Fortinet FortiGate Previous Solutions
Saurabh-Pal
Sr. Security Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
I also deploy Check Point and Palo Alto hardware for my clients. Check Point has been in the Indian market longer. Palo Alto came into the picture about three or four years ago.
In my opinion, Palo Alto is the better solution. It has WildFire Analysis, and you can configure virtual routers within the system, but Fortinet is less expensive. We deploy Check Point for our larger customers. It's more appropriate for multinational companies with 10,000 employees or more.
William Nogueira
IT Security Specialist at a agriculture with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have worked with Cisco, Check Point, and Palo Alto. I worked with Cisco for ten years and I find Fortinet FortiGate to be a better solution.
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Jose Gisbert
Manager Network (IT/OT) at a consumer goods company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We used different solutions such as Cisco, Watchguard and Sophos in different countries, and one of the reasons we switched to FortiGate was to standardize what we used in all the countries.
The FortiManager is one of the biggest advantages they have. From a single management point, we can manage all the devices connected to the support manager. This is something I haven't seen before. So, in that sense, I would say that the most important difference between FortiGate and other vendors is the FortiManager.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
WA
Will Alfaro
IT Consultant at Escuela de Comunicación Mónica Herrera
I've worked with SonicWall and Cisco. Fortinet offers a good license model. It's also very clean in terms of configuration. It offers high performance. It is a bit more expensive compared to SonicWall, however, if you take everything into consideration, the pricing is quite reasonable.
View full review »DP
Dhsrms Fff
Team Leader Network & Security at Rogers Capital
I have previously used SonicWall, Sophos, Juniper, and Cisco Meraki.
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Adeel Razzaq
Network Ar at IBEX Holdings Ltd
This was the first option, but we'll try Cisco as well for our Wi-Fi setup for the next one to two years.
It was a management call to go for this. They know what is best for their business.
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Esubalew-Berihun
Network Engineer at Ahad
We also use other Fortinet products, including the NFGW.
We also work with Cisco devices and solutions.
We have worked with Palo Alto in the past. It has a pretty good performance.
In the end, we moved to Fortinet as the cost was very good.
View full review »
Ismael Abdelkader
Strategic Development Manager at Arrow Electronics
I work with several products from Fortinet including FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiSIEM. The selection of which products to use depends on the company.
We work with what we refer to as the Fortinet fabric.
We also have experience with products from Check Point and Palo Alto.
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Viraj Fernandopulle
General Manager Group IT at DART GLOBAL LOGISTICS PTE. LTD.
We previously used an open-source firewall, but we were looking for a solution that was more proactive, easier to manage, and continuously improved. FortiGate was a major competitor at the time and has since become one of the market leaders.
View full review »JJ
James-Jiang
IT Security Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 51-200 employees
We previously used Palo Alto for five years and switched to Fortinet FortiGate. Palo Alto is expensive.
View full review »JA
reviewer1116360
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
We previously used CheckPoint. Unfortunately, they didn't have a very good service, especially in technical support, and therefore we decided to switch.
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Syed Ali Waqas
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
While we previously used the open-source PSS firewall, it lacked the layered security architecture offered by Fortinet FortiGate.
We migrated to Fortinet FortiGate for its superior control, in-depth scanning, and ability to minimize cybersecurity risks, features not offered by other firewall solutions.
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Ubeyd Kara
Founder at Prosight
I have also used Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls. Fortinet firewalls are cheaper and easier to manage. Palo Alto is more complex and harder to use, but it's more stable than FortiGate. Palo Alto doesn't didn't have as many models for small and medium-sized enterprises.
FirasHamdan
Information Technology Manager at Petra
I've also used Sophos and CyberArk. Sophos has a few more services, such as WAF services.
View full review »DO
Denis Orellana
Network Solutions Architect at Yazata Solutions
We used Juniper firewalls in the past. The two solutions are similar in terms of features, but Fortinet blew it out of the water with regards to pricing and user-friendliness.
The main difference is CLI versus GUI. You have to know what you're doing on a Juniper because it's all command-line based, but Fortinet is 99 percent GUI-based. You log in to Fortinet and check off what you want to allow or block.
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Abdallah Rukab
Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I had previously used a different solution but switched to Fortinet FortiGate due to its better price and ease of use.
