We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VMand SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is commended for its robust protection features, including geofencing, firewalling, IPS, and antivirus. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface. SonicWall TZ is recognized for its comprehensive threat management, VPN capabilities, web security, ease of use, reliability, and content filtering.
Fortinet requires enhancements in several aspects such as key activation, log management, cloud management, MFA offerings, web filtering options, application inspection, GUI features, IPsec failover, monitoring tools, setup process, layer-seven functionality, bandwidth issues, VPN connectivity, pricing, performance, and security. SonicWall needs improvements in throughput, secondary DNS hosting, cloud management, user interface, reporting analytics, affordability, automation, application signatures, syncing, proxy feature, DPI-SSL clients, DNS hosting, technical support, VPN connections, and pricing.
Service and Support: Some customers appreciate the prompt and knowledgeable support team at Fortinet. However, others have faced challenges with slow response times and difficulties in accessing information quickly. SonicWall TZ has received mixed reviews, with some customers facing delays and language barriers when dealing with support from India. On a positive note, there have been instances where local partners have provided exceptional support for SonicWall TZ.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is generally uncomplicated and can take a varying amount of time. It is user-friendly and not excessively complicated. The initial setup for SonicWall TZ is described as quick, intuitive, and can be finished within a short to moderate timeframe. It is considered straightforward and not troublesome.
Pricing: Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers a competitive setup cost. It includes licensing fees without any extra expenses. SonicWall TZ has varying reviews on pricing and licensing, with some users finding it cost-effective while others find it pricey. Additional licenses are necessary, and users have expressed the desire for more features in the basic subscription.
ROI: Fortinet FortiGate-VM provides enhanced security and stability, resulting in a favorable return on investment. It is crucial to select the appropriate size initially to prevent any financial drawbacks. SonicWall TZ has achieved positive ROI and is suggested for improved performance. Both products are essential for ensuring network security.
Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is highly recommended in comparison to SonicWall TZ. Users value its robust security capabilities, user-friendly interface, and seamless deployment. It offers comprehensive filtering options and scalability.
"Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"The virtual firewall feature is the most valuable. We have around 1,500 firewalls. We did not buy individual hardware, and the virtual firewalls made sense because we don't have to keep on buying the hardware. FortiGate is easier to use as compared to Checkpoint devices. It is user friendly and has a good UI. You don't need much expertise to work on this firewall. You don't need to worry much about DCLA, commands, and things like that."
"The solution is scalable."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the analytics."
"There are lots of features and most of them are deployed for internet security. Users are protected if they accidentally go to some malicious sites."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"Good for the servers and can stop network attacks, including spam."
"The product is quite user-friendly so we didn't have a lot of issues that needed to be addressed."
"Fortinet FortiGate-VM is purpose-built as a next-generation firewall, excelling in its performance of this specific function."
"The support is good. We don't have any issues with the technical support."
"Overall, it's an excellent solution."
"I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten."
"The pricing of the solution is good."
"The policies are very valuable. They allow me to secure and manage future traffic effectively."
"The scalability of SonicWall TZ is good and easy to add users."
"User-friendly firewall solution which scales well, is stable, and has high availability."
"We like the central interface and we like the security features. Additionally, we use SonicWall with VPN connectivity and we have had no problems with SonicWall all these years."
"The most common feature in the firewall, apart from that traditional firewall, would be the security services, like application control, URL filtering, Gateway Anti-Virus, and IPS protection. These are the essential features in the firewalls which I think, has to be enabled and properly used at every network infrastructure."
"No negative impression of the scalability."
"SonicWall TZ is stable."
"The most valuable feature is the user-friendly navigation."
"It's a very cost-effective solution."
"I could not configure sFlow from the FortiGate graphical user interface. I realized that the sFlow configuration is available only from the CLI, and discovered that sFlow is not supported on virtual interfaces, such as VDOM links, IPsec, or GRE."
"The captive portal could be improved."
"Price, of course, can always be more competitive or better."
"Its customer service could be better."
"Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer."
"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"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."
"Sizing can be challenging for customers interested in using Fortinet FortiGate-VM."
"We haven't attempted to scale the solution just yet. If we want to scale this solution we may have to look at other models. With certain requirements, we probably wouldn't be able to scale it so well as it is right now."
"Not a ten because I think that Cisco is better."
"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."
"Fortinet could improve the availability and delivery of its products. It takes four to six weeks for every purchase to arrive."
"The product has issues with integration. I would like to see better integration in future releases of the product."
"Fortinet FortiGate-VM should improve its asset identification, wherein the device can identify assets on the network, like computers."
"Right now, we have two data centers that are a thousand kilometers apart. It would be nice to be able to string them together."
"The market seems to be going to a cloud-supported, new generation of firewall products. I think that's probably going to be important to us, the next time around."
"Getting support can be slow."
"The monitoring is a little bit confusing."
"I'd like to have cloud management at no additional cost. Unfortunately, leveraging SonicWall's cloud management capabilities is cost-prohibitive, so we don't use it. They should have a reasonable subscription or offer it to us at no cost as an MSP."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"Sometimes there is a glitch between the network connection. Last time, something happened on our IP phone, the SonicWall team did some updates to fix the issue. However, glitches happen very rarely. I did not experience any other types of problems."
"The solution should provide some additional ports."
"I would like to see a SonicWall integration with the DLP tool, this would be interesting. Data Loss Prevention integration."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. 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 TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Netgate pfSense, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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