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Darktrace vs Fortinet FortiOS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.3
Darktrace's threat prevention boosts security, saves costs, and offers significant value, especially for online businesses, despite quantification challenges.
Sentiment score
8.0
Fortinet FortiOS offers scalability, ease of use, and competitive pricing, enhancing ROI despite borderline scenarios in some cases.
Using this solution provides financial benefits by securing from server attacks, which offers indirect savings.
Once it is deployed, I do not have to revisit or replace the hardware.
The pricing of FortiOS is competitive and reasonable compared to other leading products such as Palo Alto and Check Point.
Fortinet is strong in terms of cost and compatibility with other vendors.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace support is praised for its responsive and efficient service, though a few cite improvement areas for complex issues.
Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiOS support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow responses and underqualified teams on complex issues.
Darktrace provides excellent technical support with a monthly meeting to review platform incidents, ensuring the system functions as expected.
The technical support from Darktrace is of high quality.
The response time and quality are satisfactory.
I would rate them nine or ten out of ten.
Fortinet technical support is very responsive and helpful.
Support engineers sometimes lack eagerness to assist with issues such as the memory problem.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace is praised for its scalability, efficiently managing large networks with flexible deployment despite cost concerns, excelling in diverse environments.
Sentiment score
8.8
Fortinet FortiOS excels in scalability, supporting diverse environments and expansion, despite some hardware limitations requiring forward planning.
Since it's cloud-based, it expands easily.
Darktrace has high scalability, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
When customers' networks grow and needs expand, we can easily switch between models to trade up devices.
It allows for the expansion of users and devices without additional licensing costs.
Fortinet FortiOS is scalable, allowing the addition of users and firewalls as required.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Darktrace is highly stable, with users rating it 8-10, citing reliability despite rare minor issues like human error.
Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiOS is praised for high stability, with rare issues quickly resolved, outperforming competitors like Cisco and SonicWall.
The stability of Darktrace is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
While the product is largely stable, it sometimes faces memory issues in specific versions like 11 OE, which can be disruptive.
Stability is a seven out of ten because during version migrations, and sometimes with new versions, Fortinet is not as good.
I would rate the stability of FortiOS as an eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Darktrace needs better integration, a simpler interface, automation enhancements, flexible pricing, improved documentation, and expanded notifications.
Fortinet FortiOS needs enhanced VPN, hardware compatibility, reduced update size, improved GUI functionality, and better pricing and reporting tools.
There is no dedicated salesperson in Egypt, and having one would help to improve focus on this market.
There are still some issues with the network capturing or blocking traffic even after implementing exceptions.
The management dashboards and the meter dashboards should be more user-friendly and simple to use for easy management.
Fortinet FortiOS faces memory issues, which can lead to unexpected downtimes.
There should be more documentation on how to use the CLI or how to perform CLI versions of tasks that can be done through the GUI.
Compared to other market leaders like Palo Alto and Check Point, FortiOS has many bugs in its initial releases.
 

Setup Cost

Darktrace is costly for small businesses but offers flexible plans and pricing varies with devices and modules chosen.
Fortinet FortiOS is cost-effective initially but pricier for renewals, suitable for mid-sized to large enterprises.
The product is considered expensive compared to others.
It is an affordable solution for us.
Fortinet products are somewhat pricey, similar to Cisco equivalents, however, they have justified their price point.
The pricing for Fortinet is medium, especially when compared to expensive competitors like Cisco and Palo Alto.
 

Valuable Features

Darktrace excels in AI threat detection, real-time monitoring, and autonomous response, offering seamless integration and an intuitive interface.
Fortinet FortiOS is praised for user-friendly features, robust threat detection, and seamless integration, making it a top security choice.
The features that are most valuable to me include detection, response with analytics, and network detection.
The most valuable features are the AI and advanced learning tools that distinguish it from other products.
Darktrace is valuable since it offers full packet capture and detailed metadata.
The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs.
It is user-friendly when it comes to turning on features, and it has been reliable and effective.
The solution offers good threat intelligence, which is crucial for our customers' security purposes.
 

Categories and Ranking

Darktrace
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (9th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), AI-Powered Chatbots (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (16th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (12th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (3rd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Fortinet FortiOS
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Darktrace is designed for Extended Detection and Response (XDR) and holds a mindshare of 10.0%, down 10.5% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiOS, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 1.0% mindshare, up 1.0% since last year.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Peter-Murphy - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables proactive threat detection and immediate response through AI monitoring
The most valuable feature of Darktrace is its ability to detect and counter threats before they occur. The autonomous response capability is always enabled, blocking threats immediately without hesitation. Additionally, the Darktrace email platform is a significant asset since it addresses incoming threats before they reach the network, enhancing our security measures. Protecting the business is essential, and ensuring security through 24/7 AI monitoring is invaluable.
Harshama Silva - PeerSpot reviewer
We have improved network security with user-friendly controls and high threat intelligence
FortiOS is very user-friendly and easy to configure for L1, L2, and L3 personnel. Its web filtering, application control, and IPS features are very user-friendly, easy to manage, and deploy. The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs. FortiOS allows us to expand the number of users and devices as our network needs grow.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing user interface that makes setup easy and seamless. CrowdStrike Falcon offers a cl...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is meant for smaller to medium-sized businesses. It is also a good option for organ...
What do you like most about Darktrace?
A very useful feature in Darktrace for real-time threat analysis is the packet inspection that analyzes the packet traffic in real time.
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 kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiOS?
The SSL VPN is fee for use is most attractive.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiOS?
I rate the pricing for FortiOS as eight or nine out of ten. It is an affordable solution for us.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Wazuh and others in Extended Detection and Response (XDR). Updated: February 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.