We performed a comparison between Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and Fortinet FortiGate-VM based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers a range of important capabilities including VPN Blade, IPS Blade, URL filtering, and Applications Control Blade. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is highly regarded for its robust security features such as geofencing, firewalling, IPS, antivirus, and intrusion prevention systems.
For Check Point CloudGuard Network Security, there is a need for improvements in the support system, cluster creation on AWS, data protection visibility, DLP feature, user interface, integration, cost reduction, documentation, and flexibility in deployment. Fortinet FortiGate-VM needs enhancements in key activation, throughput, web application firewall integration, technical support, integration simplicity, customization, pricing model, and web-filtering configuration.
Service and Support: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has received both positive and negative feedback regarding its customer service. Some customers commend the technical support provided by the company, while others express dissatisfaction due to slow response times. Fortinet FortiGate-VM also has a combination of positive and negative reviews regarding its customer service. Some customers are content with the support they receive, while others believe that it requires improvement.
Ease of Deployment: Check Point's setup is user-friendly and straightforward, although some mention that it may require technical expertise and can be complex. The initial setup for Fortinet is generally easy and straightforward. The deployment time ranges from a few hours to a week, depending on the complexity and size.
Pricing: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is regarded as costly to set up, however, it provides excellent security and value. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is competitively priced and more affordable than certain alternatives. That said, expenses may rise when scaling or incorporating additional functionalities.
ROI: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers a notable ROI range of 80% to 85% and delivers enhanced benefits and performance. Fortinet FortiGate-VM ensures stability and heightened security, garnering positive ratings for ROI from users. It is crucial to exercise caution while sizing to prevent any potential financial losses.
Comparison Results: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is the preferred product compared to Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Users find the initial setup of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security simple and user-friendly. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers valuable features such as VPN Blade, IPS Blade, URL filtering, and Applications Control Blade, along with advanced threat prevention capabilities.
"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"Fortinet FortiGate's ease of management is the most valuable feature."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely."
"The features that we have found most valuable are the SSL VPN and the User Portal."
"The solution is extremely reliable."
"It is useful for protecting and segregating the internal networks from the internet. Most of our customers also use the FortiGate client to connect to their offices by using the VPN client, and of course, they usually activate the antivirus, deep inspection, and intrusion prevention services. They are also using it for web filtering and implementing various policies dealing with forwardings, NAT, etc."
"Anti-Spam web content filterinG."
"I like the tool's ability to manage cloud traffic locally without routing it through our data centers."
"The solution is reliable."
"The solution is easier to manage than an on-premise firewall. It is easy to manage. The use of dynamic objects for these gateways made it easy to create the right rules and the right policies. Integration with Azure is also easy where we have to just add the subnets. In an on-premise setup, we have to add everything from scratch. We can automate a lot of actions."
"The tool's most valuable features are inspecting internet traffic and IPS. We can manage the firewall using shared policies from a single management server."
"Some retail customers find the scale-up and scale-down features valuable, particularly with scale sets. This is useful for handling increased loads on devices and utilizing firewalls, similar to on-premises setups with active standby configurations."
"As per the solution's blade design, there are many options. For example, you have to buy a UTM blade and an advanced malware blade, etc. If the blade license is there, we can configure from the firewall GUI."
"The most valuable feature for us is the ability to run the gateways as virtual machines in our virtual data center. The tool protects the virtual data centers."
"The tool's most valuable features are threat prevention and protection mechanisms."
"The most valuable features are the web proxy for protection and web gateway for deployment."
"The configuration, graphical interface and command line are easy to use."
"It's a relatively simple product that is easy to use. It's not overly complex."
"The most valuable features are network security, VLAN, network protection, and encryption are very valuable to us."
"It is highly scalable because it has a mesh architecture that allows consistent policies."
"It is easy to set up the solution."
"The most valuable features are the IPS and Antivirus."
"The solution integrates well with other Fortinet products."
"I haven't had a single issue since using Fortinet."
"Vulnerability scanning could be improved."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"The solution is very expensive."
"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."
"Application management can be improved."
"The updates Fortinet provides are sometimes unstable."
"In future releases, I would like to see the data loss prevention (DLP) feature could scale along with the virtual machine scale sets."
"The API integration is complex, which is an area that should be improved."
"While today we can manage some scopes, there are still some segments in the OSI layer we cannot manage."
"It's meeting our needs at this time. If I could make it better, it would be by making it more standalone. That would be beneficial to us. I say that because our current platform for virtualization is VMware. The issue isn't any fault of Check Point, it's more how the virtualization platform partners allow for that partnership and integration. There has to be close ties and partnerships between the vendors to ensure interoperability and sup-portability. There is only so far that Check Point, or any security vendor technology can go without the partnership and enablement of the virtualization platform vendor as it relies on "Service Insertion" to maintain optimal performance."
"I would like to see a step-by-step initial installation of the firewall. That would be really helpful. Like in Oracle appliances, when you start it asks you, what's your current IP address? An initial setup should be a step by step and intuitive process. You click on "begin," it asks you some simple questions. You fill in the blanks - your current IP address, what you want to do, you want to set up a site to site VPN, for example, that kind of thing. That would be the smartest thing to have."
"They can improve their security features to the next advanced level so that their efficiency in catching the malware can become 100%, and there is no scope for any data loss or leakage from the system due to any issue."
"There is room for improvement in the integration with PaaS services from the public cloud. It would be very helpful."
"It is somewhat problematic in the area of the cloud."
"The graphical user interface should be enhanced."
"The price model is not transparent by any means and should be made more clear. What's included in the packages is often not very obvious."
"It has a monitoring tool, but it could be improved."
"The users must buy FortiSIEM to get advanced analytics."
"To improve FortiGate-VM, Fortinet needs to harden it more. For example, if you are using Hyper-V, then you need guidelines for hardening FortiGate-VM that are specific to the Hyper-V environment. If it's VMware, there should be at least a guideline on how to harden the firewall."
"Fortinet FortiGate-VM should improve its asset identification, wherein the device can identify assets on the network, like computers."
"The one thing that could be improved is the integration with the exchange. The gateway level controls can be enhanced a bit more. For example, it's still little here and there. You do get malicious attacks and suspicious emails like spam. It's not like Sophos where we got a lot of spam email, and yet, it's still relatively vulnerable. It can be upgraded, maybe with a fifth-generation firmware that it is ready for unknown threats."
"We have experience stability issues, when the product sizing is wrong or on configuration errors."
More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pricing and Cost Advice →
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is ranked 8th in Firewalls with 121 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is rated 8.6, while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security writes "Highly reliable, great visibility, and centralized management". On the other hand, 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". Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is most compared with Azure Firewall, VMware NSX, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, Cisco Secure Firewall and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, whereas Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS and OPNsense. See our Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM report.
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