We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and SonicWall NSa based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, and also IPS, and even SD-WAN."
"Fortinet offers the latest versions to cater to the needs of enterprises."
"It's very easy to set up, it's very easy to make policies and, for an organization, that means you don't need IT expert in firewalls. You just need to have somebody who knows a little bit of IT, and that's it. With other products, you need someone with a "Masters" degree in firewalls."
"The reporting and monitoring are very good."
"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."
"Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."
"Overall, the pricing of the solution is very good. The product offers good value."
"The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage."
"An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured."
"It is a complete package, and it has complete offerings. It fit the needs, and our customer is happy with it."
"The most valuable feature is the UTM, which gives them an advantage over other firewalls."
"The solution offers good documentation."
"The most valuable features are the IPS and Antivirus."
"All the security features that are built into the product are valuable."
"The tool improved the security in our company's virtualized environment, as it was helpful in creating an additional layer of security for the organization and for the use of the internet."
"It has allowed us to centralize every network service into one appliance."
"It is a brilliant product. It is a Unified Threat Management (UTM) system. It has got about 11 security services that take care of your perimeter security. It takes care of any kind of cyber threats that could come in. It takes care of creating VPNs between two SonicWalls instantly and very easily. It has got spyware in it as well as a firewall. It has also got a gateway antivirus and an application firewall that can block things from outside."
"I like the solution's configuration, interfaces, and user guides."
"SD-WAN is a good feature."
"Since SonicWall is a UTM, we have enabled all the features: antivirus, IPS, URL filtering, and content filtering. All of these features are working fine."
"It's very flexible and meets our customer's needs."
"We use SonicWall NSa for authenticating MAC (media access control) ID from the PC."
"The solution has many useful features, such as content management, user management, user filtering, and domain controller connectivity mapping."
"The most valuable feature I've found is VPN and web protection, particularly with navigation assessment. We use the application control feature to create rules controlling specific application navigation."
"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."
"Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."
"It would be nice if FortiGate incorporated some built-in endpoint protection features. I would also like a built-in SOC dashboard for managing multiple Fortinet firewalls."
"The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI."
"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"We had a minor problem where there was a major system upgrade on the hardware platfrom and the Mac client was not available as soon as it might have been. The PC client was available immediately, but we had to wait a month or so, before there was a mac client. I was slightly irritated that it was not ready on time, but it was eventually resolved."
"There should be more options to use lower-end models in a high availability configuration."
"The costs could be lowered."
"The product is satisfactory. I haven't identified any features to improve, and based on the number of deployments I've handled with FortiGate-VM, there haven't been any complaints from the customer's side."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"Fortinet support needs improvement. The response times are lackluster. Fortunately, the product is stable and we seldom have issues. Also, it takes months for them to deliver hardware when we order it."
"SD-WAN could be enhanced to provide a clear division between control and data planes, utilizing controllers to manage tasks within the network."
"The technical support is not very responsive and is an area that needs to be improved."
"We have encountered certain issues with the bandwidth in respect of the security layer."
"Potential improvement around the associated VPN cost"
"The security standards for space and point of view should be improved so that the solution deploys in critical areas."
"You can do zero-trust networking with them, but it's not easy."
"Port forwarding could use streamlining."
"We have security as a service, and they make recommendations about adding to the denylist and other things. That part could be more accessible and more user-friendly. I'd like to see SonicWall add a user-friendly interface where our internal team can drag and drop everything."
"The ongoing service fees are high."
"Initially, it may be difficult for some people to learn and become acquainted with it."
"Having to deal with too many lower-level people in technical support means that it takes longer to resolve issues, so escalating support tickets should be faster."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate-VM writes "An easy-to-manage and configure tool that provides ample documentation to help with the setup phase". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and Netgate pfSense. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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