Fortinet FortiAP Reviews

We are working with Cisco, and currently I am working with Huawei firewalls and Fortinet firewalls.

Currently I am working with a customer on FortiSASE, where we are working with ZTNA.

The very first thing that attracts customers is that FortiGate is included with the wireless controller capability. The customer doesn't require any additional wireless controller with Fortinet FortiAP. Additionally, the report that we are getting every day from FortiCloud about our environment and about the AP is great.

In a multi-vendor environment, there will always be a problem. If something is working and something is not working, both products are trying to save themselves. In a uniform environment, it's always easy to troubleshoot and pinpoint the problem. In a FortiGate, especially a Forti wireless environment, it's always easy to troubleshoot problems and it gives better visibility of our environment.

The product can be improved depending on the model selected as per requirements. Support is good and throughput is good. What we need to do is select a better product as per our requirement and environment. If proper working is done in terms of wireless heat map or radio connectivity in our environment, I believe it's good. There is always a chance to improve. Throughput can be better in terms of other vendors, but currently, it's working fine.

One feature that I still need to explore is the captive portal. When we deploy a unit in a public environment, users need to sign in with a pop-up box to connect.

I have been working with Fortinet for the last three years. We deployed our first AP about two and a half years ago. The most recent deployment was two weeks ago.

Forti technical support rates as an eight out of ten. First level support is always good. The RMA process is very good, with same-day replacement in our case. The response time is good because the bot effectively transfers to a human when needed.

Positive

We normally compare Forti with Cisco, Ruckus, Aruba, and UniFi. In terms of UniFi, the price is a bit higher. In terms of Cisco and Ruckus, it's on the same scale.

We are still working with Firepower products along with all network-related things. For the last six months, we haven't implemented a new solution. We're working on some potential customers.

I have deployed FortiWireless, FortiNGFW, FortiGate, and FortiAnalyzer. I haven't used the zero-touch deployment feature. We use multiple APs and configure each one individually.

Particularly in Pakistan, most customers don't have updated gadgets where we deploy Wi-Fi 6. However, some of our customers who have deployed it are enjoying the feature. They use better throughput and coverage with Wi-Fi 6. One of our customers is a software house that previously used UniFi, and we replaced UniFi with Fortinet FortiAP. They are still appreciating their choice.

With uniform deployment, all policies are centralized. Once you deploy a single policy, it will implement everywhere. Single sign-on works perfectly. Our SSO ID and multi-factor authentication work great. We haven't faced any issues.

I always recommend to customers who have a FortiGate firewall to choose Fortinet FortiAP instead of deploying any other wireless controller or OEM. It provides a single posture of security and a single management console. It's easy to use, easy to deploy, and offers central management with FortiGate.

On a scale of 1-10, this solution rates a 7.

Fortinet FortiAP is currently used mainly on branch deployments because of the single pane of management across the whole branch using the FortiGate, FortiAP, and FortiSwitch. I have utilized Fortinet FortiAP integration with Fortinet Security Fabric for managing both wired and wireless networks.

One of the main reasons I find Fortinet FortiAP valuable is the single view and single point of administration for the branch from the firewall, which is the main driver.

Fortinet FortiAP's ability to protect against wireless threats works seamlessly with the firewall. Unlike other wireless controllers, the firewall is controlling the AP, so you have a much higher level of security.

Fortinet FortiAP streamlines deployment and enhances security and visibility for the user.

A point for improvement for Fortinet FortiAP would be improvements in the GUI, which is adequate but could be improved. Additionally, wireless coverage and the mapping area are fairly static and could benefit from enhancement.

The scalability of Fortinet FortiAP is eight, which includes improvements with channel selection. They could make improvements in auto-channel provisioning and automatic channel provisioning.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiAP for four years.

I would rate the stability for Fortinet FortiAP as nine, with ten being the best.

I would rate technical support from the vendor as eight. They are adequate; sometimes you might start at a low level, but when it is a critical issue, it normally gets resolved. Response time could be better for P1s, but you do get through in the end.

Positive

The initial setup for Fortinet FortiAP is very simple. Once you have your provisioning templates and are deploying via FortiManager, it becomes plug-and-play.

I compare Fortinet FortiAP mainly with Cisco and Aruba.

The main benefit of Fortinet FortiAP over Cisco or Aruba is the integration with the firewall. It has tight integration with the Security Fabric and into the firewall. Meraki has a better cloud dashboard, but the firewall is not as strong. Meraki is a lot more basic and does not have the same functionality as the FortiGate firewall, so from a security aspect, that is the main driver.

