FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) Reviews

FortiGate is a popular firewall in Turkey due to its widespread use and strong performance. Technical experts can easily be found for FortiGate, which is very important. Almost every company uses FortiGate internally. FortiGate is user-friendly and reliable, offering good performance at a reasonable cost.

You can integrate certain other services with FortiGate and use additional threat intelligence services because they allow you to combine various solutions, enhancing your overall security.

FortiGate may include AI capabilities and integrate external threat intelligence. However, version management and backup/restore operations could be improved.

I have been using FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall as a reseller for 15 years.

With high availability, this FortiGate allows one device to take over for another seamlessly in case of failure.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

FortiGate is scalable because it supports various models that can accommodate different dimensions. It is suitable for all types of businesses.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The initial setup is easy. The firewall setup involves more than just physical installation and basic configurations. It includes customizing specific policies and configurations tailored to the customer's needs, which can take up to two or three days for a single firewall. This process is resource-intensive both in terms of cost and time.

I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The product is cheap.

FortiGate Firewall offers advanced threat intelligence capabilities. It allows integration with various threat services, such as Cisco Talos. If you are a customer of both FortiGate and Cisco for threat intelligence, you can integrate Cisco Talos with FortiGate, which enhances security effectiveness through Intelligence.

I recommend FortiGate for every company. It's a highly effective solution that can significantly enhance firewall security. You can easily find technical guides to help you understand its capabilities. FortiGate is known for its reliability and robust features.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use the solution to provide firewall, cybersecurity, VPN access, and SD-WAN connectivity worldwide.

The GUI is reasonably good. The product is easy to configure.

The product runs out of memory. The web process often has a memory leak. The support cost could be improved.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

The solution’s stability is good. I rate stability a nine out of ten.

The scalability is good. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. Some customers have 20 users, while others have about 5000 users.

Support is good. It's a bit scripted. It takes a while to get to somebody who knows what they're talking about. It'd be nice to talk to someone technical upfront. Sometimes we have to go through a service desk and go through a whole lot of quick repetitive questions before we get to talk to someone knowledgeable.

I've been working with the product for ten years. I find the initial setup quite simple.

I'm currently deploying 50 units around the country. It'll take me about ten minutes each to configure the solution. Once the product is set up, we need about one or two people to maintain it.

The solution’s price has gone up recently, but it's still good value for money compared to the other firewalls we use. Especially for smaller ones, it is good value for money. Our customers pay for licenses annually or once every two to five years. If we have an older version, the support costs get quite high. I rate the support cost a six out of ten.

I work with lots of firewalls. I deploy the product on FortiManager. It'll take me about a day to configure FortiManager. We have lots of customers. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Conventionally, the solution is used for perimeter security. Whenever we find our organization's customer without an existing firewall, we use FortiGate Next Generation Firewall both for perimeter security as a firewall and as a VPN appliance to allow work-from-home employees at the VPN end. In the aforementioned instance, our company also uses the solution to connect different branches.

If our organization is establishing the network for a company with different branches spread geographically, we will use the VPN in IP set and FortiGate. The solution is highly flexible and is available at a cost-effective price. 

When using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, availing the FortiGuard subscription is very important due to the vast threat intelligence with an international network.

Using the aforementioned network, FortiGate has been able to procure intelligence about the threats and incorporate the mitigation and protection against those threats in FortiGuard. So when you have FortiGuard integrated with the firewall, you have a robust perimeter solution to protect against malware. 

The pricing of the solution should be more affordable. 

I have been working with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for seven years. 

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has excellent stability. Fortinet is a top-tier IT security infrastructure company. 

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. The solution exhibits impressive stability. Once the solution is installed, it's used 24/7. 

We never had to rely on or communicate much with the tech support. The free resources, documentation, training, and community feedback have been enough to resolve 99% of our company's issues with the product. In our organization, we directly interacted with the support team once or twice and had a positive experience. I would rate the tech support eight out of ten. 

Positive

We used Cisco previously, but it was too expensive for our company. FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall was available at a better price and performance; it was a better fit for our company as a networking vendor. 

I would rate the initial setup an eight out of ten. Our company deals with only the on-premise version of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall. It took about half a day in our organization to deploy the solution. 

Our company has several firewall projects. When our organization identifies a company that needs a firewall but doesn't have one, we contact them. Our company strongly advises potential customers to adopt a firewall, and we provide reasons why the company shouldn't operate without a firewall today, we try to sell them the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall and FortiGuard solutions.

If the potential customer doesn't have access points or the latest switches, our company tries to sell that as well in the form of an integrated solution. 

Our company prefers to program solutions as much as possible in-house before approaching the customers. 

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has a very high ROI. A customer can realize nearly 100% ROI when it is used along with FortiGuard to establish a robust perimeter firewall based on an international vendor with a global-level threat intelligence network. 

I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten. There are penalties if you don't renew the FortiGuard subscription, and I think the vendor should've refrained from imposing such penalties. If a customer fails to renew for a year, there shouldn't be any penalties on Fortinet solutions, the vendor should eradicate such policies. 

We evaluated Palo Alto, but we still chose Fortinet because, as per our company's evaluation, Palo Alto doesn't offer switches or access points. Before adopting FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, we also concluded that Fortinet offered everything for networking infrastructure, including switches, access points, antivirus, and firewalls. 

FortiGate has end-to-end solutions, they have switches, access points, and a native antivirus and threat management solution. When you onboard FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, you choose a vendor that covers every aspect of the IT infrastructure.

So, if you avail yourself of other products from the same vendor later on, it makes the management processes easier, as the command interface is similar across all the products from Fortinet, including switches, access points, and firewalls. The aforementioned benefit removes the need for training your team when a new solution is onboarded in the organization. 

