Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series comparison

Juniper and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Juniper is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.0, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #28 with an average rating of 8.5. Juniper holds a 1.5% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 0.0% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Juniper users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Juniper SRX Series Firewall and Palo Alto Networks K2-Series compete in the firewall market. Despite users being happier with Juniper's pricing and support, the K2-Series has the upper hand due to its advanced features.

Features:Juniper SRX Series Firewall offers robust networking capabilities, flexible security policies, and strong VPN performance. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is known for advanced threat prevention, application intelligence, and deep packet inspection features. It also integrates well with cloud environments and supports automation capabilities.

Room for Improvement:Juniper SRX Series Firewall needs a more intuitive setup process, better reporting tools, and enhanced support for newer protocols. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series could improve system performance under high traffic, reduce false positives, and provide better documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Juniper SRX Series Firewall has straightforward hardware deployment but mixed reviews on software deployment and initial configurations, often requiring professional services. Customer service is responsive but could be more proactive. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series offers smoother deployment with comprehensive guides and a helpful support team, making it easier to get started with better documentation and slightly superior customer service.

Pricing and ROI:Juniper SRX Series Firewall is praised for being cost-effective with quicker setup cost recovery, offering good value for the investment with lower upfront costs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series, although more expensive initially, delivers higher ROI over time through advanced security features and better long-term performance. Users believe the K2-Series justifies the investment with its superior capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

January 2025

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.7%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper SRX Series Firewall is 1.5%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is 0.0%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable

In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

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MURALI NIDAMANURI

Managing Director at VIPUN COGNITIVE SOLUTIONS PVT LTD.

Highly scalable, user-friendly UI, and easy to maintain

We have used Juniper SRX Series Firewall in airports and multiple other industries The most valuable features of the Juniper SRX Series Firewall are the user-friendly UI, and accessing the solution is simple. The pricing strategy of the vendor could improve. I have been using Juniper SRX Series…

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Krishnakumar M

enterprise architect at CloudStar Technologies

One of the best tools for the prevention of evasive threats

There is a feature called granular application controls, which I liked. Instead of relying on ports and IP addresses, they use AMP ID. This kind of solution is very good. Another valuable feature is the prevention of evasive threats, which is one of the best tools I've encountered. SSL decryption and app ID-based SSL decryption are also impressive, along with the integration with user ID. Identity-based policies ensuring only authorized users can access specific resources are excellent features. Normally, there is something called SIM or SCIM in IDA IDM, but this feature is provided on the box, which is exemplary.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."

"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."

"There are great templates, so you don't have to customize them if you don't want to. You do have the option to custom create some folders and some reports, however, with what is there, you don't really need to go through extra effort, as they already give you a lot of predefined views of reports and so forth."

"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."

"FortiGate firewalls are easy to manage through a user-friendly web interface. They also have advanced features like DDoS and DLP. However, I wouldn't recommend enabling all of these features on one device because it can cause performance issues."

"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."

"The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage."

"Fortinet FortiGate has many valuable features, such as IDS, and intrusion detection. It has security features that are in part with the technologies that are available in the market."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"If we need to define our user system from an anti-spam perspective, we can constantly update the antivirus."

"Juniper is one of the most powerful network security solutions while remaining simple to use, set up, and scale."

"Once a customer starts to use Juniper products, they never switch to another brand."

"We're primarily using Juniper's EPA feature, but not the other things. We use it to manage different points of firewalling of routing."

"On a scale from one to ten, one being the worst and ten being the best I'd give Juniper SRX an overall rating of eight because of its' competitive price."

"The solution is relatively easy and inexpensive to maintain."

"It's easily scalable."

"The most valuable feature is the virtualization because it can be used for customers who are using the mobile data network to request a private connection to a remote site."

More Juniper SRX Series Firewall pros

"I have found the threat profile feature valuable."

"Palo Alto firewalls are scalable enough. We have about 110 employees in our company, and we are about to expand to 130."

"This firewall is very good for our customers because they don't have to write their own rules for adding an application."

"The most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is the performance which is above their competitors. The throughput they have delivered is good. When we used other solutions they failed the deployment when we were using different rules. They have a theory perform performance light and performance degradation. However, Palo Alto Networks K2-Series never fails in that scenario."

"As long as the solution is kept updated, it's pretty stable."

"The solution offers effective security features such as HIDS (Host-based Intrusion Detection System) in global products."

