We performed a comparison between Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and Fortinet FortiGate based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: Check Point is notable for its VPN Blade, IPS Blade, URL filtering, and Applications Control Blade. It provides advanced threat prevention, centralized management, and a focus on cloud security. Fortinet FortiGate is commended for its all-inclusive bundle solution, user-friendly interface, and robust security capabilities.
For Check Point, there are areas that could be improved including cluster creation on AWS, data protection visibility, DLP feature, user interface, integration, cost reduction, documentation, and flexibility in deployment. Fortinet FortiGate could benefit from enhancements in SSL VPN, multi-factor authentication, reporting capabilities, GUI interface, software support, scalability, user interface, web application firewall and DDoS protection, troubleshooting of VPN connections, and protection against attacks and ransomware.
Service and Support: CloudGuard Network Security's customer service has received mixed feedback, with some customers expressing satisfaction with the technical support, while others have mentioned concerns regarding response time. Some Fortinet customers have found the support to be good, while others have felt the need for improvement.
Ease of Deployment: Check Point offers an initial setup that is straightforward and simple, although it may require technical expertise. The deployment time for this solution can range from one day to a few days. Fortinet FortiGate's setup is generally not too complex and straightforward, with deployment times varying from a few hours to two months.
Pricing: Check Point CloudGuard is known for its high setup cost, however, it provides excellent security and value. Fortinet FortiGate offers a reasonably priced and competitive setup cost, with a good balance between price and performance. That said, some users have mentioned that the renewal price for FortiGate is often higher than the initial purchase price.
ROI: CloudGuard Network Security has demonstrated a return on investment (ROI) ranging from 80% to 85%. Users have experienced increased benefits and found that management is easier compared to other options. Fortinet FortiGate has proven to be cost-effective, resulting in savings. Additionally, it has enhanced security measures, delivering positive outcomes.
Comparison Results: Check Point CloudGuard is the preferred choice when compared to Fortinet FortiGate. Users appreciate CloudGuard's user-friendly interface, ease of use, and comprehensive security features like VPN, IPS, URL filtering, and Applications Control Blade. CloudGuard also offers scalability, stability, and a focus on cloud security.
"It improves the availability of engineers to carry out projects."
"The endpoint VPN is super stable. The routing is also very good. We tried a competing product first, but we could not make it work. We came across CloudGuard. The network routing across different virtual networks in Azure and AWS was way ahead of any of the other technologies. That helped us be able to cover the whole network using one single cluster."
"The most valuable feature for us is the cluster support."
"The CloudGuard Network Security's most valuable feature is implementing IPS for accessing our data center and server environment in Azure. It helps us to prevent attacks. By protecting our environment with Check Point, which we were already familiar with, it provided a solution that extended into the cloud environment."
"The versatility is the solution's most valuable feature."
"The product has allowed us to develop applications from the cloud - even with large environments and well-segmented security lines."
"It is scalable. It's a cloud solution, so it's easy to implement and manage."
"We find all the features valuable, particularly the firewall, application control, URL filtering, and HTTPS detection."
"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."
"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus."
"The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution."
"FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features."
"FortiGate has a very strong unified threat management system."
"Centralized monitoring, policy management, and virtualized appliances allow us to take control over our public and private infrastructure."
"The solution needs to support more hypervisors."
"A threat categorization system can be added to give users the authority to define vulnerable attacks and classify areas that can threaten the workflow system."
"Micro-Segmentation functionality for EAST-WEST traffic is not native and requires integration with a third-party OEM."
"The main issue that I have noticed is that for deployment, it still requires a dedicated management server, and the gateway is completely different. That sometimes can cause issues."
"At the cost level, the solution is somewhat expensive."
"The operations require skilled manpower with extended experience of working with networking systems for better results."
"Check Point support, beyond CloudGuard, does need some improvement."
"Some more built-in marketplace templates would be nice. It would be nice to see more vendor assistance in deployments and backup of recoveries versus having customers rely upon that themselves. That would make it a lot more seamless and aligned with the standard on-premise model that is there. Check Point can extend the same posture that they have to CloudGuard and make that transition very seamless."
"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."
"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
"The room for improvement is about the global delivery time period. Usually I need to wait for almost one month to deliver it overseas. So if you can shorten the deliver time it'd be great."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"It needs to improve its ISP load balancing."
"My only complaint about FortiGate is a lack of QinQ VLAN tunneling. I haven't found this feature in any Fortinet product. You can do this on all Cisco routers, including the smaller models. However, QinQ isn't available on the biggest, most expensive Fortinet units. They still don't have that. I think now we're on software version 6.0, and they still haven't found a solution for QinQ. It isn't a dealbreaker, but that's my main complaint."
"The user interface could be improved."
"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."
More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pricing and Cost Advice →
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is ranked 8th in Firewalls with 121 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is rated 8.6, while Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security writes "Highly reliable, great visibility, and centralized management". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is most compared with Azure Firewall, VMware NSX, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, Cisco Secure Firewall and Fortinet FortiGate-VM, whereas Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Fortinet FortiGate report.
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Hi,
I've been working with gateprotect UTM recently. It's cost effective and much easy to work with compared to Fortinet and Checkpoint UTM.
