We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate and SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, SonicWall TZ outperforms Fortinet FortiGate in several key areas, including more satisfaction with features, service, and support and fewer complaints on pricing.
"The solution is very user friendly. The user interface in particular is quite nice."
"The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution."
"The Fortinet FortiGate local partners were good. I did not have direct contact with Fortinet support."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"Easy to implement, and it is also reliable."
"We are a visual effects company, and there have been a number of high profile security issues in our industry. This has brought us to a higher standard of security, which our clients are very keen on these days."
"Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."
"It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers."
"Offers the right amount of control without being incredibly convoluted and frustrating."
"Ease of management and the VPN integration."
"From our point of view, the most valuable feature was the ease of deployment."
"It protects against intrusion while allowing needed access."
"With the main firewall routing there, we can do connectivity point-to-point. On the low bandwidth we can connect in all the branches with my corporate office."
"SonicWall TZ is a stable product."
"It is a scalable solution."
"Good VPN connection."
"The support structure needs to be improved because every time we contact them, there is a delay in the response."
"The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI."
"It is stable, but its stability can be improved."
"If they could extend their fabric towards other vendor environments for integration, that would be great."
"It needs more available central management."
"It needs to improve its ISP load balancing."
"FortiGate is really good. We have been using it for quite some time. Initially, when we started off, we had around 70 plus devices of FortiGate, but then Check Point and Palo Alto took over the place. From the product perspective, there are no issues, but from the account perspective, we have had issues. Fortinet's presence in our company is very less. I don't see any Fortinet account managers talking to us, and that presence has diluted in the last two and a half or three years. We have close to 1,500 firewalls. Out of these, 60% of firewalls are from Palo Alto, and a few firewalls are from Check Point. FortiGate firewalls are very less now. It is not because of the product; it is because of the relationship. I don't think they had a good relationship with us, and there was some kind of disconnect for a very long time. The relationship between their accounts team and my leadership team seems to be the reason for phasing out FortiGate."
"A couple of things I've seen that need improvement, especially in terms of a hard coding. The driver-level active moment really is out-of-the-box and we have to have contact the customer support and sometimes it is difficult to resolve."
"User interface could be improved."
"The areas we would like to see improvement include more features available similar to the equivalent FortiGate appliance, e.g. SSL encryption and inspection. Two-factor authentication capability would be another additional feature that could be included in the next release."
"It needs more robust self-help documentation along with examples and things to watch out for."
"There is still room for improvement, and it's not advisable even if the organization has grown."
"The solution should provide some additional ports."
"The solution's pricing could be made cheaper."
"It could probably be more user-friendly, and it could be more scalable with releases and subscriptions."
"Getting support can be slow."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and Fortinet FortiOS, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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