Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Fortinet FortiWLM are key contenders in the wireless LAN market. Cisco Meraki holds an edge in cloud management and ease of use, while Fortinet FortiWLM excels in security features and seamless integration with its ecosystem.
Features: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers centralized cloud-based management that simplifies configuration and monitoring, making it ideal for organizations with limited IT resources. The Meraki dashboard provides extensive network visibility and integrates well with other devices, which is beneficial for diverse deployment scenarios. Fortinet FortiWLM is noted for its robust security management, enhancing protection across devices via Fortinet's Security Fabric. It serves as a single management pane that facilitates comprehensive control and resource allocation within the network.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Meraki could enhance its advanced features and customization options, with concerns also surrounding its licensing model and renewal process. Fortinet FortiWLM would benefit from improved guest management automation and more robust reporting capabilities without dependency on additional products like FortiAnalyzer. Both companies can improve user experiences by addressing these areas.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki offers flexible deployment options across various cloud environments, making it adaptable to diverse infrastructures, though its technical support service can vary in consistency. In contrast, Fortinet FortiWLM is usually deployed on-premises, supported robustly but could improve its market awareness and user education efforts to better showcase its capabilities.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is often seen as high-priced, particularly due to its licensing model, yet it yields excellent ROI by lowering operational costs and easing management tasks. Fortinet FortiWLM stands out with its competitive pricing, especially attractive to budget-conscious entities like schools. Its licensing model is straightforward, enhancing its appeal as a cost-effective choice that ensures full feature access.
I would rate Cisco support a 10, as the response time and process via the dashboard are easy, and response times are always within the SLA.
It would be better if the SLA of technical support was less than four hours.
The local support we receive from our distributor is perfect.
Fortinet provides excellent customer support.
If we encounter any bugs, they inform us of the recommended configuration and firmware to resolve our problems.
Meraki is not scalable enough since it straightforwardly maps its products to segmented specifications.
Now, with any simple FortiGate 60F or newer model, you can manage more than 64 access points.
Fortinet's solutions are integrated into many standard frameworks, allowing for good scalability and interaction with other vendors' products.
We have experienced many instances where we have experienced a lag in our network, and I am not sure if it is due to their devices or our network.
Stability is not an issue for me because it comes with Cisco's proven manufacturer quality.
This is a stable solution.
The most important improvement needed is to eliminate the limitation of uplinks.
Some of the newer models of the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN access point have encompassed the new wireless protocols and increased the strength of their antennas.
A mobile application to manage the Wi-Fi or the whole network would be beneficial.
Firmware upgrades and bug improvements need to be tested well.
The price is higher than I would like.
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is on par with other devices in that category, offering competitive pricing.
The pricing of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is not competitive enough for the SMB market compared to other brands.
My experience with the pricing of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is that it is competitive with other providers offering paid subscriptions.
While the pricing of Fortinet FortiWLM is a bit high, it remains effective.
Fortinet's pricing is different from Aruba, as Aruba has solutions for small business and enterprise in different categories.
The price is competitive.
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN has helped optimize network traffic very effectively, as we do prioritization for streaming and web conferencing apps, resulting in a clear, visible improvement in performance.
It also manages security clients and switches, providing a single dashboard to manage multiple network infrastructures.
The ability to program all access points from the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN dashboard, view the status of all of them, and examine the individual devices connected to each access point is very valuable.
The solution is controlled from one device and one GUI for all devices.
The most useful aspect of Fortinet FortiWLM is that you can manage all the Fortinet products from one portal, from one device.
It also has integration capabilities with FortiFirewall which is beneficial for customers.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN | 11.5% |
| Fortinet FortiWLM | 1.9% |
| Other | 86.6% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 69 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 26 |
| Large Enterprise | 31 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 19 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 5 |
Consolidate security and wireless LAN management with our integrated wireless solutions. Single-pane-of-glass management for security and access without the need to add point products simplifies deployment and reduces management complexity. These solutions are highly scalable to support even the largest organizations and distributed enterprises.
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