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Fortinet FortiADC vs Fortinet FortiWeb 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiADC
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (7th)
Fortinet FortiWeb
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Fortinet FortiADC and Fortinet FortiWeb aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Fortinet FortiADC is designed for Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and holds a mindshare of 9.8%, up 7.4% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiWeb, on the other hand, focuses on Web Application Firewall (WAF), holds 8.1% mindshare, up 7.1% since last year.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

Saeid Khanipour Ghobani - PeerSpot reviewer
High-level load balancing and routing protocols but scalability is limited to 200 gigabits
The initial setup and configuration are very easy because the solution includes a simple OS. Initial configuration takes about ten minutes for simple environments. It is important to assess the environment and decide what services, servers, and web applications are needed. The solution can be configured in router mode or one-arm mode which uses source NAT as destination NAT to send traffic to the firewall. One-arm mode is more complex and requires discussions with our engineers. For example, you have a website with Node.js for your programming language, Amazon S3 for your CDN, NGINX for your web server, and you use both React and reCAPTCHA. Our team meets with your developer to learn your website and OS through a multi-step process and then we configure the solution to protect everything.
Kacem CHAMMALI - PeerSpot reviewer
Even if an attacker detects the IP address, they can't connect directly to the server due to FortiWeb
The xFF, or X-Forwarded-For feature, IP reputation, and protected hostname. We can block access using the IP address, so no one can connect to our web server or website using the real IP. They need to use the FQDN instead. Even if an attacker detects the IP address, they can't connect directly to the server due to FortiWeb and the option to protect the hostname. All traffic passes through FortiWeb. Machine learning capabilities in FortiWeb: I don't use machine learning all the time. In the initial phase of FortiWeb deployment, we use the learning process to detect the traffic passing through FortiGate to our website.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Because ADC is the intermediary between the servers and the end-user application, it gives thorough information about the traffic, what the problem is."
"Key features include SSL Offloading, VM availability, and L7 load balancing."
"The solution enhances performance by efficiently balancing the load across multiple backend servers."
"The product has flexible and interesting licensing options."
"From a technical perspective, it is the most scalable device from Fortinet."
"This ensures that clients can connect to their applications without interruption."
"Although FortiADC has multiple features that I like, the global DNS is the most helpful. It is primarily useful for customers with huge environments and at least two data centers. FortiADC can act as your DNS server. It can check which data center has the lowest latency, and route traffic to that one. It's an intelligent DNS."
"Fortinet FortiADC is a good product because each and every piece of content is monitored by it."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is Fail-Open."
"It is a stable product."
"The most valuable feature is ease of use."
"Even though most products have the same functionality nowadays, FortiWeb is easy to integrate."
"All the features that FortiGate contains are very suitable for our business. We work with other products in Fortinet, FortiWeb, FortiSandbox, FortiMail, and FortiCache. We use all UTM features like self-encryption, encryption, all UTM features."
"It helps us prevent attacks on servers."
"The ability to configure multiple policies for different requirements is a strong feature of Fortinet FortiWeb."
"The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats."
 

Cons

"Setup could be easier. The company's homework is to redesign those menus to configure with the smallest number of steps."
"Fortinet has some drawbacks, and it can be a bit challenging to scale."
"Technical support and documentation could both be improved."
"The configuration is relatively complex."
"The solution needs to integrate sFlow. sFlow provides better visualization of the bandwidth and types of traffic passing through the device. When used in the traffic path, this information can be really useful."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"I think it would be helpful if Fortinet put more video examples on their cookbook site."
"There is a mismatch between the number of features they are offering and the device capacity on how much it can handle."
"The interface could have the interdependent elements arranged sequentially and wizards that go through most common deployment actions."
"Describing security rules should be improved. It's tricky to define new feature tools when you want to describe an attack pattern and want to block it."
"FortiWeb does not exist in a cloud-based form. Its only available for deployment as a virtual appliance on AWS and Azure IaaS platforms. Because of the trend to WAF environments, it would be good to have it as a SaaS. Also, FortiWeb would be more competitive if it combined WAF and DDoS protection."
"A user interface or dashboard for troubleshooting is needed."
"​Their support needs improvement."
"When there is downtime at their data center, it becomes a transit point issue for us, causing downtime in our environment as well."
"I would like to see the Application Delivery Control (ADC) and Web Application Firewall (WAF) combined in one device."
"The solution could improve by providing more integration with solutions other than the Fortinet family."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"I rate Fortinet FortiADC's pricing one out of ten. It is fixed."
"Our basic license excludes features such as antivirus and IDS. Due to license limitations, some functionalities are not configured."
"They offer a perpetual license."
"The product has average pricing. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
"The solution is less expensive than F5 or Imperva and is the most reasonably priced option available."
"The solution's pricing is an issue and should be improved."
"Compared to F5, FortiADC pricing is better."
"FortiWeb is more expensive than some competing products."
"The license to use Fortinet FortiWeb is approximately $14,000."
"Previously, for each project, the cost was $800 to $1,000 per application. Now, it's $100 to $120. For some of the applications, there is a 90% reduction, and for some of the applications, there is a 50% reduction. We're paying only $500 to $600."
"It is fine now. We had to earlier negotiate the price."
"The maintenance fee for this product could be improved."
"It keeps changing, but it's based on the size of the VM you buy and also the traffic throughput you want from it, whereas what we have on Azure is just the traffic throughput. You can also pay on a monthly basis from Azure. During each part of the project, it's okay to get Azure-based licensing or AWS-based licensing for FortiWeb, but over time, you would want to go with the perpetual license. You should go to Fortinet and buy the license from them. So, there is a two-step process there."
"The cost isn't expensive."
"The price is competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
5%
Educational Organization
43%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Is Citrix ADC (formerly Netscaler) the best ADC to use and if not why?
For ADC, any ADC can do a good job. But in case if you want to add WAF functionality to the same ADC hardware you have to look for other ADC's like F5, Imperva, Radware, Fortinet, etc.
Do you recommend Fortinet FortiADC?
I recommend Fortinet FortiADC. My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. Our company has been using it for around five years. We mainly use FortiADC for the load balancing of application ...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiADC?
The user interface is very easy and integrates with Sandbox easily.
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiWeb?
The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiWeb?
I would rate the licensing cost as seven out of ten, considering it good value for money. The price is affordable and reasonable for the features offered.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiWeb?
There is room for improvement in the portability on multi-cloud environments. Enhanced DDoS integration to make FortiWeb more unified with other Fortinet products could be beneficial.
 

Also Known As

FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Lush, Barnabas Health, Options, Riverside Healthcare, Hillsbourough County Schools, Columbia Public Schools, Schiller AG
Find out what your peers are saying about NetScaler, F5, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC). Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.