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Reviewer:734513
Network Security & DataCenter Architect at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
We previously used Juniper and Cisco firewalls before switching to Fortinet FortiGate. We were drawn to Fortinet because of its superior control and visibility, as well as its high availability, throughput, and durability. Fortinet's FortiGate firewalls are ASIC-based, which makes them more reliable and efficient than other solutions. As a result, we were able to handle more traffic with Fortinet than with any other vendor.
JM
Jim Morrill
Network admin at Penobscot Valley Hospital
When I first got here in this job in 2007, they had Cisco ASA Firewall, but it was too cryptic. You had to enter all these CLI commands for a configuration. It also didn't do everything that Fortinet could do. It was very limited, and it wasn't easy to use. I know what I want to do, and I don't have to learn a special language in order to do it. I just want to be able to use some basic programming code that they have put into the firewall and use the GUI interface with it to actually visualize what I am looking at. Some of the Cisco products are not visual enough. That was one of the reasons I stayed away from it. Cisco is also very high-priced. They price themselves out of business a lot of times for equipment, but Fortinet is just great.
I've also used SonicWall before. It was okay, but it is better for bigger places. I was looking for a midrange-size firewall for a couple of hundred users, and I felt Fortinet was the right fit.
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Javed Hashmi
Chief Technology Officer at Future Point Technologies
We used Cisco and Juniper. We switched to FortiGate because it offers a lot of features at a very good price point. Unlike some of the other vendors, you don't have many license restrictions. For large and medium enterprises, they provide a wireless controller, authenticator, and mail features. There are so many features integrated within FortiOS, whereas, with many vendors, you have to work with different products. It's very helpful for small organizations with tighter budgets. There's also the ease of configuration that helps to bring things online as quickly as possible as compared to some of the other solutions that have a learning curve and that take some time.
View full review »PP
Prasanth P.
Global Chief Information Officer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I've used Cisco firewalls previously. FortiGate is a little better in terms of web protection, but it's more expensive.
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Leif Thomas
Director, Information Systems at Ohio Art Co
In the past, we have used Cisco and WatchGuard Firewalls.
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Costa Mitsios
Deputy Technical Director at Space Hellas S.A.
We have used many other solutions, such as Check Point and Cisco Firepower. I have found Fortinet FortiGate is much easier to configure. However, some others solutions have more functionality, such as Check Point and Cisco Firepower.
View full review »JB
reviewer1336140
Senior Network Engineer at a government with 201-500 employees
We used to use Cisco. We switched to FortiGate due to its throughput, ease of use, and cost.
View full review »PK
Philimon Kaitano
Network Manager at a tech company with 1-10 employees
I have also used Cisco, whose systems are robust and rarely experience downtime. However, with Fortinet, their licensing is highly competitive in terms of pricing. Cisco is primarily geared towards enterprise-level companies, but the learning curve for Cisco is higher compared to Fortinet.
Fortinet's price is very competitive compared to when you look at other brands of equal functionality. The hardware and licensing are compared to the others. It's also simple to use.
View full review »
Heson Ko
Software Development Specialist at Unicomp Information Co. Ltd.
We used CheckPoint previously. We switched because it was high-priced.
View full review »ES
Eric-Smith
Solutions Engineer/Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I have deployed SonicWall, WatchGuard, Cisco ASA, Rockies, and Palo Alto. The biggest reason I went with Fortinet is that it felt like it has got Palo Alto type of functionality at a much more reasonable price point.
I spent seven years working at the state level education, and budgets were tough. We had SonicWall subscription services. I could replace them with the brand new FortiGate with a three-year subscription for the same cost. That really changed things. The single pane of management that they have was just the frosting on the cake.
View full review »AB
Andrew S. Baker (ASB)
Cybersecurity & IT Operations Professional (VirtualCxO) at BrainWave Consulting Company, LLC
I previously favored NetScreen/Juniper SSG solutions, but Juniper stopped supporting the SSG line, and FortiGate provides more value and performance for the dollar.
I've also tested the Sophos solutions, but found them not compelling enough to switch from the FortiGate devices.
Irshad Ali
Presales Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
From the security perspective, I have not used any other solution, but I did have a glance at Cisco's portfolio. Cisco Meraki is one of the solutions that you can compare it with. Others were more specific to the routing and switching domain. I know the concepts and theory of Cisco SD-WAN, but I have not used it in a real environment for any customer.
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Sitti Ridzma Salahuddin
System Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 501-1,000 employees
We also use Meraki. FortiGate has advantages in terms of usability. Also, if we don't pay for the Meraki license, it becomes useless.
