We performed a comparison between FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Fortinet FortiGate-VM 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."It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."
"The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring."
"The technical support is great."
"It is a safe product."
"It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable solution."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"The solution's application control is very powerful."
"User identification and application identification are valuable features."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) 's most valuable features are reporting and filtering."
"I found the upgrades valuable."
"There are multiple features I have found to be valuable, such as encryption and integrated security features."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall can be described as the most complete solution."
"The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary."
"When I survey FortiGate products, I see that they have a good performance, especially in terms of next generation firewalls."
"GitDM, like FortiGate VM, provides similar features to FortiGate appliances or cloud solutions. However, FortiGate VM is more suitable for heavy traffic and inspection compared to GitDM. Unfortunately, FortiGate VM lacks a dedicated SPU for inspection, and all features rely on CPU and RAM."
"It gives all the features of a full-fledged firewall with great performance."
"The support is good. We don't have any issues with the technical support."
"All the security features that are built into the product are valuable."
"The most valuable features are the SD-WAN and the web filtering applications control."
"The stability of the solution is good. We haven't faced any issues at all while using the product."
"The most valuable feature is that its IPsec works perfectly."
"The functionality provided is very good."
"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."
"The debugging and troubleshooting has room for improvement."
"FortiGate should have a better way of detecting and managing the system memory because otherwise if the memory is too low, a system restart is required."
"We would like to see better pricing."
"Fortinet FortiGate can be integrated with different platforms. They have integrations in place, but I can't say they're 100%."
"The setup is pretty complex and not easy to implement."
"The renewal price and the availability could be improved."
"FortiLink is the interface on the firewall that allows you to extend switch management across all of your switches in the network. The problem with it is that you can't use multiple interfaces unless you set them up in a lag. Only then you can run them. So, it forces you to use a core type of switch to propagate that management out to the rest of the switches, and then it is running the case at 200. It leaves you with 18 ports on the firewall because it is also a layer-three router that could also be used as a switch, but as soon as you do that, you can't really use them. They could do a little bit more clean up in the way the stacking interface works. Some use cases and the documentation on the FortiLink checking interface are a little outdated. I can find stuff on version 5 or more, but it is hard to find information on some of the newer firmware. The biggest thing I would like to see is some improvement in the switch management feature. I would like to be able to relegate some of the ports, which are on the firewall itself, to act as a switch to take advantage of those ports. Some of these firewalls have clarity ports on them. If I can use those, it would mean that I need to buy two less switches, which saves time. I get why they don't, but I would still like to see it because it would save a little bit of space in the server rack."
"When considering the policy of the vendors, they do not offer much of a discount policy, making the licensing model an area that needs improvement."
"The product has to be upgraded every few weeks."
"One of the weaknesses of the solution is something we noticed, especially after comparing the tool with SD-WAN features, since, unfortunately, in a massive scale size environment, the solution is not good. I"
"The solution must improve the support provided for customers around the globe, considering the time differences in different places."
"The web process often has a memory leak."
"There are some issues with security features and aspects like logs not being up to the mark."
"Technical support is not helpful."
"The solution needs to improve its support."
"Fortinet could improve the availability and delivery of its products. It takes four to six weeks for every purchase to arrive."
"Fortinet devices are acknowledged as highly potent and come with a notable cost. These devices offer extensive visibility, an array of configurations, and a range of security features. However, there's room for enhancement in their routing and switching security aspects, akin to Cisco's offerings. A noteworthy aspect here is Meraki, which offers cloud controllers. If FortiGate were to introduce a similar cloud management solution, it could strongly compete with both Meraki and Cisco products. Cisco operates in two sectors: enterprise and SMB. Particularly in the SMB market, they hold sway due to their convenient cloud management features. For instance, Meraki's cameras and wireless access points can be easily controlled through their cloud management portal. If FortiGate were to provide cloud-based management solutions for SMB customers, it could cater to a significant portion of the market, considering that a substantial number of customers fall within the SMB and mid-level enterprise categories."
"The scalability feature of the solution has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The product is satisfactory. I haven't identified any features to improve, and based on the number of deployments I've handled with FortiGate-VM, there haven't been any complaints from the customer's side."
"The log settings and filters could use some improvement."
"We have experience stability issues, when the product sizing is wrong or on configuration errors."
"We encountered scalability issues in IPSec Module. The tunnels freeze sometimes."
"The product needs to focus on cloud-nativeness and pricing."
More FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) Pricing and Cost Advice →
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is ranked 14th in Firewalls with 37 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is rated 8.4, while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) writes "Easy to set up but needs better pricing and more helpful support". On the other hand, 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". FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is most compared with OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, Tailscale, Twingate and Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy, whereas Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM report.
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