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Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Palo Alto Networks WildFire comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Fortinet FortiGate offers cost-effective, robust security, reducing expenses, enhancing efficiency, easy implementation, quick ROI, and improved network management.
Sentiment score
6.6
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls enhance security and reduce costs, improving efficiency and delivering substantial ROI in regulated industries.
Sentiment score
6.5
Palo Alto Networks WildFire provides cost-effective, centralized threat management, reducing security costs and improving efficiency in high-threat environments.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
BDM Fortinet & BDM Teamlead at Exclusive Networks
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Staff Infrastructure & Security Engineer at Mozn Systems
Their user-friendly interface and Panorama central management, which provides a comprehensive overview, make them an ideal investment.
Technical Lead at Accenture
The solution helped reduce downtime, which is crucial in time-sensitive industries like manufacturing.
Director IT Infrastructure and Operations at a analyst firm with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment since using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls in terms of time saved.
Security Professional at BT - British Telecom
The service generates a low rate of false positives, reducing the overhead of managing false positive events.
Presale Engineer at Westcon-Comstor
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiGate's customer service is generally praised for responsiveness, though some users experience delays in critical situations.
Sentiment score
6.9
Customer service for Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls varies, with users noting fast responses but inconsistent service and language issues.
Sentiment score
7.0
Palo Alto Networks WildFire's support is responsive and expert but varies in availability and response time, especially for smaller companies.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
Palo Alto's network support is excellent, and I would rate it a ten out of ten.
Founder at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Their response time is within one hour.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
They offer fast and competent assistance.
IP / Operations Support System Engineer; Pre-Sales Engineer at Avantguard.it
There is a lack of SLA adherence, and third-party partners do not provide prompt responses.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
The service response times are aligned with standards, responding within a few hours based on the problem's criticality.
Presale Engineer at Westcon-Comstor
The support is quite difficult to access promptly.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable and popular for SMEs but requires careful design and may incur scaling costs and licensing constraints.
Sentiment score
6.8
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls offer scalability and reliability but may face hardware limitations and cost concerns for smaller setups.
Sentiment score
8.2
Palo Alto Networks WildFire efficiently scales for diverse environments, supporting thousands of users while integrating well with security modules.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
IT Manager at Daltons Limited
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
Cewa Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
General Surgery Specialist at Helwan University Cairo
Cloud deployments benefit from auto-scaling, allowing for automatic adjustments to firewall capacity based on demand.
Technical Lead at Accenture
It is important to assess the infrastructure size before choosing a model.
IP / Operations Support System Engineer; Pre-Sales Engineer at Avantguard.it
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are scalable and reliable.
Senior Network Engineer L4 at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Wildfire is highly scalable.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is scalable, and I give it a nine for scalability.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiGate is praised for its stability, with effective long-term performance and improvements in newer firmware versions.
Sentiment score
8.5
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are praised for high stability and reliability, outperforming competitors despite occasional hardware and update issues.
Sentiment score
8.5
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is highly rated for reliability, seamless integration, and effective network security performance without disruptions.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
Manager, Information Technology at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
CISO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
With appropriately configured policies, these firewalls can provide robust network security.
Solution Architect at a retailer with 201-500 employees
After the upgrade, we are experiencing performance issues.
Technical Engineer - Technical Security at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have not experienced any outages or issues.
IP / Operations Support System Engineer; Pre-Sales Engineer at Avantguard.it
It performs filtering, malware blocking, and scanning.
Engineer at Taalumgroup
The solution is scalable and stable.
Technical Manager at PSR
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate needs enhanced UI, simplified licensing, improved performance, reporting, third-party integration, and expanded automation features.
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls need better configuration, user-friendliness, integration, and cost-effective, scalable hardware with enhanced support and management.
WildFire needs improvements in integration, user-friendliness, and pricing, along with better support, automation, and global availability.
These sessions should be around five to ten minutes long, allowing users and partners to quickly grasp the information without disrupting their daily tasks.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection.
Senior Systems Engineer at Caribbean Development Company
It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
When performance degrades due to full packet inspection, the solution should be to increase the computing power within the same firewall, not to recommend upgrading to a larger, more expensive model.
Technical Engineer - Technical Security at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Further integration into a unified system could improve usability.
Director IT Infrastructure and Operations at a analyst firm with 51-200 employees
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls lack built-in multi-factor authentication, requiring the purchase of a third-party tool to implement this essential security feature.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
It is a very good product.
Engineer at Taalumgroup
The support could be improved, as it takes a while to get assistance from the vendors.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Fortinet FortiGate costly initially, but cheaper overall, despite some high renewal and setup costs.
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are costly, but advanced security features justify the expense for many users.
Palo Alto WildFire offers advanced threat protection, appealing to enterprises despite its high cost, potentially deterring smaller organizations.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
Network & System Admin at Invoke Studios
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
IT Infrastructure Architect at Apotek 1
It is about 20% cheaper.
Network Security Engineer at TD SYNNEX
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are expensive.
Technical Engineer - Technical Security at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls come at a premium, exceeding the cost of most competitors by 45 percent.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
Colleagues looking for the cheapest and fastest firewall can still use Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls because they are affordable.
Director at Zuci Systems
I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of affordability.
Presale Engineer at Westcon-Comstor
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate provides robust, flexible security solutions with key features like web filtering, SSL VPN, SD-WAN, and centralized management.
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide advanced security, ease of use, and integration, excelling in application ID and URL filtering.
Palo Alto Networks WildFire automates threat analysis, excels in sandboxing, and offers robust security with cloud-based, user-friendly features.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring.
General Manager Group IT at DART GLOBAL LOGISTICS PTE. LTD.
We got a firewall and gave an SSL VPN to my client to connect to their servers, after which, such kind of activities involving ransomware attacks stopped.
Owner at Mindware Computer Solutions
The most valuable features of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are DNS sync calls, enabled security features, and Wildfire.
Technical Engineer - Technical Security at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Threat Vault allows us access to a comprehensive threat database, enabling us to get detailed information on threats and how to mitigate them.
Senior Network Engineer L4 at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is Cortex Data Lake.
Solution Architect at a retailer with 201-500 employees
Integrating Palo Alto Networks WildFire with various security protocols similar to a firewall has significantly improved the overall threat detection capabilities in our organization.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
The most valuable feature of Wildfire is its sandboxing capability for examining suspicious files or locations.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
580
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Palo Alto Networks NG Firew...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
197
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (6th)
Palo Alto Networks WildFire
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Firewalls Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls4.6%
Fortinet FortiGate18.8%
OPNsense11.2%
Other65.4%
Firewalls
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Palo Alto Networks WildFire7.6%
Microsoft Defender for Office 3659.7%
Proofpoint Email Protection7.1%
Other75.6%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Q&A Highlights