View full review »AV
Andrei Vaskin
Specialist at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
We worked with Cisco and Check Point firewalls. We worked with Cisco ASA for a long time. We worked with it for about five years, and we were happy with it, but it was old-fashioned. We went to Fortinet and started working with this company.
FortiGate has good security functions and high-level technical documentation. Their documentation is very easy to understand.
FortiGate's performance is also better than Cisco ASA. It has 10 VDOMs. It is a great function because you can add virtual functions for different groups in your network. It is quite useful.
View full review »KM
reviewer947427
Technical Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
I have previously used other solutions such as Cisco, Check Point, and Palo Alto.
The solution I would recommend largely depends upon the environment it is being implemented. We tend to mix and match firewalls, but Check Point tends to be, easier to manage, but more expensive. Their support is much better than Fortinet's when it comes to pre-sales and post-sales.
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Raphael Haroun Ikyagh
Network Administrator at Letshego
I have not been exposed to working with any other firewall except the FortiGate. At one point, our network was strictly on Cisco routers and switches. At that time, I was not exposed to having access to the security aspect of that, so I couldn't say which devices would be used for protection.
View full review »VK
reviewer1289523
Network Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
I also use Cisco wireless solutions. Our company uses both simultaneously.
View full review »AJ
reviewer1959201
Operation Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I used Cisco at my previous company and my new company uses FortiGate. FortiGate is better than Cisco. Where Cisco requires a person with great networking or programming knowledge, FortiGate does not. We can manage everything from its user interface. It provides comprehensive security fabric management, including Forti switches and access points. Additionally, FortiGate serves as a gate for our home, allowing us to monitor who enters and exits. Therefore, if we compare it to Cisco, monitoring the entire traffic becomes much easier.
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Özden Aydın
Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I've used Palo Alto, which is a good solution for a firewall, and their application signatures are very good.
View full review »CT
reviewer2129880
Head of IT at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Previously, I have utilized few other brands of NG Firewalls, which offer certain advantages. However, when comparing their price and performance to that of Fortinet FortiGate, Fortinet proves to be a strong competitor.
DE
Darrell Elias
Technical support engineer at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees
I don't know why our company acquired FortiGate because I'm not the account manager. I'm just the technical person who installed the product. But I can assume they just looked at other companies that are securing their networks and decided to secure their internet access like those companies do.
View full review »WG
administ2171925
IT Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Our decision to switch from FortiGate to Sophos was solely driven by the seamless integration with our existing Sophos antivirus system. Had this integration not been an advantage, we would have maintained our FortiGate system.
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Ibidapo Ibrahim
Head of IT Infrastructure at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We previously used Mikro Tik before the organization decide to switch.
View full review »JL
Jans Lien
Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I previously used Juniper. I did prefer the Juniper OS but not anymore because the Junos firewall seems not to be very stable. Since Juniper had stability issues is why we went with Fortinet FortiGate.
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Mario De Keer
IT Infrastructure & Service Manageer at Cerba Research
We were using SonicWall firewalls. We found FortiGate better, and we switched everything. We decommissioned all SonicWall firewalls. One of the reasons why we changed from SonicWall was that its licensing was user-based and function-based. So, every time we did something, we had to add another license or subscription. The licensing of FortiGate is clear. We know what is the price.
We migrated last year from a typical MPLS network to a complete and only one network between the sites. For firewalls, we now have a few solutions in place in our headquarters. We have Fortinet Firewall Cluster, and on the remote sites, we are using Meraki firewalls that are being used as a router at the same time.
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Volodymyr Khorenzhyi
Network Engineer at Thunder Software Technology Co., Ltd.
I did not previously use a different solution.
View full review »DO
David Oparinde
Managing Director with 51-200 employees
We were using Cisco previously.
View full review »GM
Gilles Mousnier
Manager GIS at epfam
When I came here, Netgate was installed. My IT department and my IT subcontractor explained to me that FortiGate was better than the previous solution. We changed it one and a half years ago, and it has been working well.
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AT4
Security Engineer at Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd.
We used Sophos earlier. We switched to Fortinet for its price.
View full review »AG
Ashleigh Gilson
Senior Director Information Technology at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We previously used Check Point. We switched because the devices became in the end of support and then we got pricing on the replacement models, and the pricing was a little bit ridiculous for what we needed so we looked into Fortinet.
Fortinet said that they could migrate from Check Point for us or help build an easy migration from Check Point to Fortinet. It wasn't that easy at the end of the day, but it all got done.
