We performed a comparison between Fortinet Fortigate and Fortinet Fortigate VM based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Fortinet Fortigate is the winner in this comparison. According to reviews, it has better support than Fortinet Fortigate VM.
"The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."
"It has improved our security capabilities."
"I really like the captive portal feature for our guest network. It has nice VLAN features in terms of separating our network. The anti-virus is also good."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"The security features that they have are quite good. On top of that, their licensing model is quite nice where they don't charge you anything for the SD-WAN functionality for the firewall."
"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."
"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"What I like the most is the configuration and that it's simple, and straightforward to maintain."
"It has allowed us to centralize every network service into one appliance."
"High network throughput while providing leading edge network security technology for a competitive price."
"Its technical support is excellent."
"In spite of the solution being inexpensive, it has everything one would need."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the integration within the environment, with centralized reporting."
"In terms of specific features, I like FortiGate's load balancing, interface, and priority on the network."
"The most valuable feature is the WAN optimization."
"There is an interesting possibility of building a tunnel to a firewall from access points. We use this feature for small branch offices with one to two employees with access to central RDP servers."
"The reports are very basic."
"The updates Fortinet provides are sometimes unstable."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"Sometimes you do need to know some CLI commands, so it's a bit harder for technicians or new people that don't know it."
"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."
"There are SD-WAN network monitoring, SD-WAN features, Industrial Databases, Internet of Things, Detection, etc., however, we do have not licenses for those features. We thought that if you bought a product, you should have all of the features it offers. Why should you need to make so many extra purchases to enable features? They should have one price for the entire offering."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"NGN, reporting and controls."
"I have worked on some of the largest and smallest solutions that Fortinet sells and they all scale really well."
"We haven't attempted to scale the solution just yet. If we want to scale this solution we may have to look at other models. With certain requirements, we probably wouldn't be able to scale it so well as it is right now."
"If I could add one feature, it would be free security profiles."
"The pricing is expensive."
"The graphical user interface should be enhanced."
"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 product's initial setup phase is a bit complex."
"I have had a data issue with physical devices that could improve."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, 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". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and SonicWall NSa, whereas Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM report.
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We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
Purpose-built appliances offer tested performance measures and provide proven results for the specified traffic and service configuration.
VM can only provide vCPUs, RAM, and hard disk resources. However, in some cloud environments, you only have the VM option, no appliances accepted.
We have several Fortigate VM firewalls operating for 3 years now in the cloud and appliances in our centers that handle the traffic just fine. We have not had to increase the resources above the recommendations and they work just fine.
FortiGate VM
Virtual machines are less efficient than real machines because they access the hardware indirectly.
FortiGate Hardware
Fortigate appliance is purpose built with NPU and SPUs designed to increase throughput while maximizing the ability to decrypt packets in search of malware.
VM deployments are software only and do not include the NPU and SPUs.