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Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Sophos UTM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
316
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (9th)
Sophos UTM
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 25, 2024
Effective threat prevention with responsive customer support
We are using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall Fortinet FortiGate has been invaluable. It has helped save costs due to its various features, reliable performance, very good UI, low latency, and stability. The Threat Intel engine in Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for its effectiveness in…
SHUBHAM BHINGARDE - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 8, 2024
A tool to help businesses create a blockage for external traffic
The tool improved the security in our company's virtualized environment, as it was helpful in creating an additional layer of security for the organization and for the use of the internet. The tool was the most important product to be implemented in the organization. To be able for our organization to build our services, we need to operate inside a certain network while ensuring that the outside traffic gets blocked by using the firewall services from the tool, as it helps to create a secure network inside our company. Without the tool in our organization, our network would have been compromised. The aforementioned area consists of details related to how the tool helps with the workload protection aspect. I recommend the solution to others who plan to use it since it helps in areas where it helps block a particular website with the help of the firewall functionalities that it possesses. The tool also helps block outside traffic, and it is mandatory to implement a firewall as an organization grows for the smooth operations of business. I rate the tool a ten out of ten.
SherifFouad - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 30, 2022
Gives us the ability to manage our firewalls from the cloud and deploy a unified configuration onto them
From Cyberoam and the early builds of Sophos SG, they have developed higher integration between Sophos UTM and the computers' endpoint antiviruses. We can isolate the infected machine from the network, but an IT technician or cybersecurity professional can remove it from the machine and disinfect it. It has the capability of blocking HTTPS traffic, but you need the Sophos Central Intercept X subscription for that. It gives us the ability to manage our firewalls from the cloud and deploy a unified configuration onto them. Other competitors like Meraki have that ability, but they fail to optimize it in the way that Sophos has.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"I appreciate FortiGate's flexibility, which allows for centralized management through FortiManager."
"FortiGate is more feature-rich and has a broader range of hardware. T"
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle."
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"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."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the rules and quality of service."
"It is very versatile."
"While the stability maybe isn't quite to the level of Cisco, it is a very cost-effective solution. It's cheap compared to Cisco."
"Web filtering and the IPS functionality."
"The tool improved the security in our company's virtualized environment, as it was helpful in creating an additional layer of security for the organization and for the use of the internet."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are the servers, analyzer, and track protection."
"It has allowed us to centralize every network service into one appliance."
"One notable feature is the SD-WAN, which is a strong component of the FortiGate-VM. The fabric feature is also good, but not all customers use FortiGate's networking components, such as the switches."
"It gives all the features of a full-fledged firewall with great performance."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the firewall application and application control."
"Scaling out cannot be easier, as there are many migration paths."
"Has great security features and does a good job of protecting the network."
"Stability-wise, I rate this solution a ten out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate this solution a ten out of ten."
"It is a very good product. The threat monitoring process is the most valuable feature."
"I would recommend UTM over XG because it's easier to manage."
"Sophos UTM is the simplest of these products to setup."
"The UTM features are reasonably strong and the patterns are updated on a regular basis"
 

