Fortinet FortiOS vs Fortinet FortiWeb comparison

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120,425 views|88,209 comparisons
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4,259 views|3,648 comparisons
98% willing to recommend
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9,391 views|6,820 comparisons
88% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Aug 31, 2022

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiOS and Fortinet FortiWeb based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Some Fortinet FortiOS users say that its initial setup requires a higher level of technical expertise. Most Fortinet FortiWeb users report that its initial setup and deployment is straightforward.

  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their security, stability, and scalability.

    FortiOS reviewers say it is user friendly and has many valuable UTM features. Some users mention that there are several features that are only available from the CLI.

    FortiWeb reviewers like its centralized dashboard and say that it is flexible, intuitive, and integrates well. A couple of users note that the solution needs better automation.
  • Pricing: Most FortiOS reviewers feel that it is an expensive product. FortiWeb received mixed reviews for its price. Some users feel that it is expensive.
  • ROI: FortiOS reviewers report a significant ROI. FortiWeb reviewers mention a modest ROI.
  • Service and Support: Most users of both solutions report being satisfied with the level of the support they receive.

Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiOS has a slight edge in this comparison. Between the two products, it has a better ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Firewalls Report (Updated: April 2024).
769,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle.""The Fortinet FortiGate local partners were good. I did not have direct contact with Fortinet support.""It is a good source for firewall protection.""The most important features of Fortinet FortiGate are the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and firewall control applications.""Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”""The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering.""You can purchase switches and you don't need to do anything with them. You just put in the firewall and the switches get all the policies and rules that you already have in the firewall. With Fortinet, you just connect the FortiSwitch to the Fortinet and that's it.""It is a safe product."

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"FortiOS's best features are its function as an internet gateway and how easy it is to manage.""The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the SD-WAN, SSL inspection, and IDS/IPS functions.""It's very easy to use.""The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiOS network segregation, UTM, and antivirus, freight management protection, such as DDoS. Additionally, the CLI and the GUI are easy to use. The architecture makes sense, and the command in the CLI are organized well. They have quite a lot of features are easy to use, and are user-friendly. Any novice can use Fortinet FortiOS without an issue.""FortiOS allows us to set up alarms for blocked websites and SSL verifications. When someone tries to access a blocked site, the solution sends a notification to the IT manager's mailbox.""Performance-wise, I think FortiOS is much better than its Juniper counterpart. Based on our actual experience and performance metrics, FortiOS-based products are much better than Juniper.""A good network security system for medium-sized businesses with an excellent GUI interface that gives a graphic view of network status.""The solution is extremely scalable."

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"The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats.""L-7 protection makes possible to protect legacy/not up-to-date servers/applications without changing the application code.""We were able to protect our web servers from outside attacks.""FortiWeb offers machine learning in the latest product. This fixed many problems. There are no false negatives.""SSL Offloading simplifies the public certificate handling and brings additional protection features.""The most valuable feature is that this product represents a whole solution, including a WAF, and even anti-defacements.""The GUI makes it easy to scale in terms of learning and utilization.""The most valuable feature of this solution is Fail-Open."

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Cons
"We'd like more management across other integrations.""When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues.""Maybe they could make some features more accessible, such as a way to translate directions between two networks that share the same subnets.""The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training.""The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement.""In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly.""There are some cloud-based features that could be much more flexible than they currently are.""Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cons →

"The central management can improve in Fortinet FortiOS. It is sometimes difficult to manage all the devices.""The solution could improve by making the dashboard easier to use.""Could be improved by supporting an allocation of quota base management regarding user data.""Technical support could be better. Some competitors have much more responsive support teams.""It would be great if they can push the Microsoft updates through Fortinet OS and provide a centralized patch management system. They should also include the data loss prevention (DLP) and data leakage prevention features. They could also add network monitoring more effectively.""The technical support is good. However, during the holidays they can get a little slow to respond.""There is no flexibility.""FortiOS's bandwidth and interface could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiOS Cons →

"Describing security rules should be improved. It's tricky to define new feature tools when you want to describe an attack pattern and want to block it.""Fortinet FortiWeb is not scalable. You'll need more budget to change the hardware.""The F5 solution has more features than Fortinet FortiWeb, such as multiple load balancing.""The interface could have the interdependent elements arranged sequentially and wizards that go through most common deployment actions.""We have had problems with deployments where we've had to contact technical support to resolve them.""I would like to see the Application Delivery Control (ADC) and Web Application Firewall (WAF) combined in one device.""A user interface or dashboard for troubleshooting is needed.""It is not entirely user-friendly."

