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.
"I think that the firewall feature is the most valuable to me as it is one of the oldest features for this solution. We also appreciate how stable the VPN is."
"When it comes to the integration among Cisco tools, we find it easy. It's a very practical integration with other components as well."
"The solution's dashboard is fine, and in terms of support, Cisco is better than other OEMs in the market."
"The most beneficial aspect of the Cisco Secure Firewall is the AnyConnect component within the firewall package, which we selected specifically for VPN usage due to its exceptional integration with various third-party devices and applications."
"Signature-based detection; user-defined signatures with regular expressions; integrated URL and content filtering; custom URL categories filtering."
"If configured, Firepower provides us with application visibility and control."
"The features I have found most valuable are the ASA firewalls. I like to have features like most integrated systems in ACI."
"Among the top features are integrated threat defence and the fact that each virtual appliance is separate so you get great granular control."
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"The ability to set up remote systems is the most valuable feature."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"Customers want to load balance more than eight lines or six internet lines. FortiGate is the only solution that can accomplish this."
"It is user friendly, and has all the features you need."
"It's super reliable. I don't think I've ever had a reliability issue with it."
"The solution can scale well."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the simple configuration."
"It's lacking one feature: VPN. Also, the 2100 Series lacks a DDoS feature. If they could add that to those platforms, that would be good."
"The graphical interface could be improved. From what I have seen, Fortinet, for example, has a nicer GUI."
"It lacks management. For me, it still doesn't have a proper management tool or GUI for configuration, logging, and visualization. Its management is not that easy. It is also not very flexible and easy to configure. They used to have a product called CSM, but it is no longer being developed. FortiGate is better than this solution in terms of GUI, flexibility, and user-friendliness."
"I wouldn't give them a ten. Nobody is perfect. I'll give them a nine because they help me with any issues I've had."
"I don't have to see all the object groups that have been created on that firewall. That's just something that I would really appreciate on the CLA, even though it already exists on the GUI."
"The license system is also good but it's not very impressive. It's a very regular licensing system. They call it a smart license which means that your device will connect to the internet. This is a little bit of a headache for some customers. It doesn't make the customer happy because most of the customers prefer not to connect their firewall or system to the internet."
"Managing various product integrations, such as Umbrella, is challenging."
"The stability and the product features have to really be worked on."
"For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial."
"The solution could be more secure and stable."
"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."
"If they could extend their fabric towards other vendor environments for integration, that would be great."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated."
"The updates Fortinet provides are sometimes unstable."
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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