The switch was really down to pricing and the functionality that we required, so the decision was made to go with Fortinet because of that and ongoing maintenance costs.
View full review »RM
RajM2
Deputy Manager Of Information Technology at Nitco Limited
In addition to FortiGate, we are using a Sophos firewall.
View full review »JT
JackTrantham
Technical Account Manager at DSM Technology Consultants, LLC
We didn't deploy a variety of solutions. Cisco is one we have deployed as well. It's just not as easy to setup. It's all command line, there is not a user interface, it's more expensive, and It doesn't have as much capability.
View full review »MK
Mike Kajubi
ICT/Presales Manager at Balton Uganda
We previously used DrayTek before switching to Fortinet FortiGate which has more features.
View full review »SC
reviewer2152560
Technical Project Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
We have used Sophos Firewall, Check Point Power EOL, and others. But none of them were like FortiGate. When we upgrade the license, it shows another one, two or three years from that date.
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Michael-Sugg
President at Sovereign Managed Services
CA
Chingiz Abdukarimov
Director at a integrator with 11-50 employees
We used an old IPS from Cisco. We switched because of End-of-Support on that device.
View full review »AS
Amgad Soliman
Senior System & Security Administrator at a legal firm with 51-200 employees
The other product I was previously using was ForgeRock but did not have the experience of integrating it with Fortinet FortiGate.
View full review »GD
reviewer1249359
Executive at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
We've also used Palo Alto and Check Point.
View full review »UB
UzairBaig
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
In addition to FortiGate, we are using Cisco SFR.
View full review »
it_user236517
Senior NetOps Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I was using Cisco ASA, and I switched due to a lack of features (e.g. poor SSL VPN support).
View full review »AN
Anand Navik
Technical Specialist at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I have worked with other firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate is better than Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls. It's more user-friendly.
View full review »JS
JeanSpiteri
Infrastructure Engineer at a hospitality company with 51-200 employees
We had been using Cisco and Firepower prior to FortiGate. FortiGate is easier to use. We encountered a lot of problems when we integrated Firepower on Cisco devices.
View full review »AM
reviewer1779540
Security Presales Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I have used Palo Alto previously.
When comparing Fortinet FortiGate and Palo Alto, they are equivalent to each other. However, Palo Alto is the Gartner Magic Quadrant leader and is easy to deploy. It would be difficult to describe the advantages or disadvantages because they are very similar.
View full review »MM
Mohsinoddin Mohammed
Information Security Principal at Alkhorayef
We did not use another solution prior to this one.
View full review »JA
reviewer1784364
Founder / Principal at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Most of the customers replaced Cisco.
View full review »MM
Md Mohiuddin
Assistant Manager IT at Urmi Garments Ltd
Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool because we believed it would be easier to set up and use but it turns out it wasn't easier.
View full review »YK
reviewer1255635
Head of the Satellite Infrastructure and Operation System Department at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
We also have a Cisco solution in operation.
US
UmerSiddique
Sr. Network Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We previously used Cisco ASA but that model didn't support the latest technology, and was also very expensive. The main issue that caused us to switch solutions was the throughput of the interface. Cisco was providing us with one gig interface. Because of our gradually increasing bandwidth and network requirements, we had to move to more bandwidth and a 10 gig interface, which Fortinet provides. Although Cisco provides the same on a different model, that model was very expensive. That's why we chose to switch to Fortinet Firewall.
JS
reviewer967515
Network Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I use a wide variety of products in my shop. For example, I also work with Sophos UTM, Cisco, HPE, and Aruba products.
There's a lot of problems in, maybe, let's say, Sophos products. Especially in their support. They have very weak support. Cisco has good support, on the other hand, and a very good product, however, it is too expensive. HPE is a very nice product and has good support, however, it's not a UTM. Therefore, often we end up recommending Fortinet options.
View full review »
Charbel Hajj
Senior Supervisor at MEPEQ
I now have UniFi Switches for our WiFi access point. We began using UniFi to replace Cisco Linksys Ethernet switches.
I am also working with QNAPS for network connections.
For virtual meetings, we use Google Meet. Some of our customers use Webex but we mainly work with Google Meet.
In our company, we have Kaspersky, as well as Fortinet.
View full review »NA
Naseema Ap
Manager systems at HOCL
We had been using another solution for approximately ten years. The product was not up to date, so we were not getting any support for it.
View full review »it_user283398
Security Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
We have been using FortiGate solutions for eight years. We have been upgrading when solutions in the family become unsupported.
