Check Point NGFW vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series comparison

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Fortinet Logo
123,063 views|89,961 comparisons
90% willing to recommend
Check Point Software Technologies Logo
27,863 views|17,209 comparisons
96% willing to recommend
Palo Alto Networks Logo
1,031 views|140 comparisons
96% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Check Point NGFW and Palo Alto Networks K2-Series 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.
To learn more, read our detailed Check Point NGFW vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,496 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Security solution with a straightforward and quick setup. It's a stable and scalable product.""The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely.""The interface is very user-friendly and I like it very much.""This is an easy solution to deploy.""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.""It has improved our organization with control data.""It is quite easy to handle.""The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN, as it allows us to connect and it separates this product from other firewalls."

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"The support offers the best services I have experienced. It's better than any other IT vendor.""Policy configuration has been consistent over the years, so there is not much of a learning curve as upgrades are released.""We found a very successful implementation of the virtual private network client, since, for some time now, everyone has been working from home.""They have very good support. In critical scenarios, they provide us very quick solutions, are very well-trained, and have a good knowledge about the product. That is what we expect from them.""The centrally managed firewalls are great.""The technical services always replied in a very fast and effective way.""We can decipher the activity of each connection and see what is inside it.""It improves user productivity and frees up system resources."

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"As long as the solution is kept updated, it's pretty stable.""Palo Alto's App-ID is what differentiates it from other competitors.""The scalability of the product is quite high.""I have found that Palo Alto Networks K2-Series has the best security. They are more user-friendly, older firewalls used to have to be configured using the command-line interface, but in this solution, it can be done in the GUI.""I have found the threat profile feature valuable.""One of the most valuable features is Palo Alto's firewall management. We find it easier to manage the firewall centrally.""Palo Alto has an approach that makes the configuration easier not only for the customers but also for the IT help for the customers.""The most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is its management abilities. Additionally, the updates are very good."

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Cons
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field.""FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment.""It does not have key authentication for admin access.""The Web-filter in this solution is not very good.""The main aspect of FortiGate that could be improved is load balancing. Our management team does not want to buy another appliance for only load balancing.""FortiGate is really good. We have been using it for quite some time. Initially, when we started off, we had around 70 plus devices of FortiGate, but then Check Point and Palo Alto took over the place. From the product perspective, there are no issues, but from the account perspective, we have had issues. Fortinet's presence in our company is very less. I don't see any Fortinet account managers talking to us, and that presence has diluted in the last two and a half or three years. We have close to 1,500 firewalls. Out of these, 60% of firewalls are from Palo Alto, and a few firewalls are from Check Point. FortiGate firewalls are very less now. It is not because of the product; it is because of the relationship. I don't think they had a good relationship with us, and there was some kind of disconnect for a very long time. The relationship between their accounts team and my leadership team seems to be the reason for phasing out FortiGate.""They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs.""Scalability is one of the disadvantages. When it comes to scalability, you have to actually change the box. If you want to upgrade it, you need to actually change the existing box and probably you take the system off to other sites."

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"This product has room for improvement in technical support for Africa.""The perimeter antivirus can be improved. It's not as good as other leaders.""While not being cheap, their pricing models are competitive. In the pricing structure, however, they need improvement.""Internet load balancing provides either active/passive or active/active load balancing, however, I would like to see more options that provide SD-WAN capabilities while also allowing for more than two links.""While the logs are very good and easy to understand, when you want to download these customized logs, they don't have as many features compared to competitive firewalls.""Currently, upgrades are quite cumbersome.""The upgrade is something we would like to be improved in the future as the frequency of hotfixes is too much, and by the time we finish the one round, we already have the new version released and are required to upgrade.""Until you have some experience, the installation and configuration are difficult."

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"It is recommended that the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series be implemented step by step for the Panorama. Sometimes we can't overwrite the configurations because it fails.""There are a lot of bugs in this solution.""If we have issues, they take anywhere from two days to a week to respond. I even wrote to their CEO because there was no response. When it comes to support, this is the worst company.""The scalability of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is good. It is good for larger environments over smaller ones.""The licensing cost is a typical complaint with many clients. The solution is expensive.""Palo Alto doesn't have extended visibility to the end point in their firewalls.""The reporting functionality in GlobalProtect needs to be improved.""They could improve by providing more features in the solution."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Fortinet has one or two license types, and the VPN numbers are only limited by the hardware chassis make."
  • "These boxes are not that expensive compared to what they can do, their functionality, and the reporting you receive. Fortinet licensing is straightforward and less confusing compared to Cisco."
  • "Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."
  • "Work through partners for the best pricing."
  • "The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
  • "Easy to understand licensing requirements."
  • "​We saved a bundle by not needing all the past appliances from an NGFW.​"
  • "The cost is too high... They have to focus on more features with less cost for the customer. If you see the market, where it's going, there are a lot of players offering more features for less cost."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I don't think the product's pricing is a good value. I feel it's very overpriced. I feel a lot of the features for a next gen firewall are there. But I feel it's overpriced, because of the stability issues. As far as support goes, I really can't speak to direct Check Point support, but the third-party was pretty terrible... As far as the licensing goes, it's pretty complex. If anybody was to purchase the Check Point product, definitely make sure they have an account rep come on site, and explain it line by line, what each thing is. It's not straightforward. It's very convoluted. There's no way you could just figure it out by looking at it."
  • "Check Point solutions are very expensive here. They're good, but they're expensive... Check Point is only useful for customers that have a big IT budget."
  • "The price is high in comparison to other solutions."
  • "We pay $5,000-$6,000 a year."
  • "Maybe the pricing is a bit high but you get the durability and the duration."
  • "Licensing issues may be confusing at times."
  • "It is quite an expensive product, although security is a top priority."
  • "This product is not cheap and there are additional costs that depend on what model or package that you buy."
  • More Check Point NGFW Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Products by the leader in the field are justifiably a bit more expensive compared to other vendors."
  • "The price of this solution is too high."
  • "This solution is expensive compared to other, similar products."
  • "This is an expensive solution, although you will get value for the price."
  • "Pricing is a sensitive issue because the cost is high in this market."
  • "Palo Alto firewalls are very expensive."
  • "It would be nice if they lowered their prices for small businesses."
  • "The price of the solution is expensive."
  • More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
    Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiGate enhances network security, prevents unauthorized access, and offers robust firewall protection. Valued features include advanced threat protection, reliable performance, and a user-friendly interface. It improves efficiency, streamlines processes, and boosts collaboration, providing valuable insights for informed decision-making and growth.

