didn't. We were very disappointed and had to switch to a different supplier as soon as possible. We switched to a Cisco product and were very satisfied with the Cisco VPN.
KL
Senior Technical Manager at Flexaccel
Remote access has become seamless and secure while deployment remains simple for our users
Performance could be improved today. People are now moving toward SASE, which stands for Secure Access, Secure Edge Solution. Fortinet also has that offering, which would be easier since it operates through the cloud, acting as a first line of defense. When the user connects to the internet, they connect to the cloud first for posture assessment and monitoring before connecting to the outside world. The impact is significant because nowadays people are adopting SASE. During COVID time, many users were trying to connect back to their office, causing the performance or CPU utilization of the firewall to increase tremendously, which slowed down performance. I have not worked with endpoint telemetry in Fortinet FortiClient that could have been helpful for threat mitigation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Aruba VPN is lighter on machines, and users don't feel any difference in having these items installed on their PCs or laptops."
"Aruba VPN’s stability was okay."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"What I like the most about Aruba VPN is that it's great for companies with diverse network needs."
"It’s really easy to use."
"The use of IoT devices is growing and it is important to manage data assets, and we have to follow rules and standards from our organization that FortiClient has helped with as an important tool on the end-users systems."
"Fortinet FortiClient offers easy deployment and ease of use, unlike other solutions where significant installations on the user computer are sometimes required."
"The VPN capabilities are good, it's very stable, it can scale well, and technical support has been helpful."
"The VPN has proven to be quite useful."
"For our clients with remote sites and deployed firewalls, the filtering and authentication features are very helpful."
"It is very simple to use. I've used some of the others in the past, such as Cisco AnyConnect, which was a nightmare. I've used a couple of others, but FortiClient is very simple to use."
"It works well with the Fortigate Firewall."
 

Cons

"It should address issues that are vital to maintaining the company's reputation."
"There is room for improvement from the solution's security point of view."
"When around 100 to 300 users tried to connect at the beginning of the day, the appliance would crash, and the users would not be able to connect."
"They could release product updates more frequently."
"FortiClient's encryption key could be stronger so that it's not broken too easily."
"We would like Fortinet to add the function or the possibility to use all FortiClient features for free."
"One area for improvement in FortiClient is the speed of connectivity."
"It would be extremely useful to have an automatic updating feature."
"The solution has some stability issues on the user side but is improving."
"They can improve the interface because it is very technical for a normal client to understand."
"FortiClient has compatibility issues between different versions, for example, the VPN doesn't work well between FortiClient 6.4 and FortiGate."
"The solution requires skillful users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Customers need to buy a VPN client license."
"We do not have to purchase a separate license for Aruba VPN; it is included in the ClearPass package."
"The solution is not expensive. We need more discounted rates in Pakistan. The price of the solution could be reduced to be more affordable for the solution."
"Fortinet requires you to buy a lot of product in order for you to have proper protection."
"The price is okay and competitive."
"FortiClient is quite reasonably priced."
"Generally, Fortinet is not cheap. The features that are available for free are only for FortiClient VPN clients, not other solutions. It includes web security, antivirus, and one more feature."
"I don't know it by heart, but it is comparable to other solutions. It is based on the number of clients. It is probably 50 Euros per year per client. It greatly depends on the number of clients you're handling because the more clients you are ordering it for, the cheaper it will be."
"The licensing fee varies with what one is trying to accomplish. It can range from being free to costing several hundred thousand dollars per year."
"FortiClient is costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

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How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?
Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and security. It has a very fast connection rate and has a built-in VPN. With this solution...
What's the difference between Fortinet's FortiEDR and FortiClient?
I suggest Fortinet’s FortiEDR over FortiClient for several reasons. For starters, FortiEDR guarantees solid protection because it continually scans servers for emerging vulnerabilities, which gives...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiClient?
The solution is not cloud-based; it comes from the firewall itself.
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiClient
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba VPN vs. Fortinet FortiClient and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.