View full review »AT
Alexandros Tzampazis
Network Administrator at Hellenic National Meteorological Service
I have previously used a Cisco firewall, the 5520 model. It was not a next-generation firewall and did not have IPS integrated, and it was quite difficult to manage and to find features and implement them. Fortinet FortiGate is very good at this.
View full review »JH
reviewer1295655
Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
My company used Blue Coat and Zscaler in the past but I am unsure why they switched.
View full review »RV
Raghunath Venkatesh
Business Development Manager - Security at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
We also used Check Point and Palo Alto. Fortinet, however, scores very high against security threats, when you compare the three.
View full review »MA
Mushtaq Ahmad
Manager IT at Riphah
I've used other solutions in the past, including, for example, Sophos. However, I have found Fortigate to be more reasonably priced and generally much better as a product.
View full review »KS
Kshitij Singhai
Owner at Computech Associates
I have a little bit of experience with other firewalls such as Sophos and Check Point. There are some basic differences in the features and their functionality, but I cannot say that this one is the best, or this one is not good. I have more confidence in Fortinet FortiGate, so we are focusing only on this.
In terms of support, we had purchased a Check Point product for a customer, and we were trying to get support from the team, but it was very difficult. Sophos is okay in terms of support.
View full review »JH
Jeroen Hein
Engineer at The Learning Network
I've used a heap of different products. I've worked with Palo Alto and also with Fortinet. From experience, I prefer Palo Alto, but for the business I'm working in now, Fortinet is okay.
View full review »SP
SitaramPatro
Enterprise Service Manager at Technology Associates Limited
Previously, maybe five to seven years ago, I had Cisco. We moved firewalls due to the fact that the renewal cost on Cisco was so high. At the time, we moved to Sophos. It was very good on the UTM side. However, there were performance challenges. That's why we switched to Fortinet. The internet speed is okay and there are no bottlenecks or major challenges.
View full review »NC
NipontChartkul
Director, CFO at IT Green Public Company Ltd.
We also implement solutions with Palo Alto Networks and WatchGuard.
View full review »it_user755889
Consultant at MT Pockets Computers
We did use a different solution. We switched primarily because of the audit trails because the user interface, what you saw on the screen and the options you were presented with were difficult to configure and we ended up spending a lot of time trying to get the information that we wanted.
View full review »DN
Diana Nongera
I.T. Manager at Pacific Cigarette Company
We were previously using Netgear, which was smaller. It didn't have the advanced technology in terms of what we wanted it to do. It was an older version. We thought that if we were going to change the firewall, then we should make a good, future investment. Thus, our partners advised us that FortiGate was one of the best, so we invested in them.
View full review »MA
Mina Aziz
Senior System Engineer at Effvision
I have previously used Azure firewalls.
View full review »RJ
reviewer1457472
Firewall Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
While we concurrently use both Sophos and Fortinet, we're working towards just using Fortinet. I find that the performance of Fortinet is much better than Sophos.
View full review »SK
reviewer1441512
Deputy General Manager Information Technology at a media company with 201-500 employees
We were using some open-source solutions, and then we directly moved to firewalls.
View full review »SH
Sagy Haham
CEO at SAYCOM
Previously, we worked with Check Point.
They are both good products that are easy to use and have good support.
They're both good. I use them both, it depends on the customer, and what their requirements are. It also depends on which would give you the best value for the money at the time. I don't know how to say which one is better as a firewall.
View full review »VS
reviewer895482
ICT Officer at a non-profit with 5,001-10,000 employees
We had a server acting as our service-based firewall, so no solution for firewall.
FortiGate is my first actual solution for firewalls.
View full review »it_user241101
Network Administrator at a real estate/law firm with 51-200 employees
They used to have Juniper products, which are terrible. The enterprise class firewalls do not support any sort of packetflow gathering such as netflow, and the devices didn't even support Juniper's proprietary jflow. Their SRX series routers, meant for home office use, had more features and capabilities.
View full review »TJ
Tushar Joshi
Sr. System Administration at Grind Master Machines Pvt. Ltd.
Previously, we were using a different solution, and as compared to that solution, it is very easy to handle.
View full review »MS
reviewer1470960
Lead Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
By the time I joined a Fortigate was selected against pfsense.
View full review »JT
reviewer1091898
CEO/CTO with 201-500 employees
We only use Fortinet's FortiGate for our hardware firewall protection.
