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.
"Its Snort 3 IPS has better flexibility as far as being able to write rules. This gives me better granularity."
"Sourcefire has been a great addition. The visibility and control have been nice."
"Once you add Firepower onto to it and you start enabling some of its features, you get some IDS/IPS involved with it and you can even do web filtering."
"Ease of configuration: It has gotten a lot easier to configure compared to the original Cisco Pix."
"VPN and firewall are good features."
"Provides good integrations and reporting."
"The most valuable feature that Cisco Firepower NGFW provides for us is the Intrusion policy."
"The IPS (In-plane switching) is the most valuable feature."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is good to use, and most importantly, the pricing. The customer especially likes the discount when they trade up or something like that."
"FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the rules and quality of service."
"The simplicity of the product is great. It's very easy to use, which is a compliment we get all the time in terms of feedback."
"It's an easy solution to set up."
"The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit."
"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."
"Offers good security and filtering."
"The process of procuring modern-day technology within the DOD needs to improve."
"There are always vulnerabilities that come up and there was one in early 2018 but this was patched with software updates."
"They should work on making it a little more intuitive for users and not quite as complex. Still, it's a good product."
"The inclusion of an autofill feature would improve the ease of commands."
"Setting it up is not as intuitive as other more modern NGFWs."
"Cisco wasn't first-to-market with NGFWs... they should look at what other vendors are doing and try not only to be on the same wavelength but a little bit better."
"REST API stability needs improvement in order for customizing resource allocation available to the user rather than just being there transparently. This way users can customize REST API and tailor it to their needs."
"The solution is overcomplicated in some senses. Simplifying it would be an improvement."
"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."
"There is room for improvement related to the logging and reporting aspect."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"The UI could be improved."
"Security is a continuous process. In every product, there is a requirement for improvement. Its pricing should also be improved according to Indian market requirements. They must also improve on the reporting part. Its reporting can be more precise. If we can get a real-time report in a specific format, it will be helpful for customers to know about the current status of their security."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity."
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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