We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and SonicWall NSv based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Good load balancing feature."
"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."
"The scalability is good in Fortinet FortiGate."
"The security fabric is excellent."
"It has improved our security capabilities."
"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."
"With FortiClient, you can easily connect when you are home, check out what you want to do, and connect to your network when you are not at work. You can switch on servers and you can check what is wrong."
"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."
"I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is easy to operate."
"The most valuable features are the web proxy for protection and web gateway for deployment."
"The setup is simple."
"It's a very simple solution to manage."
"Use of this product does not require daily interactions."
"In terms of administration, it's perfect."
"The combination of SD-WAN and VPN capabilities is the most valuable feature."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."
"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."
"The product helps improve our security."
"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."
"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."
"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."
"We had a minor problem where there was a major system upgrade on the hardware platfrom and the Mac client was not available as soon as it might have been. The PC client was available immediately, but we had to wait a month or so, before there was a mac client. I was slightly irritated that it was not ready on time, but it was eventually resolved."
"It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"It claims it does DLP, but the degree and level of controls are very basic."
"The initial setup is complex."
"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."
"Usually, we sell the bundle with the UTM or threat management piece with IPS, IDS. Other providers, such as Palo Alto, are ahead in terms of safe functionality. So, for me, delivering truly safe service is probably something that still needs to be improved."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"It should have the SD-WAN feature. This would increase the number of features that are available in the box."
"In terms of improvement, there have been some problems with the bandwidth of the security layer."
"The GUI could be improved."
"The stability could be improved. I find Cisco to be more stable than Fortigate, which is I major differentiator between the two."
"The price is problematic."
"There were challenges during setup, and many of them were self-inflicted."
"There should be integration with an active directory — with Microsoft."
"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."
"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."
"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."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."
"There are limitations to bandwidth 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."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while SonicWall NSv is ranked 35th in Firewalls with 7 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while SonicWall NSv is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate-VM writes "An easy-to-manage and configure tool that provides ample documentation to help with the setup phase". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSv writes "Easy to use, stable, and the security features work well". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas SonicWall NSv is most compared with Azure Firewall, SonicWall NSa and SonicWall TZ. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall NSv report.
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