Fortinet FortiAP's zero-touch deployment feature with FortiManager is utilized in the current deployment. Zero-touch provisioning with FortiManager enables deployment and configuration that is very useful, leading to huge cost savings. As long as everything is deployed and plugged in, you can push an image to the firewall, and it pushes it out to the switches and all the APs. The deployment time is a lot quicker as a result.

Currently, there is not a lack of function in Fortinet FortiAP. The organization is satisfied with it. Everything is managed via FortiManager in a multi-tenanted, cloud deployment model, as the organization is an MSP, so it works well.

Pricing for Fortinet FortiAP is rated as an eight, as it is a lot cheaper than Meraki. I would recommend Fortinet FortiAP to other users. I would give this review an overall rating of nine out of ten.

The use cases for Fortinet FortiAP are for wireless access for those who are using their laptops, mobiles, and for guests.

The integration is helpful for enhancing security management and control capabilities.

I am using the Zero-Touch Deployment feature in Fortinet FortiAP. It is very helpful when you want to deploy it on a site where no one is technical, and you just need to plug and play over there. It can be done by any non-technical personnel.

Fortinet FortiAP is effective in protecting against wireless threats.

When using FortiNet firewalls, we don't need any extra wireless controller because FortiNet firewall acts as a wireless controller for the Fortinet FortiAPs, and it is directly connected to the firewall, which we can manage through the firewall on one interface.

We earlier expected that Fortinet FortiAP could be managed through the cloud, which would be very good, but nowadays, FortiNet is providing FortiAPs with cloud management also. That requirement has been covered. Currently, I cannot see any areas for improvement because it fulfills my requirements, and I can do everything I need with it.

I have been using Fortinet FortiAP for the past three years. Currently, I am a customer, but one year before, I was using it as a partner also.

I believe Fortinet FortiAP is scalable. I would rate its scalability as seven out of ten.

I am not satisfied with Fortinet FortiAP's technical support in India. Whenever we call them, they only provide KB articles first. It is different if we call someone from outside of India; then they provide very good support in a better way.

Positive

I have worked with other wireless solutions similar to Fortinet FortiAP. We have Sophos APs and Ubiquiti. Comparing Fortinet FortiAP with Sophos APs, both are similar. Both are comparatively easy to deploy and manage. I never felt it was difficult to implement and manage either solution.

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiAP is very easy.

Fortinet FortiAP provides value for money, and I can quantify the savings at about 80%.

Fortinet FortiAP is affordable, not expensive.

Currently, I am working with Sophos, FortiNet, Check Point, and Palo Alto. From Palo Alto, I only use the firewall. From FortiNet, I just use FortiGate. From Check Point, I only use firewalls. We are using Forcepoint antivirus and Forcepoint ONE for DLP solutions, though these are managed by a different team.

For routers and switches, I use Cisco products. Regarding wireless products, we are using Cisco product switches and routers, and we have Fortinet FortiAPs managed by FortiGate firewall.

I would rate Fortinet FortiAP 9 out of 10.

Neutral

I deployed FortiAP at two of our campuses for about the last year. I am planning to deploy more FortiAPs at three more campuses as part of a broader plan to phase everything over and refresh everything into FortiAPs.

FortiAPs are an enterprise-level device capable of handling a large number of users and connections, ensuring quality. A benefit is their controllability by local firewalls, which simplifies management and eliminates the need to buy separate hardware or virtual appliances. 

The integration is efficient, allowing for management through the firewall. Firmware updates are also pushed to Fortinet access points. The lack of maintenance needs and their reliability means I almost never experience wireless problems in the campuses where they are deployed.

There is nothing that particularly comes to mind for improvement. The management is controlled by Fortinet firewalls, so specific improvement needs do not jump to mind.

I have been using FortiAPs for about the last year.

I would rate stability ten out of ten. I have not experienced any issues, outages, or problems and have not had to interfere with them at all.

So far, scaling has not been an issue, and I would rate scalability a nine out of ten.

I would rate support eight out of ten. It is generally good support. I haven't had to contact them about the access points, so it hasn't really come up.

Positive

I would rate the initial setup for the FortiAPs as nine out of ten. It was a relatively straightforward process.

The return on investment includes the lack of maintenance needs. I do not have to continuously manage them, and their reliability means they are consistently up and running. I almost never face wireless problems at the campuses where they have been deployed.

The pricing is a little bit high, and I would rate it a ten on the scale where ten is the highest price. They are a bit more expensive compared to other solutions, however, it is worth it if you can afford it.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiAPs as they are a good solution in conjunction with a firewall. If running them alone without the firewall, it might be a different situation. I would give FortiAP a rating of ten out of ten so far.

