Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN comparison

Cisco and Riverbed are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0, while Riverbed is ranked #26. Cisco holds a 10.1% mindshare in SDW, compared to Riverbed’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Riverbed users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and SteelConnect EX Enterprise 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: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 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 March 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 12.3%, down from 20.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is 10.1%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	12.3%
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN	10.1%
SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN	0.9%
Other	76.7%

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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Jason Best

Data center network architect at Cloudwire

Analytics feature is very granular and comprehensive, although complicated to use

It's like an SD-WAN project basically. You really need to make sure that the product matches the needs of what the customer's trying to achieve and their overall strategy to meet their core business requirements. I think a certain customer made a mistake in choosing this solution because a large part of their network was Cisco and they had firewalls that were from Fortinet. I think they would have been better off and it would have been better from a CAPEX, OPEX point of view. It would've been more advantageous for them to have maybe chosen a Cisco or Fortinet solution based on their existing environment. Make sure you understand your network correctly before you try to implement any SD-WAN solution. That was one of the good lessons I learned about SD-WANs with this specific product. I wouldn't say it was a fault of the product. I would say it's more a fault of the CTO who tries to do things quickly without taking into account the existing environment or give the internal faculties the time to provide real low-level design implementation. It was more of a management mistake than from their technical team. In the next release, I would like to see things like integrated security but with local internet breakout instead of using third party solutions like NetScaler or Palo Alto. I would also like to see the integration of things like a VPN so that if you have remote sites where you might have remote workers that need to access the site from home or something, there's a VPN solution. Those are two key features and hotspots in the sort of global crisis. I would rate Riverbed a seven out of ten. I could never give any solution a 10 cause they all have good and bad points. To get any solution to a ten is pretty much impossible. If I was to rate it against others like Fortinet, I would probably give Fortinet an eight or nine. Again, I think you have to be careful because it's very subjective. I think it really depends on the type of environment, the type of customer you're deploying the SD-WAN solution for, and from which perspective you're looking at like if you an operator, if you're a large enterprise, if you're looking for a plug and play type solution. If you're looking for more of a security solution, I would go for Fortinet. It's kind of tough to say. I'd probably put the clouds a little bit ahead of the game because it does what it's supposed to do and easily. It's a little more of a plug and play type solution. Fortinet, for example, is more complex. I put it in a close second place, it's better from a security perspective. It has integration with FortiGuard. After that, I would put Riverbed in third place.

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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

"It has very easy management and an amazing ETM configuration."

"It is a good product. It does what we want it to do so. I didn't find many false-positives or things like that. We mainly use the IPS and URL filtering features, and they are pretty good."

"The solution has a very good set of rules, the customization potential is quite impressive, it can be customized based on our licensing contracts, the initial setup was pretty simple, technical support is rather helpful, we find the stability to be pretty good, and we find the pricing to be fairly good."

"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is its SD-WAN capability, which is included and differs from other products that require an additional license."

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

"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."

"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."

"The product is scalable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The solution has great scalability."

"Cisco provides the best support among all the vendors."

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

"The first part that we like is that we can reuse certain hardware, which is a valuable asset. You can use hardware SKUs that already exist in the network. The second part that we like is the integration with the cloud and the measurement of the cloud's quality. These are the two values that this solution gives as compared to other implementations that we have seen."

"Customizing SD-WAN is very easy because you can define two colors. You can define two different operators. You can deploy a partial mesh, a full mesh, or hub-and-spoke totally differently. If you want to do this on a DMVPN solution, that's really hard."

"Cisco SD-WAN is a very good product."

"It's very good and stable compared to the others."

"The most useful feature is centralized telephony."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN pros

"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use."

"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use. If you're really interested in knowing what's happening on your network, it's a very good solution. That was the .NET Profiler part of the solution."

Cons

"Its performance can be better. We have had performance issues in the past, but we sometimes tend to find that it is more related to what we do in our network than anything else."

"One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD. That's the only drawback."

"The web process often has a memory leak."

"FortiWAN was supposed to help in doing intersite linking, but we've realized that most of the ISPs use BGP."

"Being a great product, some changes in the pricing would make it a great choice for even more organizations."

