We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Fortinet FortiOS 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 product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"The payment function for applications is good."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and there are several operating systems that can include the hardware capacities. In the newer releases, the resources were more useful because they were included in the operating system."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known."
"It has improved our organization with control data."
"We can detect any attack of viruses or malware at the first point of contact."
"The most important features with FortiGate are the web filter and application controls. We can control our internet usage and use the web filter for application purposes."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"There is a positive impact on security, particularly the intrusion feature, which helps keep the solution concealed and secure."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability. The nice thing with the bigger vendors is that they're very good at scale."
"The solution effectively integrates with Umbrella."
"Technical support for this solution is very good."
"You can scale it when you need to."
"Cisco IOS allows us to keep the same security features as our principal offices."
"It covers everything we need it to without looking to secondary solutions."
"The hardware is pretty stable. It's also a very good product performance-wise. Initially, it wasn't mature like a firewall and there were other leaders, but now they have included almost all the features of next-generation security. Basically, it's a good product to work with."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiOS network segregation, UTM, and antivirus, freight management protection, such as DDoS. Additionally, the CLI and the GUI are easy to use. The architecture makes sense, and the command in the CLI are organized well. They have quite a lot of features are easy to use, and are user-friendly. Any novice can use Fortinet FortiOS without an issue."
"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."
"All of the features in this solution are effective and efficient."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are user-friendliness, ease of use, and threat prevention."
"The pricing is excellent."
"The solution provides good firewall and antivirus protection."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are its simplicity, highly user-centric, and performs well. The line speed and for heavy traffic, is helpful for us."
"For my organization, it has become much easier to scan the firewalls because the solution is more user-friendly than competitors."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"There were quite a few problems with the stability of the system."
"The UTM filtering needs improvement."
"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."
"I think there could be more QoS features"
"The support costs and licensing are sometimes so expensive."
"There are some tiny bugs that sometimes affect the operations. In the past revision of it, there was a bug. Because of the bug, we had to downgrade the version. It happened only with the last revision."
"Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
"In the next release of this solution, we would like to see support for the 100BT and 7000 models."
"The solution’s setup process could be better."
"There's a technology called SD-WAN that we would like to see. We are unable to handle multiple connections or to automatically load balance. I would like to have a feature that enables us to automatically prepare for load balancing."
"I would like upgrading iOS to be a bit easier."
"The initial setup is complicated."
"Cisco IOS Security should improve its functionalities."
"I would love it if it has a link-by-link feature, integration with Unified Threat Management (UTM), and load balancers. They haven't got any link-by-link feature right now, which can be a very attractive option. This link-by-link feature can also be made available for Cisco's UTM firewalls. The link-by-link feature is available in some of the other firewalls. Currently, integration with UTM is missing. Cisco IOS Security also doesn't have the load balancers and a few things that need to be done to get a good UTM firewall. Normally, other firewalls have UTM. As a next-generation firewall, it's good, but as a UTM, it has to do some work."
"Cisco IOS Security could improve by having more compatibility with other Cisco solutions."
"In the future I would like to see more user-friendly dashboards and a drop in the price."
"I would like to see smaller and more frequent updates."
"It would be great if they can push the Microsoft updates through Fortinet OS and provide a centralized patch management system. They should also include the data loss prevention (DLP) and data leakage prevention features. They could also add network monitoring more effectively."
"Fortinet FortiOS could improve by having better authentication methods with Microsoft or Google Services."
"I would like to see more statistics in the monitoring part."
"Fortinet needs to make this solution even more robust. Sometimes when we get a DDoS attack, the cannot withstand it. We can run out of sessions very easily. That said, I suppose if you want more a robust system, then you could purchase higher-end solutions, which are more expensive. Still, I would like to see more protection from even in the low-end version."
"There are some features for FortiGate using FortiOS that can only be enabled via a command line. These aren't very advanced features they have been part of FortiOS for quite some time but they still aren't accessible from the graphical user interface. It makes it a little bit harder than it should be for us to manage the solution. That's my main concern with the user interface. Another concern we have is some elements for the user interface, if they're not properly configured, it could lead to hardware and performance degradation."
"Their technical support needs improvement."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Netgate pfSense, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Fortinet FortiWeb, Darktrace and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Fortinet FortiOS report.
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