We are a Managed Service Provider. We manage the services of multiple clients. We manage multiple technologies. We use most of the Fortinet stack. We use FortiGate, FortiAP, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiSIEM regularly.

We needed a secure wireless LAN. We created a stack for our LAN environment where Fortinet switches are there and the Fortigate firewall is there. Some of the wireless are outdoor and indoor, and we are using FortiAP for security purposes.

Integrating multiple Fortinet systems is much easier. At times, we have the whole basket of Fortinet solutions, such as FortiGate, Fortinet switches, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiSIEM. These 5 are mostly there in the environment. They are easy to integrate, but I have seen that if I want to send the logs to a third-party SIEM, such as Splunk or QRadar, the integration is pretty good. There is no issue as such.

If we have FortiClient installed on multiple devices, it is seamless to connect with FortiAP. It supports passwordless authentication as well. That is a great thing about it.

The visibility is also good for an administrator. Through the cloud dashboard, we can manage certain things for FortiAP. We can understand how much the utilization is and what type of packets are going on.

FortiAP seamlessly interconnects with the security tool called FortiSIEM, so we get insights as well. These are the good things. It is like a package. Everything is easy to connect and interconnect.

FortiAP is very good in an indoor environment, but we are struggling with the outdoor environment. That is where we are having certain issues. We are not 100% happy with it. With the indoor environment, we are okay, but we are facing some issues when certain voice-related calls go from wireless points. There are certain drops, and we have faced these issues on an ongoing basis. We also have other vendors such as Aruba and Meraki, and we do not face any issues when there is a Teams or Zoom meeting going on. It could be that FortiAP is okay, but that particular device or appliance is not capable of handling that much load of voice and video. This might be the issue.

RF Spectrum Analysis helps to understand what is the coverage and hotspots related to a particular access point, but then when we bought it, we did heat mapping through different vendors. If there are any rogue APs, we can identify them with RF Spectrum Analysis. We can see what the coverage area is, but there are some issues with that. Some of the offices have thick glasses, or the cabins are different, so in the RF coverage, what is shown is not what we get on the practical grounds. There are some issues with signal performance.

It has the basic functionality that is mostly used, but there are certain devices that are not able to interconnect. When there is any issue or problem, if the administrator can get some information about that, that will be good. With Meraki and Aruba, we get certain beautiful things. If those can be integrated into this solution, it will be more beneficial, but we understand that being a security company, Fortinet's focus is on security.

We have been implementing FortiAP for 3 years.

Stability is a little bit of an issue for us. I would rate it a 6 out of 10 for stability.

It is highly scalable. I would rate it an 8 out of 10 for scalability. 

There are about 16,000 users connected to the environment.

Their technical support is good. I would rate them a 9 out of 10. They are very responsive.

Positive

We have worked with Meraki and Aruba. We have worked with Netgear. Netgear is for small and medium enterprises, but Meraki and Aruba are for enterprises. 

It is easy. It is not that difficult. It is seamless. There are no critical issues or hurdles while deploying FortiAP.

In terms of the deployment model, it is a hybrid model.

If I compare it with the other enterprise products, the price is good. I would rate it a 9 out of 10 for pricing.

I can recommend FortiAP, but new branding evolution has to be there for multiple things. 

We have not used the automation capabilities of FortiAP. For a bigger client, with 2,000 or 3,000 EPs, we might use them. So far, we have not touched that particular part of the product.

Overall, I would rate FortiAP a 7 out of 10. 

We use the solution for office connectivity instead of LAN. Users are connecting to FortiAP using their wireless adapter.

The solution supports recent security components like encryption or hashing algorithms. We can control the APs from FortiGate Firewalls and integrate those APs into FortiGate. You don't have to purchase a separate controller for it.

The improvement factor could be in APs. Also, it could have a control, like MAC address.

The report provides the hostname, device name, and IP address. However, it would be better if it also provided the user ID.

I have been using Fortinet FortiAP for four to five months.

I haven't encountered any issues related to the signal strength. Stability depends on the number of APs you install in the office. You won't even realize any lag whenever switching between two AP connections.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

I deployed around 16 APs.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The UI is better than Cisco. It is easy to install and configure.

Deployment is not complex. Once it is in the network, it is recoverable to the FortiGate. We can easily deploy one instead of going one by one APs. We can deploy a number of APs at the same time.

The product is cheaper than Cisco. I rate the product’s pricing an eight out of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap.

The FortiAP configuration process is very easy. It is very easy to configure those APs because when you manage them with FortiAP, you have to plug them into the network cable. Once FortiGate discovers them, we must configure a single profile for all those APs. Once we map that profile, it will be automatically configured.

