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Fortinet FortiManager vs Fortinet FortiOS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiManager
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (3rd)
Fortinet FortiOS
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (28th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Fortinet FortiManager and Fortinet FortiOS aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Fortinet FortiManager is designed for Network Management Applications and holds a mindshare of 4.7%, down 5.8% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiOS, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 0.9% mindshare, up 0.9% since last year.
Network Management Applications
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

HamedWasel - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 15, 2023
Easy to set up with good integration capabilities but we've had troubles when moving devices
We have over 300 Fortigate sites and we use this solution to manage everything under one interface.  The scripts are very useful. We can push the TCL and CLI scripts to Fortigate. The automation is great between Ansible and Fortimanager. We can integrate the solution with other solutions. There is…
Saleem Ullah Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 2, 2022
Easy to set up, reliable, and good for traffic management
We are not scaling it right now. We bought it sometime back and we didn't need to scale it. We bought a higher end for our use case, which is still sufficient for another few years. We have 200 or so users of different levels and positions on it. We do not have plans to increase usage. This firewall is quite a capable firewall - even up to 1000 users. Due to that, we didn't find any requirement to expand it or replace it somehow. It has helped us build our software-defined WAN, LAN, et cetera. It is sufficient for us. It gives us Gbps throughput, which is good enough. The firewall itself is 32Gbps capable, which is more than what we need.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I appreciate the ability to connect via SSH through Fortinet FortiManager to the FortiGates I manage. This feature allows me to gather information about the interfaces without having to physically connect to the device. This is a convenient aspect that I find valuable."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiManager are the overall management it provides and its ease of use."
"The most valuable feature is the centralized management console."
"It's very easy to install, and it's easy to discover and communicate with your device."
"FortiManager's best feature is the integration of administrator users."
"FortiManager enables us to set unified firewall policies from one centralized dashboard, reducing human error. If you do not have a central dashboard, there's a chance you might set a policy on one firewall and forget to do it for another."
"Setup, setting policies, and reporting were all very easy. We had no issues whatsoever getting the solution up and running."
"The firmware version upgrades are the most valuable feature."
"The stability of Fortinet meets our requirements and I'm satisfied with it."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are its simplicity, highly user-centric, and performs well. The line speed and for heavy traffic, is helpful for us."
"The VDOM (Virtual DOM) is a virtualized firewall that has some opportunities for flexibility that are an advantage in certain configurations."
"It has a lot of scalability abilities which makes it easy to scale."
"The most valuable features are the intrusion prevention system and the anti-virus."
"I have found the most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiOS is the low maintenance."
"In terms of benefits, it’s a standard solution used by many, and our customers and partners widely utilize the VPN features. It’s elementary to work with and implement because it is familiar across different infrastructures."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the SD-WAN, SSL inspection, and IDS/IPS functions."
 

Cons

"Performance issues should be improved. We have problems when we have more mobile connections than local devices. Most of us have two to three devices."
"For the IPSEC tunnels, Fortimanager doesn't have all of the features that are available on Fortigate."
"The solution could improve by having better integration with other solutions other than Fortinet."
"The interface could be improved. It is split up into different areas, which makes it more difficult to navigate and get the right section of the correct file. The solution is quite expensive, so it would not be suitable for small to medium sized organizations."
"FortiManager would be improved by putting everything into a single console, including Microsoft O365 integration."
"The information extraction through command lines was could improve to some extent. Although there were some command lines available, there were not enough options. For instance, I needed to obtain the management IP address of my two Fortigates, but the Fortinet FortiManager did not provide me with the IP address on the LAN interface. I attempted to find this information through the command line but was unsuccessful. I also searched for articles on the internet, but could not find a solution. This is an aspect that could be improved or potentially there is a method to access this information that I have yet to discover."
"The price always has room for improvement."
"The solution has some bugs."
"The reporting and monitoring could improve, they have a lot of limitations. The monitoring is not easy compared to the other firewall."
"The pricing model makes this product far more expensive than similar solutions."
"Fortinet could integrate something like a YubiKey for 2FA with their SSL VPN clients."
"The GUI could be improved to make it more usable, easier to administer, and easier to configure."
"The main challenge with Fortinet FortiOS is integration with third-party solutions. I don't see any other areas for improvement. Nowadays, all products work well for 50-60 percent of needs. We must only fulfill 60-70 percent of client requirements because they don't use 100 percent of product features. Banks and financial sectors might need more security features. I don't work much in banking, but they often use multiple products for different security layers, not just firewalls. They might use various products or APIs for different purposes. In the end, clients use the products that suit their needs."
"The solution's graphic interface could be a bit more responsive and include notations when changes are made."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve the GUI and remove the command line interface. All the functionality should be available from the GUI. Day-to-day management can be tough for IT administrators. Additionally, the reporting is not very good."
"I would like to see the features of FortiAnalyzer included in Fortinet FortiOS. Right now, you're required to have an additional license and a different device for features such as processing the log, reporting, and analyzing traffic."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price point is very good."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"FortiManager isn't expensive, but its cost is dependent on which services are required."
"For the licensing fee, we paid around 10,000 to 15,000 euros."
"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"Fortinet FortiManager is costly."
"Fortinet FortiManager is not expensive at all if you compare it with other vendors like Check Point and Cisco. Fortinet products are the least expensive on the market in the category of firewalls."
"Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product."
"We pay $100,000. That covers the cost of the hardware that we run the VN's on. That also includes any SGNA costs for the internal support tech."
"The pricing is competitive for the medium and high markets but for the small markets it can be expensive."
"It is not cheap; it is also not expensive. It is somewhere in the middle."
"Pricing depends on implementation and licensing choices and is usually not a practical budget choice for small businesses."
"The solution is quite affordable and I rate the cost a four out of ten."
"The solution is cost effective. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"The support contracts are usually about $100 - $200 a device."
"The Fortinet solutions can be a bit expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiManager?
The most valuable feature is the centralized management console.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiManager?
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?
The graphics interface between Fortinet FortiManager and any Forti products should be standardized. Doing a configuration change directly in the UTM is not the same as doing it via FortiManager for...
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 kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiOS?
The SSL VPN is fee for use is most attractive.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiOS?
Regarding the cost, the initial purchase is relatively cheap because it comes bundled. However, the subscription renewals can be quite expensive. The renewal costs are high, even though the initial...
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, HPE Aruba Networking, Fortinet and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.