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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
6.8
Number of Reviews
592
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
199
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

"SSL-VPN is very useful for us and has been very reliable."
"The most valuable features are SD-WAN, application control, IPS control, and FortiSandbox."
"Overall, the pricing of the solution is very good. The product offers good value."
"Good load balancing feature."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"The price-to-performance ratio for using Fortinet FortiGate is always better compared to any other competitor, so they are rated better than the likes of Check Point or Palo Alto."
"It is a UTM firewall with many features, helping me control users and public multi-servers easily while providing seamless, simple integration into a large network."
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"GajShield has improved our mobile device-based connectivity."
"If people are looking for a good solution that is priced well this solution is best."
"Gajshiled's enterprise cloud and DLP-level features give it an advantage over other products."
"It is an easily scalable solution...The initial setup was very easy."
"Once it is configured, it is very stable, and we don't get any calls from our clients unless they have some specific requirement, like port forwarding or something."
"It is a stable solution."
"The solution's outcome is very high, and we often use it in a very high-traffic environment."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall's best feature is the network DLP."
"Our clients find the most valuable features in Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls to be the user-friendly interface, extensive capabilities, and highly granular rule creation process."
"The ease of use and the ease of configuration of our policies are the most valuable features."
"I love the Policy Optimizer feature. I am also completely happy with its stability."
"The solution is very stable."
"The configuration is quite simple to understand."
"This is the best firewall."
"The most important thing is that it's really user-friendly. I have almost stopped using the CLI because I like the graphical interface. You can do whatever you want on a single screen, including all the configuration and implementation, using Panorama. You don't have to switch from one place to another."
"It worked fine normally."
 

Cons

"When it's overloaded, it works slower and overheats."
"I think they could improve the monitoring."
"The initial setup is medium complex and takes between five days and a week."
"I would like reporting to be improved and should offer a lot more tools to monitor the products."
"The UTM filtering control could be improved."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"I would like to be able to generate reports about the protections that we have. I would like a report feature."
"The most important feature to have is zero trust, which is lacking in Fortinet FortiGate IPS."
"The UI for the administration of the firewall needs a lot of work."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall would be improved with the addition of a load-balancing feature."
"Gajshield can improve SD-WAN compatibility at an enterprise cloud level."
"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 raised a support ticket, and the project didn't get a proper response. There was a skill issue in TAC support."
"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 face issues with some configuration parts that we don't understand in the solution, and sometimes we face issues with the VPN connection."
"The firewall configuration and administration screens could use some improvement."
"Generating reports is not so easy."
"As part of our internet filtering, we integrate heavily with Active Directory, and we use security groups to separate staff into two groups: those who should have full access to the internet and those who should have limited access. It may be just the way the topology is for our domain controllers and that infrastructure, but at peak usage, there seems to be a delay in reading back against the security group to find out what group the user is in."
"Enhancing support teams' capability to handle cases without much delay would be beneficial."
"Most other VPN clients include mobile VPNs but Palo Alto does not."
"Maybe they could add some tools and more competing services, like servers, but that would increase the cost of the solution."
"The machine learning feature, with its continuous potential for improvement, directly enhances the security of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls."
"When the primary Palo Alto Networks firewall fails over to the secondary, it requires manual intervention to bounce the IPsec for it to work properly. Unlike BGP peering, which automatically changes from idle to established, this process needs automation. In Cisco, there is no need to bounce the IPsec traffic during failover, and I suggest automation for Palo Alto Networks in that process."
"I would like them to improve their GUI interface, making it more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a license required to use Fortinet FortiGate with all the features. It has to be updated with the threats on an ongoing basis for the signatures to prevent threats and a license is needed to receive those security updates."
"I think price-wise, the solution is totally reasonable since it has many products to serve, starting from small homes to massive scale sites."
"Fortinet FortiGate is cheaper than Palo Alto. It is about 20% cheaper."
"Pricing for Fortinet FortiGate SWG is more suitable for enterprise or large-sized organizations because they are the ones who can afford it versus small and medium-sized organizations."
"It is a cost-effective solution that meets the user's needs."
"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."
"Setup cost may be not so low, as you expect, because it depends on different factors, but TCO for 5 years may pleasantly surprise you."
"At the time we bought them, I was satisfied with their pricing; I don't know how the new pricing will be."
"The price of the GajShield Next Generation Firewall is very attractive when compared to other solutions."
"It was about 15% cheaper compared to Sophos."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall is reasonably priced."
"GajShield is a cheaper solution as of now. The subscription is yearly."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall is cheaper than the other products in the market. The licensing costs for the solution are on a yearly basis."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall is not that expensive, and its pricing is better than Palo Alto."
"Reducing costs is important, especially since Prisma can be expensive. It would be great if it were more affordable."
"I would assume that it's still within mid-range given its company structure and everything else. My guess is it's still okay."
"The pricing is competitive in the market."
"Paul Alto is the most expensive solution in this category."
"We always aim to reduce the pricing, as it is currently a bit high and needs to be lowered."
"The licensing is annual, and there aren't any additional fees on top of that."
"Its price can be better. Licensing is on a yearly basis."
"We haven't had a problem with pricing or licensing because we consolidated other software to make Palo Alto more affordable."
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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%
Construction Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
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 Enterprise136
Large Enterprise193
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business76
Midsize Enterprise56
Large Enterprise85
 

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 ...
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Earn 20 points
What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?
Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firew...
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 is better - Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls or Sophos XG?
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.
890,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.