FortiAP meets the client's requirements. These features are already available in Fortinet products. If you're asking about data importing, these APs are already controlled using FortiGate. Using FortiGate, we can export data, generate reports, and monitor client activity, including identifying the top talkers.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We are using the product in a few kiosks, and on a few shopping squares that our clients have. As a promotion for the client's stores inside the shopping center, we give thirty minutes of free Wi-Fi. After thirty minutes, they have to pay a small fee. Or, if they buy something, they get a voucher that can add another thirty or fifteen minutes or an hour to their Wi-Fi. It depends on how much they spend. 

However, 80% of the use is for institutions. We install it in the offices of companies. That's for when login infrastructure is not enough and we need the secure transportation of the data, especially for team meetings or for sharing of data, and the client is not too comfortable using the normal APs. It helps with authentication. 

The integration part is excellent. It integrates well with other Forti products. There are certain aspects of AP that are pretty standard to other competitors. However, the main benefit is if a company has other Forti products and wants complete integration with FortiGate and/or FortiAnalyzer. Integrated with everything, it's beautiful. We can see everything. We can detect and block anything. We get alerts for everything. FortiGate also automates the AP itself. It's great if you have a stack of Fortinet products.

The pricing could be better. There are competitors like Ruckus that cost less. We can give the client more, yet price-wise, there's a 45% price increase compared to Ruckus AP. Of course, Ruckus is just a plain, simple AP. 

I've been working with the solution for three and a half years.

I've had no issues with stability.

The solution can scale. You can go up to 200 or 300. It depends a lot on your firewall and what you have in place. 

In my organization, I have about 20 users on FortiAP. Some of our clients have 500 or more.

Technical support is a pain. Fortinet has to get its act together. If you don't pay for premium service, you will have issues. While their product is great, their service is awful. We don't have premium services. We use standard support.

Negative

The deployment is very specific to each office, and to each building. It is not just plug-and-play. It shouldn't be either. If you want something really robust and a mash of APs and everything working accordingly, the deployment requires going to the building and getting the plans. We have to understand the volume, displays, the walls, the windows - everything inside the building so as to distribute better.

With Cisco and Ruckus, it's only connectivity. You just go and install it and connect. With Forti AP, if you want things to work properly, you need to measure, note the parameters, and go and physically install it. Once that is done, it works well. It's set and forget. You don't have to worry about it. 

It all boils down to whether you have a stack of Fortinet or whether you have just the AP. The clients we have, have Fortinet stacks. Since they're Fortinet clients, we do their job. We study the place, we study the blueprints, we study the location, and we implement the AP according to the location. 

The configuration itself just takes five minutes. That is easy. You put in the IP and Fortinet does all the work. If you do the pricing correctly, once you plug into the network and register the AP with Fortigate, it's set and forget - unless you want SSIDs or a specific guest account. In that case, you'll have a little more work to do. 

The solution does bring in ROI. It helps that you are on a secure network and don't have to worry about spoofing.

The pricing is reasonable for what it offers.

I'm a customer and end user and use the solution for customers. 

I'd advise new users to carefully pan their placements and have Fortigate as well. This product was made to work with the Fortinet stack.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

We deploy it for our clients, in conjunction with the FortiGate and FortiSwitch for their wireless networking connectivity.

When you deploy it with those other tools, the FortiGate and the FortiSwitch, it's very easy to manage from an administrative perspective. You can manage it from the same online interface that you can manage the switch and the firewall from. It's all kind of baked into the same console, to where you don't have to log in to your AP management, and you don't have to log in to switch management. Instead of having four or three different things to monitor and manage, it's all in one console.

The ease of management is excellent. 

The wireless functionality is not the best. If they focus a little bit more on fine-tuning the wireless and how it works, that would probably be the area for improvement.

It's pretty standard in the industry. There isn't anything that sets it apart.

I've been using the solution for a little over four years.

I'd rate the stability between six or seven out of ten. It's not the best wireless product out there. 

The scalability is very good. I'd rate it between an eight and nine out of ten. Based on the model number of firewalls that you have, you can manage a specific number per model. It's pretty easy to scale. 

We really don't need to call technical support. Any time we have had to call, they've been great. 

The solution was very easy to set up. 

We have seen an ROI. 

As an enterprise solution, it is priced pretty well for the market. For a consumer-level product, it's a bit high in terms of cost. 

For other wireless products, you can just plug in and let them run. You really need to fine-tune your settings for this solution, however. You need to go to the site and do your homework in order to get the most out of your product. You should do a wireless survey and things of that nature to set it up for success.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.