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.
"There have been no issues with stability."
"I have found the solution's main features are its ability to be customized, network traffic classification, and has a wide range of features that can be set."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of central management."
"The most useful feature is centralized telephony."
"It is very simple and easy to manage, compared to other methods."
"I like the feature that lets you transfer from old devices to new devices without changing the hardware and subscription."
"The most valuable features are zero-disk provisioning and link load balancing on an application basis."
"The regular net routing is a good feature."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"We are using the FortiGate 100D series. VPN, firewall, anti-malware, OTM, and intrusion prevention are useful features."
"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
"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."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"The IPsec tunnels are very easily created, and quite interoperable with devices from other vendors."
"The signature database and zero-day detection are Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"One of the major areas that Cisco can improve on with their SD-WAN offering is their security features. When compared with Fortinet, who have what they call their 'security pillars' (e.g. firewall and security features built-in to their SD-WAN solutions), Cisco generally comes up short. With Cisco, if you need a security component, you have to pay more to get it done. So if they could add more security features that come part and parcel with their existing solutions, then I think Cisco could be very aggressive in the market."
"If you don't have an in-house design team or outsource to a third party with expertise, the setup will be difficult."
"Cisco could do more to offer bundling of the SD-WAN and other solutions."
"When it comes to adding more security features, you need to add more RAM."
"This solution should include a fully functional firewall at no extra charge."
"Simplifying the definition and implementation could add significant value, as it can be complex due to multiple product integrations and customization requirements."
"This solution is expensive so pricing is a concern."
"Cisco SD-WAN is not as easy to deploy as the Meraki and FortiGate solutions. The zero-touch deployment could be a lot better. The deployment and initial setup are complicated and could be better."
"We would like to see an upgrade to the VPN feature, we are using the VPN from outside of our office and there is a limitation to 10 connections, more connections would be suitable."
"The integration with third-party tools may be something that they should work on."
"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."
"The updates Fortinet provides are sometimes unstable."
"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."
"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
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.