We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM 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."Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."
"Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention)."
"The pricing is great and very reasonable."
"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
"Anti-Spam web content filterinG."
"It's super reliable. I don't think I've ever had a reliability issue with it."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"I have worked on some of the largest and smallest solutions that Fortinet sells and they all scale really well."
"Initial setup was quite straightforward, as we can simply head to the required sections to apply the planned network."
"High network throughput while providing leading edge network security technology for a competitive price."
"The reporting is good."
"The VM it's very quick for deployment. If we need to have a POC for a customer, if we don't have any hardware physically at our premises, at our store, in our office, we can download the VM from Fortinet and install all the VM to their environment in order to run it. If we have a customer that says "let's start tomorrow" we are able to do that in a way that's not possible with a hardware version."
"The most valuable feature is the UTM, which gives them an advantage over other firewalls."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are the ease of use, IPS system, application filter, web filtering, and email security. Additionally, there is a migration tool that other vendors do not provide. We only need to upload the configuration file to the tool, and it converts everything, except the passwords, and gives us the new configuration, which we can directly upload on the firewall. This migration process takes a maximum of 15 minutes."
"The platform has a good user interface."
"It's flexible, easy to configure, and easy to manage."
"It prevents us from being hacked and delivers information about who and where the attack came from."
"We work also with domain control (DC) from Microsoft or Amazon. We use a whole virtual appliance with Meraki."
"The dashboard is very intuitive and easy to understand."
"What I like best about Meraki MX is that it's easy to deploy remotely. The product works. It has automatic updates. I also like that Meraki MX is a brilliant device. You turn it on, stick the key in there, activate it, and then you're done. Meraki MX does what my customers need at the end of the day, so I also like that."
"I use Meraki in my POCs and with my customers as well."
"The solution is easy to set up."
"The technical support people from Meraki are brilliant."
"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."
"Bandwidth usage in reporting could be improved for Fortinet FortiGate."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"They've become quite expensive."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"The integration with third-party tools may be something that they should work on."
"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."
"It would be useful to have integration with different reporting tools. This is something we are sorely missing. It would be a plus to have reporting integrations. It would be good to have more integration with the identity suites, such as Office 365 and Azure Active Directory, of different providers that we use. Integrations are already available, but it would be nice to have some more advanced options."
"The block, the clarity, the quarantine command, is not very user-friendly. You would have to do everything through the command line and I would have preferred if it wasn't a CLI."
"The users must buy FortiSIEM to get advanced analytics."
"FortiGate-VM could be improved by making it cloud-based. I'd like it to be a cloud-based management solution instead of just a dedicated management orchestration tool."
"Data backup functionality could be included in the product."
"The tool does not have a good name in the market, consisting of enterprise-class businesses, making it an area where the product lacks and needs to improve."
"We face some issues with the IPsec connection during replication."
"There should be more options to use lower-end models in a high availability configuration."
"We feel that Cisco provides smaller features, with fewer possibilities versus other solutions out there."
"From the improvement perspective, we need more monitoring capabilities. We want to have full-based access visibility, such as, what is happening when something is trying to reach and it is denying. We cannot see some parts of it. The integration of active directory with this product is not very fruitful. It has some bugs or lacks in the functionality of active directory integration. We are unable to identify where exactly and whether it has really applied our policy."
"More detail needed for configuration of the VPN."
"It is very expensive."
"Pricing is an area where the solution lacks since it is an expensive tool."
"Direct logging is something that can be introduced. In the absence of cloud management, the possibility of local configurations and on-premise logins becomes restricted. This limitation stands as a primary concern. When it comes to resolving issues, the inability to access login options hampers troubleshooting efforts. The stability is noteworthy; but when compared to alternative products, its stability is comparatively lower. Additionally, certain limitations are observed in terms of remote control. Price-wise, the solution stands out for its competitive and cost-effective nature compared to other alternatives. Operationally, it is user-friendly and requires minimal effort from administrators, making configuration hassle-free."
"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."
"The problem is that the two licenses do not currently integrate. We have to create separate companies and do an interconnection."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 58 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while Meraki MX is rated 8.2. 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 Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Sangfor NGAF, 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 FortiGate-VM vs. Meraki MX report.
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