However, if our clients need extra security, we may add other brands and security layers. We also work with SonicWall, Checkpoint, and Barracuda, for example.
I've also worked with pfSense, which is free, however, it has much more of a do-it-yourself approach. It's also quite different from other solutions. If you have Cisco experience, you'll be able to navigate Fortinet, whereas pfSense requires much more in-depth study. It has its own language, basically. That's one of the reasons you won't find too many of its configurations in China.
View full review »AC
reviewer1238928
Sales Engineer - Sênior at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
We also use Sophos. We use both solutions at the same time.
View full review »EP
reviewer951024
Director of IT with 51-200 employees
I personally prefer pfSense as it's open-source and you only have to pay a minimal fee for support. But for people who want that platform, I think it's a great solution. If I wasn't using pfSense, I would definitely go with FortiGate.
The two products are completely different. If you're using pfSense, you're basically using the entire open-source world — so you're based on FreeBSD, you're using Snorts, everything is open-source. It's very easy to make modifications and to figure out what's going on. You're not dependent on your single company's documentation, there's a huge user base. It's very easy to modify and extend. You can see what's going on — it's very transparent in that sense. It's probably a little bit more manual. With pfSense, You have to put in a little bit more effort to get things done, but, in the end (aside from the huge cost savings), you get all the features that are available in an enterprise firewall for just the price of support, which is also very minimal.
If you need to make any tweaks, you can do it all yourself. If you need to tweak ciphers for SSL for compliance (for PCI, for security compliance) it's not a difficult thing to do; it's a fairly trivial task.
View full review »VS
VeerSharma
Branch Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Previously we were using SonicWall, and we had no trouble after switching to FortiGate. One of the reasons that we switched is because we needed something that is easy to configure and manage.
One of the problems we had is that we could not get SonicWall to print out a comment. The documentation says that it should be able to, but it was not printing. The currently solution meets this requirement.
it_user249372
Senior Security Consultant with 501-1,000 employees
We previously used Cisco ASA. We switched because the old ASA has no next-generation features.
View full review »PM
reviewer1232469
Responsabile ced with 1-10 employees
Prior to FortiGate, we were using Cisco for our firewall and our switches were from HP. Every five or six years, we upgrade our devices. The last time, we decided to buy Fortinet products because of a suggestion from our vendor.
Our vendor suggested Fortinet because the security is good, it's simple to use, and the price is good.
View full review »AŚ
Arkadiusz Świerczek
IT Specialist at Divante
It was just a product for home-usage. It was a Cisco device from the small business series. It was less advanced than the similar devices available in the market currently. It was a huge step forward for us to switch to FortiGate.
View full review »
Mohamed Abdel Hassanein
Managing Director at FORESEC
We are a partner with Sophos, with Palo Alto, and with WatchGuard. So we have a lot of competitors for FortiGate.
View full review »ME
reviewer1256787
Technical Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Before using FortiGate, we used Cisco. However, we found the Cisco solutions to be unstable and we needed to move away from them. We do still have some legacy Cisco solutions, however. We find they work better now, with FortiGate.
View full review »TA
Thameem Ansari
Senior solution architect at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I was using Sophos. We switched because it was very unstable in terms of both software and hardware. I found a lot of vulnerabilities. Even though they provide a lot of features for a minimum cost, these features don't do what they are supposed to do.
View full review »FN
Fernando Neto
Network Analyst at Aloo Telecom
Prior to using the FortiGate solution, I used the MikroTik RB1100AHx2e. I found that the FortiGate 60D offered more security.
View full review »it_user545559
Owner at a tech services company
I have sold and supported other solutions in the past. Fortinet is not always the least-cost solution available, but from a value standpoint, I find them hard to beat.
View full review »SC
Simon Chaba
ICT Manager at a aerospace/defense firm
We previously used different solutions as well. We did not switch, we have different requirements for different customers.
View full review »
Silvia Ihensekhien
Chief Information Security Officer at ShipServ Limited
This is the first solution we used since we moved to Cloud
View full review »JT
reviewer1451103
Chief Information Officer at a analyst firm with 10,001+ employees
We previously used Palo Alto.
View full review »IY
Iz
Assistant Manager (Infrastructure) at SISTIC
We previously used Cisco ASA. We switched to Fortinet Fortigate because it was easy to manage, and it uses a Single OS for the whole product. We were also able to learn how to use it very quickly.
