Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs FatPipe SD-WAN comparison

Cisco and FatPipe Networks are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0, while FatPipe Networks is ranked #22. Cisco holds a 10.5% mindshare in SDW, compared to FatPipe Networks’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of FatPipe Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and FatPipe 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: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

January 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 February 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 13.2%, down from 19.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is 10.5%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FatPipe SD-WAN is 1.2%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	13.2%
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN	10.5%
FatPipe SD-WAN	1.2%
Other	75.1%

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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Akshay Kharkar

Network Engineer at Manschaft IT Pvt Ltd

Beneficial technology, reliable, and simple deployment

Our client has a data center and all the applications servers and servers are in their data center. We design a solution, for all their branches. If they wanted to access the internet or the applications, they route traffic to their data center and then can access these applications with FatPipe…

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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

"The solution is stable."

"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."

"It offers web filtering capabilities at a more affordable price compared to other solutions like PSMs or NETGEAR."

"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."

"FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is inspection."

"The most important features of Fortinet FortiGate are the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and firewall control applications."

"The dynamic segmentation feature in Fortinet FortiGate is pretty good."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Overall, I rate Cisco SD-WAN as nine out of ten."

"The best feature of this technology that is available to us is the ability to do better load-balancing."

"The most valuable features in Cisco SD-WAN are the QoS, AI, and simple interface for users to access."

"I have been working with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for close to two and a half years now."

"The most valuable feature is the application-level routing."

"You can easily scale the product."

"It's very easy to manage and monitor the network's health and security using the solution."

"There have been no issues with stability."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN pros

"The most valuable feature of FatPipe SD-WAN is it's based on SD-WAN technology."

Cons

"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."

"I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."

"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."

"The initial setup is complex."

"It does not have key authentication for admin access."

"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."

"One of the features that I would like to have is to do with endpoint production, it should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution. However, my issue is the performance only. When I use all the profiles, this affects the performance. From the beginning, I should have had a better sizing of the box."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The technical support is a bit slow."

"The solution could have a better web interface to simplify changing configurations."

"If you don't have an in-house design team or outsource to a third party with expertise, the setup will be difficult."

"The solution could be more secure. Security is always a priority for us."

"Simplifying the definition and implementation could add significant value, as it can be complex due to multiple product integrations and customization requirements."

"The initial setup is complex and can be improved."

"This solution should include a fully functional firewall at no extra charge."

"What I find should be improved is the possibility of really separating the software layer from the hardware layer since today the current offer is not well adopted by the service providers"

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN cons

"FatPipe SD-WAN can improve the price to scale the solution."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the license and warranty can be better because it is very expensive."

"The solution is cheap."

"By default, they give SD-WAN along with the firewall. They don't have separate licensing for the SD-WAN functionality. However, they have security licenses that are sold separately on a subscription basis. Customers can consume these security features to protect their users from internet traffic."

"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."

"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."

"The setup cost was good. The Egyptian pound is declining, and upgrading Fortinet FortiGate yearly costs about $2000 USD, which equals one hundred Egyptian pounds. I maintain a business relationship with the vendor and receive support from them."

"It is quite affordable for our customers. There is a separate cost for IPS, antivirus, web filtering, and other features. They have a great choice of licenses. You can go for the license that you want, which is quite useful."

"The price of FortiGate support is too expensive."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

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

"The product is not too expensive."

"You can get subscriptions for three or five years."

"It is expensive."

"For 600 links, the license for Cisco SD-WAN costs us US$250k a year."

"The license consists of an annual fee."

"This is not a cheap option but if you move from Capex to Opex, I expect you should have lower costs."

"The Cisco SD-WAN licensing model needs to be simplified. There are currently three types of licenses: enterprise agreements, individual licenses, and DNA subscriptions. This can confuse customers, requiring a dedicated person to determine which type of license is right for their organization."

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

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Media Company

17%

Computer Software Company

17%

Retailer

Wholesaler/Distributor

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	189

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...

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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...

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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...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 14% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% 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 10% 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 6% of the time

Meraki SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 5% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Competitors

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs FatPipe SD-WAN

Compared 17% of the time

Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs FatPipe SD-WAN

Compared 13% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs FatPipe SD-WAN

Compared 12% of the time

Peplink SpeedFusion vs FatPipe SD-WAN

Compared 8% of the time

More FatPipe SD-WAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

February 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

February 2026

Download Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

January 2026

Download FatPipe SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Cisco SD-WAN

FatPipe Symphony, Symphony, FatPipe Symphony SD-WAN, Symphony SD-WAN

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

Symphony is one of the FatPipe’s products which are offering Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) solution. This SD-WAN solution simplifies the deployment and management of connectivity at remote sites. More over enterprises deploying Symphony with Orchestrator are not only provided with the ability to centrally control their WANs but also to manage branch office configuration. The appliances can be deployed with zero-touch installation as well.

FatPipe Networks

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

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Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

January 2026

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Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions. Updated: January 2026.

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