We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and WatchGuard Firebox 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 most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."
"Mainly the FortiGate reporting system is very good. It guides us through all the expectations of security. Fortinet provides us all that we need for security. Also, Fortinet FortiGate is a next-generation firewall. It is much more advanced than others."
"It is easy to use and performs very well."
"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."
"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"Advanced routing (RIP, OSPF, BGP, PBR). It gives you a seamless and simple integration into a large network."
"It is very flexible to use."
"The solution is stable."
"There is a positive impact on security, particularly the intrusion feature, which helps keep the solution concealed and secure."
"The VPN was valuable for us because more people are working from home. It has a lot of reporting and easy-to-use management tools."
"We use the product for firewalls."
"Cisco products are very secure and integrate easily with other devices."
"In Pakistan, we only use Cisco because they have good local support infrastructure. Huawei and Fortinet don't offer direct support in Pakistan."
"Cisco IOS Security is a mature product with extensive capabilities, serving as the base for the defense layer. It offers good network visibility, which helps in rapid response through the Rapid Threat Containment feature. Its deployment and configuration are straightforward."
"The product's stability is good."
"As a whole, it has a very low requirement for ongoing interaction. It's very self-sufficient. If properly patched, it has very high reliability. The total cost of ownership once deployed is very low."
"WatchGuard Firebox is the most powerful firewall for Wi-Fi security."
"I like the High Availability features of the newest ones I'm using because they allow a firewall to fail and still be up and running."
"Intrusion Prevention is my primary focus so that's what I find most useful. The why is straightforward: It's to prevent intrusion."
"The set up was quite straightforward and we handled it in-house. It took a few hours to deploy the product."
"The main reason we went with it was the security protocols. They were more robust on this device."
"Efficient to setup, run, and maintain. Saving man hours and cost in the process."
"It also provides us with layered security. It has onboard virus scanning features that allow it to scan before something gets to the host. It will also stop a person from going to a site that is known to be bad."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"Difficult to add or define, and not that easy to configure and manage."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"One of the problems I was having was with user mapping, and it is an issue for which I have escalated tickets with Fortinet support."
"Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer."
"Some of the software stability could improve."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"I think they should bring back remote VPN for users."
"There are the usual bugs that are inherent to some software upgrades. Sometimes this provides some unexpected issues, however, it happens with all brands all the time."
"It would be ideal if the solution had more capacity."
"In the next release of this solution, we would like to see support for the 100BT and 7000 models."
"The configuration should be easier in the solution."
"The product's technical support services need improvement."
"There's a technology called SD-WAN that we would like to see. We are unable to handle multiple connections or to automatically load balance. I would like to have a feature that enables us to automatically prepare for load balancing."
"It takes too much time to deploy a policy to FMC. It takes around eight minutes. You can't afford any downtime when you're changing policies."
"In WatchGuard Firebox, the antivirus and malware detection systems are areas with shortcomings that require improvement since they are the most important elements of a cybersecurity tool."
"WatchGuard Firebox could improve the speed of updates, such as new features or improvements. However, they are frequently improving the solution in many areas, such as geo-locations, definitions, and web blocking."
"The performance of the solution's processor needs to be faster."
"I would like to see more tutorials on setting up the Firebox."
"We bought Firebox four or five years ago, and with the first version I had to reboot it every two or three months for no apparent reason. We upgraded last year to the M370 and it's been running, but it is rebooting from time to time. I don't know why."
"Sometimes, the writing rules are a little confusing in how am I doing them."
"The area where I think this product can be improved is the user interface and the reporting. It can be quite difficult to find the correct logs and to actually find out what is going on. The digging can be time-consuming."
"Its documentation could be improved. Sometimes, you need to search a bit longer to find what you are looking for."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense and OPNsense, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Meraki MX. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
See our list of best Firewalls vendors and 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.
