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.
"There are some hiccups here and there, but compared to the technical support from other vendors, I have had the best experience with Cisco's technical support. I would rate them at nine out of ten."
"It is very stable compared to other firewall products."
"This solution helped us to identify the key areas where we need to focus to block traffic that is malicious to our organization."
"It joins all branches and permits employees to work outside their offices, but everything is based on high securities standards (PCI compliance)."
"One of the best features is the ease of use. It's also easy to teach new engineers to use the ASA CLI."
"The solution is used for the protection of the mobile data network. It is protecting 3G/4G Internet customers and the Private APN."
"With Cisco, there are a lot of features such as the network map. Cisco builds the whole network map of the machines you have behind your firewall and gives you insight into the vulnerabilities and attributes that the host has. Checkpoint and Fortinet don't have that functionality directly on the firewall."
"The primary benefits of using Cisco Secure solutions are time-saving, a robust API, and convenience for the security team."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"It is very flexible to use."
"The interface is very good."
"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."
"The solution is highly scalable because they have devices that can handle a large amount of traffic."
"The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."
"The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage."
"The GUI interface could be improved when compared to other solutions."
"With the new FTD, there is a little bit of a learning curve."
"The initial setup was complex."
"One big pain point I have is the ASDM interface because it's Java, and sometimes, it's a bit buggy and has low performance. That's something that probably won't be improved because of backward compatibility."
"Cisco ASDM is a problem because it is old."
"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."
"MSSP oriented interface: I would like a single console which would allow me to manage settings creating consistency across all customers."
"I would like to see the inclusion of a protocol that can be used to protect databases."
"There are some license issues. Not every feature must have a separate license. There must be some of kind synergy between the license so we don't have to pay for every individual license that we would like to have."
"The logs need to be better. They need to be more visible and easier to access."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"I think that the infrastructure for the VPN could be improved. The way that it is bundled also made it difficult to use and sell as it is too expensive."
"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement."
"If they could extend their fabric towards other vendor environments for integration, that would be great."
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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