it_user728382 - PeerSpot reviewer
Category Analyst at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Oct 03, 2017
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.
SV
Solution Architect // Network Consultant at Group S
Network security has improved and allows detailed user-based control over encrypted traffic
Bandwidth usage is not something we use much, but it depends on the SD-WAN plugin because the application load balancing is based on the SD-WAN product. That functionality does not work as it should, although the App-ID is working very well. SD-WAN functionality is working, but when you compare it with other products on the market, it is very limited. Palo Alto also has ION devices, and ION devices together with Prisma Access or Strata Cloud Manager now are more the way to go than using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls on-premises. At the moment I have some issues, but the issues are more related to the general way of working of many vendors. They implement new things very fast and it is not always bug-free. With new releases, sometimes you still have some issues. This is the main concern. If you look back five or maybe ten years ago, the products were more stable and you had more decent releases, but that is something in general for many vendors. Palo Alto is also a factor with that. They want to bring new features to the market too fast. Features are a concern because all vendors try to compete against each other. If one vendor comes out with a new feature, then other vendors do the same. Sometimes they want to be the first on the market with it, and that sometimes introduces bugs or issues with the product.
RK
Engineer at Taalumgroup
Achieve effective threat prevention and seamless integration with powerful technical support
Integration with third-party products is possible. For example, connecting a mail gateway with Palo Alto Networks WildFire allows them to handle prevention. Palo Alto Networks WildFire is a cloud-based sandboxing solution. The firewall is connected to WildFire, and XDR performs sandboxing from the cloud. WildFire conducts malware scanning and emulation, then informs the firewall to block threats based on the response. It also generates reports regarding malware and other issues. The sandboxing process involves sending sample files to the cloud for scanning, checking file authenticity, certificates, and detecting malicious code. WildFire performs multiple checks and informs the XDR agent about file status. This automatic process occurs within minutes or seconds. For unknown or suspicious files, immediate blocking occurs while samples are sent to WildFire for identification. I rate Palo Alto Networks WildFire a 9 out of 10.
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Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at Webernetz.net - Network Security Consulting
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Answers from the Community

it_user728382 - PeerSpot reviewer
Category Analyst at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Oct 3, 2017
Oct 3, 2017
I’m not an expert on Palo-Alto but what I do know is that they do offer of the top 3 IT security solutions in the world today. Most companies offer a very good firewall solution and one I can recommend is Check Point. Check Points Next generation firewall goes beyond the standard security protocols a lot of us as used to (Anti-Virus. Anti-Bot, URL filtering, Application control etc) and take it...
2 out of 5 answers
it_user263451 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Consultant at a tech services company
Oct 2, 2017
Dears I really have same project and same recommended, my question is: what is impact of NSS Lab in my decision? last report of nss lab, palo alto get 40% of security effectiveness .!!! where is the firewall location ? core,edge.... what is throughput of the firewall after enable URL filtering ? not mention in sheets. what is throughput of the firewall after enable ssl decryption ? best regards
it_user337929 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Oct 2, 2017
You can also check http://www.gartner.com, And make sure are you looking for UTM or NGFW
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise133
Large Enterprise188
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business74
Midsize Enterprise56
Large Enterprise85
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

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How does Cisco ASA Firewall compare with Palo Alto's WildFire?
When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advan...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
Palo Alto NGFW, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
 

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
SkiStar AB, Ada County, Global IT Services PSF, Southern Cross Hospitals, Verge Health, University of Portsmouth, Austrian Airlines, The Heinz Endowments
Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
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