We performed a comparison between Meraki MX and WatchGuard Firebox based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, both solutions received similar ratings in all categories.
"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."
"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
"The web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."
"The FortiGate controls the user's activities and maximizes my bandwidth use overall."
"The most valuable feature of Meraki MX is I can manage the solution from anywhere remotely, I can throttle bandwidth, and create all rules. Additionally, it is secure for our customers."
"In a week, we can make new policy and view what all our users did."
"To me, the analytics feature is one of the most valuable in Meraki MX. I also find that it has good usability as it's cloud-based. Another valuable feature of Meraki MX is that it's simple to use and it's user-friendly."
"The solution is easy to set up."
"We've had no issues with the scalability or the stability of this solution"
"The features we have found most valuable are the firewall and the monitoring tools."
"Real Auto VPN with load balancer without needing a public IP. It is simple and functional."
"It is very easy to use and manage. It is also very easy to scale."
"Firebox operates effectively in the background, blocking potential threats without a need for constant monitoring."
"WatchGuard has a very easy VPN and branch office VPN setup, so we use those pretty extensively."
"Policy VPN, site-to-site VPN, traffic monitoring, anti-spam filters, and all other advanced features are valuable."
"Management and visibility are the most valuable features."
"There are many fantastic features."
"I like that this product has very few issues."
"From my experience with their customer service team, I would say that they seem quite knowledgeable and fairly quick to respond."
"The most valuable features are the VPN and web blocker security."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."
"I would like some automated custom reporting."
"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."
"I'm not sure if it's something that they already have or are developing something, however, we need some dedicated features for container security."
"Fortinet currently has many products bundled with FortiGate including the basic firewall and load balancer, and I think that that they need to have separate product portfolios for each of these specialized services."
"A couple of things I've seen that need improvement, especially in terms of a hard coding. The driver-level active moment really is out-of-the-box and we have to have contact the customer support and sometimes it is difficult to resolve."
"The solution could be more secure and stable."
"I do not have the kind of feature I need for SSL decryption in Meraki MX. It would be great to see the SSL decryption feature in Meraki MX."
"Management can be improved in Meraki MX."
"When it comes to cost, that's a pain point."
"We feel that Cisco provides smaller features, with fewer possibilities versus other solutions out there."
"FortiGate is cheaper than Meraki. Even the license renewal is less than Meraki."
"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."
"The problem is that the two licenses do not currently integrate. We have to create separate companies and do an interconnection."
"In the next release, because the security is pretty basic, I think they could include additional security features."
"There's always room for improvement, especially if the threats are getting more sophisticated and the IT department cannot sufficiently meet this kind of sophistication with their own knowledge and experience. Knowing that this solution can get up to the level of addressing a lot of these threats is something that everybody wishes for. If we look at the dark web and the lawful web, they are two opposites, and if these two good and bad collide in the world of the internet, you want the best possible product—especially if you cannot get to that point of knowledge. I am just an individual and end user, with limited knowledge of usage. That's why I say there's always room for improvement, from their side and also from mine, because by knowing exactly what they can achieve and the knowledge that they can get on an everyday basis, and the portion that is understandable to me, it's an improvement for them as well."
"The only downside is that it is missing an API, that you can use to easily collect information from it."
"The product's technical support services need improvement."
"This solution needs the option to add an external hard drive."
"We were able to take from an older configuration, build a new one quickly, and get it up and running, which didn't take long, but there was some pain around it."
"The performance of the solution's processor needs to be faster."
"There is a slight learning curve."
"The solution can improve by adding a feature to tag a MAC address of a computer system in the policy and more IP configuration settings."
Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 59 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 3rd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 79 reviews. Meraki MX is rated 8.2, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Meraki MX is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos XG, SonicWall TZ and Check Point NGFW, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Meraki MX vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
See our list of best Unified Threat Management (UTM) vendors and best Firewalls vendors.
We monitor all Unified Threat Management (UTM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
