We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Fortinet Fortigate based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Fortinet Fortigate comes out on top. Its ease of deployment combined with its solid set of features and excellent service and support ratings make it a more desirable solution than Cisco Secure Firewall.
"The most valuable features for my client are the ASDM and monitoring."
"We use the solution for deep packet inspection, Internet Edge functionality, IDS, and IDP."
"It joins all branches and permits employees to work outside their offices, but everything is based on high securities standards (PCI compliance)."
"The fact that we can use Firepower Management Center gives us visibility. It allows us to see and manage the traffic that is going through the network."
"Netting is one of the best features. We can modify it in different ways. Site-to-site VPN is also an awesome feature of Cisco ASA. The biggest advantage of Cisco products is technical support. They provide the best technical support."
"It is easy to create interfaces and routing, which all can be done at the GUI level."
"VPN, firewall, and IDS/IPS allow us to deliver services to meet client needs across various industry verticals."
"All the features except IPS are valuable. IPS is not a part of my job."
"The technical support in our region is excellent."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"FortiGate is on the cheaper end, and it offers good value."
"The solution is stable."
"With FortiClient, you can easily connect when you are home, check out what you want to do, and connect to your network when you are not at work. You can switch on servers and you can check what is wrong."
"The Intrusion Prevention System and the web filtering are both working well."
"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."
"We see a lot of vendors in the market with a lot of niche products. I understand that it's difficult to cover everything, but making it more open for integration with other vendors would be a value add for Cisco."
"If I want to activate IPS features on it, I have to buy another license. If I want Cisco AnyConnect, I have to buy another license. That's where we have challenges."
"Cisco's inspection visibility could be better."
"It is expensive."
"Usually, the customers are satisfied, but I am going to recommend that all clients upgrade to FirePOWER management. I want Cisco to improve the feature called anti-spam. We use a Cisco only email solution, that's why we need the anti-spam on email facility."
"It would be better if we could manage all of our firewalls as a set rather than individually. I would like to see a single pane of glass type of option. We also use another vendor's firewalls and they have a centralized management infrastructure that we have implemented. This infrastructure is a bit easier to manage."
"Cisco should improve its user interface design. There is a deep learning curve to the product if you are a newcomer."
"These firewalls are not for beginners."
"I would prefer to have more detailed logs within the FortiGate products themselves rather than relying on a separate tool."
"Application management can be improved."
"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."
"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"Its customer service could be better."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Check Point NGFW and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Fortinet FortiGate report.
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