View full review »MK
reviewer1392531
Dy General Manager at a real estate/law firm with 501-1,000 employees
We have used many solutions previously such as Check Point and Stone software. We changed to this solution because we wanted something more stable.
View full review »AY
Adriana Ymeri
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Communication Progress
I have previously used Check Point and Cisco ASA. In terms of cost and security features, Fortinet has the advantage and it's also easy to implement. Cisco and Check Point are a little bit more difficult in that aspect.
View full review »RV
reviewer1346826
Manager - IT at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
We are continuing to use FortiGate but we are in the process of upgrading to the 200E and 300E enterprise firewall.
View full review »SC
Simon Coombs
System Administrator at a media company with 11-50 employees
Previously had a SonicWall. Even allowing for an upgrade discount on the SonicWall, the FortiGate was a more compelling purchase.
View full review »DY
DaleYeh
Principal Mining Consultant at senhwabio
We started with Fortinet FortiGate. We weren't previously using another solution.
View full review »JC
MnG32
Manager and General Attorney with 51-200 employees
One of the main reasons we're considering switching from FortiGate is because many companies have a lot of features and you don't have to pay for. If you compare side by side, you find a lot of things that new brands do as well for fewer dollars.
When selecting a vendor the most important factor is the prestige of the vendor. Also the cost, renewing licenses. Our customers are looking for more features for less cost. We have to look at what is going on in the market, who the main players are, who is doing well, and who has a good reputation.
View full review »MT
Matthew Titcombe
CEO & Sr. Information Security Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
We did not use a previous solution.
View full review »it_user179136
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
On the site where the FortiGate is stationed, it's never been changed out.
View full review »it_user149982
Project Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
- CISCO ASA: Too expensive, performances issues, non-consolidated management between traditional ASA and inspection ASA CX, not the best security engines
- Checkpoint: Very expensive but good solutions, not the leader in UTM segment
- Juniper: Expensive but good solutions, not the leader in UTM segment
- Cyrberoam: Attractive prices but not yet tested, looks like promising
- Arkoon/Netasq: Obsoletes (Stormshield not yet tested)
it_user275226
IT Director with 501-1,000 employees
I used an open-source product name Squid.
View full review »EK
EranjayaKumarasiri
Security Engineer at Eguardian lanka
I have previously used pfSense, Sophos Firewall, and other endpoint solutions.
View full review »PH
Phil Horst
President at Integral Design Software
This is the first firewall product that I have used.
View full review »MP
MaheshPatel
Sr. Corporate Marketing Executive at Amity Infosoft Pvt. Ltd.
We were previously using SOPHOS.
FS
Ferrianto Suryanto
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
I have also worked with the Hillstone network, with Palo Alto and with Barracuda.
In terms of support, so far FortiGate is helpful whereas with Barracuda I didn't get the support like FortiGate.
View full review »RJ
reviewer1457472
Firewall Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
Before choosing Fortigate, I was using Cisco and pfSense.
View full review »GI
reviewer743844
Mgr. IT Infrastructure and Network Operations at a media company with 11-50 employees
Sophos: It was good for small businesses, who are evolving and improving. Though, I found Cisco Meraki to be much better.
View full review »it_user339975
Project Consultant at a tech consulting company
I’ve personally used Cisco ASA and PIX architecture and after using Fortinet, I always prefer FortiGate products in terms of functionality and ease of use. I recommend these to clients looking for a firewall solution.
View full review »it_user234777
IP Senior Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
We are using different firewall solutions, in parallel with the Fortigate ones.
View full review »it_user998895
Project Manager at renaissance group
We do use other solutions as well, such as Cisco. We find this solution to be better in general, and more user-friendly. That said, Cisco does do customization better.
View full review »it_user431136
Consultant Information Technology at a tech company with 51-200 employees
For commercial UTM solutions, I have always worked with Fortinet; I had no reason to trust another third-party solution.
View full review »AL
Alberto E. Luna Rodriguez
Network Security Coordinator at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We still use Cisco for some cases. However, where we need the advanced security and UTM features, Cisco’s prices can be very restrictive. Fortinet is a much more cost-effective choice for those cases.
View full review »AG
Anderson Guedes
Specialist of IT Solutions at InterNexa
I have used Cisco solutions previously.
View full review »MP
reviewer1282434
IT Operations Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
We previously used Juniper. We switched due to the host and the usability of Fortinet.
View full review »RO
Randy Obanon
IT Manager at Soporte Antivirus Ltda
We were previously using Sophos XG.
