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Check Point NGFW vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM 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
316
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point NGFW
Ranking in Firewalls
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
307
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
Ranking in Firewalls
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 19.8%, up from 17.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point NGFW is 3.2%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 25, 2024
Effective threat prevention with responsive customer support
We are using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall Fortinet FortiGate has been invaluable. It has helped save costs due to its various features, reliable performance, very good UI, low latency, and stability. The Threat Intel engine in Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for its effectiveness in…
Pratik-Savla - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 22, 2024
Filters internet access and controls applications
Before choosing Check Point NGFW, we used Palo Alto Networks. We switched because of issues with Palo Alto. Their customer support wasn't very responsive. Some policies weren't working right, letting things through that should've been blocked. We compared different pricing options and features before deciding on Check Point NGFW. The main differences between Palo Alto and Check Point NGFW were mostly in how they worked for us. They both offer good next-gen firewalls, but we had some problems with Palo Alto. Sometimes it wouldn't notify us quickly when something got through. Its prevention wasn't always as strong as we wanted. We felt Palo Alto's traffic inspection was only partial, not checking everything thoroughly. Check Point NGFW seemed to offer better inspection. Check Point NGFW also had better threat intel and application control. With Palo Alto, we couldn't see all our applications, only some of them. This caused shadow IT problems. Cost was also a factor in our decision.
SHUBHAM BHINGARDE - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 8, 2024
A tool to help businesses create a blockage for external traffic
The tool improved the security in our company's virtualized environment, as it was helpful in creating an additional layer of security for the organization and for the use of the internet. The tool was the most important product to be implemented in the organization. To be able for our organization to build our services, we need to operate inside a certain network while ensuring that the outside traffic gets blocked by using the firewall services from the tool, as it helps to create a secure network inside our company. Without the tool in our organization, our network would have been compromised. The aforementioned area consists of details related to how the tool helps with the workload protection aspect. I recommend the solution to others who plan to use it since it helps in areas where it helps block a particular website with the help of the firewall functionalities that it possesses. The tool also helps block outside traffic, and it is mandatory to implement a firewall as an organization grows for the smooth operations of business. I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."
"I am "headache free" that I don't have to categorize all the websites and that security has been pre categorized by the people, and that the services are getting updated. At least one part of my problem is over."
"Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."
"It is very flexible to use."
"The security features that they have are quite good. On top of that, their licensing model is quite nice where they don't charge you anything for the SD-WAN functionality for the firewall."
"Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the different types of profiling. It has been the most effective for me. The WAF and the antivirus profile are the most effective in network protection."
"The customization potential is quite impressive."
"As a system administrator my favourite part of Check Point is the smart view tracker. This alone is a must-have tool for tracking all traffic traversing the Check Point appliance."
"The platform helps our organization to save working hours."
"The most valuable feature of Check Point NGFW is it is a complete solution for protecting not only the network but the applications. Additionally, it provides a hybrid cloud solution."
"The central management console has helped with segregation, where planned interventions with management consoles do not have any impact on production or critical business traffic."
"The failover from one device to the other has been seamless and we find that we do not lose ongoing SIP calls or Teams chats."
"We have all the features we want or need in this appliance. It's been good so far."
"The centrally managed firewalls are great."
"The information stored in the logs is very descriptive and includes a lot of details."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The most valuable features are site-to-site connections and UTM."
"It has allowed us to centralize every network service into one appliance."
"This product is affordable and it's a good, high-performance appliance."
"The solution integrates well with other Fortinet products."
"Fortinet FortiGate-VM is very easy to create the user of VPN, allowing them to use it quickly. Additionally, the integration and interface are good."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are the ease of use, IPS system, application filter, web filtering, and email security. Additionally, there is a migration tool that other vendors do not provide. We only need to upload the configuration file to the tool, and it converts everything, except the passwords, and gives us the new configuration, which we can directly upload on the firewall. This migration process takes a maximum of 15 minutes."
"We are able to closely monitor the usages of individual users and see their usage habits and other items, including the data itself, which gives us quite a bit of visibility."
 

