Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Fortinet FortiGate comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
2nd
Ranking in WAN Edge
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (4th)
Fortinet FortiGate
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
1st
Ranking in WAN Edge
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
314
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd)
 

Q&A Highlights

NC
Aug 23, 2021
 

Featured Reviews

MOHAMEDELSHERIF - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 17, 2023
Good centralization and manageability for edge routers but quite expensive
Our company uses the solution to provide secure connections for customers.  We have a hybrid data center model that bridges the gap between cloud and on-premises for customers. It is a mixed design to consolidate resources.  We also replace expensive NBLS lines with SDN and the internet to provide…
Esubalew-Berihun - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 10, 2023
Easy to manage with reasonable pricing and good monitoring
We primarily use the solution for security purposes. We use it as a firewall for protection.  It helps protect our users, and we are able to initiate our own policies. It also provided good visibility and reporting.  The management is very easy. It offers very good security features.  The…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the ease of central management."
"The integration of Layer 3 and application routing is great."
"Installation is easy."
"Cisco is an industry leader, so customers have a high level of trust with the brand more-so than with some newcomers that might have some more revolutionary solutions, but no name recognition."
"The solution's application control and application traffic steering tool are its most valuable aspects in terms of how we utilize the product."
"The segmented traffic it provides is the best in the industry right now."
"If one of your ISPs goes down or has latency in your environment, Cisco SD-WAN will detect the issue and explain why the ISP is down."
"The primary advantage we've observed is the simplification of deployment, leading to decreased IT costs and enhanced operational efficiency."
"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."
"FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features."
"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."
"It has improved our security capabilities."
"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution."
"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."
 

Cons

"The solution could be more secure. Security is always a priority for us."
"Cisco SD-WAN doesn't have automation capabilities, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and isn't IOT-based."
"Since Cisco acquired Viptela, the stability of this solution has given problems since it is quite new."
"It would be very helpful if we had better access to a knowledge base, or online documentation, to help both us and our customers learn to use this solution."
"Cisco SD-WAN is not as easy to deploy as the Meraki and FortiGate solutions. The zero-touch deployment could be a lot better. The deployment and initial setup are complicated and could be better."
"The product should improve its prices."
"I would like them to add some more SD-WAN ports. We have seen one implementation where there were four ISPs. Currently, we have a maximum of two ports for ISP in this device. Therefore, we cannot connect directly, and we need other switches. There should be some option to have more than two ports for SD-WAN."
"We had some issues with Cisco SD-WAN but somehow we troubleshot it and things are going well. The issues have not been a large problem."
"Bandwidth usage in reporting could be improved for Fortinet FortiGate."
"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."
"The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now."
"It should be more stable. There should be full integration within Fortinet products themselves as well as with other third-party products. Especially when you're not dealing with SIEM and the correlation of the security box, we want Fortinet to be able to share that information with as many other products as it can."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
"One issue that I have had is that sometimes I need to monitor the traffic, so I need to filter it according to the user and which user is using it the most. I experience a bottleneck most of the time, particularly at the peak time when the number of contracts and users are at maximum."
"Lacks training for new features."
"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We can only buy three-year licenses, not monthly. The cost seems high for us, especially since we're in Vietnam, which isn't a rich country. But we still like the product because it is good."
"We pay for the Cisco Customer Care support, which is a couple of hundred dollars."
"It's expensive. If you compare Cisco with Fortinet and Juniper, you'll find that Cisco is more expensive than other vendors."
"The pricing of this solution is very expensive."
"I give the price a seven out of ten."
"The price is high."
"The pricing is fair, and it's on par with the market vendors. But based on the competition, Cisco could work on the pricing, go deep on discounts and provide more commercially viable solutions to customers."
"The product is not too expensive."
"The price depends on the size of the company. From the beginning, you just want to know the internet bandwidths, speed, and the number of users to be able to offer the right product and model. They have a lot of products in FortiGate according to the size of the company, like 200D and 300D."
"Fortinet Secure SD-WAN delivered the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) per Mbps among all other vendors."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is the lowest in the market."
"If you compare Fortinet FortiGate with Sophos and other firewall products available in the market, this solution is affordable."
"I would rate the pricing a five out of ten"
"Compared to other firewall products, it's a little cheaper in terms of pricing."
"Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate when compared to other solutions is high. However, my knowledge of the price is from third parties and I am not sure how accurate it is. I typically work in the technical area of my organization."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions solutions are best for your needs.
801,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
40%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco SD-WAN?
When considering the most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN, the decoupling of self-monitoring stands out significantly.
What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?
Customers collaborate with ISPs and currently work with three ISPs, using options like LSM VPN and MPLS VPN to reduce line costs. They are considering moving from their current setup to an MPLS VPN...
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 at large. In my opinion, Fortinet would be the best option and l use Fortinet too...
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 the firewalls change every 5 to 7 years as stated but you really do need to upg...
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 good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
 

Also Known As

Cisco SD-WAN
FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Fortinet FortiGate and other solutions. Updated: September 2024.
801,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.