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."The initial setup is straightforward."
"It's very fast and easy to configure."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"Consolidated our network environment at all locations, but mainly at our datacenter."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the simple configuration."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"The main benefit is the grouping of our security monitoring."
"The security on offer is very good."
"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."
"SNMP status monitoring and the Central Management Software."
"Monitoring of network activity is included in the box."
"WatchGuard XTM is fairly basic. We use it as the perimeter firewall. The main point is to protect from attack software and hacking."
"After installing the product, we achieved awareness of our data protection needs and email misuse."
"I like the hostwatch because I can see what traffic uses the most bandwidth and I can block that site."
"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."
"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."
"There were quite a few problems with the stability of the system."
"One of the features that I would like to have is to do with endpoint production, it should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not."
"There is room for improvement related to the logging and reporting aspect."
"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."
"The web-cache feature which was previously on the FortiGate device, but was deleted with the recent upgrade should be returned. It was a very valuable feature for us."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"There are just some services that aren't available. For example, the Ethernet or point-to-point protocols. They could add these services to their product offering - especially services for ISPs."
"There are some complex administration tasks in their administration portal. That needs to be improved."
"I would like them to improve the product's overall protections. This would be good for all product users."
"Sometimes we have had issues with stability of the product."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The VPN errors are not helpful when troubleshooting."
"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."
Earn 20 points
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 67 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 "Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable". On the other hand, 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