We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate and WatchGuard XTM [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls."Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."
"The pricing is great and very reasonable."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Good anti-malware and web filtering features."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"The dashboard I have found the most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate."
"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was straightforward."
"The most valuable feature is the web filter."
"It configures in all-in-one place."
"I like the hostwatch because I can see what traffic uses the most bandwidth and I can block that site."
"Application Control is fantastic with over 2,500 applications and the granularity that we can either allow people to view but not be able to log on to Facebook; or view it and log onto it if they're in the marketing department, but not play Facebook games. There are all sorts of different options like that. So it's highly granular."
"SNMP status monitoring and the Central Management Software."
"WatchGuard XTM is fairly basic. We use it as the perimeter firewall. The main point is to protect from attack software and hacking."
"We have used technical support for WatchGuard many times and overall, we are satisfied with it. They are always listening and there is a good reaction time to our findings. When there are issues, they really try to resolve them."
"Monitoring of network activity is included in the box."
"They have a reporting system which can store data over a very long period of time. Not many other firewall vendors provide a reporting system, but if they do, like Fortinet does, then you've got buy that as an additional product and that can be more than twice as expensive as the initial investment in the firewall. And without reporting over a long-term period, you're just about wasting your time."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"FortiGate should have a better way of detecting and managing the system memory because otherwise if the memory is too low, a system restart is required."
"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."
"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."
"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."
"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"The initial setup is neither simple nor complex. If you know the base in networking and how the firewall works, you will be able to figure it out."
"WatchGuard doesn't have a product that allows them to get into the data center. And that's just because there is no hardware to do the job. The software could do it, but there's no hardware that allows that to happen at the moment. So it doesn't scale as well as some other products, that's for sure."
"I would like them to improve the product's overall protections. This would be good for all product users."
"The VPN errors are not helpful when troubleshooting."
"The setting policies need improvement. It needs an easier way to do static NAT and check on what policy is being used for that specific traffic."
"Syslog (Dimension) is focused on presentation, but needs more focus on utility like SonicWall syslog (GMS/Analyzer)."
"One huge issue with WatchGuard XTM is that I'm not getting reports in a readable format. Readable means, I don't want Excel online. We repeat auditing when we trigger the report or setup calendar. That functionality is what we are looking for from WatchGuard XTM here."
"Sometimes we have had issues with stability of the product."
Earn 20 points
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while WatchGuard XTM [EOL] doesn't meet the minimum requirements to be ranked in Firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while WatchGuard XTM [EOL] is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard XTM [EOL] writes "The multi-layer security of the products are the primary reason we use these appliances, however, the gateway wireless functionality for managing access points leaves much to be desired". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and Check Point NGFW, whereas WatchGuard XTM [EOL] is most compared with .
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Technically, watchguard can't scale in terms of performance and features protection for network, endpoint and cloud like FortiGate.
FortiGate has chipset that can support software turn on in the form of fabric technology.
Lastly, FortiGate has API which allow integration with 3rd parties technology to share policy, context and intelligence.
Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall with assured performance since it has ASSIC based purpose build processors. Also it has very reputed signature base worldwide. WatchGuard is good for SMBs where performance is not a major factor at perimeter security.
I have worked with only 2 FortiGate routers, remember them as having Sonicwall similar traits for management. Ok, but not that intuitive, so you had to learn and remember the management rules.
The WG units are more familiar to me, as I have setup dozens of these units in various models. I know the management Watchguard System Manager software more completely, so I understand it better, and remember it more.
The management is still just as exact as the Fortigate, but more intuitive in my understanding.
WG can be managed using a browser interface, but the WSM software is still more complete, in my opinion.
Fortinet fortiGate have large products portfolio as compare to watchGuard.
The difference is the poor performance that Fortigate has when it has all its services in use. Compare which customers have fortinet and which watchguards and see why the institutions in greatest need of security have watchguards.
UTMs option in fortiGate in better. High-performance network security solutions, users, and data from continually evolving threats.
Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall with assured performance since it has
ASSIC based purpose build processors. Also, it has a very reputed signature
base worldwide. WatchGuard is good for SMBs where performance is not a
major factor at perimeter security. So I suggest better choose Fortinet for
your requirement.
Fortinet are portable – cheap and easy to use