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Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs SonicWall NSa comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 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

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
317
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
Ranking in Firewalls
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall NSa
Ranking in Firewalls
18th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.3%, up from 17.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.9%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSa is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

EhabAli - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable
In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.
Pietro Di Blasi - PeerSpot reviewer
Organize networks efficiently while benefiting from strong reliability and support
The main use is for clients who are migrating to the cloud. We started this journey during the pandemic, and the main case is with clients who are moving to either a private or a public cloud The solution allows us to organize our networks and access within one vendor, using an integrated…
MohammedMateen - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to scale advanced threat protection solution with knowledgeable technical support, but has occasional bugs
An area for improvement in SonicWall NSa is that sometimes, we experience bugs when upgrading, so we have to contact their technical support to fix issues. It would be much easier if this improvement was in place: if the one-time password which is built-in, was provided as an OTP for the administrator logging into the console, so that we'll have a quicker awareness of it, rather than needing to check emails for it. Having a Telegram or WhatsApp bot integrated with the device, for example, will be very helpful for us, so we can instantly take action, without us needing to log into and check our emails, meaning we'll be able to put things right faster. This may not be possible in SonicWall NSa, but I'm also looking for any kind of controller or device for the Windows server or client, e.g. Windows 11 and Windows 10 from SonicWall NSa itself, so that a security domain or the gateway of the organization would be able to identify the latest update for a product, whether that product is installed or not. This feature would be very helpful, and it's what I'd like to see in the next release.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"The virtual firewall feature is the most valuable. We have around 1,500 firewalls. We did not buy individual hardware, and the virtual firewalls made sense because we don't have to keep on buying the hardware. FortiGate is easier to use as compared to Checkpoint devices. It is user friendly and has a good UI. You don't need much expertise to work on this firewall. You don't need to worry much about DCLA, commands, and things like that."
"FortiGate is very simple to manage and easy to use."
"The simplicity of the configuration and the stability of the product are most valuable. The VPN concentrator is very useful."
"I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"It's very easy to configure."
"Whenever I need something, Fortinet improves and updates the software for me."
"The setup is simple."
"It's a very simple solution to manage."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its ability to deploy it on live physical hardware. Specifically, when providing firewall services for clients, we can leverage such hardware appliances to support multiple customers on the same hardware."
"We are able to closely monitor the usages of individual users and see their usage habits and other items, including the data itself, which gives us quite a bit of visibility."
"The most valuable feature is the WAN optimization."
"Scalability is an excellent selling point for FortiGate VM."
"It is a complete package, and it has complete offerings. It fit the needs, and our customer is happy with it."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are its flexibility and scalability. This solution is available as a license, which allows us to activate it based on the specific needs of the customer. This gives us and the customer a great deal of versatility and customization options."
"It has excellent stability."
"I really like the performance; there are no delays and no latency, which is a unique quality in firewalls nowadays."
"I like this solution because we are focused on VPN and have many brands that need to link a VPN and have security, like ransomware, spyware, and basic protection."
"The functionality is the same whether it is on hardware or a virtual appliance. The interface is the same. It's nice that it's standardized."
"SonicWall NSa's most valuable features are the ease of configuration and the GUI."
"The most valuable feature is the sandbox."
"The ease of configuration is excellent."
"It is a very stable solution."
 

Cons

"Technical support needs to be improved."
"Currently, without the additional reporting module, we only have access to basic reporting."
"Reporting is limited to providing an external appliance for improving the reporting capabilities of the FortiAnalyzer. It does not offer a central management and is also sold separably as an appliance."
"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."
"They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company."
"It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics."
"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."
"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."
"his is not a good solution for enterprises. It's better for smaller companies."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"In the first two releases of FortiOS 5.6, we had some trouble with the SSL VPN service. Sometimes it stopped working, and the IPS daemon too."
"The solution should provide more useful GUI features."
"I have had a data issue with physical devices that could improve."
"The GUI could be improved."
"Technical support could be improved."
"The tool does not have a good name in the market, consisting of enterprise-class businesses, making it an area where the product lacks and needs to improve."
"It is not scalable. If your enterprise is growing hard then you have to buy another, bigger product. Maybe if you use it virtually it is more scalable."
"It only has a single power interface, which has limitations in terms of high availability."
"It's very hard to manage this box. You really need a lot of skills to operate the SonicWall. There is training and the like, but it's just hard to manage. Even if you have the knowledge, there are too many options. The menus are not very clear, where you should find the information."
"An area for improvement would be SonicWall NSa's integration with antiviruses."
"Certain features like SD-WAN are sometimes confusing to configure."
"I would like to see better integration."
"The product likely isn't a good fit for a large organization."
"Competitors provide SSL encryption licenses for free, whereas SonicWall only provides two licenses by default, but you have to pay for the rest of the licenses."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Work through partners for the best pricing."
"The license for Fortinet FortiGate is affordable in my country."
"The support subscription for the solution is annual. You are paying for support and there are two levels of support, professional and advanced."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable for an SME."
"The pricing is fair."
"If you purchase a one-year subscription with the hardware and then you want to renew for the second year, it is very costly."
"Setup cost may be not so low, as you expect, because it depends on different factors, but TCO for 5 years may pleasantly surprise you."
"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."
"It has a flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model."
"This solution is very expensive."
"I would rate the product's pricing as four out of five."
"The best part of Fortinet is the license is bundled together, so it is easy to use and apply."
"The price of this product is great compared to others."
"Licensing is pretty standard. It's approximately 15% of the total cost per year as a subscription cost."
"There are no additional costs beyond the standard fee."
"Installation does not require another license making it an inexpensive solution."
"When implemented properly, the total cost of operation is very low."
"SonicWall NSa's pricing is subscription-based and I rate it a six out of ten."
"Normally, when we buy any product, we buy it with a five-year service built into it. Later on, depending on the growth of the organization, we go for a new one or an upgrade."
"SonicWall is a one-time purchase and there is no renewal license."
"Additional resources are too expensive."
"You need their analyzer to properly generate reports. This is an expensive, licensed feature, with a complex application or appliance back-end."
"The return on investment is very good."
"There are different pricing models for SonicWall NSa."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
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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...
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 ...
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...
Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM?
An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured.
What do you like most about SonicWall NSa?
The product blocks access when I visit unrecognized websites.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSa?
SonicWall is much cheaper compared to Fortinet, particularly regarding renewal and licensing costs.
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSa?
I would like more free VPN licenses. It would be beneficial if they could enhance the analytics part. It needs to be ...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
NSA 250M, NSA 2600, NSA 3600, NSA 4600, NSA 5600, Dell SonicWALL NSA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Security7 Networks, COOPENAE
Orange County Rescue Mission, First Source, Michaels & Taylor, Green Clinic Health System, Aspire Chiltern Skills and Enterprise Centre, UnitedStack, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, Celtic Manor Resort, Star Kay White, Air Works, Unimat Life, NHS Yorkshire and Humber Commissioning Support (YHCS), Hutt City Council, Mato Grosso do Sul, Nspyre
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall NSa and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.