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 technical support is great."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos."
"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"The simplicity of the configuration and the stability of the product are most valuable. The VPN concentrator is very useful."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"The main features I find useful are intrusion prevention and web filtering. Additionally, the solution is easy to manage."
"The interface is good."
"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 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."
"Fortinet has optimized the WAN environment for connecting users to the application."
"The classification of the websites is helpful."
"The solution is very user friendly."
"This is a user friendly solution and offers comprehensive integrations."
"WAN optimization is the best feature of the solution."
"Easy to deploy with a simple configuration."
"The solution is good for load balancing."
"It is very fast to implement."
"Site to Site VPN: The device can establish a VPN connection to multiple sites in a mesh environment in seconds, and without complex VPN knowledge."
"In terms of WAN optimization, it's completely cloud-controlled. Anyone can manage their network environment from a mobile phone."
"They have very good technical support and I have relied heavily on them."
"Dual WAN connections are greatly simplified and point-to-point VPNs automatically connect regardless of what WAN connection is active."
"Lacks training for new features."
"There is a lot of improvement needed with SSL-VPN."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
"Fortigate's hardware capacities could be improved."
"NGN, reporting and controls."
"I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself."
"The pricing could be reduced or include the first year warranty."
"With the reports, you can see it, and you can get good feelings so upper management can go, "Oh, wow. That looks pretty." However, it's very basic."
"There are some issues with the performance. We also had some issues while updating the firmware."
"Lacks flexibility for different scenario configurations."
"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."
"In the future I would like to see more user-friendly dashboards and a drop in the price."
"For me, it is important to be able to block VPN applications, like Facebook, so I would like to see that included in the next release. With this version, if you want to block or allow a site, you now have to drag all the domains related to this site."
"They need to integrate more with the SD-WAN."
"The solution's graphic interface could be a bit more responsive and include notations when changes are made."
"The technical support is good. However, during the holidays they can get a little slow to respond."
"More detail needed for configuration of the VPN."
"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."
"As far as what needs to be improved — nothing really comes to mind. It does what we need it to do."
"In the next release, because the security is pretty basic, I think they could include additional security features."
"The problem is that the two licenses do not currently integrate. We have to create separate companies and do an interconnection."
"We could have more reporting options and the ability to send alarms to the administrator."
"The only stability issue is in Content Filtering. Sometimes we need to report these types of issues to Cisco support."
"We had minor issues with Meraki MX. We had a couple of RMAs, so that could be an area for improvement, but in terms of how the RMAs went, the turnaround time and getting those back into redeployment were quick. Another area for improvement in Meraki MX is that when you're scaling for multiple locations, you need to use the same model, but the model you'd need is only available for a short time. The specific model you require could be out of stock, or Meraki isn't making that model anymore, so Meraki should improve that."
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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