We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate vs SonicWall NSa based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiGate has the winning edge in this comparison. Customers are more satisfied with Fortinet FortiGate’s scalability, robust features, and ROI.
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"Consolidated our network environment at all locations, but mainly at our datacenter."
"The payment function for applications is good."
"We use the FortiGate Sandbox to detect zero-day vulnerabilities, such as anomalies or malware, that are unknown and have not yet been discovered."
"One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
"The stability of the solution is excellent, as it is with other Fortinet products."
"We like the features, but the main thing is from a commercial and cost perspective it is very good."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall NSa is the control aspect of the solution."
"With the deployment of the SonicWall NSA solution, we never suffered a problem due to invasion or contamination of any kind."
"User friendly and intuitive."
"SonicWall NSA is easy to deploy, easy to maintain, and easy to configure."
"I really like the performance; there are no delays and no latency, which is a unique quality in firewalls nowadays."
"Content Filtering and sandboxing are valuable features."
"The most valuable features are flexibility, ease of setup, and it's a good product cost-wise."
"Bandwidth usage in reporting could be improved for Fortinet FortiGate."
"The performance could be a bit better. Right now, I find it to be lacking. Having good performance is very important for our work."
"Difficult to add or define, and not that easy to configure and manage."
"When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"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."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"I feel that the SSL VPN client software needs a lot of improvement."
"Do not even consider NetExtender - probably one of the most horrific, nightmare grade Java-based VPN clients. We have but all given up trying to make it work reliably."
"The content filter needs to be improved."
"SonicWall NSa's reporting could be improved."
"The reporting and monitoring are a bit complex and should be easier in SonicWall NSa because other firewalls I have experienced have been more simple, such as Palo Alto. We are able to receive a clear view of our network. As a general user with little experience, it would be difficult for them to handle."
"We also need to increase the throughput because the other devices are slower. The throughput will become slow. Since we're using VoIP, it tends to affect the voice quality. Even if you're using a quality service, it tends to decrease."
"The cloud services may be in need of some improvement."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 20th in Firewalls with 77 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and Palo Alto Networks WildFire, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and Netgate pfSense. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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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.
