We performed a comparison between Check Point NGFW 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: Fortinet’s lack of an option to deploy firewalls on multiple endpoints is a definite downside. Although Fortinet received better feedback for its support, Check Point is the winner in this comparison.
"We found a very successful implementation of the virtual private network client, since, for some time now, everyone has been working from home."
"The solution provides better stability and some interesting features such as the ease of throughput expansion."
"Even though Check Point NGFW provides a set of security features that enforce protection on the network, the most valuable aspect is also the most used feature: the plain and simple firewall component. This is the core of the product and works to a great extent without the need for all other available bells and whistles."
"The most valuable features are application control, regulation, and threat prevention."
"The platform helps our organization to save working hours."
"It improves user productivity and frees up system resources."
"The Threat Management feature makes it very easy to detect the vulnerabilities and other factors. We can make new policy according to it. Policy creation is very simple in Check Point. Because the logs are very good in Check Point Firewall, this reduces our work with the reports that we are getting from the Threat Management. It is very convenient for us to use the reports to make new policies for security and other things."
"It provides access to the Internet for corporate resources in a secure manner."
"The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall. You don't need to pay some other company for another product to do that for you. The firewall can do that for you. So, it's an easy-to-use product for people to be independent. They don't need to rely on other vendors to do what the firewall can do. They can do everything."
"The interface is very good."
"The most valuable features are SD-WAN, application control, IPS control, and FortiSandbox."
"The SD-WAN is the most valuable feature."
"You can create multiple Virtual Domains (VDOMs), which are treated as separate firewall instances."
"Check Point products have many places that need to be improved, but they are constantly upgrading."
"Support for customers really needs to improve."
"One of the most complicated aspects is the VPN Configuration, which should be simplified in future releases."
"While the logs are very good and easy to understand, when you want to download these customized logs, they don't have as many features compared to competitive firewalls."
"The SmartUpdate interface is a little bit crowded if your company has a lot of software items."
"The Check Point TAC support has, in recent years, deteriorated."
"They have few predefined reports and it would be nice to increase them since the logs are excellent."
"Lately, Check Point seems to be pushing new products too early."
"Cisco Meraki products are rising very quickly in the cloud and the connected era. Meraki products offer much better ROI, upgradability, and manageability."
"Some of the software stability could improve."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"The captive portal could be improved."
"When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."
"It's my understanding that more of the current generation features could be brought in. There could be more integration with EDRs, for example."
"There aren't really any negative aspects to discuss."
"The reports are very basic."
Check Point NGFW is ranked 5th in Firewalls with 276 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews. Check Point NGFW is rated 8.8, while Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point NGFW writes "Good antivirus protection and URL filtering with very good user identification capabilities". 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 ". Check Point NGFW is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and Azure Firewall, whereas Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and SonicWall TZ. See our Check Point NGFW vs. Fortinet FortiGate report.
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First of all, Check Point checks the rules to be configured before installing them in the firewall and this prevents the user from making mistakes and putting the company at risk.
Check Point is no longer expensive. It has many models and competes in performance and price vs. Fortinet.
Now web interfaces, like Fortinet, may have more bugs per top 10 OWASP.
We are using both but the GUI and clustering on the FortiGate side look better/easier/more comfortable.
And I do agree with others - Check Point is expensive and Fortinet FortiGate has many models offering less expensive implementation.
I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such).
-Check Point GUI is a bit complicated,
-Application and Web filtering are better than Fortigate.
-IPS and AV are more effective than Fortigate. Overall more stable than any other firewall
Support: not up to the level like Fortigate and lack of trained resources (in the gulf).
Check Point is expensive.
Fortinet has many models and is more affordable than Check Point. It also provides outstanding support. GUI is more user-friendly.
We had this same discussion recently with my organization. It came down to the security of the platform.
Fortinet has had a number of breaches over the last 2 years and this was a key factor in our decision.
The challenge with Check Point will be the transition from our existing firewall and taking advantage of the various features across our organization.