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."We were looking for the VPN feature and controlling the inflow and outflow of all the traffic within the site and across the sites. We are also using it for the VPN and VLANs."
"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"It's super reliable. I don't think I've ever had a reliability issue with it."
"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."
"We use the FortiGate Sandbox to detect zero-day vulnerabilities, such as anomalies or malware, that are unknown and have not yet been discovered."
"UTM/NGFW features and FortiCloud for logs and backups are awesome."
"The multi-tenancy feature is most valuable. It integrates very well with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer."
"REST API offering with rich capabilities which makes the product very robust."
"The integration and configuration were pretty straightforward."
"The firewall power that comes with Cisco ASAv is the most valuable asset. They are are very easy to manage."
"URL filtering is valuable."
"The AnyConnect remote access VPN gives us an easy way to deploy remote working for our users."
"The command line is the same as it is on the Cisco iOS router."
"They provide DDoS protection and multi-factor authentication. That is a good option as it enables work-from-home functionality."
"Cisco has the best documentation. You can easily find multiple documents by searching the web. Even a child can go online and find the required information."
"We found the initial setup to be straightforward."
"The solution is very user friendly."
"The solution is extremely scalable."
"This is an easy means of setting up high-availabilty firewall protection."
"The user experience is great. The graphical user interface is also good."
"I find filtering traffic, filtering web traffic, session traffic, and managing the network as valuable features."
"The information security features are the most valuable."
"The main features I find useful are intrusion prevention and web filtering. Additionally, the solution is easy to manage."
"In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly."
"There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"Web security solutions can be improved."
"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."
"It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco."
"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."
"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the logging and reporting. Additionally, the next-generation application's policies should be improved. When they were released they had bugs."
"One area that could be improved is its logging functionality. Your logs are usually displayed on the screen, but if you want to go back one or two days, then you need another solution in place because those logs are overwritten within minutes."
"We have seen some bugs come up with Cisco Secure Firewall in terms of high availability. The solution should be improved to avoid these bugs."
"Cisco ASA should be easier to use. It is a bit tough to navigate and see what is going on."
"The user interface is too complex for people who are not trained to or certified to engage with the product. The interface should be easier to use."
"Some individuals find the setup and configuration challenging."
"If you need to reschedule a call with the support team when you face a new issue with the product, then it may get a bit of a problem to get a hold of someone from the support team of Cisco."
"They really need support for deployment."
"The scalability is a bit limiting, to be honest. In terms of when you look to changing landscape in terms of threats, I think to me, my personal it's a bit limiting."
"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."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve the monitoring function, it could be more accurate, easy to use, and understandable."
"In terms of what needs improvement, the pricing could be lower. The price is very steep."
"We had assistance from one person from our local vendor for the implementation."
"The solution's firmware updates have significant bugs and issues."
"There is no flexibility."
"It would be better if AWS instances were available. If I want to upgrade from T2.small to T2.medium, it should be available rather than having a big instance and paying a lot of money for that. The issue is that we had deployed in AWS Cloud, and we were using a very small instance. Recently we wanted to move in-house and deploy it on the big instance because it was struggling with the RAM. If we use T2.small, we cannot upgrade it to the T2.medium. It has predefined instances in the marketplace with a lot of cost differences. If I can increase the RAM, I have to choose the T3.large instance. If I'm paying $270 for the small instance, I have to pay more than double the cost for T3.large. It is about $850, and this is not good. So, it would be better if it was cheaper. I think both AWS and Fortinet should think about that. They should provide it on lower instances as well. If I want to upgrade it from T2.small to T2.medium, it should be available, but it's a problem."
"FortiOS's interface and monitoring could be improved."
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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