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."We have been able to offer several services to customers in a single box."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment."
"FortiGate improved our security. It's one of the best hardware firewalls."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"The next-gen features, the unified threat management capabilities are something that just about everybody is interested in at this point."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are its flexibility and scalability. This solution is available as a license, which allows us to activate it based on the specific needs of the customer. This gives us and the customer a great deal of versatility and customization options."
"FortiGate-VM's firewall is excellent."
"The tool improved the security in our company's virtualized environment, as it was helpful in creating an additional layer of security for the organization and for the use of the internet."
"It gives all the features of a full-fledged firewall with great performance."
"All the security features that are built into the product are valuable."
"Good for the servers and can stop network attacks, including spam."
"The most valuable feature is the WAN optimization."
"Technical support has been super responsive and dedicated to getting any challenges resolved."
"I love the simplicity of Meraki MX — specifically, the simplicity of the dashboard."
"The technical support people from Meraki are brilliant."
"What I like best about Meraki MX is that it's easy to deploy remotely. The product works. It has automatic updates. I also like that Meraki MX is a brilliant device. You turn it on, stick the key in there, activate it, and then you're done. Meraki MX does what my customers need at the end of the day, so I also like that."
"It is very fast to implement."
"It has very good features; it's easy to use, configure, set up, and deploy."
"Very easy to use and navigate."
"Ease of management is the best thing about the solution."
"I think cloud management is key. The cloud management and support are the two things that make the product great."
"Maybe they could make some features more accessible, such as a way to translate directions between two networks that share the same subnets."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"My only complaint about FortiGate is a lack of QinQ VLAN tunneling. I haven't found this feature in any Fortinet product. You can do this on all Cisco routers, including the smaller models. However, QinQ isn't available on the biggest, most expensive Fortinet units. They still don't have that. I think now we're on software version 6.0, and they still haven't found a solution for QinQ. It isn't a dealbreaker, but that's my main complaint."
"The biggest "gotcha" is that if the client purchases what they call the UTM shared bundle, which has unified threat management on both, it's not as easy to manage if you have more than one firewall."
"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"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."
"The price and licensing of the solution can be better."
"The product has issues with integration. I would like to see better integration in future releases of the product."
"It needs an Application Inspection."
"Sizing can be challenging for customers interested in using Fortinet FortiGate-VM."
"Now they do have the ability to pop up a command line, which is nice, however, the fact that you can't do everything within the GUI is probably a problem."
"They could simplify the troubleshooting process."
"It should have the SD-WAN feature. This would increase the number of features that are available in the box."
"FortiGate's application load balancing has to be improved. They need to improve a lot on the load balancing and RAF side. They are far behind Citrix in that regard."
"Meraki has some hidden features and information that is only privy to their engineers. If that information became available to us, then it would improve our ease of management, and we would be able to make certain adjustments instead of having to go to them."
"Management can be improved in Meraki MX."
"Direct logging is something that can be introduced. In the absence of cloud management, the possibility of local configurations and on-premise logins becomes restricted. This limitation stands as a primary concern. When it comes to resolving issues, the inability to access login options hampers troubleshooting efforts. The stability is noteworthy; but when compared to alternative products, its stability is comparatively lower. Additionally, certain limitations are observed in terms of remote control. Price-wise, the solution stands out for its competitive and cost-effective nature compared to other alternatives. Operationally, it is user-friendly and requires minimal effort from administrators, making configuration hassle-free."
"The solution's pricing should be reduced."
"MX can only be managed via a web interface, but I'm accustomed to using a CLI or a graphical interface. I would also like to see more reporting features. It doesn't provide enough information for me to know precisely about some clients."
"An area for improvement in Meraki MX is that it needs some provision, as supplying the unit through Cisco can be tedious at times, but as far as the product itself and its offerings, Meraki MX is five-star all the way."
"We can’t access GUI management and CLI opening features when the Internet is unavailable."
"Right now, you can postpone the update but eventually, if you don't do the update, it will install the updates automatically for you and that's something that is not working for me."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 58 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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