Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs iboss comparison

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Fortinet FortiGate SWG

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

iboss and Fortinet FortiGate SWG are competing secure web gateway products. iboss has an advantage in pricing and support, while Fortinet FortiGate SWG has better features, making it preferred for comprehensive protection.

Features: iboss offers a cloud-native platform, seamless integrations, and advanced threat protection. Fortinet FortiGate SWG includes advanced threat intelligence, secure VPN functionalities, and robust network security features.

Room for Improvement: iboss could enhance its network security features, offer more detailed threat intelligence, and improve VPN functionality. Fortinet FortiGate SWG may require a simpler deployment process, more intuitive integration options, and reduced reliance on hardware support for easier scalability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: iboss is noted for its streamlined, cloud-based deployment minimizing setup time. Fortinet FortiGate SWG requires more complex deployment with dedicated hardware but offers strong customer service.

Pricing and ROI: iboss is recognized for its competitive pricing with lower initial setup costs leading to strong ROI. Fortinet FortiGate SWG offers high long-term ROI with a larger investment needed for enhanced security features.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. iboss Report (Updated: January 2025).

Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. iboss

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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 FortiGate SWG

Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

iboss

Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

12th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Internet Security (4th), Web Content Filtering (4th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (8th), ZTNA as a Service (12th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th)

Featured Reviews

David Carlson

CIO at Camco Mfg.

Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help.

FortiGate is easy to configure. We configured one of the units and sent it to Indiana to be installed. We asked them to give us a call when they got it, so we could help them through the process, but they called us back to tell us it works great. Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help. That was fantastic. Fortinet also offers a single pane of glass that we can use to manage our routers with gateways, so that's convenient. We're running a VPN to our remote location, and the performance is good. We're changing all our VPN connectors on our laptops from Cisco's Anywhere to Fortinet's VPN because the performance is just so much better.

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Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product has the most valuable configuration, offloading, and security features."

"The overall features of Fortinet FortiGate SWG are good."

"The product is easy to install since we only need to follow the user manual, documents, and articles provided by Fortinet to install the product."

"It is simpler to configure. It is not like Cisco Firepower, where you go crazy trying to follow the Cisco documentation to figure out how to configure one little thing. Unlike Cisco Firepower, where you can't do everything through the web interface and you have got to do some command line stuff, Fortinet FortiGate SWG is simpler. There are four different things in Cisco to get in, which is not the case with Fortinet FortiGate SWG. It is one of my favorite solutions to work with. I would much rather work with it than Cisco Firepower, for example. Even though I've got 20 years of Cisco experience with different firewalls, I would much prefer this solution."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate SWG are IPS and scanning."

"The response from the technical support team has always been excellent."

"I am content with its user interface and functionalities."

"The most useful features are application control, web filtering, and SD-WAN."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pros

"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

More iboss pros

Cons

"The product needs to drastically improve its reporting capability."

"They have not yet extended to the cloud."

"Their technical support could be improved a little bit in terms of responsiveness."

"What could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate SWG is its pricing because it's a bit higher. If it's cheaper, my company could pitch it to customers and engage with customers better about it. What I'd like to see in the next release of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an improvement in its dashboard or GUI. I'd like it to be more user-friendly."

"Zero trust could be added. Nowadays, solutions like Zscaler, Netskope, and even SecureWorks combine multiple features into a single product."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG can be expensive for some customers."

"The solution has many heightened points which we cannot get to without working on CLI."

"The UI/UX experience can be a little better."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG cons

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."

"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

"Iboss is growing so fast that it is often hard for them to keep up with the challenges."

More iboss cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"FortiGate SWG is a cost-effective solution well-suited for organisations of all sizes."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an affordable solution."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. The additional cost depends on the extra feature requirements."

"It is a cost-effective solution that meets the user's needs."

"It is around $50,000 per month."

"It is less expensive than a Cisco solution."

"I rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten."

"The price is relatively expensive compared to other solutions which are providing similar features."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pricing and cost advice

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

The interface and other reports are all user-friendly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

The product pricing is moderate and competitive to Palo Alto. I rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap.

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

Fortinet FortiGate SWG can't be used on its own, and you have to get FortiAnalyzer.

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

What needs improvement with iboss?

I have the same complaint about them that I have about other software companies. Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You fe...

What is your primary use case for iboss?

We are a PreK-12 public school district, and we use iboss to filter internet content for our students at home and staff member devices to ensure they do not access inappropriate sites.

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Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate SWG

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Also Known As

FortiGate SWG, FortiGate Secure Web Gateway

iBoss Cloud Platform

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Fortinet

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is a comprehensive web security solution provided by Fortinet. FortiGate SWG combines web filtering, malware protection, data loss prevention (DLP), and application control capabilities into a single integrated platform. It is designed to protect organizations from web-based threats, enforce compliance policies, and provide secure access to web resources.

FortiGate SWG Benefits:

Comprehensive web filtering and security features
Ease of use and management
Integration with other Fortinet products
Strong threat detection capabilities
Scalability and flexibility
Granular control over user access and activity

FortiGate SWG Features:

Web Filtering: FortiGate SWG employs URL filtering and content categorization to control and enforce web access policies.
Malware Protection: The solution provides real-time protection against web-borne threats, such as malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP): FortiGate SWG helps prevent sensitive data from being leaked or exfiltrated through web channels.
SSL Inspection: The solution supports SSL/TLS decryption and inspection, allowing organizations to examine encrypted web traffic for threats and enforce security policies.
Application Control: FortiGate SWG enables granular control over web applications and protocols.
Advanced Threat Intelligence: FortiGate SWG leverages Fortinet's threat intelligence services to provide up-to-date information about emerging threats and zero-day vulnerabilities.
User Authentication and Access Control: The solution supports various authentication methods, including single sign-on (SSO) and integration with identity providers, to ensure secure user authentication and access control for web resources.
Reporting and Analytics: FortiGate SWG provides comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities.

FortiGate SWG is typically deployed as a hardware appliance or as a virtual appliance in on-premises environments, but it may also be available as a cloud-based service. It is part of Fortinet's broader security fabric ecosystem, allowing integration with other Fortinet products to provide a unified and coordinated security infrastructure.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by FortiGate SWG users.

David Carlson, CIO at Camco Mfg., says that "Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help".

Suresh Vijayen, Product Manager at IX Telecom, writes that FortiGate SWG "Provides helpful technical support, but its dashboard needs to be more user-friendly".

Chandan Munshi, Chief Technical Officer at Provision Technologies LLP, states that "The user interface is intuitive. Anyone can configure the firewall with little knowledge of the product. The back-end is robust with good security."

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

Sample Customers

Salt Lake County, Catholic College Bendigo, Azienda Unita Sanitaria

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. iboss