We performed a comparison between Fortinet Fortigate and Cisco SD-WAN based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Fortinet Fortigate seems to be the superior solution. All other things being more or less equal, our reviewers found Cisco SD-WAN rather expensive to purchase, not as secure as it should be, and somewhat difficult to deploy.
"The segmented traffic it provides is the best in the industry right now."
"Initial setup is easy."
"Cisco SD-WAN is a stable solution."
"You can easily scale the product."
"This solution can scale from SMB to the enterprise level. It is very impressive."
"The orchestration on the VPN connection between remote locations is a fantastic feature. I used it some time ago."
"One of the most valuable features is that they have multiple SD-WAN options: you have Meraki for simple management solutions, you have Viptela, and you have the option of having any type of WAN interfaces. Presently, you can also have a single combined solution for both WAN as well as for voice, so you can have a voice bundle as well. These are major unique points of this solution."
"The most valuable features, application awareness, and failover resilience, stand out as key considerations for users."
"The main reason why I purchased the particular unit was that it had good reviews and what other people were saying as far as its completeness and its leading capabilities in terms of endpoint security was very good."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known."
"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The ability to set up remote systems is the most valuable feature."
"This solution could be improved with a simpler implementation process and licensing model."
"Cisco SD-WAN could improve on the ease of integration, the configuration should be easier. At the moment the process is more command line based and it would be better if it was able to be done through an interface."
"They should enhance the reporting because, as it is today, they need more executive-level reports."
"It is the best solution that I ever had, but there might be something better than this in the future."
"Cisco products are a little bit complicated, so making them a little bit easier would be an improvement."
"Customers require features that are secure for endpoints, on-premises, and for the cloud."
"Cisco SD-WAN could improve the integration with the cloud."
"This solution should include a fully functional firewall at no extra charge."
"I have to say that the initial setup was complex. The deployment took a few days to get set up. Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool since we thought it would be easier. But it turns out it wasn't easier to set up and run."
"Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer."
"They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers."
"If they could extend their fabric towards other vendor environments for integration, that would be great."
"If I had any criticism that I would give FortiGate, it would be that they need to stop changing their logging format. Every time we do a firmware upgrade, it is a massive issue on the SIM. Parsers have to be rebuilt. Even the FortiGate guys came in and said that they don't play well in the sandbox."
"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."
"The solution is very expensive."
"Backup can be improved."
Cisco SD-WAN is ranked 1st in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions with 86 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions with 306 reviews. Cisco SD-WAN is rated 8.0, while Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco SD-WAN writes "A solution for integrating services to enhance up-time, performance and lower costs". 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 ". Cisco SD-WAN is most compared with Meraki SD-WAN, VMware SD-WAN, Juniper Session Smart Router, Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform and Cato SASE Cloud Platform, whereas Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and OPNsense. See our Cisco SD-WAN vs. Fortinet FortiGate report.
See our list of best Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions vendors and best WAN Edge vendors.
We monitor all Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions 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.