"K2-Series' best features include its scalability, which is the best on the market."

"Simple integrations with the domain controllers and other inventories"

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pros

Cons

"The firmware updates are sometimes not stable. The stability issues can vary, sometimes happening once a month or quarterly. New firmware updates can occasionally introduce bugs, causing some policies to fail. We then have to raise a ticket, and Fortinet usually provides a fix within a few days."

"The web-cache feature which was previously on the FortiGate device, but was deleted with the recent upgrade should be returned. It was a very valuable feature for us."

"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."

"They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."

"The logging details need to be improved."

"Cisco Meraki products are rising very quickly in the cloud and the connected era. Meraki products offer much better ROI, upgradability, and manageability."

"The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement."

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having better visibility. Palo Alto has better visibility."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The reporting is lacking."

"The Juniper product has to improve in terms of innovation."

"IPS is one that I would definitely want to be improved. I would also like SSL VPN to be integrated."

"Does not offer protection for IoT devices"

"It doesn't support SSL encryption."

"Juniper SRX could improve by adding an IPX feature."

"We purchased three devices and all three have been replaced under RMA."

"It needs better interoperability with Cisco gear."

More Juniper SRX Series Firewall cons

"We had some issues with upgrading in the past. They could make the process easier."

"They could improve by providing more features in the solution."

"The ease of management and configuration should be improved."

"Palo Alto doesn't have extended visibility to the end point in their firewalls."

"The scalability for on-premises version is limited as it depends on the model."

"The solution needs a series of OS changes."

"I cannot think of anything specific to improve at the moment."

"The password function of the solution could be improved. Additionally, some of the processes take too long to complete."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

"The price of FortiGate is average and I would say that based on the top five products available on the market, it is in the affordable range."

"We pay for the solution annually."

"Fortinet FortiGate's price can be reduced."

"It is more expensive than Sophos. Fortinet is overall more expensive than Sophos. The small range of Fortinet, such as 60F and 80F, is more expensive than the small range of Sophos. Sophos is cheaper. In addition, if you jump from 80F Series to 100F Series, the price doubles."

"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."

"Pricing is lower than Cisco."

"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The product itself is costly and the price of migration is very high."

"There was no additional licensing cost because there were no IPS services. It was just a firewall IP circuit router so they have the default licensing. We just need to renew the support yearly."

"Pricing is good. Most of the costs are in the UTM (IDS/IPS, virus scanning, etc) subscription."

"When you consider performance, price, and features, maybe Juniper is not so cost-effective compared to other solutions like MikroTik."

"There is value for money. It offers a good solution at a good price. The price is normal for such a product."

"For a medium-sized organization, the cost for the licensing and implementation of Juniper SRX for 10 users would be about $300-400."

"The price could improve, it is a bit expensive."

"This is a cost-effective solution because the price is very reasonable, and some of the features are available at no extra cost."

More Juniper SRX Series Firewall pricing and cost advice

"Pricing is a sensitive issue because the cost is high in this market."

"The price of this solution is too high."

"This product is designed for large companies. The price would not be suitable for a small or medium size company."

"The overall price of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series could be reduced."

"If you compare K2-Series' quality with its price, I think it is reasonable."

"We are on an annual license to use Palo Alto Networks K2-Series."

"Palo Alto firewalls are very expensive."

"The pricing is expensive."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

54%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

31%

Energy/Utilities Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Non Profit

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

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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...

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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 do you like most about Juniper SRX?

Juniper SRX Series Firewall is a stable solution.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper SRX?

Customers always want cheaper solutions. Fortinet is a cheaper solution than Juniper.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Juniper SRX?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten because of the complexity of configurations and the maintenance.

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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...

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What do you like most about Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

It is a stable solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

We got it at a very good price.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 23% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Juniper SRX Series Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Juniper SRX Series Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Juniper SRX Series Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Juniper SRX Series Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Juniper SRX Series Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

More Juniper SRX Series Firewall Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

February 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Juniper SRX Series Firewall

February 2025

Download Juniper SRX Series Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

February 2025

Download Palo Alto Networks K2-Series product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

Juniper SRX

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Juniper SRX is a next-generation security solution that enables users to expand and secure their networks without incurring heavy costs or sacrificing performance.

