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Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers vs. FortiAP

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 is a modular wireless controller with optional 100 Gigabit Ethernet (G) modular uplinks boasting seamless software updates for large enterprises and campuses, and security with ETA and SD-Access.N/A

    FortiAP

    Score5.9 out of 10
    N/AFortinet’s wireless LAN equipment, including FortiAP access points, leverage Secure Networking to provide secure wireless access for the enterprise LAN edge.

    $220

    one-time fee approx

    Pricing
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless ControllersFortiAP
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet FortiAP 221E
    $220.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 223E
    $240.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 231F
    $390.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 23JF
    $410.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 233G
    $490.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 231K
    $490.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP U431F
    $630.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 431F
    $660.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 433F
    $730.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 241K
    $800.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 234F
    $980.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 831F
    $1,030.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 431G
    $1,050.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 433G
    $1,180.00
    one-time fee approx
    Fortinet FortiAP 234G
    $1,200.00
    one-time fee approx
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless ControllersFortiAP
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless ControllersFortiAP
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    The only downside of the Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 Wireless Controller is that it is pricey. Otherwise is the best regarding capabilities and ease of configuration.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Fortinet Wireless LAN offers better control of wireless networks and access points. However, it is not the cheapest option.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    The new software, features, and improved GUI come up to par with its competition.
    Incentivized
    Fortinet
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    99%
    Would buy again
    97 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    88 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    95 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    71 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    77 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless ControllersFortiAP
    Small Businesses
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.5 out of 10
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless ControllersFortiAP
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.7
    (88 ratings)
    8.3
    (3 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (87 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.1
    (88 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless ControllersFortiAP
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I think any size organization can benefit from them. The smaller "L" models work well for a smaller organization and of course, the same answer for the larger platforms. The failover/redundancy options are quite nice and the unified setup and UI is always nice for consistency.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    Any rollout is well suited for a FortiAP - from small office networks, to large warehouse deployments. Adding additional APs to your network is simple and easy. Monitoring is simple with Forticloud monitoring. Configuring the devices can be as complex or as simple as you need. Adding additional Fortinet devices (I have switches and firewalls) makes the network even more secure and easy to manage - all devices working in tandem make monitoring much easier
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • I think the updates are great. ISSU upgrading code is fantastic. I think the speed with which CAPWAP converges or reconverges, I think the redundancy mechanisms for roaming APs to other controllers is very good. I think overall, getting away from more of a monolithic processor where subprocesses handle what they call the WNCD tasks, I think fundamentally is an improvement in performance.
    • The radioactive tracing, all of the troubleshooting and all of the logging and all of the importing and exporting features for logging and analytics within the controller itself is really, really good compared to the predecessor AireOS.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    • Provide secure wifi
    • deploys easily
    • facilitates users connectivity when moving between offices
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • The only downside I would say is the GUI performance is a little bit slow, even with a newer 9800, performance still lags a bit even compared to the previous generations. So I would like to see that improved. But aside from that, that's really the only issue that we have with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    • Better to work with a Fortinet partner, their support is inadequate.
    • Maybe a lack of security features when using it without Fortigate
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    Despite common software and hardware issues this is still the best product on the market for large scale enterprise deployments. Cisco has worked with us extensively to reduce the amount of bugs in every iteration however new bugs are introduced or new incompatibilities always arise with major releases. Thus, while I'm hesitant to recommend the product it's still much better than all the other competitors such as Aruba and Juniper in the WIFi space. There is also extensive integration with DNAC/Catalyst Center and ISE in an SDA deployment. Recently there has been a number of critical issues with the controller software and Cisco has proved themselves to be incapable of timely troubleshooting and diagnosis. This has reduced our confidence in the product and it's current and future stability and maintainability. At it's current state the product is taking up too much of our engineering resources to maintain despite also paying for premium support from Cisco. As such I have reduced by rating as we are likely to look at alternative vendors for our long-term wireless management solution
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    This is an excellent product for an SMB - cost isn't outrageous and deploy is simple. I can monitor my network without breaking the bank.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    It's not simple, but this is the result of being very deeply configurable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    I love FortiAP and how easy they are to use. It's very quick to train people to use them at a basic to intermediate level.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    Due to our HA set up we have always managed to access our wireless networks without problems, when issues occur. When we have lost access to the GUI, due to internal network problems, console access is always welcomed and brings with it the normal Cisco CLI syntax. From previous versions of CLI, it is now a lot simpler and reflects other Cisco products, making it easier to troubleshoot and navigate when necessary.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Cisco
    Monitoring is very good Seamless integration with Cisco ISE RRM configuration very easy. It has REST API support IOS-XE is very powerful operation system. Multicasting and mDNS features are really good and very easy to configure. It supports Pyats and Genie so getting constructed data from python script calls very helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    When it's a config issue, TAC is usually useful. If it's some bug and BU needs to be involved, it might take forever.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    Fortinet offers excellent support. They will work with you until the solution is doing what it is designed to do, within its capabilities. They also do an excellent to follow-up with the end-user prior to closing the ticket.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    You need to understand wifi basics
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Ubiquiti WLAN is very much a consumer platform. It is not production ready, it is buggy, it has issues. It is cheaper than Cisco, but you get what you pay for. Aruba doesn't integrate nicely with our existing largely Cisco based networks, so when time came to replace AireOS, the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers came out on top.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    as a stand-alone product, the Fortinet wireless LAN solution isn't the most powerful, nor compelling out there. Others, like Cisco Meraki, offer great products, with added wifi features at a similar price point, but where Forti shines, is when integrated into a network with firewall enablement such as FortiGate. Overall, it stacks up well with others and is a solution that needs to be evaluated in a purchasing project.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    There are different vesrions for different requirements, there's HA as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Positive impacts, yeah, is good to have a central location to control all these profiles for different countries and locations. And the drawback, like I said to you really because of the too many integrations that have a dependency on the software version. For example, Cisco ONE for Access have certain software that can run through and then this scatter center need to make sure it's working with the others APS version that is currently working. And we also, the Cisco Catalyst Center also have some kind another version of software that you need to support this controller. So it's like two tier three tiers of the software version that we need to match. Then only it can work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    • Less management cost
    • Less expensive to buy
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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