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Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
314
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point Harmony SASE (f...
Ranking in Firewalls
14th
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (5th), Anti-Malware Tools (9th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (7th), ZTNA as a Service (3rd), ZTNA (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (4th)
WatchGuard Firebox
Ranking in Firewalls
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Luke_Smith - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 10, 2024
Easy to use and provides good visibility of network traffic
It is just for firewalls and network security It's mostly compliance, like just meeting our security requirements to keep our data secure. We don't make money out of it. It just keeps our data safe. I have FortiGate for SD-WAN and all access points here, which has helped with traffic shaping…
AshleyMorales - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 3, 2023
Good threat protection and VPN authentification with real-time visibility
This tool was acquired when the organization made the decision to move the entire infrastructure to the cloud. It was going to handle different types of schemes such as IaaS and SaaS up to Office 365, so all these schemes were going to meet the need for accessibility by users. We needed a tool with…
IP
Feb 14, 2024
Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features
The distribution and channel strategy, particularly in regions like Pakistan and Afghanistan, may hinder their visibility and adoption. Due to their lack of investment in marketing, channel development, and certifications, WatchGuard faces challenges in gaining visibility and market share, especially in regions like Pakistan. Unlike competitors such as Cisco and Fortinet, who offer extensive training and certifications for their partners, WatchGuard's limited focus in this area hinders their ability to attract technical talent and expand their customer base. To address this issue and improve its presence in the market, WatchGuard could consider offering free or low-cost certification programs to educate potential partners and customers on their technology. By empowering individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge, WatchGuard can create a network of brand ambassadors who can advocate for their solutions and drive adoption.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The multi-tenancy feature is most valuable. It integrates very well with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"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 have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"It has improved our security capabilities."
"This version is stable. I don't have any issues with this solution, in our environment, it works well."
"It's very easy to set up, it's very easy to make policies and, for an organization, that means you don't need IT expert in firewalls. You just need to have somebody who knows a little bit of IT, and that's it. With other products, you need someone with a "Masters" degree in firewalls."
"Perimeter 81 provides a very secure and non-disruptive experience."
"Its software solution also ensures connectivity and protects against NSF filtering."
"The characteristics that I have liked the most are the ease of implementation and administration."
"The benefits are really built into the underlying protocol, however, Perimeter81 makes these available in a user-friendly way."
"The product has a reasonably high pricing."
"Distributing the agent was very simple, allowing us to enforce security posture on our devices (i.e. S1, Disk-encryption, etc.)."
"Their split tunneling feature has been very valuable to our company since implementing the Perimeter 81 solution."
"Our operators can work from home without any problems."
"The most valuable feature of WatchGuard Firebox is the VPN. It's easy to connect to the VPN."
"We experienced that WatchGuard is easy to setup regarding VPN compared to other firewalls of other brands."
"The firewall aspect and the branch office VPNs are the most valuable features... We don't have any issues with it. We don't have to spend a lot of time maintaining it."
"It's pretty simple to use. It's pretty simple to understand, and there's plenty of documentation. It does a pretty good job of what it is meant to do."
"I have found the DNS Watch feature for intrusion and prevention response and APT Locker most valuable to me."
"The most valuables feature of WatchGuard Firebox are the VPNs, and web filtering where we can stop users from going to malicious sites."
"WatchGuard Firebox's two-factor authentication feature is particularly useful and provides an added layer of protection."
"After conducting several tests I found the antivirus is working very well. Additionally, they have a very interesting feature, DNS WatchGuard, which is checking DNS requests for phishing, among other things, and it has caught a lot of unwanted attempts and attacks."
 

Cons

"If I had any criticism that I would give FortiGate, it would be that they need to stop changing their logging format. Every time we do a firmware upgrade, it is a massive issue on the SIM. Parsers have to be rebuilt. Even the FortiGate guys came in and said that they don't play well in the sandbox."
"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."
"Usually, we sell the bundle with the UTM or threat management piece with IPS, IDS. Other providers, such as Palo Alto, are ahead in terms of safe functionality. So, for me, delivering truly safe service is probably something that still needs to be improved."
"FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment."
"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"The reports are very basic."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"The integration from a management perspective could be improved so that the management can, from an existing Check Point firewall, manage a Harmony firewall through one pane of glass."
"Support is one of the points of improvement."
"There are a few areas where the solution could be improved. For instance, we sometimes encounter connectivity issues, which can be problematic. Recently, I experienced a connectivity issue while trying to move to Azure. Connectivity issues can be quite frustrating."
"The overall UI could be improved and updated to bring a simpler feel to the application."
"Sometimes, the product is very slow."
"Perimeter 81 could enhance its reporting and analytics capabilities to provide more detailed insights into network activity."
"My customers want more remote functionality. They need another routing option after they connect to the enterprise intranet. For example, let's say a user tries to connect to a remote branch office and headquarters through Harmony Connect. They need a local breakout after connecting to the headquarters, especially in China. They need to put local breakout in the Chinese internet. The current version cannot do something like this."
