We performed a comparison between Fortinet Fortigate and Juniper SRX 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 a superior solution. All other things being more or less equal, our reviewers felt that Juniper SRX’s user interface as well as its pricing could be improved.
"I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"The reporting and monitoring are very good."
"It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers."
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."
"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"It'sa very secure device, it has good attack prevention capabilities using UTM."
"It helped us with its routing capabilities which eased the cost, because otherwise I would have had to take a router and firewall, and then integrate it. With this, however, it was an integration of firewall and routing services all together in a single product. That was one thing that I loved about it."
"I like that Juniper SRX is easy to use, scalable, and stable with good performance."
"Juniper SRX Series Firewall is a stable solution."
"The solution's stability is very good."
"The high availability of the application is good."
"It helps us perform our daily jobs."
"Most of our clients use it as a traditional firewall, blocking Layer 3 and Layer 4, blocking by transport."
"The renewal price and the availability could be improved."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now."
"The scalability could be better."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."
"There aren't really any negative aspects to discuss."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor."
"Juniper SRX could improve by adding an IPX feature."
"The GUI needs to be easier and more helpful for users who don't have security experience."
"In the next release, I would like to have a better web interface. It needs to be more user-friendly. Right now, you can only access many features through the console."
"Improvements can be made to the GUI. The GUI can be improved by creating policies to handle IPS requirements. The configuration should be a one-step process. This would make it easier to complete the setup to register the time of operation."
"The pricing strategy of the vendor could improve."
"To compare with Fortinet, Juniper needs to improve their security features."
"There are a lot of features that customers do not know about and I think that better documentation would help when it comes to learning how to use the product."
"It does have its nuances in terms of deployment. There are always areas to make something easier or more intuitive or make the system auto-negotiate more with existing hardware."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while Juniper SRX Series Firewall is ranked 18th in Firewalls with 86 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Juniper SRX Series Firewall is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Juniper SRX Series Firewall writes "Highly scalable, user-friendly UI, and easy to maintain". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and Sangfor NGAF, whereas Juniper SRX Series Firewall is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Check Point NGFW. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Juniper SRX Series Firewall report.
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Hello Fahrorozi,
From my point of view, I would rather choose SRX4200 solution over FortiGate1800.
Why?
1. SRX4200 is a compact 1U device equipped with ports you actually need for full firewall usage and not for datasheet specifications.
2. Juniper Networks started as a Network company so alongside with full NGFW functions of the SRX firewall you are also getting full L3 routing functionalities same ones that are working on Juniper routers with complete granular configuration.
3. All products from Juniper Networks are equipped with their JunOS Operating System which is built on FreeBSD with data and control plane separation. Main configuration and really fast troubleshooting power are provided with structured CLI where you can do everything you can imagine even get into FreeBDS for troubleshooting if needed. Also, a tool like MTR (My Traceroute) for troubleshooting is available. JunOS configuration is the same for every Juniper Networks device so when you will get used to it you can configure every platform the same way (except for stateful firewall functions dedicated only to the SRX platform).
4. Web management is also included on a device that simplifies day-to-day configuration. Web management historically was not quite great, but starting JunOS 21.x it was really improved and provided all you need for device configuration and troubleshooting, also Juniper is still working on quality-of-life improvements.
5. SSL VPN / Client VPN is fully integrated with Juniper SRX and also with a client application.
6. Regarding performance, FortiGate was and maybe is still not providing full packet sanity checks (IP protocol, SEQ number, etc.) in the default configuration. When you enable these features, FortiGate loses some performance because HW acceleration is not possible with these features.
7. Also when you are using NFS with source NAT then you will find a useful feature where you can set to NAT traffic with port number <1024.
8. Regarding C&C, antimalware, IPS, and centralized management it's all similar to all other vendors.
9. Juniper SRX also provides VRF-light routing table separation, and also Full separation with Logical systems that have separate processes for each LSYS. You can also allocate CPU resources for each LSYS.
10. Regarding HA Clustering you can use an active/active data plane (data traversing -> one node in a cluster is entrance and destination is on another node) in a special use case. You can also have free hands regarding failovers using separate interfaces/interfaces groups based on BFD, interface status, and IP reachability. You can also deploy a full L3 cluster.
This is only a subjective short summary, always depends on other factors (interfaces, budget, preferences, etc.). I would suggest you find the nearest partner (Forti or Juniper) to you, schedule a PoC and receive the solution you would prefer.
Instead of FortiGate, I would definitely choose SRX.
A different case is the native L7 firewall when I want to check all applications, then I would maybe consider Palo Alto vs SRX in some cases.
Hi Fahrorozi,
If I have to choose between these two, I will choose FG 1800.
Reasons:
1. More flexible ports to use from 1G to 40G
2. Includes SSL VPN / client VPN for users
3. Has better web management than SRX
4. From the datasheet, some of the throughputs are also larger (IPv4 FW throughput, Max Session, Max Policies, etc).
But you need to know what you need for your company.
- Maybe you only need a 10G interface instead of a 1G
- Maybe you don't need the SSL VPN / Client VPN
- You also don't need a large throughput.
Hope this helps.