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.
"Being able to use it as a policy-based VPN is valuable. It's very easy to understand. It's very easy to troubleshoot."
"Network segmentation is the most valuable feature."
"The initial setup was not complex."
"The implementation is pretty straightforward."
"The feature I find most valuable is the Cisco VPN Interconnection."
"One of the most valuable features is the GUI front end, which is very easy to use. But I'm also a command-line guy, and being able to access the device via command-line for advanced troubleshooting is quite important."
"I think Cisco ASA Firewall is the most stable firewall solution."
"You can also put everything into a nice, neat, little package, as far as configuration goes. I was formerly a command-line guy with the ASA, and I was a little nervous about dealing with a GUI interface versus a command line, but after I did my first deployment, I got a lot more comfortable with doing it GUI based."
"The solution is stable."
"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."
"It has improved our organization with control data."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is Quota."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"The FortiGate controls the user's activities and maximizes my bandwidth use overall."
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"The Sandbox and the Web Censoring in this solution need to be improved."
"The product would be improved if the GUI could be brought into the 21st Century."
"MSSP oriented interface: I would like a single console which would allow me to manage settings creating consistency across all customers."
"Sometimes my customers say that Cisco Firewalls are a bit more difficult compared to Fortigate or Palo Alto. There is complexity in the configuration and the GUI could be improved."
"If the implementation was easier, it would be a lot better for us."
"We're getting support but there's a big delay until we get a response from their technical team. They're in the USA and we're in Africa, so that's the difficulty. When they're in the office, they respond."
"The inclusion of an autofill feature would improve the ease of commands."
"Web filtering needs improvement because sometimes the URL is miscategorized."
"I haven't had a single issue since using Fortinet."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor."
"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."
"Currently, FortiGate is providing SSL VPN. But they're missing some features that are available in Palo Alto's SSL VPN."
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.
See our list of best Firewalls vendors.
We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.