Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs LANCOM SD-WAN comparison

Cisco and Rohde & Schwarz are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0, while Rohde & Schwarz is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.0. Cisco holds a 10.1% mindshare in SDW, compared to Rohde & Schwarz’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Rohde & Schwarz users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and LANCOM SD-WAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

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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 FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 12.3%, down from 20.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is 10.1%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LANCOM SD-WAN is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	12.3%
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN	10.1%
LANCOM SD-WAN	0.5%
Other	77.1%

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Danish Nazir

Network Manager at HPCL

Faced complex visibility and policy challenges but have improved basic traffic routing control

I have found some other solutions more insightful and user-friendly as compared to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, but the basic SD-WAN functionality is good enough. I am using it only because it was done as a pilot project, specifically for my 60 to 70 sites. For the majority of the sites, I am using Fortinet's Secure SD-WAN solution and I found that more viable and more in alignment with my requirements. For example, there is not any Internet Service Database available in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN intrinsically. If I want to write a policy based on applications, I am not able to write it, at least in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Viptela deployment that we have done, and that is fairly easy to do in Fortinet. The second issue is the logging capability. I think the visibility that Fortinet Secure SD-WAN has is not even comparable. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN does not provide that sort of insight or control as far as traffic steering is concerned. With respect to the SLAs, I barely know which sort of SLAs are violated in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, so I do not have clear visibility on where the traffic is moving from at my spoke or hub locations. I believe Fortinet gives me a very clear picture of where the traffic is going. Overall visibility, whether it is data traffic or logs, is much better in Fortinet compared to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. The complexity of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Viptela is noticeable and quite complicated to configure. If something breaks, you have to involve TAC and others to fix it. On the contrary, you can work with underlays. Even if your IPsec overlay tunnel is down, it does not impact your production. Thus, we find Fortinet's solution significantly better than Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution. I have used Application-aware Routing in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. However, I found it to be very complicated, especially regarding policy writing. For my breakout of VC traffic, we had to write a bunch of IP addresses for Zoom, Webex, and others. Presently, it can only identify Webex as an application, and I highly doubt whether there is any application identification for Zoom and other platforms, as we were not able to find it during our implementation. It is done through static whitelisting of the IPs, which is not a scalable solution since IPs can change at any time. Overall, the application-aware routing policies are not as flexible and scalable as the Internet Service Database feature of Fortinet provides. The struggles encompass policy writing, logging capabilities, traffic visibility, and complex configuration. There is also the issue of load balancing. We have faced considerable challenges with traffic load balancing between the links. Although the SLA targets are configurable, understanding how traffic flows is challenging, making troubleshooting exceedingly difficult. Overall, I find it a quite complicated solution with not that much operational usability.

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reviewer957801

Managing Director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Intrusion prevention and zero trust network enhance security while real-time monitoring needs improvement

Improved management of time zone alignments is needed to resolve issues swiftly, as waiting 24 to 48 hours is not ideal for businesses. More support is needed while we are still learning the system, and the cloud solution needs to be checked for updates. Additionally, LANCOM should improve its real-time monitoring capabilities to avoid the need for constant manual oversight.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate is a very light product. It's easy to understand."

"The fact that Fortinet FortiGate IPS can prevent and log malicious intrusions, tries, and attempts is great."

"Customer Service: Very good. Technical Support: Very good."

"Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention)."

"These devices allowed my organization to connect a network of gas stations and convenience stores nationwide."

"The most valuable aspects of FortiGate NGFW are its top-notch reputation in peer reviews, user-friendly interface, and excellent support."

"Easy to implement, and it is also reliable."

"Overall, this is a very good solution and in fact, a good starting point for a broader cyber security approach for the business."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The initial setup is quite simple."

"I would rate the overall solution as a ten out of ten."

"It is a great solution, and it is already defined."

"The solution allows organizations to have visibility into the application traffic."

"There is minimum blind space in this solution."

"Cisco SD-WAN is a stable solution."

"I believe that Cisco is the best, overall."

"Cisco SD-WAN is a scalable solution."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN pros

"LANCOM SD-WAN made it possible to monitor what was happening from anywhere, giving us flexibility and control over the network."

Cons

"They should make the product user-friendly and enhance the security features."

"The issue lies with features available in GUI versus CLI during configuration. When using GUI, I want to accomplish everything there, but sometimes it requires using CLI to ensure proper configuration."

"My only complaint about FortiGate is a lack of QinQ VLAN tunneling."

"The customization is a little bit difficult because we have to customize everything."

"In my opinion, Fortinet FortiGate could be improved by making the appliance smaller than what we have here, as it is pretty big."

"After four years it has started to fail. The firewall engine is not so strong as of now, in my opinion."

"The one concern I have with Fortinet FortiGate is the firmware versions, which often have many bugs when upgraded, leading us to revert back to older versions multiple times in my lifecycle."

"There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Some competitors are much faster in providing out-of-the-box solutions, more innovative solutions; in terms of innovation, in many cases, they're lagging behind."

