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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 May 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 16.0%, down from 21.6% 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 5.1%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate16.0%
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls5.1%
GajShield Next Generation Firewall0.3%
Other78.6%
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 pricing on offer is excellent."
"We've actually replaced 30 or more Cisco routers that were doing these VPN connections, and we replaced them with the FortiGates in order to provide Point-to-Point connectivity."
"I like how we can achieve total integration."
"I prefer FortiGate because it has a lot of other solutions embedded within it and is the easiest for our technicians to operate."
"It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall. You don't need to pay some other company for another product to do that for you. The firewall can do that for you. So, it's an easy-to-use product for people to be independent. They don't need to rely on other vendors to do what the firewall can do. They can do everything."
"There are several benefits that Fortinet FortiGate brings to the table, and I cannot speak of only one or two as it is too extensive."
"The solution is more affordable compared to alternatives."
"The SD-WAN feature of Fortinet FortiGate has been most impactful in maintaining our network's integrity."
"If people are looking for a good solution that is priced well this solution is best."
"GajShield has improved our mobile device-based connectivity."
"Gajshiled's enterprise cloud and DLP-level features give it an advantage over other products."
"GajShield has improved our mobile device-based connectivity."
"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."
"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 an easily scalable solution...The initial setup was very easy."
"We chose Palo Alto for its security features; it's quite nice, very user-friendly, powerful, and there are barely any bugs."
"The App-ID, Content-ID, User-ID, and encryption and decryption are valuable features."
"The most valuable features are IPS and stateful inspection."
"If someone looking for stability and the leader in next-generation firewall technology, I would choose this solution."
"The user experience is good and the configuration is very easy."
"With its single pane of glass, it makes monitoring and troubleshooting a bit more homogeneous. We are not looking at multiple platforms and monitoring management tools. It is more efficient from that perspective. It is more of a common monitoring and control system for multiple aspects of what used to be different systems. It provides efficiency and time savings."
"The most valuable features are the IPS/IDS subscriptions."
"The application IDs, application controls, URL filtering, visibility, monitoring, and reporting are the most valuable features."
 

Cons

"They could improve vulnerability scanning."
"The system can slow down when inspections are carried out."
"The solution's framework needs to be frequently updated in order to have a stable solution."
"It would be good if they had fewer updates."
"It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco."
"One issue is that they have retired SSL VPN for existing devices. This causes significant effort for us to change customer setups."
"The graphical interface could be improved."
"The security features could have been more similar to those in the Palo Alto firewall with major data protections and WildFire, and deeper inspection capabilities, which Fortinet FortiGate lacks."
"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 would be improved with the addition of a load-balancing feature."
"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."
"The UI for the administration of the firewall needs a lot of work."
"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."
"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."
"Once in a while, they have new features being released that can be buggy."
"The support could be improved."
"The reports it provides are not helpful."
"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls do not provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities."
"As things are evolving, we want to make sure that Palo Alto is able to keep up with what is going on outside."
"The solution is not straightforward."
"The solution could be simplified."
"In the future, I would like to see more OTP features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is affordable and lesser than Cisco. Cisco is expensive. In terms of licensing, there is only one issue. If a customer's license has expired a month ago and they do the renewal after one month, Fortinet renews the license from the start of the previous month. The activation of the product is done from the previous month, not from the date of renewal. The customers usually shout and complain that because they are paying today, the renewal should start from today. The support contract renewals or licensing should be renewed from the date of renewal, but Fortinet starts from the day it had expired. It is a loss for customers. They might have had some problems because of which they did not take the license one month before. Fortinet should work on this. Cisco doesn't do this. Cisco always starts from the day they apply for the license."
"Its price is good."
"The licensing scheme of Fortinet is better than Cisco. It is more logical."
"The solution is offered as an annual license."
"The license for Fortinet FortiGate is affordable in my country."
"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."
"I had to pay for the license for the firewall, but it is guaranteed to have updates. I expect a good service for it. It was about €1000 for a year, and there was no additional cost."
"The product pricing is reasonable."
"GajShield is a cheaper solution as of now. The subscription is yearly."
"GajShield Next Generation Firewall is reasonably priced."
"It was about 15% cheaper compared to Sophos."
"The price of the GajShield Next Generation Firewall is very attractive when compared to other solutions."
"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 solution is worth the price, as it can be utilized without the need for high-processing CPUs and resources, thus saving us overall."
"The pricing for Palo Alto is very high. The price difference with other vendors is huge because Palo Alto has been the market leader for the last five or six years, and they have a reliable product."
"If the cost is your main priority, Palo Alto would be a bit high. However, if you are ready to hear about return of investment, then I would convince you to go for Palo Alto."
"The pricing is straightforward with no hidden costs."
"I do not have much opinion on that because I have not been involved in the procurement process of the Palo Alto devices with the exception of pay-as-you-go through AWS, but all of this stuff is very expensive, in my opinion."
"We pay for the licensing annually and the price could be cheaper."
"I am not from presales or sales, but as a brand, Palo Alto is more expensive than other firewalls."
"The product is expensive. With one being the cheapest and ten being the most expensive, I give it an eight."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business367
Midsize Enterprise135
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

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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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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.
892,943 professionals have used our research since 2012.