Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Stormshield Network Security

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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

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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Krishnakumar M

enterprise architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

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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Ben_Ben

Network Engineer at ACS

The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats

The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed.

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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

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

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment."

"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."

"The SD-WAN is the most valuable feature."

"The stability of the solution is excellent, as it is with other Fortinet products."

"The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."

"Fortinet FortiGate is used to prevent security failures. Since implementing the solution, we have seen improvements in security and in the distribution of our network."

"The pipe filter application is an outstanding feature."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The company is inventive and always adds a lot of great features."

"Palo Alto has better and finer controls than, say, Cisco or Check Point."

"I like the tool's WildFire feature."

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

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

"Everything I could possibly want has already been implanted in the new version."

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

"Overall product rating: Nine out of ten."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pros

"I like that it works fine. Stormshield is a very good solution."

"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."

"The scalability of the solution is good."

"It's an easy, straightforward management platform to use."

"Ease of use is the best feature of the product."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page."

"The solution has improved my organization because I can see what traffic is happening and I can use it to block and prevent attacks."

More Stormshield Network Security pros

Cons

"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."

"The ease of use could be improved."

"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."

"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."

"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."

"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."

"The solution could be improved by addressing limited local reporting. It requires obtaining the FortiAnalyzer for proper visibility because you can't do much from a reporting perspective with just the firewall alone."

"They are doing good, but they can improve the distributor assignment. The availability of the product and the timeline of delivery are the main things. The distribution should be swift, and the distributor should not reach out to end customers directly. They should work as a distributor. There should also be one more local distributor. Currently, there is only one distributor in Pakistan, and the rest of them are in UAE. It is difficult to work with only one distributor. Sometimes, you don't get along with the same distributor, and that's why they should have one more distributor. Their licensing should also be improved. The activation or renewal of the product should be done from the date of renewal, not from the date on which the license expired."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The product should get frequent updates allowing us to add new signatures."

"The URL Filtering module needs to have more categories added to it."

"The reporting functionality in GlobalProtect needs to be improved."

"The graphical user interface is a little complex and difficult to manage. L1 engineers cannot work on the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series because it's too complex, which requires L2 and above level of engineers."

"It would be nice if it could easily be integrated with Elasticsearch or Nagios."

"The tool needs to improve integration with more products from other vendors. I would like the product to add threat intelligence features as well."

"In the past, we've had trouble with Palo Alto's application filtering not getting it right. I would not be recommending layer 7 application filtering yet."

"Threat prevention could use improvement. Not just in malware exploits and C2 traffic; enhancing web traffic protection would be a great upgrade."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series cons

"The SD card could be more secure."

"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."

"Not all the fields are activated yet and we were informed that it will take at least one month."

"With Stormshield, there are difficulties joining things, and it can be complex depending on the architecture."

"Stormshield Network Security is quite expensive."

"The product must improve its pricing."

"A more user-friendly interface would be helpful."

"It could be better if it were more user-friendly. It's too complicated for us to use it. The price could be better as well."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for the product is alright."

"Work through partners for the best pricing."

"Its pricing is good. It's average or normal as compared to Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls."

"The pricing is flexible."

"The pricing is fair."

"The price of FortiGate support is too expensive."

"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."

"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"It is an expensive solution."

"This solution is expensive compared to other, similar products."

"Products by the leader in the field are justifiably a bit more expensive compared to other vendors."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"This is an expensive solution, although you will get value for the price."

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

"Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is an expensive solution, the price could be reduced. They are more expensive than some of their competitors."

"It would be nice if they lowered their prices for small businesses."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pricing and cost advice

"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."

"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."

"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."

"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."

"The pricing could be better."

"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."

"I think the price is good."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

21%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

28%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Media Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Comms Service Provider

16%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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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 ...

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...

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

It is a stable solution.

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

The pricing for the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series solution is affordable and there are no complaints about the licensing.

What do you like most about Stormshield Network Security?

Ease of use is the best feature of the product.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Stormshield Network Security?

We pay for the quality we receive.

What needs improvement with Stormshield Network Security?

The product must improve its pricing.

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Comparisons

Compared 22% 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 TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Compared 100% of the time

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Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 18% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Sophos XG vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Download Palo Alto Networks K2-Series product report

Stormshield Network Security

March 2025

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

NETASQ Firewalls

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

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

NETASQ's integrated intrusion prevention engine uses protocol conformity analysis, application filtering and antivirus analysis to inspect authorized traffic flows and strengthen application security. NETASQ enables you to establish and configure user-based security policies, giving you greater control over which network resources each user is authorized to access.

Stormshield

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

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

ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Stormshield Network Security