    Check Point NGFW is a next generation firewall that enables safe usage of internet applications by blocking malicious applications and unblocking safe applications. Check Point NGFW, which uses deep packet inspection to identify and control applications, has features such as application and user control and integrated intrusion prevention (IPS), as well as more advanced malware prevention capabilities like sandboxing.

    Check Point NGFW includes 23 firewall models optimized for running all threat prevention technologies simultaneously, including full SSL traffic inspection, without compromising on security or performance.

    Benefits of Check Point's Next Generation Firewall

    • Robust security: Check Point NGFW delivers the best possible threat prevention with SandBlast Zero Day protection. The SandBlast protection agent constantly inspects passing network traffic for exploits and vulnerabilities. Suspicious files are then emulated in a virtual sandbox in order to detect and report malicious behavior.

    • Security at hyperscale: On-demand hyperscale threat prevention performance provides cloud level expansion and resiliency on premises.

    • Unified management: Check Point's SmartConsole makes it easy to manage and configure network security environments and policies. With the SmartConsole, users can manage all the firewall gateways and access logs and install databases from one location. Unified management control across the network increases the efficiency of security operations and reduces IT costs.
    • Continuous logging: Check Point NGFW’s Threat Management feature detects vulnerabilities and logs them. Using the logged data, users can easily create and implement efficient security policies.

    • Remote access: The remote access VPN provides a seamless connection for remote users.

    Check Point NGFW is suitable for organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to larger enterprises.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Check Point NGFW stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its intrusion prevention feature as well as its centralized management, which makes it very easy to deploy firewall policies to many firewalls with one click.

    Shivani J., a network security administrator, writes, "Check Point has a lot of features. The ones I love are the antivirus, intrusion prevention, and data loss prevention."

    G., a network administrator at Secretaría de Finanzas de Aguascalientes, writes, “Within the organization, the inspection of packages has given us great help in detecting traffic that may be a threat to the institution. The configuration of policies has allowed us to maintain control of access and users for each institution that is incorporated into our headquarters.”

    Arun J., a senior network engineer, notes, “The nicest feature is the centralized management of multiple firewalls. With the centralized management, we can easily use and operate multiple firewalls as well as create a diagram of them.”

    Designed to handle growing throughput needs due to increasing amounts of application-, user-, and device-generated data, the K2-Series offers amazing performance and threat prevention capabilities to stop advanced cyberattacks and secure mobile network infrastructure, subscribers, and services.

    Sample Customers
    1. Amazon Web Services 2. Microsoft 3. IBM 4. Cisco 5. Dell 6. HP 7. Oracle 8. Verizon 9. AT&T 10. T-Mobile 11. Sprint 12. Vodafone 13. Orange 14. BT Group 15. Telstra 16. Deutsche Telekom 17. Comcast 18. Time Warner Cable 19. CenturyLink 20. NTT Communications 21. Tata Communications 22. SoftBank 23. China Mobile 24. Singtel 25. Telus 26. Rogers Communications 27. Bell Canada 28. Telkom Indonesia 29. Telkom South Africa 30. Telmex 31. Telia Company 32. Telkom Kenya
    Control Southern, Optimal Media
    State of North Dakota, SEGA, Alameda County Office of Education, Temple University, VERGE, CAME
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization20%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization49%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Financial Services Firm5%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm36%
    Comms Service Provider21%
    Computer Software Company21%
    Transportation Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company26%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Real Estate/Law Firm7%
    Healthcare Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise58%
    Large Enterprise28%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise41%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise51%
    Buyer's Guide
    Check Point NGFW vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point NGFW vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    767,496 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Check Point NGFW is ranked 5th in Firewalls with 275 reviews while Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is ranked 27th in Firewalls with 29 reviews. Check Point NGFW is rated 8.8, while Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point NGFW writes "Good antivirus protection and URL filtering with very good user identification capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series writes "Easy to implement and manage, and the documentation is good". Check Point NGFW is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and Azure Firewall, whereas Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. See our Check Point NGFW vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series report.

    See our list of best Firewalls vendors.

    We monitor all Firewalls 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.