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FireMon Security Manager vs Fortinet FortiGate Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

FireMon Security Manager
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of FireMon Security Manager is 16.6%, up from 16.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is 5.1%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ganesh-Khutwad - PeerSpot reviewer
Rapid policy insights with robust dashboards and cross-vendor automation
FireMon Security Manager is excellent for real-time compliance management. It allows us to quickly retrieve any policy needed for testing and easily analyze it for loopholes. If a loophole exists, FireMon provides comprehensive details within the policy manager. It alerts us to firewall rule additions or changes that violate compliance policies. It supports various firewall platforms, including Checkpoint, Zscaler, Fortinet, Cisco, and AWS, and provides centralized management for all configured policies through a single console. FireMon Security Manager provides many features, like whether my firewall is compatible with required standards such as NTP and SNMP. Each compliance included in our RFPs is shown in the UI of FireMon. It gives robust and clear dashboards, making it easier to understand risks because the policies have ratings showing usage, and the number of hit attacks. It streamlines our compliance reporting processes by providing comprehensive risk and compliance assessments. It offers a range of features, including verification of firewall compatibility with protocols like NTP and SNMP, and detection of signal charges. FireMon effectively addresses all compliance requirements outlined in our RFPs. For instance, it can determine if firewalls or proxies within a stack are configured in Secure Mode or Active-Active mode. FireMon Security Manager enables us to generate reports on all these aspects, ensuring thorough compliance monitoring and documentation. FireMon Security Manager is robust and can help automate firewall policy changes across large multi-vendor enterprise environments. FireMon Security Manager helps automate firewall policy changes across various environments, including on-premises, cloud, hybrid, SASE, and SD-WAN. It also simplifies cleaning up firewall rules in our environment. The time required to accurately create, approve, and deploy firewall policy rules has been reduced. Tasks that took 30 minutes can now be completed in just five minutes using FireMon. FireMon provides immediate visibility into our policies through a robust and clear dashboard, making it easy to identify errors or misconfigurations based on the policy rating.
IgnitiusMolepo - PeerSpot reviewer
The hub-and-spoke setup is useful because I can manage security from where I am, while the IT engineers in branch offices can handle it on their end.
When we're upgrading, it's sometimes quite challenging, especially firmware. We usually don't upgrade unless we have a bug, and we still feel it's not safe to react instead of being proactive. We often have some delays when updating FortiGuard, too. Nevertheless, I believe that it's okay most of the time with proper management. We also run into some problems using FortiGate as a UTM solution. I feel like maybe they're not giving me a full view of the other components that they have in that box. Their box has some DDoS defense, but I need complete DDoS protection. I must not have light DDoS protection on other UTM boxes because if I'm uncertain about the security posture, it will compromise me. We like having everything in one box because running multiple boxes eats up more resources on the computing level. We need a total solution, not half-half.

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 for me is its capability for cleanup and managing the complexity of security products."
"The most effective feature is the general reporting on compliance."
"The most valuable feature is that everything is recorded in the historical logs, including the firewall rules, headcounts, object-level usage, and the rule documentation. The rule certification details are also there, which means that someone can be held accountable for a specific firewall rule."
"The SQL language is convenient to use. It allows us to process a bunch of criteria very quickly and narrows things down if there is an issue with the firewall. It's easy to do that with SQL queries."
"The most valuable feature is the Firewall reviews for our company compliance."
"The firewall assessment feature is great."
"What I like about FireMon is the ability to track changes made by network engineers on the network."
"FireMon saves us a lot of time and it's nice because if you're adding a rule that's similar to another rule, it'll tell you so sometimes you can just edit the one and add another source or destination in there without creating a duplicate rule. It enables you to consolidate and have fewer, more meaningful rules. We're saving around 30% of our time."
"The IPS and firewall function is valuable in Fortinet FortiGate Cloud."
"It's easy to use and the fact that I can schedule the report to come to my inbox at set times is very convenient for me."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use."
"FortiGate Cloud's key features are the user interface and ease of access."
"Everything is valuable, especially the SD-WAN tunneling, filtering of email, application, and browsing. Everything has value."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has valuable firewall, SSL VPN, and web filtering features."
"The functionality of the solution is excellent."
"The tool is a mature product, ahead of brands like Sophos, though not quite at the Palo Alto or Checkpoint level. I'd rate it nine out of ten for being cost-effective and offering features similar to high-end options."
 

