We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiOS and Meraki MX 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 web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."
"It performs very well."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of configuration."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the simple configuration."
"Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"Fortinet has optimized the WAN environment for connecting users to the application."
"The pricing is excellent."
"For ten to 12 years it has been quite secure."
"It efficiently manages large-scale firewall deployments."
"The most important features of Fortinet FortiOS are the ability to block and make white and black lists. Additionally, the filtering of user access to websites is useful."
"The product is scalable and easily expands."
"The interface is easy to understand, so when there are threats you get alerts. It's quite intuitive, but if you are ever confused they have instructional videos. For example, if you don't understand a graph there's a link to a video that explains what the graph means. It makes it very user-friendly."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the granular control and their interoperability is good."
"You can use your web browser to do the configuration which is easier than Cisco CLI transcripts."
"The most valuable feature of Meraki MX is I can manage the solution from anywhere remotely, I can throttle bandwidth, and create all rules. Additionally, it is secure for our customers."
"The internet traffic shaping has been very valuable."
"We work also with domain control (DC) from Microsoft or Amazon. We use a whole virtual appliance with Meraki."
"In general, Meraki MX is easy to work with."
"The security level of our organization has changed by using Meraki MX Firewalls. We didn't have the UTM before, but now we have sandboxing, tray scanning, attack preventions and monitorization. Our security level has improved."
"Intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS): The best feature. It can detect malware, even a virus, and warn you by email about the device that has it. When the Meraki detects that something is wrong, it automatically blocks the connection or the intrusion, delivering a graphic report with all the necessary content."
"They have very good technical support and I have relied heavily on them."
"The support system could be improved."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"The main aspect of FortiGate that could be improved is load balancing. Our management team does not want to buy another appliance for only load balancing."
"I would like to see smaller and more frequent updates."
"FortiOS could provide a more detailed analysis of the network and connected devices."
"The solution could improve by making the dashboard easier to use."
"It would be better if AWS instances were available. If I want to upgrade from T2.small to T2.medium, it should be available rather than having a big instance and paying a lot of money for that. The issue is that we had deployed in AWS Cloud, and we were using a very small instance. Recently we wanted to move in-house and deploy it on the big instance because it was struggling with the RAM. If we use T2.small, we cannot upgrade it to the T2.medium. It has predefined instances in the marketplace with a lot of cost differences. If I can increase the RAM, I have to choose the T3.large instance. If I'm paying $270 for the small instance, I have to pay more than double the cost for T3.large. It is about $850, and this is not good. So, it would be better if it was cheaper. I think both AWS and Fortinet should think about that. They should provide it on lower instances as well. If I want to upgrade it from T2.small to T2.medium, it should be available, but it's a problem."
"There is room for improvement in the reporting part. The reporting is only for logging data, and it's just a tabulation of the log in the report. I would like to be able to take down more information in the event of an incident."
"It could more scalable for the lower end users."
"The implementation could be simplified."
"The solution needs to adjust its pricing models. With the way they are structured, everything is very disparate and sold separately, and, depending on the solution, it can get quite pricey."
"Meraki has some hidden features and information that is only privy to their engineers. If that information became available to us, then it would improve our ease of management, and we would be able to make certain adjustments instead of having to go to them."
"We can’t access GUI management and CLI opening features when the Internet is unavailable."
"We do not have account managers in our region for the solution. Some governments don't use the product since it is attached to the internet."
"They're very complacent and I find the rule set to be a little arcane."
"In general, the SD-WAN feature needs to be improved. The load sharing and load balancing of the traffic should be improved. I have had some problems with these features in the past."
"When we do API integrations with Meraki, they have always been hard as well as tedious to build. The data that we want out of the API integrations has been only recently available. Six months ago, it was hard to get someone to build something correctly or useful with Meraki APIs. Recently, they have made more data available on the API, but it is just a start. They need to do more."
"Load balancing options and ability to manage a couple of Internet connections."
"FortiGate is cheaper than Meraki. Even the license renewal is less than Meraki."
Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews while Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 59 reviews. Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4, while Meraki MX is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Fortinet FortiWeb, Darktrace and Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection, whereas Meraki MX is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos XG, SonicWall TZ and Netgate pfSense. See our Fortinet FortiOS vs. Meraki MX report.
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