We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Fortinet FortiOS 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 solution is scalable."
"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."
"This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI."
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"This solution has helped our organization by having strong functions and a reliable firewall."
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"It's super reliable. I don't think I've ever had a reliability issue with it."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"My confidence continues to build upon using Cisco firewalls."
"Web filtering is a big improvement for us. The previous version we used, the AC520, did not have that feature included. It was not very easy for us, especially because the environment had to be isolated and we needed to get updates from outside, such as Windows patches. That feature has really helped us when we are going outside to pull those patches."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"I like the way Firepower presents the data. It gives you two classifications for the evidence, something based on the priority of the evidence and another classification based on the impact of the evidence in your environment. This makes it very easy to spot the evidence that is most impactful to my environment. Instead of having to go through all the evidence based on that priority, I can focus on the evidence that has the most impact on my environment."
"The configuration capabilities and the integration with other tools are the most valuable features. I really like this product. Cisco is one of my favorite brands, and I always think Cisco solutions are very reliable, easy to configure, and very secure."
"Valuable features include AnyConnect, double translations, and an independent IPS module."
"It's very stable and mature."
"It's quite a capable box for UTM."
"It is more robust than SonicWall, particularly on the VPN from site to site."
"All of the features in this solution are effective and efficient."
"The most important features of Fortinet FortiOS are the ability to block and make white and black lists. Additionally, the filtering of user access to websites is useful."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the SD-WAN, SSL inspection, and IDS/IPS functions."
"It has a lot of scalability abilities which makes it easy to scale."
"I find filtering traffic, filtering web traffic, session traffic, and managing the network as valuable features."
"FortiGate as a product is very easy to configure."
"FortiOS's best features are its function as an internet gateway and how easy it is to manage."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"Technical support for this solution can be improved."
"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"The reporting in Fortinet FortiGate could improve. Customers are having to purchase additional reporting components. When I have used the Sophos solution it is a complete solution, in Fortinet FortiGate you have to use additional tools to have the features needed."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."
"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."
"The ASA needs to incorporate the different modules you have to integrate to achieve UTM functions, especially for small businesses."
"The operation of the ASA is good but the problem is that whenever you require an upgrade, there are multiple pieces of software that you have to upgrade. Extensive planning is required, because if you upgrade one piece of the software it has to be compatible with the others as well. You always need to check the compatibility metrics."
"The stability could be better because we have a lot of issues with the stability of Cisco Firepower."
"I would like it to have faster deployment times. A typical deployment could take two to three minutes. Sometimes, it depends on the situation. It is better than it was in the past, but it could always use improvement."
"It needs more tunneling capabilities."
"Cisco wasn't first-to-market with NGFWs... they should look at what other vendors are doing and try not only to be on the same wavelength but a little bit better."
"One thing that we really would have loved to have was policy-based routing. We had a lot of connections, and sometimes, we would have liked to change the routing depending on the policies, but it was lacking this capability. We also wanted application filtering and DNS filtering."
"The solution is overcomplicated in some senses. Simplifying it would be an improvement."
"Could be improved by supporting an allocation of quota base management regarding user data."
"The GUI could be improved to make it more usable, easier to administer, and easier to configure."
"FortiOS's bandwidth and interface could be improved."
"Real-time threat monitoring is not there."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve the monitoring function, it could be more accurate, easy to use, and understandable."
"Their technical support needs improvement."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve by limiting the need for the CLI and GUI combination. The more functions they can have on the GUI and less on CLI would be helpful."
"The solution needs to adjust its pricing models. With the way they are structured, everything is very disparate and sold separately, and, depending on the solution, it can get quite pricey."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiWeb, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Fortinet FortiOS report.
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