Cons

"The support system could be improved."
"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."
"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."
"There are some complex administration tasks in their administration portal. That needs to be improved."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
"My only complaint about FortiGate is a lack of QinQ VLAN tunneling. I haven't found this feature in any Fortinet product. You can do this on all Cisco routers, including the smaller models. However, QinQ isn't available on the biggest, most expensive Fortinet units. They still don't have that. I think now we're on software version 6.0, and they still haven't found a solution for QinQ. It isn't a dealbreaker, but that's my main complaint."
"One of the features that I would like to have is to do with endpoint production, it should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included."
"It would be better if it could provide you with options before completely blocking anything through the web filter. If you are doing a deep SSL inspection on the site if it says it's expired, it doesn't give you the option to continue at your own risk. I can't say that it's bad, but SSL internally isn't really a requirement. However, its security features can help. Right now, we have people going out and spending on purchasing the SSL certificates for internal sites."
"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."
"Some issues with connecting to the VPN from home after firmware updates."
"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."
"The graphical user interface should be enhanced."
"They could enhance the product's functionality for more comprehensive threat detection and mitigation, especially for large-scale deployments."
"They should keep us up to date about the latest version. That's the biggest thing. Currently, we have to go looking for the latest version. We should get notified about what's going on with the versions. I would like to see easier dual-factor authentication."
"Deployment can be difficult and they could dispense with reliance on FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer."
"The solution's technical support for India needs to be improved."
"I think that additional metrics features are needed to be able to monitor other areas or to monitor as much as you can, at a fine-grain resolution."
"I would like some features that are available in other brands. For example, I sometimes a person is using too much bandwidth, and it isn't easy to find this information in Sophos. Also, we have to switch connections manually when we are using a VPN and lose the MPLS connection. It isn't automatic."
"Sophos UTM could be simplified, and they can improve on the many other features, like SD-WAN and load balancing. Sophos UTM is missing a few features that their competitors have. For example, if you have multiple branches you would like to connect, the load balancing features aren't available on multilink. If we create a VPM for multiple LAN links, we cannot load balance the traffic."
"Sophos UTM could improve the way the configuration has to be done. I have to do the configuration through the command line interface but if it could be done through the graphical user interface it would be much better."
"I would like to see the SD-WAN feature improved."
"The solution could be improved by adding cloud soundboxing."
"It would be nice if it had basic features, such as DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."
"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."
"For the price, I'd rate it a ten because it's very cost-effective."
"The Indian market is different than the European and American markets. When you compare they need to be a bit more aggressive on pricing."
"Pricing is good. They offer a lot of things, the most important is the support. Every time you upgrade your license, you also get insurance for the equipment. If you have any problem with equipment, they send in new equipment."
"We have the full version of Fortinet FortiGate and we are on a three-year contract with a commitment of five years."
"By default, they give SD-WAN along with the firewall. They don't have separate licensing for the SD-WAN functionality. However, they have security licenses that are sold separately on a subscription basis. Customers can consume these security features to protect their users from internet traffic."
"The price range is quite acceptable and normal."
"There is a support fee that can be bought on a yearly or two-yearly basis. I don't think they do five years. The best benefit is that the same pricing is guaranteed for that duration. If you can afford it, I would recommend using the longest possible time span."
"It is more expensive than its competitor, e.g. Sophos."
"There are no additional costs beyond the standard fee."
"There is an annual license required to use the solution."
"It is a medium-priced product."
"VMs can be affordable, but for high-demand scenarios, I'd still recommend the hardware. For the cost, it's a ten out of ten."
"It is an expensive solution if you are migrating from an open source solution."
"Of all the firewalls that we compared, FortiGate is the cheapest and most affordable, so we are satisfied with the pricing."
"Both the technical and cost aspects are feasible since it is possible to obtain and use the device as a PnP solution."
"If you would like to run an active-passive HA system, you only need to buy an additional hardware without subscription. At other vendors, you need subscription for both devices.​"
"It is necessary to pay for a licence to use the solution, but it is not very expensive."
"Sophos UTM is moderately priced, but it could be improved."
"The solution's pricing is based on a licensing model and is competitive."
"The pricing is pretty reasonable. I don't think that it is overly expensive."
"Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."
"We purchased the appliance with five years onsite support and licenses."
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
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?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
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 Is The Biggest Difference Between Sophos UTM and Sophos XG?
The Sophos UTM is a UTM and Sophos XG is the NGFW. First, you must know about the difference between a UTM and NGFW. ...
What do you like most about Sophos UTM?
The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is the endpoint protection feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?
The product pricing and licensing are higher, but they offer good value for the features and stability provided.
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
Astaro
 

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
One Housing Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.