More Fortinet FortiWeb Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Fortinet has one or two license types, and the VPN numbers are only limited by the hardware chassis make."
  • "These boxes are not that expensive compared to what they can do, their functionality, and the reporting you receive. Fortinet licensing is straightforward and less confusing compared to Cisco."
  • "Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."
  • "Work through partners for the best pricing."
  • "The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
  • "Easy to understand licensing requirements."
  • "​We saved a bundle by not needing all the past appliances from an NGFW.​"
  • "The cost is too high... They have to focus on more features with less cost for the customer. If you see the market, where it's going, there are a lot of players offering more features for less cost."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The program is expensive."
  • "We pay an annual license fee. It is rather expensive so I would like to perhaps see a drop in price in the future."
  • "Be sure to choose a licensing plan that leaves a little headroom so performance is not an issue."
  • "We pay $100,000. That covers the cost of the hardware that we run the VN's on. That also includes any SGNA costs for the internal support tech."
  • "Pricing depends on implementation and licensing choices and is usually not a practical budget choice for small businesses."
  • "The support contracts are usually about $100 - $200 a device."
  • "The software costs roughly half what the hardware costs. Overall, the product is expensive."
  • "The price of Fortinet FortiOS has been reasonable."
  • More Fortinet FortiOS Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Cheaper than others."
  • "FortiWeb can be purchased in VM mode for a lower price and the same features."
  • "Keep a loose margin between your actual bandwidth and the product sizing when using hardware appliances. Only virtual machines are upgradable to larger sizes."
  • "​It really pays off to buy licences for multiple years​."
  • "​The pricing is reasonable."
  • "The license cost depends on the size of the box or the size of the solution. It can go from €200 Euros to a few hundred thousand Euros a year depending on your size."
  • "The solution gives us the best price to performance ratio."
  • "The costs are standard. We pay around $1,600 yearly."
  • More Fortinet FortiWeb Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
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    Top Answer:From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know… more »
    Top Answer:As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite… more »
    Top Answer:In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it… more »
    Top Answer:The SSL VPN is fee for use is most attractive.
    Top Answer:The solution is cost effective. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten.
    Top Answer:The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats.
    Top Answer:The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten. It feels like a justified cost for the… more »
    Top Answer:I'd like more customization. I'm not sure if everyone would agree, as it might add complexity. But for advanced users… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiGate enhances network security, prevents unauthorized access, and offers robust firewall protection. Valued features include advanced threat protection, reliable performance, and a user-friendly interface. It improves efficiency, streamlines processes, and boosts collaboration, providing valuable insights for informed decision-making and growth.

    Fortinet FortiOS is a comprehensive security operating system that powers Fortinet's network security solutions. It provides advanced threat protection, network visibility, and centralized management for organizations of all sizes. With its robust features and intuitive interface, FortiOS enables businesses to secure their networks, applications, and data from cyber threats. 

    One of the key features of FortiOS is its advanced threat protection capabilities. It incorporates multiple security technologies, including firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention system (IPS), and web filtering, to detect and block a wide range of threats. This ensures that organizations are protected against malware, ransomware, and other malicious activities. FortiOS also offers extensive network visibility, allowing organizations to monitor and analyze network traffic in real-time. This visibility enables businesses to identify potential security risks, detect anomalies, and take proactive measures to mitigate threats. 

    Additionally, FortiOS provides detailed reports and analytics, helping organizations gain insights into their network security posture. Centralized management is another crucial aspect of FortiOS. It allows businesses to manage and configure their security policies, devices, and users from a single console. This simplifies the management process and ensures consistent security across the entire network infrastructure. 

