We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Fortinet FortiOS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Good performance, stability, and virtual domain ability."
"The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit."
"Secure, user-friendly, stable, and scalable network security solution. Installation is straightforward."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"Offers good security and filtering."
"FortiGate SD-WAN facilitated a smooth transition for our customers between their two internet service providers, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity without any downtime."
"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
"The VPN was valuable for us because more people are working from home. It has a lot of reporting and easy-to-use management tools."
"Cisco is head-and-shoulders above all of the competition when it comes to technical support."
"The solution is easy to use."
"What I have used the most and received the most benefit from is the IPsec technology."
"The solution effectively integrates with Umbrella."
"I've found their network routing to be very good."
"Cisco IOS Security increases the overall security of our network, performs authentication, and provides level 15 access and privileges."
"Cisco products are very secure and integrate easily with other devices."
"The classification of the websites is helpful."
"We have expanded the wireless access point and switches using Fortinet FortiOS."
"For ten to 12 years it has been quite secure."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the granular control and their interoperability is good."
"The stability of Fortinet meets our requirements and I'm satisfied with it."
"FortiOS's most valuable feature is a next-generation firewall that can be used as the APT solution in advanced threat protection."
"FortiGate as a product is very easy to configure."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the SD-WAN, SSL inspection, and IDS/IPS functions."
"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."
"Its price could be better."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"The stability of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
"The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement."
"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."
"I would love it if it has a link-by-link feature, integration with Unified Threat Management (UTM), and load balancers. They haven't got any link-by-link feature right now, which can be a very attractive option. This link-by-link feature can also be made available for Cisco's UTM firewalls. The link-by-link feature is available in some of the other firewalls. Currently, integration with UTM is missing. Cisco IOS Security also doesn't have the load balancers and a few things that need to be done to get a good UTM firewall. Normally, other firewalls have UTM. As a next-generation firewall, it's good, but as a UTM, it has to do some work."
"If they could increase the performance a little better because the device sometimes gets slow."
"I think setup could be one area for improvement, because sometimes we don't have people inside so we have to move to the place."
"Cisco IOS Security should improve its functionalities."
"The pricing is the only con for this product."
"We need to pay for the license and it is expensive."
"We faced significant challenges related to licensing issues, particularly when licenses expire."
"We cannot directly upgrade the system. The tool's deployment is also very difficult in legacy environments. The tool needs to have bigger ports as well."
"Their first-level support is often poorly trained."
"It would be great if they can push the Microsoft updates through Fortinet OS and provide a centralized patch management system. They should also include the data loss prevention (DLP) and data leakage prevention features. They could also add network monitoring more effectively."
"Lacks flexibility for different scenario configurations."
"Fortinet's central management needs to be improved. FortiManager's technical tool provider ability should manage all Fortinet security products. Right now, FortiManager only manages the configuration of FortiGate."
"I want to see a better integration or a better integration with the endpoint protection or with EDR with the security life cycle."
"The signature discs, compared to Palo Alto, aren't as good. It takes more time to get the signature updates."
"In terms of what needs improvements, the troubleshooting could use improvement. When we work with other products like Cisco ASA, Palo Alto, and Check Point, we see a big difference in the troubleshooting. It's not easy to find a report."
"A switch should be introduced."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 23rd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Netgate pfSense, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Fortinet FortiWeb, Darktrace and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Fortinet FortiOS report.
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