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."I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"The solution is highly scalable because they have devices that can handle a large amount of traffic."
"The payment function for applications is good."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known."
"The UTM feature is quite good. FortiAP is easy to deploy because both Fortigate and FortiAP are under the same brand. Otherwise, you need to do more work on the configuration."
"The Intrusion Prevention System and the web filtering are both working well."
"It has very easy management and an amazing ETM configuration."
"The most valuable features are the policies, filtering, and configuration."
"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."
"SNMP status monitoring and the Central Management Software."
"It is stable and does not require you to reboot all the time."
"There is a site-to-site VPN configuration between others people."
"Monitoring of network activity is included in the box."
"After installing the product, we achieved awareness of our data protection needs and email misuse."
"Reputation Enabled Defense indicates that some websites are so infested that it's not even worth visiting them, and therefore saving the bandwidth of going through the detection process."
"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."
"Vulnerability scanning could be improved."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"Web security solutions can be improved."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"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."
"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"I would like them to improve the product's overall protections. This would be good for all product users."
"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."
"Syslog (Dimension) is focused on presentation, but needs more focus on utility like SonicWall syslog (GMS/Analyzer)."
"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."
"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."
"The VPN errors are not helpful when troubleshooting."
"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."
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