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Fortinet FortiManager vs Fortinet FortiOS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.4
Fortinet FortiManager offers cost-effectiveness and ROI benefits, enhancing security and reducing administration costs with improved configuration visibility.
Sentiment score
8.0
Fortinet FortiOS offers scalability, ease of use, and competitive pricing, enhancing ROI despite borderline scenarios in some cases.
Once it is deployed, I do not have to revisit or replace the hardware.
The pricing of FortiOS is competitive and reasonable compared to other leading products such as Palo Alto and Check Point.
Fortinet is strong in terms of cost and compatibility with other vendors.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Fortinet FortiManager's customer service is praised but experiences delays, wait times, and variable expertise among support engineers.
Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiOS support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow responses and underqualified teams on complex issues.
I'd rate their support a nine out of ten.
Fortinet's support has proven to be reliable, particularly as we've been engaged with them since the project's initiation.
Technical support is helpful.
I would rate them nine or ten out of ten.
Fortinet technical support is very responsive and helpful.
Support engineers sometimes lack eagerness to assist with issues such as the memory problem.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Fortinet FortiManager is scalable and suitable for large enterprises, supporting multiple devices but may have hardware and cost limitations.
Sentiment score
8.8
Fortinet FortiOS excels in scalability, supporting diverse environments and expansion, despite some hardware limitations requiring forward planning.
I'd rate it nine out of ten in terms of scalability.
You can raise the capacity as you go, and there is no limit for hardware.
Effective policy management and centralized upgrades are critical for multi-location management.
When customers' networks grow and needs expand, we can easily switch between models to trade up devices.
It allows for the expansion of users and devices without additional licensing costs.
Fortinet FortiOS is scalable, allowing the addition of users and firewalls as required.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Fortinet FortiManager is considered stable and reliable, with minimal bugs, occasional reboots, and infrequent minor upgrade issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiOS is praised for high stability, with rare issues quickly resolved, outperforming competitors like Cisco and SonicWall.
I rate the solution's stability ten out of ten.
There are no bugs or glitches.
95% of the time, there are no problems interacting with other devices.
While the product is largely stable, it sometimes faces memory issues in specific versions like 11 OE, which can be disruptive.
Stability is a seven out of ten because during version migrations, and sometimes with new versions, Fortinet is not as good.
I would rate the stability of FortiOS as an eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiManager requires enhanced documentation, integration, support, stability, scalability, and improved usability for configuration, VPN management, and automation capabilities.
Fortinet FortiOS needs enhanced VPN, hardware compatibility, reduced update size, improved GUI functionality, and better pricing and reporting tools.
You have to order licenses for different endpoints and devices, and calculating the costs can be confusing.
Fortinet changes its subscriptions. A few years ago Fortinet Firewall had capabilities for use in the cloud environment; they then changed the subscription and it was no longer part of the subscription, forcing the customer to buy an additional license.
FortiManager is a good tool, but there is a lack of really advanced documentation.
Fortinet FortiOS faces memory issues, which can lead to unexpected downtimes.
There should be more documentation on how to use the CLI or how to perform CLI versions of tasks that can be done through the GUI.
Compared to other market leaders like Palo Alto and Check Point, FortiOS has many bugs in its initial releases.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiManager offers competitive pricing for enterprises, particularly in large deployments, though smaller installations may find it costly.
Fortinet FortiOS is cost-effective initially but pricier for renewals, suitable for mid-sized to large enterprises.
Although there is a cost associated with Fortinet FortiManager, its price is undoubtedly justified by the value it provides in terms of the purpose it serves.
It isn't like other solutions where you need to pay for SD-WAN or additional bandwidth.
Fortinet has the best pricing currently on the market.
It is an affordable solution for us.
Fortinet products are somewhat pricey, similar to Cisco equivalents, however, they have justified their price point.
I am satisfied with the pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiOS, rating it nine out of ten compared to other familiar leading firewalls.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiManager excels in centralized firewall management, scalability, automation, and integration, enhancing network efficiency and security.
Fortinet FortiOS is praised for user-friendly features, robust threat detection, and seamless integration, making it a top security choice.
I can automate the installation of configurations using different programming languages like Python or HPE, and it's a GUI solution, so it's pretty easy to use, even for basic users.
It's able to manage multiple devices, which is quite useful.
The main benefit of Fortinet FortiManager is the ability to control all the devices from a central location.
It is user-friendly when it comes to turning on features, and it has been reliable and effective.
The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs.
The solution offers good threat intelligence, which is crucial for our customers' security purposes.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiManager
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (3rd)
Fortinet FortiOS
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (19th)
 

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 5.1%, down 5.2% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiOS, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 1.0% mindshare, up 1.0% since last year.
Network Management Applications
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

HamedWasel - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up with good integration capabilities but we've had troubles when moving devices
We've faced an issue when we need to move devices. Templates need to be recreated instead of having the policies, et cetera, cut and pasted over. Everything should just move over when we need to move devices instead of recreating everything from scratch. For the IPSEC tunnels, Fortimanager doesn't have all of the features that are available on Fortigate.
Harshama Silva - PeerSpot reviewer
We have improved network security with user-friendly controls and high threat intelligence
FortiOS is very user-friendly and easy to configure for L1, L2, and L3 personnel. Its web filtering, application control, and IPS features are very user-friendly, easy to manage, and deploy. The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs. FortiOS allows us to expand the number of users and devices as our network needs grow.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

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 needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?
The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly. Better integration of Fortinet ADC into FortiManager would be beneficial.
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?
I rate the pricing for FortiOS as eight or nine out of ten. It is an affordable solution for us.
 

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, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: March 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.