We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Meraki MX based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The wireless control is helpful."
"One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"There are lots of features and most of them are deployed for internet security. Users are protected if they accidentally go to some malicious sites."
"The Fortinet FortiGate local partners were good. I did not have direct contact with Fortinet support."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"The GUI is good."
"It's very easy to set up, it's very easy to make policies and, for an organization, that means you don't need IT expert in firewalls. You just need to have somebody who knows a little bit of IT, and that's it. With other products, you need someone with a "Masters" degree in firewalls."
"The most valuable features are the IPS and Antivirus."
"The solution's initial setup process was very easy."
"Use of this product does not require daily interactions."
"Its technical support is excellent."
"The standard features, including the filtering, are quite good. All the basic features are pretty useful for us."
"The solution can scale well."
"I did like the ability to back up the configuration into the cloud, as opposed to having to store the configurations or just downloading them, the backups, to local devices."
"Primarily, the VPN solution is most valuable. It allows you to have more flexibility in terms of what is there on the end-user device, and what is not there. You can check and make sure that they're current. It has more flexibility than just a straight VPN solution. It works really well. It has the features that 99% of people need."
"To me, the analytics feature is one of the most valuable in Meraki MX. I also find that it has good usability as it's cloud-based. Another valuable feature of Meraki MX is that it's simple to use and it's user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature of Meraki MX is I can manage the solution from anywhere remotely, I can throttle bandwidth, and create all rules. Additionally, it is secure for our customers."
"MX is easy to manage, configure and install."
"We switched to Meraki because it lets you see what's happening in your LAN and WAN in a graphic and web environment."
"The most valuable feature is that we didn't have any problems with Meraki MX."
"I think cloud management is key. The cloud management and support are the two things that make the product great."
"The dashboard is very intuitive and easy to understand."
"Managed centrally over the web: You can manages all your Meraki devices in a single account."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."
"FortiOS is not simple."
"Technical support is good but the response time could be faster."
"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."
"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."
"A lack of integration between our data centers."
"I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself."
"The licensing needs to be improved. We need longer licensing periods, especially for POCs and trials. It should be for six months. Right now, it's too short of a timeframe."
"We'd like to have more customization and easier customization of policies."
"Their offering for MFA isn't the cleanest."
"The product may not be as robust as Palo Alto. However, unless you are a big bank, you probably won't need it to be."
"There should be integration with an active directory — with Microsoft."
"Not a ten because I think that Cisco is better."
"The product does not have a good graphical interface."
"The tech support calls were not the best and could be improved. There have been times when we felt as if we knew more about the device than the support person on the phone."
"From the improvement perspective, we need more monitoring capabilities. We want to have full-based access visibility, such as, what is happening when something is trying to reach and it is denying. We cannot see some parts of it. The integration of active directory with this product is not very fruitful. It has some bugs or lacks in the functionality of active directory integration. We are unable to identify where exactly and whether it has really applied our policy."
"FortiGate is cheaper than Meraki. Even the license renewal is less than Meraki."
"The product could incorporate tools like ThousandEyes into the system so we can see things directly."
"The product doesn't support route summarization and BGP dynamic routing protocol."
"We have been having a problem with the VPN. When the energy goes down and is back again, the VPN link doesn't get established. We have to manually turn off the modems and other pieces of equipment and manually establish the VPN. It has been around one month since we have been having this problem, and we don't have enough support from Meraki to solve the problem."
"The product is quite complex to set up."
"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."
"The IPS, the Intrusion Prevention System, can be improved."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 57 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while Meraki MX is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate-VM writes "An easy-to-manage and configure tool that provides ample documentation to help with the setup phase". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Sangfor NGAF, whereas Meraki MX is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos XG, SonicWall TZ and Netgate pfSense. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Meraki MX report.
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