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Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs SonicWall NSv 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
318
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 NSv
Ranking in Firewalls
29th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.7%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.8%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSv is 0.1%, down from 0.1% 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…
Sumesh Panikkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides effective threat prevention and helps improve security
We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution. If I use NSv 400, I can't upgrade to the next generation. We cannot upgrade the VM to the next generation. We have to rebuild a new VM and copy the configurations. We cannot upgrade straightaway. The solution must allow us to upgrade the same machine to a newer version without many changes.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"The solution is scalable."
"The main reason why I purchased the particular unit was that it had good reviews and what other people were saying as far as its completeness and its leading capabilities in terms of endpoint security was very good."
"The ECC management and the GUI that offers single interface management are the most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate."
"The integration with Active Directory is one of the good features. Most of the customers are now looking for the Single Sign-on feature. So, being able to integrate Active Directory with the firewall is useful. It is also easy."
"The most valuable feature is the policy routing and application control."
"The solution is highly scalable because they have devices that can handle a large amount of traffic."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"The pricing of the solution is good."
"It is very useful to make lists for rules and prepare firewall rules."
"GitDM, like FortiGate VM, provides similar features to FortiGate appliances or cloud solutions. However, FortiGate VM is more suitable for heavy traffic and inspection compared to GitDM. Unfortunately, FortiGate VM lacks a dedicated SPU for inspection, and all features rely on CPU and RAM."
"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."
"I like the visibility and monitoring features because they're easy to use to monitor traffic. Features like geo-blocking and more have AI, and we're currently using all of it. But for now, we're only using geo-blocking, and we're able to block traffic from different countries. I also like that it's highly responsive. VM04 is also very powerful."
"It handles our current load with ease, and I think it can handle a bit more. It definitely can handle a lot more capacity than we currently use."
"Use of this product does not require daily interactions."
"All the security features that are built into the product are valuable."
"The customization of firewall rules provides great value to our customers as it allows them to lock things up in the way that they desire. When it is used for internal access, with a VPN in place for remote workers, the firewalling services provided by Azure, such as the default services that can be turned on, are applied. However, the use of a software-based virtual firewall gives us greater flexibility in introducing security controls for customers who are publishing applications that are publicly accessible from the public cloud. This virtual firewall provides an additional layer of security and more extensive security control options to ensure the protection of our customers' valuable information and assets."
"Out of ten, I would rate the solution at an eight."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."
"The product helps improve our security."
"I would rate the overall product a nine out of ten."
"For my small NFB banking services, when they are expanding their branches, I could incorporate a little bit easier."
"SonicWall excelled in threat management, evident in how users handled it effectively."
 

Cons

"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."
"The scalability could be better."
"The SD-WAN functionality is a bit overly complicated and not fully documented."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"Its price could be better."
"Security is a continuous process. In every product, there is a requirement for improvement. Its pricing should also be improved according to Indian market requirements. They must also improve on the reporting part. Its reporting can be more precise. If we can get a real-time report in a specific format, it will be helpful for customers to know about the current status of their security."
"Regarding challenges, customers initially faced issues like internet dropping, but after firmware upgrades, everything worked well."
"In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly."
"The product may not be as robust as Palo Alto. However, unless you are a big bank, you probably won't need it to be."
"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."
"I have worked on some of the largest and smallest solutions that Fortinet sells and they all scale really well."
"The previous version 5.6 had integrated features for logging, monitoring, and management. Now, these features require separate products like FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and a FortiCloud subscription for reporting."
"The product needs to focus on cloud-nativeness and pricing."
"There should be more options to use lower-end models in a high availability configuration."
"Sizing can be challenging for customers interested in using Fortinet FortiGate-VM."
"I think Fortinet should provide us with more reporting from the AI/ML point of view. They could also offer the SaaS application in a single box. The VPN and ZTNA have so many verticals that they work as a standalone solution. They need to be in a single box."
"There are limitations to bandwidth management."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
"The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support."
"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."
"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."
"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."
"SonicWall NSV's SSL VPN could increase its number of users to 100-plus users."
"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The Indian market is different than the European and American markets. When you compare they need to be a bit more aggressive on pricing."
"The price is fair compared to the other competitors."
"The pricing of the solution is very competitive."
"Compared to other firewall products, it's a little cheaper in terms of pricing."
"They need to be competitive with other solutions."
"The pricing is perfect."
"The price of FortiGate is good."
"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
"The price falls somewhere in the middle; it's neither cheap nor expensive."
"It has a flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model."
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is very expensive, I rate the solution around two or three. I think the solution's prices are okay, considering the services and features they offer."
"We can tailor the suitable license for the customer, whether they require UTB or enterprise features. The options are flexible based on their needs."
"The price: It is a bit higher than the other competitors. This is why I started to look at other brands."
"There is a need to make payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"It's a mid-ranged product."
"The customer must buy his own license."
"Our initial purchase, which included a three-year term of support, was about $25,000 USD."
"The solution's pricing is good for the technology it offers."
"The solution’s pricing is less compared to other products."
"The tool is moderately priced."
"SonicWall NSV is not very costly."
"We are currently using the trial version."
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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
24%
Government
8%
Legal Firm
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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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 NSV?
The product helps improve our security.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSV?
The tool is moderately priced. We need to purchase an additional license for NSM. We can manage all the firewalls thr...
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSV?
The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support. If I w...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
SonicWall Network Security Virtual
 

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
Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall NSv and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.