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Cisco Wireless WAN vs Fortinet FortiExtender comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

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

Cisco Wireless WAN
Ranking in Wireless WAN
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiExtender
Ranking in Wireless WAN
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Wireless WAN category, the mindshare of Cisco Wireless WAN is 10.2%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiExtender is 8.2%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless WAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Wireless WAN10.2%
Fortinet FortiExtender8.2%
Other81.6%
Wireless WAN
 

Featured Reviews

BS
Network Security at Tech Mahindra Limited
Support teams have simplified deployment while the interface provides accessible configuration options
Based on my experience, I would generally recommend Cisco Wireless WAN to others. At present, our company is using Cisco WAN only. Based on that company, their budget and other factors will be involved in the decision. For metrics to evaluate the efficiency of Cisco Wireless WAN, I refer to the Cisco website or sometimes YouTube to get the details through videos. Overall, I am giving Cisco Wireless WAN an eight rating out of ten. Any Cisco product is most useful and is being majorly used in the network. I would like to see features in Cisco Wireless WAN that involve a GUI. Cisco also uses GUI mostly to configure or create any wireless SSIDs or any other things, which is fine now. I am providing this review with an overall rating of eight out of ten for Cisco Wireless WAN.
SyedQuadri - PeerSpot reviewer
IT director at Sajaya Medical Care Services
Has supported multi-branch connectivity effectively and still has potential for deeper feature utilization
Centralized management via FortiManager for my organization is very useful and a must-have. I have used Sophos Central as a manager and Fortinet manager as well. I believe Fortinet Manager has more in-depth features compared to Sophos or some other manager. The threat intelligence integration in Fortinet FortiExtender helps me to meet my industry's compliance standards. Fortinet FortiExtender brought many benefits to my organization. It was a very useful solution for us to have such a service.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is suitable for small and medium businesses."
"Mobile anchoring and graphic user interface are helpful features."
"Cisco Wireless WAN is perfectly stable, and some of our customers have been using it for eight to ten years without having to change the hardware as it continues to work perfectly."
"We trust Cisco."
"Cisco's technical support is good - you get instant support, and most of the engineers are good and highly skilled (though not all, so some cases can take longer)."
"Provides good visibility and insights into what is happening."
"The access points and controllers are good."
"The most valuable features are CleanAir, Rogue Detection, and the auto-calculation of RF."
"The solution is extremely user-friendly."
"We appreciate that this solution can be used as an active secondary link as well as a backup."
"The ease of the setup and integration into the entire Fortinet solution is seamless."
"Having the FortiExtender as a part of an SD-WAN topology is a major competitive value."
"Centralized management via FortiManager for my organization is very useful and a must-have."
"The overall stability deserves a perfect rating."
"The initial setup was was just beautiful. It was straightforward."
"The most valuable feature will be that it works."
 

Cons

"The new platform of Cisco Wireless WAN I did not like, there weren't many features available. The online platform has more options."
"If encryption could be added, that would be a feature I'd expect from the build."
"It needs to increase its strength in capacity. We'd like to cover more areas for WiFi accessibility."
"In summary, this is not a product that I recommend."
"Technical support could be more helpful."
"This is a very expensive solution but there are no additional costs."
"There is no centralized management for multiple wireless control deployments or a user tracking feature."
"With the increase in the price of this product, we will instead be replacing it with another vendor."
"What most of my clients are telling me is the price is a problem."
"The product is also not as user-friendly, so that's another area for improvement."
"The support could be faster and more responsive."
"We would like to see some improvement in the price for 5G models, as they are currently very expensive."
"I would like to see them make it smaller in the next release so that it has a smaller footprint for mobile clients."
"In future updates of Fortinet FortiExtender, I would definitely want to see AI. They are working on the AI feature, but so far it is a great, amazing product."
"The solution would be a lot better if it was a little bit more intuitive. Additionally, the help menu would be a lot better if it was easier to identify the items that I was looking for. I find the graphical interface a little bit difficult to navigate. And I find the font that is used on the HTML interface not conducive to being able to be read in low light situations."
"The engineering of the solution has some negative points, especially in terms of troubleshooting. It's difficult to troubleshoot when we have a problem. It's not like other products like Cisco or Palo Alto which make troubleshooting much easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco products generally have high list prices, but substantial discounts are available."
"Cisco's pricing is reasonable."
"I rate the product price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"The price is expensive."
"This is a very expensive solution but there are no additional costs."
"The tool is expensive."
"We pay the licensing fees on a yearly basis."
"The pricing is based on how much is ordered from the vendor and what type of discount they receive."
"I'm not sure what the cost is. However, I anticipate that the purchase price will range between $2,500 and $5,000."
"The solution is not that expensive."
"I've only used the open-source version of Fortinet FortiExtender, but I know that it has some features that require you to pay for a license."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Wireless WAN solutions are best for your needs.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
19%
Construction Company
16%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Wireless WAN?
I think the pricing of Cisco Wireless WAN must be reasonable at present.
What needs improvement with Cisco Wireless WAN?
Cisco Wireless WAN's interface could be simplified in the future. Simplification would make it more helpful to see how the user is connecting. We are able to see the connectivity details, and we al...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Wireless WAN?
We are still working with Cisco products, and I am supporting the Cisco devices. We are working with Cisco switches, routers, and we have guest Wi-Fi now. Regarding Cisco Wireless WAN, I am not tha...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiExtender?
The price for Fortinet FortiExtender deserves the highest rating.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiExtender?
In future updates of Fortinet FortiExtender, I would definitely want to see AI. They are working on the AI feature, but so far it is a great, amazing product.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiExtender?
Since I was having FortiManager and everything, Fortinet FortiExtender was suggested by the vendor. I went through it and appreciated the product. There are plenty of things we are using Fortinet F...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Brunel University London, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Chartwell School, Children's Hospital Colorado, Cisco Live Milan, City of Biel, City of Mississauga, Dundee Precious Metals, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Erickson Living, Goldcorp, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS)
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Wireless WAN vs. Fortinet FortiExtender and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.