View full review »it_user125442
Dono at a tech consulting company
Previously, we used Linux distributions, and we changed due to its limitations and our company expansion.
View full review »SW
reviewer1485723
Compliance Officer at a venture capital & private equity firm with 11-50 employees
We didn't previously use a different solution.
View full review »NN
reviewer1084257
IT Infrastructure Specialist at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
I was on a Check Point platform, and then I migrated to FortiGate. Migrating from the Check Point environment to the FortiGate environment was new for me. We rely on a vendor for support. The vendor was kind of phasing out the support of the Check Point product. That's why we switched.
VV
Vandy Va
Head Of IT Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I previously had experience with CheckPoint, Cisco, and Palo Alto. I would rate Palo Alto as the best firewall in the world.
View full review »RJ
reviewer1192146
Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
We were previously using Sophos and Watchguard.
View full review »AM
InfoSec301
Information Security Analyst at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Previously, in 2013, I believe we were using WatchGuard.
In the process of selecting a vendor, the most important criteria will be to go through threat assessment reports - the NSS testing reports that are published every year. Our decision will depend on that.
View full review »MV
reviewer1456182
Senior Information Technology Auditor at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Previously, we used a MikroTik firewall.
View full review »it_user454521
Deputy Chief Manager at a newspaper with 5,001-10,000 employees
We had a different solution in the organization arising from different OEMs and this solution was chosen with consideration of requirements and costs.
View full review »it_user375528
IT NETWORK ENGINEER at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
I depend on different products from different vendors depending on the required function.
View full review »it_user245154
Customer Support engineer at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
We started with FortiGate itself.
View full review »it_user236523
Senior Information Security Engineer with 501-1,000 employees
I didn't use any other solution prior to Fortinet.
View full review »it_user229269
Network Security Infrastructure - Tech Specialist with 10,001+ employees
No previous solution was used.
View full review »it_user107088
Network Support Analyst at a non-tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Before I was to implement ASA for SSL VPN, it was already working. My boss told me that we would be implementing Fortigate instead. He told me that Cisco's license is more expensive than Fortinet so I think that was the tipping point for why we changed to Fortinet.
View full review »
it_user510852
Technical Services Manager with 501-1,000 employees
I was using a SonicWall. The problem with SonicWall is that they were purchased by Dell, and apparently, Dell is not putting any research money into the devices. That is the reason I changed because there are a lot of new things, new generation firewall technologies and they are not using them. Also, apparently, the price is very high right now. If you compare the price with a FortiGate, which has a lot of additional features, it's not worth it.
When selecting a vendor the most important criteria are support and cost.
View full review »it_user677703
Superintendent, Process Automation and Safety at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
They were our first firewalls on site.
View full review »SB
Consultant76
Security Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Our previous solution had performance issues.
View full review »it_user867420
Network Engineer
Cost and convenience are probably why we switched from our previous solution to FortiGate.
View full review »it_user700113
Owner
We were previously using the Check Point and Palo Alto software. The price and user-friendly GUI are the reasons that we switched to this solution.
View full review »AJ
reviewer1368420
Telecommunications Engineer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have also used Huawei.
View full review »it_user929583
Network and Security Manager at a consumer goods company with 10,001+ employees
In the past, we were using Cisco, the quite old firewall. And did not have the UTM features. So we switched to Fortinet to improve the security of our network.
View full review »YK
reviewer1255635
Head of the Satellite Infrastructure and Operation System Department at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
We also use another firewall vendor product
View full review »it_user460626
IT Manager at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
This was the first device we used.
View full review »MR
reviewer1238931
Junior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I also have experience with Cisco, and FortiGate is the cheaper solution.
View full review »AC
Anderson Clivati
Specialist of IT Solutions at INTERNEXA
I previously used Meraki but I prefer Fortinet for its value and software capabilities. It's better than any of the other products in this field.
it_user181989
Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
it_user795288
Pre-sales Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
We had a previous solution, but switch because FortiGate is a one box solution.
View full review »it_user241746
Software Test Engineer with 501-1,000 employees
This was the first security device that was deployed.
View full review »it_user234774
IP Core & Security Supervisor at a comms service provider
No previous solution used.
View full review »it_user433407
IT Infrastructure Engineer at a tech company with 11-50 employees
We previously used Cisco solutions. They are more expensive, have fewer features, are more difficult to use, and response and help from
technical support is not quick.
KS
Reviewer3147
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I also have prior experience with SonicWall.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Buyer's Guide
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sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
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