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With the quick guide packed with screen shots, and clear simple instructions, you'll get to know how easy and simple it is to get the gateprotect UTM up and running in no time.
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Also note gateprotect UTM has been identified as a top choice for SMB in Gartner UTM firewall survey, which makes it a reliable product/solution.
www.gateprotect.com
www.gateprotect.com
Go for checkpoint
regards
kapil yadav
Hi
Both options are good but i would recommend the Cyberaom as i have had a
chance to work with it before.
Other options is Cisco Ironport .
Regards
Brian
Hi Russell,
I advise you to go with Sophos if not I advise you to go with Fortinet.
Did you ask your team to check Sophos demo I sent?
Regard
Maroun Jean Abboud
Mobile : 00961 70943122
Skype :maroun_abboud1
Both devices are good. Checkpoint is one of the market leader who gives a
good UTM solution. Fortinet is cheaper when compare to checkpoint and
flexible.
You may try the Paloalto which gives more attention on zero day attacks.
Thanks & Regards /*Ramesh M*
At this point in time all of the major firewall vendors marketing Next-Gen firewalls provides similar features. I recently participated in a 2 day meeting with sales and engineers with Fortinet. I have to say Fortinet has come a long way in the last few years and am beginning to like their product more and more. In terms of feature set the two products are nearly identical.
When comparing the two vendors there a clear separation in which product focus is clear. Fortinet is a major winner in their smaller units and provide the most bang for your buck. When central management with datacenter and enterprise sized firewalls are required you will find Checkpoint is the leader. In your question you mention CheckPoint UTM. When mentioning this I immediately think of the UTM-1N (old Model) or 620 (New Model). This is a standalone unit and is in the $500.00 - $800.00 range. A comparable unit would be a Fortinet FG-30D. These are the lower end units and I would not recommend them for a solution involving the number of product blades/features you have listed. I have a FotiWifi-60D for my home and it works quite well. I have all the blades configured and enabled. In my home we have 3 sometimes 4 occupants running games and/or streaming video constantly. We average 90GB of internet traffic a month. I have found the FortiWifi-60D able to keep up with the load but at times does peak in CPU and Memory.
A major difference between Fortinet and Checkpoint is their GUI. I find the Checkpoint GUI to be much more intuitive and easier adapt to for new users. Fortinet on the other hand, excels in the CLI with a Cisco/Avaya mixed interface and help structure. Checkpoint is Linux based and almost any Linux command functions on their systems, however, there is limited tab completion and no mid command assistance.
In regards to the firewall blade aka port based firewall I do not see one vendor being better than the other. I would leave this as a preference for what you are used to and what works best for you.
I am going to lump Web Filtering, Layer7- App Filtering together. Both Fortinet and Checkpoint have powerful next-gen capabilities. Both vendors approach web filtering application filtering in a similar way. Utilizing category based URLs and Applications with recommended risk levels. Fortinet published their application/web catalogs at www.fortiguard.com. Checkpoint published their URL categorization at www.checkpoint.com and Application Catalog at appwiki.checkpoint.com At this time I can confirm Checkpoint has 6,578 applications identified while Fortinet has roughly 3,500 (Please confirm with your sales rep on this number as I got it from their catalog’s last displayed number of applications and it could have been a display limit rather than the total identified).
I do not have experience with Checkpoint’s IPS and Antivirus in an implemented production use so I can’t provide am accurate comparison. Based on Fortinet’s demos and my experience I would say that it is a comprehensive product. Due to Fortinet’s market (Non-enterprise businesses) and their licensing model (comprehensive of all features) they have a higher rate of discovery, writing a signature, and deploying it than Checkpoint. Also if you purchase the FortiSandbox (enterprise class product) you will have a good result for zero-day attacks.
In the VPN space I currently have a preference for CheckPoint. I find that their approach is very simple, easy to understand, and reliable. Fortinet provides a Wizard based configuration for their VPN tunnels as well as a manual creation process. I find the approach to be more complicated than it needs to be.
Note on Sizing… When it comes to FortiGate if you can afford it start your specs at FG-100D. I have found the lower models to have some quirks. If you are looking for a centrally managed solution Checkpoint includes base central management with all of their models starting at 1100. If you are going to centrally manage your firewalls I would suggest purchasing a VM based Open Server for management and logging. The equivalent would be a FortiManager.
I hope this helps,
Christopher L. Butler
Christopher L. Butler CCP-Network, CCA-Netscaler
We have chosen Fortinet after a long evaluation effort, while CheckPoint was our next best option. So you can't go terribly wrong with either. The reason we chose Fortinet is that it provided us a better bang for the buck. Be careful, however, with the advertized throughput of Fortinet devices as you often get only 50-70% of the advertized value, so size your devices accordingly.
One thing to consider is that UTMs are often not as good as a dedicated product, especially when it comes to web proxies. You should carefully consider your requirements and compare them with the capabilities of the UTMs you are considering. One tricky issue we are facing is web proxies for mobile devices, and there we are considering a cloud-based web proxy solution.
As far as dollars per protection, I would say Fortinet is your solution. I found this article pretty helpful: www.itgweb.com