"The Point locations need to improve the latency and speed."
"This solution needs the option to add an external hard drive."
"The way Secure Sign-On authentication is happening needs to be improved. When the Secure Sign-On portal is turned on, anybody who comes into the campus, whether he or she is a staff member or a guest, has to go past the initial portal. One of the shortcomings is the username. It shouldn't allow permutations or combinations with upper or lower cases. For example, when there is a username abc, it shouldn't allow ABC or Abc. It should not allow the same username, but currently, two separate people can go in. Therefore, its authentication or validation should be improved, and the case sensitiveness should be picked up. If I have restricted someone to two devices, they shouldn't be able to use different combinations of the same username and get into the third or fourth device. It shouldn't allow different combinations of alphabets to be used to log in."
"Setup of this solution is complex, it's not plug and play."
"We were able to take from an older configuration, build a new one quickly, and get it up and running, which didn't take long, but there was some pain around it."
"They are working on cloud-based options. However, they do not have the options fully functional in their solution at this time."
"We use WatchGuard to manage our failover for internet. If a primary internet goes down, it does a failover to the secondary the internet. However, what it doesn't do so well is that if the primary internet has a lot of latency but it's not completely down, it doesn't do a failover to the backup in a timely manner."
"Reporting is something you've got to set up separately. It's one of those things that you've got to put some time into. One of the options is to set up a local report server, which is what I did. It's not great. It's okay... Some of the stuff is a little complicated to get up and running. Once you do, it becomes very user-friendly and easy to work with, but I find there are some implementation headaches with some of their stuff."
"The only downside is that it is missing an API, that you can use to easily collect information from it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is perfect."
"It is more expensive than Sophos. Fortinet is overall more expensive than Sophos. The small range of Fortinet, such as 60F and 80F, is more expensive than the small range of Sophos. Sophos is cheaper. In addition, if you jump from 80F Series to 100F Series, the price doubles."
"Fortinet FortiGate allows you to purchase licenses for hardware and software."
"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."
"Work through partners for the best pricing."
"We have the full version of Fortinet FortiGate and we are on a three-year contract with a commitment of five years."
"The price of FortiGate is average and I would say that based on the top five products available on the market, it is in the affordable range."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable."
"Overall I am very happy with the solution’s flexibility and pricing."
"The cost of the solution's licenses depends on the particular use cases."
"The solution is priced appropriately considering its uses. For an essential license, a user pays only 30 USD per month. For an enterprise version, the prices can be negotiated with the company."
"I consider the product to be a medium-priced solution. There are no additional costs attached to the tool."
"The product's pricing model accommodates diverse needs and deployment sizes."
"Perimeter 81 charges separately for gateways and VPN connectivity, but compared to Azure, it seemed more reasonable."
"The solution's pricing model may not be suitable for smaller companies, as they might find it expensive. Larger companies tend to receive more value due to many users."
"The pricing of Check Point is relatively high when compared to other competitors like Palo Alto and Fortinet. While Palo Alto may be on the higher side in terms of cost, Check Point's pricing is similar to that of Fortinet. In some cases, Check Point offers better value for the features it provides. We initially considered other options but ultimately decided to purchase hardware that came with three years of iOS. This approach eliminated the need for any additional costs associated with Check Point. I would rate it 10 out of 10."
"We paid $4000 in AUD for WatchGuard Firebox per year. There were no additional costs."
"Firebox is priced reasonably."
"The cost was somewhere in the vicinity of $2,000 to $3,000 for each one..."
"Cheap."
"We pay about $3,500 every three years."
"It's in the medium range. Its price is pretty good considering the functions and add-ons that are used."
"I would rate the pricing at seven out of ten. As for the licensing costs, we typically have yearly licenses for our clients, but there are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
"As per my knowledge, the product is more affordable than alternatives."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
5%
Computer Software Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...
What do you like most about Perimeter 81?
Even after restarting, it tries to quickly reestablish connection which is very helpful.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Perimeter 81?
It's essential to consider the organization's specific requirements and budget. Here are some general recommendations...
What needs improvement with Perimeter 81?
In terms of improvement, Perimeter 81 could enhance its reporting and analytics capabilities to provide more detailed...
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?
We are providing our services to all WatchGuard customers in the region.
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?
We just use it as a secondary WiFi device. We're a small office and we needed to set up a WiFi device for a few of ou...
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?
We're a hospital and we use it for developing our incoming and outgoing policies, and we also use it for VPN.
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
Check Point Quantum SASE
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Aqua Security, Cognito, Multipoint, Kustomer, Postman, Meredith
Ellips, Diecutstickers.com, Clarke Energy, NCR, Wrest Park, Homeslice Pizza, Fortessa Tableware Solutions, The Phoenix Residence
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs. WatchGuard Firebox and other solutions. Updated: September 2024.
801,634 professionals have used our research since 2012.