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GajShield Next Generation Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
589
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
GajShield Next Generation F...
Ranking in Firewalls
43rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Palo Alto Networks NG Firew...
Ranking in Firewalls
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
198
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 17.2%, down from 21.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GajShield Next Generation Firewall is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is 5.2%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate17.2%
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls5.2%
GajShield Next Generation Firewall0.3%
Other77.3%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Abhinandan Yadav - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd
Unified security and sd-wan have improved uptime and cut wan costs for multi-site branches
Users report stability issues in certain versions, which requires regular updates. Real-world attacks have also highlighted the need for urgent patching of vulnerabilities.Fortinet FortiGate, while a powerful and feature-rich web firewall, could improve in areas like firmware stability, documentation, and ease of use. The learning curve can be steep for some users. For beginners, support quality can vary, and frequent updates with occasional vulnerabilities call for careful patch management. However, once Fortinet FortiGate is configured, it remains highly reliable and efficient. Customer support needs improvement, as I find it very slow, with reports from other users reflecting that customer support is inadequate.
Nazish Sameer Shaikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Security Engineer at UNITE HERE HEALTH
Simplifies the management of complex data networks, but its technical support could be improved
Sometimes, we have to use SD-WAN support for the solution, which can be improved by adapting some features that will help our approach to network services. The solution can adapt some of the tools where we, as network engineers, can adjust to the changing application needs. Also, the solution can provide us with multiple support, allowing us to create a network segment. The solution’s technical support could be improved.
Abhinandan Yadav - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd
Advanced visibility has transformed security policies and provides proactive threat prevention
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are powerful, but there are areas for improvement that could enhance their effectiveness, such as cost and licensing models. One of the main challenges we face is the high cost, especially for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), with licensing for features such as threat prevention, URL filtering, and WildFire being quite expensive. Additionally, centralized management with Panorama is a dependency for managing multiple firewalls, leading to added costs and complexity, and the built-in centralized management features could be made more user-friendly. Moreover, the learning curve associated with the initial setup and advanced configuration including NAT, decryption, and routing can be complex for new users, and enhancements in logging and reporting could also improve the user experience. There are a few more areas where improvements could streamline operations, such as optimizing commit times. Sometimes committing changes takes a noticeable amount of time, particularly for larger configurations, so a faster commit option would significantly help during urgent troubleshooting. Easier policy troubleshooting is necessary as well. Even though logs are detailed, finding the exact rule match and issue can still be time-consuming in complex environments, so having automated policy simulation and a recommendation tool would expedite troubleshooting. Additionally, better default templates and best practices for SMB data centers and branch offices would speed up deployment and reduce errors. Enhancing integration visibility through a unified dashboard would simplify monitoring, and improving the firmware upgrade process to allow for a more seamless zero downtime upgrade would also enhance operations, as upgrades are stable but typically require careful planning and downtime.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main benefits of Fortinet FortiGate are security and the ability to manage all information throughout the company, including managing all data inside the company to prevent intrusions from outside."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall that protects all network data."
"What I like about this solution is that it is simple to use, has less complications and is very straightforward."
"From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"Fortinet FortiGate's ease of management is the most valuable feature."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Fortinet FortiGate brings numerous benefits to my company."
"FortiGate is on the cheaper end, and it offers good value."
"GajShield has improved our mobile device-based connectivity."
"If people are looking for a good solution that is priced well this solution is best."
"The solution's outcome is very high, and we often use it in a very high-traffic environment."
"It is an easily scalable solution...The initial setup was very easy."
"The most valuable feature of the GajShield Next Generation Firewall is the user-friendly settings, dashboards, and anti-threat protection. Additionally, the solution upgrades frequently which is good because we receive new features."
"Gajshiled's enterprise cloud and DLP-level features give it an advantage over other products."
"It is a stable solution."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall's best feature is the network DLP."
"When we put it on the border, it was blocking everything that we were getting ahead of time, and we weren't getting any hits. This includes URL filtering, spam prevention, and anti-virus."
"It's quite nice. It's very user-friendly, powerful, and there are barely any bugs."
"We previously had Check Point and eventually compared it with the Palo Alto screening, which proved that Palo Alto was the best."
"Palo Alto can decide if traffic is of a certain kind, regardless of what port and protocol it is using, then it can figure that out and I can write my rules based on that, which is a huge functionality and super important to me."
"URL filtering and WildFire features are most valuable. It is very user-friendly. It is a very solid product, and it definitely works."
"The scalability is very good."
"For colleagues seeking a cost-effective firewall, I recommend Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls."
"We utilize advanced threat prevention features like web filtering and SSL decryption, which haven't caused any issues."
 