Cons

"It comes as a Linux appliance on a server and we're not a Linux shop, we're more of a Windows shop. It would be great if they could automate or integrate the backups into it and other things through their GUI interface, just to make the management of Linux a little more transparent."
"The issue for me started with Fortinet not being able to see things correctly. It lost its appeal in terms of what it could do for me from a security standpoint, so I do not pay as much attention to it."
"The cost of the solution is pretty expensive. It would be ideal if they could work on their pricing."
"The stability has been fairly decent, but there have been a few issues. My coworker has had some issues in the past where he has had to work with support."
"To my knowledge, there's no cloud component to FireMon whatsoever. We're on the hook for any updates to versioning of the operating system or the application that runs on the operating system. It would be nice if it was a little bit more automated."
"When it comes to identifying risk in our environment and prioritizing fixes, it is really about the different priorities within the organization. FireMon is not so smart that it can tell what's important to us. It's up to us to figure that out."
"I don't like that it comes with bugs, constant issues, and limited functionality."
"The training for configuring new users or operators is confusing because the UI is not user-friendly and has room for improvement."
"Fortinet needs to improve the FortiGate Cloud dashboards that provide information about logs. This type of solution presents a lot of technical complexity from a management standpoint, making it somewhat difficult to understand."
"There could be more network-related information like interpretation response. All the flows are limited and related to devices, certificates, and switches."
"We are seeking a solution that can monitor our network traffic running through 17 firewalls in Malaysia and Indonesia. We want a solution that can record and monitor all the logs from all the firewalls. We want to consolidate all our firewalls into one portal so we can monitor all the activities from all the firewalls."
"I would like to see more reporting from the analysis improved in the future."
"However, the absence of certain features like CLI is a drawback."
"The command-line interface could definitely be improved in future iterations. It's lacking right now."
"The product is not recommended on the basis of technical parameters. It is very tough to authenticate."
"I would like to see a SIEM bundled together with this because customers are looking into better reporting and more proactive security solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding additional costs, if you want things like Policy Optimizer, extra features, that's extra."
"Pricing is reasonable."
"FireMon is cheaper than AlgoSec."
"The pricing was very good during our initial year, but they increased it this year a little bit. The price is okay. It is not cheap, but it is still average."
"We don't license all of the devices in our network, so it does not provide us with a comprehensive visibility of all devices in a hybrid network at this time."
"FireMon is very expensive. I think that they charge a premium. In general, they are very pricey. Compared to their competitors, they cost a little more than the other solutions that we evaluated."
"Relative to what it offers, the price is fair."
"This is an expensive solution. The cost of three modules for three years was approximately one million."
"I would not say that the product is cheaply priced. If I consider the long-term value for the service I receive, the price of the product is excellent."
"The pricing is mid-ranged, it's not very expensive but it's not the cheapest or most affordable in the market."
"The tool's pricing is cheap."
"The costs are reasonable."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is affordable. However, lowering the price would be good for the end-users. The cost of the solution was approximately $800 per year. There are some additional features you can add in addition to the regular features."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is moderately priced. I rate Fortinet FortiGate Cloud a five out of ten for pricing."
"The solution is relatively cost-effective compared to alternatives."
"The solution is mid-priced when compared to other products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FireMon?
I like the Security Manager console where we can see any changes that have been made or pull the results of an assessment and control the policies that we implement.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FireMon?
Comparatively, FireMon has a very good price and is below the general competition in cost. I have not seen any additional fees beyond the general contract fees for the usage I have. So, I have not ...
What needs improvement with FireMon?
For one company I work with, I use Fortinet, and FireMon is not able to understand the zones that Fortinet uses. Part of that compliance piece does not provide me with the necessary information. An...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has valuable firewall, SSL VPN, and web filtering features.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
The pricing of Fortinet FortiGate is very competitive when compared to other industry-leading products such as Palo Alto and Cisco devices.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
There are some areas that need improvement regarding customer support. Fortinet could enhance their customer service by offering more direct remote sessions to resolve issues, as relying solely on ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiCloud, FortiGate Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Convey, MGM Resorts International, Southwest Airlines, Alkami, Costco, Aetna, IBM, Verizon, Wells Fargo
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about FireMon Security Manager vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.