    Moreover, FortiOS supports integration with other Fortinet products, enabling seamless security orchestration and automation. FortiOS is designed to be scalable and flexible, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes. It offers a range of deployment options, including physical appliances, virtual machines, and cloud-based solutions. This flexibility allows businesses to choose the deployment model that best fits their requirements and easily scale their security infrastructure as their needs evolve. 

    Fortinet FortiWeb is a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that protects your web applications and APIs from attacks targeting known as well as unknown vulnerabilities. As the surface of your web applications evolves with each change of existing features and deployment of new features, your APIs are left exposed. Fortinet FortiWeb provides the board protection capabilities required to protect web applications without sacrificing performance or manageability.

    Fortinet FortiWeb is an automatic, advanced multi-layer solution that provides secure protection by discerning irregular behavior and distinguishing between malicious and benign anomalies. In addition, the approach delivers powerful bot mitigation capacities which authorize harmless bots to connect while blocking malicious bot activity securely. Regardless of where an application is hosted, Fortinet FortiWeb will safeguard business applications by providing deployment options, such as virtual machines, hardware appliances, and containers that can be deployed in the data center, cloud environments, or in the cloud-native SaaS solution.

    Fortinet FortiWeb Features and Benefits

    APIs and web applications have become integral to the rising demand for business-critical applications. Now more than ever, businesses are in need of an automatic firewall that will provide them with security, without sacrificing performance or reliability. Fortinet FortiWeb offers a variety of features and benefits, including:

    • Security fabric integration: FortiWeb integrates with other Fortinet solutions to provide advanced protection from persistent threats.

    • Proven web application and API protection: FortiWeb safeguards applications from all DDOS attacks, malicious bot attacks, and OWASP Top-10 threats.

    • Advanced visual analytics: FortiWeb offers a unique visual reporting tool that other WAF solutions don’t by providing a detailed analysis of attack elements and sources.

    • Hardware-based acceleration: With fast and secure traffic encryption and decryption, FortiWeb provides best-in-class WAF protection.

    • ML-based threat detection: FortiWeb delivers multi-layer machine learning defense protection to defend against zero-day attacks and reduce false positives.

    • False positive mitigation tools: Reduce daily management of policies through advanced tools to guarantee only unwanted traffic is blocked.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Fortinet FortiWeb offers an industry-leading Web Application Firewall, and users are satisfied with it for a number of reasons, including the ability to control everything from the dashboard and the PCI-compliant reports it offers.

    Carlos P., director of business and digital transformation at SERNIVEL3, notes, "You have the ability to control everything from one single dashboard."

    A director at a tech service company, says, "Banks have to be compliant with PCI and other things, and FortiWeb is absolutely amazing in terms of providing these reports. Otherwise, they will have to spend a lot of time on them."

    Sample Customers
    1. Amazon Web Services 2. Microsoft 3. IBM 4. Cisco 5. Dell 6. HP 7. Oracle 8. Verizon 9. AT&T 10. T-Mobile 11. Sprint 12. Vodafone 13. Orange 14. BT Group 15. Telstra 16. Deutsche Telekom 17. Comcast 18. Time Warner Cable 19. CenturyLink 20. NTT Communications 21. Tata Communications 22. SoftBank 23. China Mobile 24. Singtel 25. Telus 26. Rogers Communications 27. Bell Canada 28. Telkom Indonesia 29. Telkom South Africa 30. Telmex 31. Telia Company 32. Telkom Kenya
    Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
    Lush, Barnabas Health, Options, Riverside Healthcare, Hillsbourough County Schools, Columbia Public Schools, Schiller AG
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization20%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider15%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Computer Software Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm24%
    Comms Service Provider20%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization37%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business54%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business49%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise28%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise47%
    Large Enterprise35%
    Buyer's Guide
    Firewalls
    April 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls. Updated: April 2024.
    769,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews while Fortinet FortiWeb is ranked 4th in Web Application Firewall (WAF) with 83 reviews. Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4, while Fortinet FortiWeb is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiWeb writes "Cost-effective, easy to configure, and works very well as a single solution for multiple environments". Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection, Darktrace and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Fortinet FortiWeb is most compared with F5 Advanced WAF, Fortinet FortiADC, AWS WAF, Azure Web Application Firewall and NGINX App Protect.

    We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.