Cons

"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."
"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the protection, it did not prevent us from being attacked. Additionally, Fortinet FortiGate could provide more features for WAF devices. I should not have to purchase two solutions, it would be a benefit to combine these features into one solution."
"The firmware updates are sometimes not stable. The stability issues can vary, sometimes happening once a month or quarterly. New firmware updates can occasionally introduce bugs, causing some policies to fail. We then have to raise a ticket, and Fortinet usually provides a fix within a few days."
"We'd like more management across other integrations."
"I would like reporting to be improved and should offer a lot more tools to monitor the products."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"We would like to see an upgrade to the VPN feature, we are using the VPN from outside of our office and there is a limitation to 10 connections, more connections would be suitable."
"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."
"The interface could be better."
"Management: Check Point should move away from its current architecture wherein it mandatorily requires a management server to manage the gateways. They should develop A feature in the gateway itself so that no management server is needed for policy and gateway management."
"Sometimes, the firewall doesn't pick up on certain things. If an attacker is clever and uses a low-profile indicator, the firewall might flag an anomaly but not give enough information to decide if it's worth investigating. The threat intelligence component also has challenges. It doesn't always tie alerts to active campaigns or threat actor groups. We often have to do extra work and use other products to figure these out."
"Check Point should include additional management choices; for example, Check Point does not offer full management support via browser."
"Support for customers really needs to improve."
"Interoperability with other vendors is not the strongest when it comes to setting up VPNs."
"Check Point doesn't warn us when rules are about to expire. It was also inconvenient that we had to change hardware when we upgraded. It would be nice if they made the new version compatible with current hardware or if it only required a minor upgrade."
"Check Point could do better to include acceleration technologies like SD-WAN in an integrated or embedded way to provide these new features that Check Point never had and is of great importance in the market."
"It has a monitoring tool, but it could be improved."
"Technical support could be improved."
"The price is sometimes very expensive.​"
"There should be more options to use lower-end models in a high availability configuration."
"With FortiGate, we sometimes encounter bugs in various operating systems."
"Some issues with connecting to the VPN from home after firmware updates."
"VM should be more optimized."
"I have worked on some of the largest and smallest solutions that Fortinet sells and they all scale really well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of FortiGate support is too expensive."
"The pricing is fair."
"I do not have first-hand experience with the rice of Fortinet FortiGate, but I have heard the price was reasonable."
"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."
"The price of FortiGate is reasonable as I plan to buy new switches. The initial gadgets are already booted, and the pricing seems normal on the market. As for additional costs, I haven't subscribed to many extra features, so I'm only using what I need. Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us."
"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
"It scales well if you know what to buy from a physical box standpoint. They seem to offer something for every level."
"The licensing costs are very low."
"The technology itself is impressive, but I find the pricing a bit on the higher side."
"We have to consider things, cost-wise, when we are expanding into other locations. We don't have the budget to use it in other platforms... Check Point is really costly."
"The price of this product is not too costly and you do not need to pay for all of the features."
"The prices are good for its features. The benefit of its license is we get timely security prevention updates. The price is good for the technology that we get."
"There are competitors that have more expensive solutions than Check Point NGFW, such as Palo Alto. There are times when Check Point NGFW can have good offerings with a three-year license. The presence of Palo Alto has been heavily invested in marketing."
"Maybe the pricing is a bit high but you get the durability and the duration."
"Check Point NGFW is not a cheap solution."
"Check Point offers the same applications and features as Palo Alto for roughly a third of the price."
"The price could be lower."
"There is an annual license required to use the solution."
"It would be nice to have the ability to extend FortiGuard subscriptions at a reasonable yearly cost versus a bulk three year pricing.​"
"It is more expensive than its competitor, e.g. Sophos."
"Of all the firewalls that we compared, FortiGate is the cheapest and most affordable, so we are satisfied with the pricing."
"It is a medium-priced product."
"The license can be purchased at intervals of one, three, and five years."
"There are no additional costs beyond the standard fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
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 ...
How does Check Point NGFW compare with Fortinet Fortigate?
I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such). -Ch...
Which would you recommend - Azure Firewall or Check Point NGFW?
Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall ...
What do you like most about Check Point NGFW?
Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion...
Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it...
Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM?
An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured.
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
 

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
Control Southern, Optimal Media
Security7 Networks, COOPENAE
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point NGFW vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.