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 initial setup was completely straightforward."
"The Inline Mode configuration works really well, and ASA works very impressively."
"The VPN feature is the most valuable to us because it accomplishes the task well. We're able to do everything we need to do."
"I like the firewall features, Snort, and the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)."
"I like the IPS feature, it is the most valuable."
"Cisco ASA is very strong."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and level of security that this solution provides."
"An efficient, easy to deploy and dependable firewall solution."
"The inspection and web security features are most valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the interface, which is very user friendly. We are utilizing most of the features, like content filtering. The firewall is powerful."
"FortiGate is very simple to manage and easy to use."
"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
"The most valuable feature is the web filter."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"Consolidated our network environment at all locations, but mainly at our datacenter."
"VPNs are weak as this product still does not support route-based VPNs."
"The Cisco Firewall UI could be improved."
"One thing that we really would have loved to have was policy-based routing. We had a lot of connections, and sometimes, we would have liked to change the routing depending on the policies, but it was lacking this capability. We also wanted application filtering and DNS filtering."
"The cost is very high. Most organizations cannot afford it."
"Cisco should improve its user interface design. There is a deep learning curve to the product if you are a newcomer."
"HTTPs inspection and higher throughput/spec would be good."
"Integration aspects and traffic shaping need improvement."
"The IPS module is combined with the main operating system."
"It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."
"To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
"It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco."
"The price of FortiGate should be reduced because there are some other leading products that are cheaper."
"The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex."
"They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."
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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