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Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Fortinet FortiGate comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Cisco Secure IPS delivers effective threat detection and aligns with security needs, but setup costs concern some users' ROI evaluations.
Sentiment score
5.9
Fortinet FortiGate offers cost savings, enhanced productivity, and robust security, leading to high ROI and user satisfaction.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
BDM Fortinet & BDM Teamlead at Exclusive Networks
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Staff Infrastructure & Security Engineer at Mozn Systems
When investing in cybersecurity with Fortinet FortiGate 200, which costs more than $10,000, companies that are growing directly can expect ROI within 1.5 to 3 years.
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Secure IPS support is generally well-regarded for responsiveness and skill, despite some regional inconsistencies and initial contact issues.
Sentiment score
6.5
Fortinet FortiGate's customer service is responsive and helpful but needs improvement in response times for high-priority issues.
Fortinet, on the other hand, offers quicker response times and same-day RMAs, which gives them an edge in customer service.
Head Of Technical Operations at ITE
The response was fast, and they provided experts to solve our issues quickly.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
A few years ago, I had a very bad situation. We lost a lot of money, and I opened for the first time in my life, a case with priority one. The person responsible for the ticket didn't respond for two days.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Cisco Secure IPS is praised for scalability and centralized management but criticized for hardware limitations and high scaling costs.
Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiGate is praised for scalable adaptability and seamless integration but requires hardware upgrades for high-performance needs.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
IT Manager at Daltons Limited
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
Cewa Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
General Surgery Specialist at Helwan University Cairo
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Secure IPS is mostly stable but experiences software glitches, upgrade issues, and faces preferences for alternative solutions.
Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for reliable stability and dependable uptime, even under heavy loads and high availability setups.
The software situation with Cisco is problematic.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I recommend it to other users, but I am concerned about stability, as the stability is not adequate.
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
Manager, Information Technology at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
CISO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Secure IPS requires better SIEM integration, enhanced user-friendliness, centralized management, intuitive UI, and improved support and documentation.
Fortinet FortiGate users desire better third-party integration, intuitive interfaces, comprehensive support, and resolution of cost, stability, and performance issues.
Incorporating AI capabilities would enhance its functionality.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
CLI is very important in professional working, and it was an unwise decision by Cisco to remove it.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I am aware that we are not measuring some metrics or tracking access through Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS).
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It is how quickly each of these companies adapts to that and brings in more value to the customer.
Principal Consultant at Epitome Infotech Solutions (P) Ltd
The main area for improvement in Fortinet FortiGate is the firmware versions, as we face uncertainties regarding upgrades and frequent bugs that require self-fixing of problems.
Senior Manager IT at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Secure IPS is seen as expensive, justified by robust features, but less cost-effective for smaller businesses.
Fortinet FortiGate offers competitive pricing and good value with included features, though costs may be high for small businesses.
It's cheaper to integrate with existing IT security solutions compared to other expensive brands with subscription costs.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
I would rate the price for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) as high.
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
IT Infrastructure Architect at Apotek 1
It is about 20% cheaper.
Network Security Engineer at TD SYNNEX
The advantages of Fortinet FortiGate over its competitors include good pricing and meeting our requirements at a lower cost.
Information Technology Infrastructure Section Head at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Secure IPS provides advanced threat detection, scalability, integration capabilities, and centralized management, enhanced by Talos and Cisco Firepower.
Fortinet FortiGate offers integrated security, user-friendly management, and cost-effective protection, enhancing network performance and security seamlessly.
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) helps me with the visibility component, providing visibility across more than 3,000 applications using Firepower IPS.
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is quite powerful for threat detection and includes botnet detection.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
They can discover new versions of malware, which is very beneficial.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
They put in a thing called the FortiCookbook, which is very easy to read with real-life scenarios that make networking tasks like joining networks very straightforward.
IT Manager at Daltons Limited
The firewall and VPN features are the most valuable in protecting our customers' networks.
Sales & Support at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The most valuable feature is the deep inspection for traffic, which is capable of identifying zero-day attacks.
Consultant at SKYE AS
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiGate
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
594
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is 3.4%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 8.5%, down from 17.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate8.5%
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)3.4%
Other88.1%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer373227 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Marketing strengths shine but regaining user trust needs significant effort
There are numerous things that could be improved about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) to get it back on track. Sollution for small branches: when we have to connect a lot very small branches (or sometimes only an ATM) we need something small, with LTE and with reasonable price. Cisco response is SDWAN but it is not always the case. Recently Cisco released some small firewalls but I have not tried them yet. Central management with FMC is a very good idea, but sometimes local management or monitoring is helpfull. With Cisco You have to decide: central or local. You cannot have both. Regarding usability, when you commit configuration on Cisco, it sometimes takes very long. Commits also take some time for the competition, but Cisco is definitely lagging behind the rest in this respect. Last but not least, for me as a professional is lack of CLI. With CLI, I can configure every firewall on the market except Cisco. CLI is very important in professional working, and IMHO it was an unwise decision by Cisco to remove it. Graphical interfaces are very nice, but when you've got thousands of objects in a big installation and have to configure many things, CLI is a much faster way to do it.
Yati Gharat - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at Litmus
Unified security management has simplified data center protection and optimized branch connectivity
In my opinion, a potential area of improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is that while it has a pretty good dashboard, which is not an issue as such, when we talk about hardware parameters, sometimes the hardware gets pretty heated up. Given the amount of traffic going through it, that is fine. However, the heat of the hardware has to be looked into. Fortinet FortiGate firewall is good, but other products like the switching part and all that fabric, in handling very audio-video traffic, sometimes it struggles on the switching part, but on the routing part, it is fine. On the firewall part, it is good; there is no issue as such up till now. Additionally, I suggest that Fortinet can add software which is in a controlled way, particularly regarding AI and ML. It should not happen that the AI/ML takes certain decisions which are not beneficial for the organization. The control should remain with the team members who are responsible for configuring this firewall.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) solutions are best for your needs.
907,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees
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
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business372
Midsize Enterprise138
Large Enterprise195
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco NGIPS?
I would rate the price for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) as high.
What needs improvement with Cisco NGIPS?
I am aware that we are not measuring some metrics or tracking access through Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS). In my opinion, Cisco could improve the Web GUI for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS).
What is your primary use case for Cisco NGIPS?
Our main use case for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is in-line traffic control, and we are using IPS in an in-line mode.
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

Sourcefire NGIPS, Firepower NGIPS
Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Electric Power, Huntington Bank, Keycorp, Nationwide, Transunion, Marriott, Inova Health, Ford, Thomson Reuters, Dow Chemical, Equifax, Chevron, Walmart, Coca Cola
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 Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs. Fortinet FortiGate and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
907,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.