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

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 8, 2024

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
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
317
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Juniper SRX Series Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
17th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (5th)
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
16th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.3%, up from 17.4% 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 PA-Series is 0.3%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

EhabAli - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MURALI NIDAMANURI - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Deminda Dilan - PeerSpot reviewer
Good for enterprise-level businesses and offers many features like URL filtering and antivirus capabilities
Palo Alto can improve the web application firewall (WAF) feature at layer 7. Currently, I don't think it's available. If they can improve that, it would be better. We wouldn't need to purchase a separate WAF solution because they already have advanced URL filtering. But I don't think that advanced URL filtering has the same features as a dedicated WAF, like F5 or other solutions. That is an area for improvement. If they can improve the WAF feature, customers won't have to buy a separate WAF solution. They could do it with the same Palo Alto firewall, perhaps through a subscription-based model. So the web application firewall feature has to be improved.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"The most valuable feature is the web filter."
"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."
"We think they have a good interface, the operating system is good, it's robust. It has plenty of great features, and the relation between the cost and benefits works for our business."
"Security policies in combination with zones: It is very easy to organize the security polices in a logical structure."
"The IPSec configuration is going well."
"Great as an inter-segmentation firewall or border or arch-firewall."
"The EEE security controls allow us to make policy restrictions, so I can customize port numbers to allow or limit control."
"The main features are safeguarding their data and ensuring robust security services for organizational data."
"Troubleshooting with the solution is quite easy. If you compare the process to, for example, Fortigate, Juniper is much easier."
"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."
"The solution has a three-layer architecture, and it helps customers to deploy the solution quickly."
"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The solution is easy to manage."
"The most effective features for threat prevention in the PA-Series are its integration with Cortex and the use of machine learning AI for advanced threat detection."
"Palo Alto has predefined applications that you can control at the application level."
"The solution provides good customer support."
"Palo Alto blocks the new threats better than other tools."
"The tool's most valuable feature is WildFire."
 

Cons

"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"Security is a continuous process. In every product, there is a requirement for improvement. Its pricing should also be improved according to Indian market requirements. They must also improve on the reporting part. Its reporting can be more precise. If we can get a real-time report in a specific format, it will be helpful for customers to know about the current status of their security."
"Its reporting capabilities can be improved. It should have some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities and some degree of customization. The basic reporting that it currently has is not sufficient to create more usable reports. It needs some sort of out-of-the-box reporting. They try to make customers purchase FortiAnalyzer for this kind of reporting, which is an additional cost. Other firewall vendors, such as SonicWall and Sophos, provide this sort of reporting without any additional cost."
"The stability of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"It should have a better pricing plan. It is too expensive. It should also have a more granular view of the attack. I don't have FortiAnalyzer, and it is difficult for me to have a complete view when there is an attack on my server."
"There are some problems that support cannot give you a logical reason as to why it happened. For example, I had a case where I was dealing with a WhatsApp application that was giving issues. Technical support gave more than one reason it could be giving issues, but none of them solved the problem. Eventually I solved the problem, but it was far from the solutions that support had given."
"It's my understanding that more of the current generation features could be brought in. There could be more integration with EDRs, for example."
"The solution's configurations and syntax are specific and more complicated than other platforms."
"The product only has basic features."
"Juniper needs to focus more on their perimeter firewalls."
"It would be ideal if the solution could use cloud services to help update signatures or threat prevention systems."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"I think Juniper SRX should have a GUI. Some of the competitors are already implementing GUI for the firewall."
"The GUI needs to be easier and more helpful for users who don't have security experience."
"We tried configuring the IDS for more than four months, but it did not work properly."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is complicated to configure compared to one of its competitors."
"I have found that the tool works well for me, but there are areas where security testing and protection could be improved, especially in virtual or cloud environments. However, in this project, once we deployed it, we haven't encountered any issues. The cost is currently manageable, but as we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older generation switches and routers. So, I'm looking for additional capabilities in these areas."
"There seem to be some issues with TAC (Technical Assistance Center) or Palo Alto support. Anytime you open a case, a level one engineer joins, and then you have to escalate it to level two or three. The support system has changed in the past few years, and that's something they need to look into."
"Compared to other vendors, the solution's community should be strong enough to solve the problems engineers face."
"Utilizing these features as a unified solution can require additional setup, particularly when incorporating Panorama for centralized management, which may involve extra costs."
"The support has been shaky. Initially, it took one or two hours to get a Palo Alto engineer, which is quite slow. I expect faster response times."
"Palo Alto can improve the web application firewall (WAF) feature at layer 7."
"The pricing of the solution needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing depends on the FortiGate model we are using, ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 US dollars."
"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
"Each feature costs money, so it is important to study your needs."
"Easy to understand licensing requirements."
"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."
"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."
"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."
"The pricing is fair."
"The prices are very good as compared to other vendors."
"The price is reasonable"
"Pricing is good. Most of the costs are in the UTM (IDS/IPS, virus scanning, etc) subscription."
"When we are in the deployment phase, we contact Juniper and they provide a budget-free code for our budgetary work."
"When you consider performance, price, and features, maybe Juniper is not so cost-effective compared to other solutions like MikroTik."
"There is a licensing fee."
"In general, their price definitely couldn't be cheaper."
"I rate the solution's pricing as a four."
"The cost varies depending on the device model, with entry-level firewalls priced around $1,300 to $1,500, while higher-end models can reach prices of several hundred thousand dollars."
"It is a very expensive solution."
"The product is offered to users at high prices compared to the pricing model of the other vendors in the market."
"The pricing is a bit on the higher side."
"This product has an affordable and reasonable price point."
"The product is expensive."
"Palo Alto is more expensive than FortiGate."
"The solution's pricing is high compared to that of Cisco and Fortinet."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
52%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
4%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
12%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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...
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 ...
What do you like most about Juniper SRX?
Juniper SRX Series Firewall is a stable solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper SRX?
Customers always want cheaper solutions. Fortinet is a cheaper solution than Juniper.
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.
What do you like most about Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
The firewall is expensive for every company, but the cost is worth it to ensure maximum security. However, I do not h...
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
I experienced some problems with AWS cloud parameters connected to Palo Alto firewall. However, I haven't thought of ...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Juniper SRX
No data available
 

Learn More

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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
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, Chinas 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
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Find out what your peers are saying about Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.