We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and SonicWall NSa 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 features that we have found most valuable are the SSL VPN and the User Portal."
"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."
"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are the ease of use, IPS system, application filter, web filtering, and email security. Additionally, there is a migration tool that other vendors do not provide. We only need to upload the configuration file to the tool, and it converts everything, except the passwords, and gives us the new configuration, which we can directly upload on the firewall. This migration process takes a maximum of 15 minutes."
"Overall, it's an excellent solution."
"Initial setup is very straightforward with a wizard, if needed."
"I really like that it's internationally deployable."
"The solution is very secure, and its technical support is on point."
"The solution integrates well with other Fortinet products."
"The most valuable features are locking applications from in and out of my test network and testing malware on different devices. I use malware detection, antivirus, and basic firewall policies to check for different types of security breaches. The UI is really nice and easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is that its IPsec works perfectly."
"It's very simple to use and the support is great."
"For me, the most valuable feature of SonicWall NSa is the UTM."
"We use SonicWall NSa for authenticating MAC (media access control) ID from the PC."
"The most valuable features to us are the security services which is a critical factor in our deployment. Today we need to have all the security services enabled because firewalls are not enough."
"I like that SonicWall NSa is a stable product. It's also a scalable product."
"This product has kept us safe and we haven't had any breaches."
"The stability is better than other products."
"The solution can scale."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more capabilities for troubleshooting VPN connections. For example, I do get some feedback about the current status, but I could use some history and logging of important events. The information is logged in our Syslog server, but I could use that information from the device. If they could provide a GUI to have some more insight on what's going with my VPN would be useful."
"There is room for improvement related to the logging and reporting aspect."
"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."
"Sometimes you do need to know some CLI commands, so it's a bit harder for technicians or new people that don't know it."
"Its customer service could be better."
"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 haven't had a single issue since using Fortinet."
"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."
"The user interface could be improved."
"The GUI could be improved."
"The tech support calls were not the best and could be improved. There have been times when we felt as if we knew more about the device than the support person on the phone."
"The tool does not have a good name in the market, consisting of enterprise-class businesses, making it an area where the product lacks and needs to improve."
"The biggest area for improvement is storage configuration. It could be smoother."
"They should keep us up to date about the latest version. That's the biggest thing. Currently, we have to go looking for the latest version. We should get notified about what's going on with the versions. I would like to see easier dual-factor authentication."
"Sizing can be challenging for customers interested in using Fortinet FortiGate-VM."
"It is a very good product, and it is good at standing by itself. It can maybe have a little bit of integration with other products, but it is not that important for most use cases."
"The filter settings are confusing and overly complicated. The user interface can be improved."
"There are a few areas that need improvement including the VPN, user management, and reporting."
"When it comes to security I think all of the features are currently open to improvement."
"It would be useful to have an application firewall that prevents the outside world from seeing your private IPs. You don't need to publicize your private IPs to the outside world, and you can create a barrier, like a proxy server."
"It only has a single power interface, which has limitations in terms of high availability."
"One area for improvement in SonicWall NSa is the GUI. It isn't easy to understand. The support for SonicWall NSa is mediocre, which is another area for improvement."
"SonicWall does not support DynDNS, yet this is an important feature for smaller companies that do not have a static IP address."
"The only thing that we would want would be single-pane management, which it has, but the GMS is not very good. It's purely the management of multiple devices for multiple customers, that's the only thing that it's lacking."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 20th in Firewalls with 77 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Netgate pfSense, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and Netgate pfSense. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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