"Cyber security should also be implemented in the solution, along with maybe implementation of AI/ML."

"The licensing model needs to be improved."

"Cisco SD-WAN's clustering mechanism needs to be improved. If there are more than five milliseconds of latency time between installations of the VM manager, the cluster automatically breaks down."

"The durability of the switches could be improved. In the past, Cisco devices had a longer lifespan."

"An area for improvement lies in enhancing the integration with the security functions of the SD-WAN."

"Cisco products are a little bit complicated, so making them a little bit easier would be an improvement."

"The UI has room for improvement."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN cons

"More support is needed while we are still learning the system, and the cloud solution needs to be checked for updates."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a very full-featured and it's priced well solution."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is affordable. Most of our customers are on a three-year license to use the solution. All the features and support are included in the price."

"It is more affordable than Check Point and Palo Alto. Another thing is that all the features and the OS remain the same irrespective of the size of the device. Pricing-wise, Fortinet typically provides one-year support with the firewall appliance. There is also an option for three years which is how their licensing works."

"The cost of Fortinet FortiGate is competitive and not expensive compared to other enterprise- grade solutions. On average, the license cost per year is around seventy percent of the firewall's purchase price."

"Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license."

"The pricing for this solution is good."

"If the price of the license in Fortinet FortiGate was less expensive it would be better."

"If we have an older version, the support costs get quite high."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"When purchasing, there are so many features available that it's quite confusing deciding which to choose. And some of the devices force you to buy licenses you don't want."

"80 percent reduction in WAN costs. There are no MPLS or P2P circuits left in the organization."

"The pricing of this solution is very expensive."

"In the Russian market where we operate, this solution is expensive."

"We can only buy three-year licenses, not monthly. The cost seems high for us, especially since we're in Vietnam, which isn't a rich country. But we still like the product because it is good."

"Cloud subscription management must be paid for, although this does not incur a perpetual fee."

"The initial cost is quite significant, but the investment is worthwhile."

"There is a monthly subscription to use this solution."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	361
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	44

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

See all answers

What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco SD-WAN?

When considering the most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN, the decoupling of self-monitoring stands out significant...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SD-WAN?

The pricing of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is rated between eight and nine out of ten, where ten is the most expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?

I have found some other solutions more insightful and user-friendly as compared to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, but the bas...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LANCOM SD-WAN?

Customers are reluctant to pay for 24/7 support unless they're certain it is required. Pricing and value assessment n...

See all answers

What needs improvement with LANCOM SD-WAN?

Improved management of time zone alignments is needed to resolve issues swiftly, as waiting 24 to 48 hours is not ide...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for LANCOM SD-WAN?

We used LANCOM SD-WAN in both a retail setting, where it was being tested, and in a school environment. My colleague ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Prisma SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 12% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 6% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 5% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 5% of the time

Meraki SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Competitors

Dell Virtual Edge Platform vs LANCOM SD-WAN

Compared 49% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs LANCOM SD-WAN

Compared 32% of the time

BigLeaf vs LANCOM SD-WAN

Compared 19% of the time

More LANCOM SD-WAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

March 2026

Download Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

Download LANCOM SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Cisco SD-WAN

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers centralized management and integrates seamlessly with existing Cisco ecosystems. It simplifies deployment with zero-touch provisioning, delivering robust security and optimized application routing.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provides essential capabilities for organizations seeking secure remote connectivity and cost reduction, notably through its support of hybrid environments. While pricing and complexity present challenges, its advanced application control and cloud compatibility make it a valuable asset for connecting branches and data centers. Users benefit from enhanced security, network assurance, and simplified management, driving operational efficiency.

What are the key features of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?

Centralized Management: Streamlines network operations through a single interface.
Zero-Touch Provisioning: Simplifies deployment, reducing manual setup efforts.
Application-Aware Routing: Enhances performance by prioritizing critical applications.
Robust Security: Integrates strong security measures for data protection.
Hybrid Environment Support: Facilitates connectivity across various environments.
Integration with Cisco Products: Ensures seamless operation within existing networks.

What benefits can users expect from Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces networking expenses by optimizing resource usage.
Operational Simplicity: Streamlines processes, reducing resource strain.
Enhanced Security: Strengthens defenses with integrated security features.
Improved Connectivity: Ensures reliable communication for remote sites.
Scalability: Supports varying enterprise sizes with tailored solutions.

In banking, retail, and enterprise sectors, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN facilitates effective network management by enhancing connectivity between branches and data centers. Its security features and zero-touch deployment are particularly valued, providing scalable solutions for locations that demand reliable, application-prioritized networking.

Cisco

LANCOM addresses the release of a 5G router later this year as a completion of the already very successful LANCOM SD-WAN solution called LMC. LANCOM has made the manual configuration of individual devices a thing of the past – software-defined technology (SD-WAN, SD-LAN, SD-WLAN, SD-SECURITY) now delivers fully automated network orchestration.

Rohde & Schwarz

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

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