Benefits of Juniper SRX

Some of the benefits of using Juniper SRX include:

Easily manage and view every aspect of your system’s security. Juniper SRX enables users to manage their security from a centralized location. The central control center can control and view every Juniper connected device in a user’s network. Once a device meets the desired security requirements, an administrator can configure the device’s policy to match the other machines in their network. This both simplifies the way that the network operations run and decreases the number of resources that are needed to ensure that operations run smoothly.

Secure your system with a flexible and comprehensive security suite. Juniper SRX’s firewalls are flexible enough that they always match the type of applications that they are supposed to be protecting. Its security features uniformly protect your applications. This is true regardless of how your application is deployed. It can integrate with everything from cloud-based applications to those stored on physical servers in a data center. This makes it easy for administrators to maintain consistency across their systems.

Protect yourself from advanced threats. Juniper SRX is equipped with powerful security automation features. They can detect a wide range of known and unknown threats as soon as they appear. Once malware is detected, Juniper SRX begins to analyze it and determines what response fits the situation. Additionally, the threats are prioritized according to their severity. Administrators are then given a selection of response options from which they can choose. This enables users to prevent the spread of these threats.

Increase your ability to scale your security. Juniper SRX makes it easy for users to scale up their security to meet their specific needs. Its service processing cards (SPC) are designed to enable a user to meet all of their needs. Administrators do not need to buy specific hardware every time that they need to get something done. Their SPCs can be quickly and easily customized. The addition of SPCs enables users to scale up according to the particular project that they are working on at that time.

Reduce the number of resources that you need to expend. Juniper SRX enables users to add expansion modules to their network without expanding the cost to run their network. They accommodate growth without adding to the overall cost. Administrators will not need to spend money on more space, cooling power, or maintenance. Additionally, they will not have to dedicate more time to maintaining the network. Your network may grow, but the cost of running your system will not.

Reviews from Real Users

Juniper SRX stands out among their competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are their central management capabilities and the robustness of their suite of security features. Juniper SRX is designed to make it easy for users to take control of their network’s security. From one location, administrators can manage all aspects of their infrastructure’s security. The many features that it offers allows users to tailor their security to meet their specific needs.

Shashidhara N., director of technology solutions & services at Connectivity IT Services Private Limited, writes, “On the SRX box, it has what I call a one model concept for security. I work especially with hybrid environments. With an SRX we have a single management dashboard. We can manage the internal framework easily with the centralized management component. You can work with threat prevention, you can work with integration, you can work with traffic management. Another good part about SRX is that you have opportunities for automation. Another thing that is very good is that all the operating systems for all Juniper boxes are the same. You do not work on different operating systems using different boxes.”

Pradip J., the owner of Shree Atharva Sales Corporation, writes, “It is a complete security bundle. The cloud-based Sky Advanced Threat Prevention feature is very valuable. I am 100% satisfied with the performance of the Juniper firewall. It has a very good throughput. It works very fine. We use our firewall as a site-to-site VPN or Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN). In both cases, it has a very good and optimum performance.Their service support is very good in India. I get really good support from the Juniper team."

Juniper

Designed to handle growing throughput needs due to increasing amounts of application-, user-, and device-generated data, the K2-Series offers amazing performance and threat prevention capabilities to stop advanced cyberattacks and secure mobile network infrastructure, subscribers, and services.

Palo Alto Networks

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

7-Eleven, AARNet Pty Ltd, Allegro Networks, alltours GmbH, Apollo Hotel Papendrecht, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Atlantech Online, Availity, Bajaj Capital, Baloise Insurance, BancABC, BAS Group, Black Lotus, Blue Box, Borealis, Carilion Clinic, Catholic Health System, CATV, Champlain College, Chinas Ministry of Railways, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), Cloud Dynamics, CloudSeeds, Cloudwatt, CODONiS, Colt Technology Services, Cork Internet Exchange, CSS Versicherung AG, CyrusOne, Danish Crown, Deloitte Belgium, Department of Energy, Divona Telecom, DQE Communications, DreamHost, European Government Agency, Expedient, Financial Market Information Services Provider, Fluidata, Fonality, Fox Sports, Global Financial Institution, Global Investment Bank, Global Investment Company, Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Goethe University, HEAnet, High Performance Networks Inc., Hillenbrand

State of North Dakota, SEGA, Alameda County Office of Education, Temple University, VERGE, CAME

Buyer's Guide

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

January 2025

Free Report: Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

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