Cons

"I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation."
"Need to Improvement in Reporting"
"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."
"I would like to be able to generate reports about the protections that we have. I would like a report feature."
"I would like to see improvements in Fortinet FortiGate regarding the active-active scenario. The active-active scenario is supported but not recommended, whereas other vendors are implementing active-active without issues. Perhaps in the future, we could effectively use both firewalls to increase the throughput. If there are two boxes, they both should be able to work."
"The customer support is expensive. We have had difficulties with technical support from Fortinet."
"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."
"In terms of pricing, Fortinet needs to do more to compete effectively."
"The firewall configuration and administration screens could use some improvement."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall would be improved with the addition of a load-balancing feature."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall could improve the flow of the settings. If somebody's using a Cisco firewall or any other brand and they want to use GajShield Next Generation Firewall the platform's UI is a bit different. If it was more similar to the others it would be better."
"Sometimes, we have to use SD-WAN support for the solution, which can be improved by adapting some features that will help our approach to network services."
"We face issues with some configuration parts that we don't understand in the solution, and sometimes we face issues with the VPN connection."
"We raised a support ticket, and the project didn't get a proper response. There was a skill issue in TAC support."
"Gajshield can improve SD-WAN compatibility at an enterprise cloud level."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall could improve the flow of the settings. If somebody's using a Cisco firewall or any other brand and they want to use GajShield Next Generation Firewall the platform's UI is a bit different."
"We would like to see improvement in the web interface for this solution, so that it can handle updates without manual intervention to put the data in order."
"The bugs can be improved."
"I would like to see some Machine Learning because I have observed new types of attacks that are able to bypass existing security rules."
"Currently, they don't have email protection. They can maybe add it in the future."
"Interface could be improved visually and simplified."
"The customer-facing side needs to be improved in terms of the engagement and involvement of support staff."
"This is a difficult product to manage, so the administrator needs to have a good knowledge of it, otherwise, they will not be able to handle it properly."
"Unfortunately, Palo Alto Networks products aren't cheap, but you have to pay the price for good security technology. I don't know the exact price, but it's about $10,000 to $15,000 without a subscription. Cisco is priced similarly. FortiGate is inexpensive in Poland, so a lot of customers prefer that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It scales well if you know what to buy from a physical box standpoint. They seem to offer something for every level."
"If you purchase a one-year subscription with the hardware and then you want to renew for the second year, it is very costly."
"It was worth the money overall. It's good value."
"There is a need to pay for a license for the product."
"We find the most valuable aspect of this solution is the price. It is affordable, and cheaper than other firewalls."
"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
"Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."
"The initial setup is super straight forward and as far as the licensing goes for the small product that we have, the pricing was pretty competitive. It wasn't as simple and as cheap as a SonicWall but for the service we would get it was a good price."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall is reasonably priced."
"GajShield is a cheaper solution as of now. The subscription is yearly."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall is not that expensive, and its pricing is better than Palo Alto."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall is cheaper than the other products in the market. The licensing costs for the solution are on a yearly basis."
"The price of the GajShield Next Generation Firewall is very attractive when compared to other solutions."
"It was about 15% cheaper compared to Sophos."
"While Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls come at a premium, exceeding the cost of most competitors by 45 percent, their advanced security features, superior performance, and comprehensive threat prevention capabilities justify the investment."
"It is a little bit expensive than other firewalls, but it is worth every penny. There are different licenses for the kinds of services you want to use. When we buy a new product, we go for a three-year subscription."
"You pay based on the kind of license you require, but comparatively, it is not very expensive."
"It's cheaper to replace the equipment every three years than to upgrade. We have done two refreshes of their appliances. What I have seen is that the initial hardware cost is low, but you need a subscription and you need maintenance plans. After every three years, if you're trying to renew your maintenance or subscription, that can be very costly. It's cheaper to just get a newer solution with a three-year subscription and maintenance. It's cheaper to replace your hardware completely with a new subscription plan and a new maintenance plan than to renew the maintenance subscription on existing hardware."
"Its price is quite high but is justified for the features and capabilities provided, although I would prefer a lower price."
"You get what you pay for."
"Its price is higher than other vendors. They need to re-think its pricing. With Fortinet, the SD-WAN feature is totally free, whereas, with Palo Alto, I need to pay for this feature. With Fortinet, there is one licensing, and I can get many things, whereas, with Palo Alto, I need to go for individual licensing."
"It's pretty good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
No data available
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business365
Midsize Enterprise135
Large Enterprise191
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise56
Large Enterprise85
 

Questions from the Community

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Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat si...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
GajShield NGFW
Palo Alto NGFW, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall
 

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
Zodiac Clothing
SkiStar AB, Ada County, Global IT Services PSF, Southern Cross Hospitals, Verge Health, University of Portsmouth, Austrian Airlines, The Heinz Endowments
Find out what your peers are saying about GajShield Next Generation Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,510 professionals have used our research since 2012.