"In terms of what could be improved, the SD-WAN is quite difficult, because if you install the new box, 15 is okay, but if you change from an old configuration, if there is already a configuration and a policy when you change to SD-WAN, you must change the whole policy that you see in the interface."

"Improvements could be made when companies expand and need better equipment and more licenses."

"When considering the policy of the vendors, they do not offer much of a discount policy, making the licensing model an area that needs improvement."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"We have had issues where the configuration or IP spoofing on the network was not so good."

"The pricing is quite high."

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

"One of the major areas that Cisco can improve on with their SD-WAN offering is their security features. When compared with Fortinet, who have what they call their 'security pillars' (e.g. firewall and security features built-in to their SD-WAN solutions), Cisco generally comes up short. With Cisco, if you need a security component, you have to pay more to get it done. So if they could add more security features that come part and parcel with their existing solutions, then I think Cisco could be very aggressive in the market."

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

"Compresson deduplication should be added."

"Cisco could do more to offer bundling of the SD-WAN and other solutions."

"I would like to see features related to security compliance, including a view of compliance with standards. With this, I should be able to do an audit of my network with SDWAN."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN cons

"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routing perspective, things like RSPs line support."

"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routine perspective, things like RSPs line support. It was supportive but not really supportive."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet prices are around $600 for the small 40F model, and for licenses, the simplest option is about $300 for a year. They sell licenses that can last for 1, 2, 3, or 5 years."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an affordable solution."

"The licensing costs are very low."

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

"The price for the Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable. Secure SD-WAN is free of charge. If you have their firewall, it's free of charge. It's very tempting."

"The license is yearly. We pay for the top end. It's called 360."

"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."

"If you purchase a one-year subscription with the hardware and then you want to renew for the second year, it is very costly."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"It is much cheaper than other solutions. Most of our clients are the top 500 companies, and they all have a corporate contract."

"The costs are a bit on the high side."

"It is expensive. The license limitation is there in terms of bandwidth. Basically, Cisco is always good in terms of performance and related things. However, if you want to have a license, for example, for 100 Mbps, they charge you because of their 100 Mbps. If you want to go without the license of 300 Mbps, it is a bandwidth license as well. This is not happening with other vendors. That is the reason why we moved away from Cisco. The bill gets a little bit high. I do remember that one time we were trying to increase the bandwidth for at least five devices, and the license got as high as 20-grand for five devices, only for the license. It was expensive for us at the time. Our company is not a big company, but it is a solid company. The price was very high, and we moved away from Cisco because of the price."

"The pricing for Cisco SD-WAN is more expensive than other brands or solutions, such as Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks, so it's one out of ten."

"Cisco's pricing is not entirely satisfactory when you compare the SD-WAN solutions in Asian markets — like the South Asian market in Sri Lanka — because there are several competing brands including Fortinet and Citrix, who provide much the same product for a generally lower price. And when it comes to firewall vendors like Palo Alto and SonicWall, they're also selling here. It's the same with VMware, too; they have much the same features."

"The cost is reasonable. I would rate the price as seven out of ten."

"The pricing is fair, and it's on par with the market vendors. But based on the competition, Cisco could work on the pricing, go deep on discounts and provide more commercially viable solutions to customers."

"You have to pay between 3000 and 10,000 euros, or something in that range. The core switches Nexus cost me between 10,000 and 20,000 euros."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	360
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	44

No data available

Questions from the Community

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When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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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 ...

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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.

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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 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% 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 12% 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 5% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 5% of the time

Meraki SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Competitors

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 25% of the time

Steelhead vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 15% of the time

Teldat SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 15% of the time

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 11% of the time

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 8% of the time

More SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

March 2026

Download Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN report

Download SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Cisco SD-WAN

SteelConnect, Riverbed SteelConnect

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

Accelerate business velocity with enterprise-class SD-WAN. As enterprises and organizations adopt more cloud and SaaS applications to support an increasingly distributed workforce, the hybrid networks connecting it all have been more complex, less predictable and less secure.

Riverbed SteelConnect EX is a powerful enterprise SD-WAN solution that integrates best-in-class routing, application acceleration, network visibility, and security services – a flexible and complete WAN Edge platform that gives you what you need to modernize your network and propel your business in the digital age.

Riverbed

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

Roxtec, Software Solutions Company, Rignet

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

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