I would advise others to do a proper assessment in terms of the sizing before onboarding FortiGate Next Generation Firewall. Before adopting the solution, one should know how many users need access to the Internet so that the firewall can be sized or scaled ideally.

A sizing chart is available online to assist users in procuring the correct firewall size. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall offers comprehensive reports on user activity; potential customers should also analyze the reporting aspect before choosing the solution.  

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall handles new and latest security threats satisfyingly. FortiGuard has some AI influence in its threat intelligence features in its international network. I would overall rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall an eight out of ten. 

The use cases of the solution depend on what the customer wants from the tool. If a customer is looking for a core firewall, I provide them with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW). Suppose a customer is looking for a tool from a patch connectivity perspective with multiple branches and wants those branches to be connected to the data center. In that case, we can suggest FortiGate Next Generation Firewall's features to them.

Routing and reporting are two areas where the product has an added advantage compared to any other product.

Vulnerabilities owing to viruses in the OS need to be reduced in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall from an improvement perspective.

Some vulnerabilities get added to the system every two months, which may be code execution or backend and backdoor issues.

In the future, the product should be able to tackle vulnerabilities. Research and development to increase the product's security capabilities is needed.

I have been using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for a year now. My company has a partnership with Fortinet.

From a stability perspective considering OS and if the vulnerabilities are present, I rate the stability a seven out of ten since it creates a lot of issues in general.

We suggest FortiGate Next Generation Firewall to small and medium businesses.

When it comes to enterprise-level businesses, and considering the need for two-layer security, consider a perimeter firewall, while I can suggest FortiGate only at a level of a core firewall. Suppose an enterprise customer has multiple branches and more branch networks. In that case, they need SD-WAN connectivity with security, for which I suggest they go for FortiGate's SD-WAN feature.

In general, it will not be enough for enterprise companies to have only Next Generation Firewall alone.

I am not familiar with the technical support team because my support team works with them. The solution's technical support is good. We do not face many issues when dealing with the solution's technical support team.

Previously, we were using Check Point in our company.

Compared to Check Point, FortiGate Next Generation Firewall needs to look at how to improve the way it deals with the vulnerabilities which are not there at Check Point and the security effectiveness provided by Check Point.

It is easy to use and implement since anyone can do its configuration part, but there is some requirement for someone with proper technical skills to implement it properly. I can implement anything in any way, but that doesn't mean I can implement any product properly. The implementation requires certain technical expertise.

The implementation of the solution can take two days.

One person is required for the implementation phase.

The solution's pricing is competitive.

The usefulness of the product is an aspect that depends on the customers using the tool. We cannot even compare two products and say one is good for the customer and the other is bad. If a customer asks me to be an architect for their data center, I would say that for a perimeter firewall, they need to go for Check Point. Coming to a core firewall, if a customer says that they need two layers of security and two different vendors, it should be Check Point on the perimeter level. At the core level, a customer can go for Fortinet. Certain customers prefer the SD-WAN feature from Fortinet if they have branch firewalls and want an SD-WAN feature too. FortiGate has an added advantage because they have an SD-WAN feature with security that we can provide to their branch devices.

I don't have any suggestions for those planning to use the solution since we are pretty new to the solution, and we need to devote time to be able to comment on the solution.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

Organizations with about 50 to 100 employees use the solution for VPN, ZTNA, and remote connectivity between branch offices and site-to-site VPN. The solution acts as a gateway-level firewall that secures the office infrastructure against threats in mid-size enterprise organizations.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a good solution because it has a range of options and a clear ecosystem. It has good availability of solutions that complement the next-generation firewall. For example, it has a good range of switches and access points. The solution also has a good ecosystem where cloud services like FortiMail complement the whole solution. The solution has a better ecosystem for community support.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall could be made a little less expensive.

I have been working with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) for around three years.

Bugs appear whenever a new firmware or operating system is uploaded into the device for certain modules. These bugs might cause certain services not to work, which has been the case in the past. There have been certain things that were resolved with the new firmware update. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall comes with a six version or a seven version.

The 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 versions would have bugs, but the 6.4 version would be pretty stable and precise without any issues. Hence, I generally prefer to go ahead with the later version of a particular generation. For example, instead of going with the first version of the sixth generation, I would go in for a third or a fourth version. These things are there in most vendors, but I've noticed these, particularly in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a pretty scalable solution, and mostly, small and medium companies use the solution.

Although FortiGate Next Generation Firewall's customer support is spontaneous in responding, their actual responses are a little slow. They take time. When I say spontaneous, I mean the case ticket gets logged immediately, but the response from Fortinet doesn't come so fast. You have to follow up and then get things done.

Neutral

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall’s initial setup is straightforward.

The solution’s deployment takes one hour. Two to three engineers are required for the deployment of the solution. One or two people maintain the solution by monitoring and fixing breakdowns, which rarely happens.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is an expensive solution. I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall an eight out of ten for pricing. The solution has a yearly license, and you have to pay additionally for the deployment and partner-led services.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall charges additionally for migration. Suppose you're upgrading from an older appliance to a newer appliance. In that case, the partner has to buy a FortiConverter Service or a FortiConverter tool on a per-incident basis, which is charged. On the other hand, partners can use the tools available in SonicWall. Compared to FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, SonicWall is better in terms of support and pricing.

We work with the latest version of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall.

Overall, I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall a nine and a half or ten out of ten.

There are numerous features and benefits depending on the specific use case. Fortinet offers comprehensive security solutions for various purposes. I can deploy different solutions and more. 

There is room for improvement in pricing. 

I have almost five years of experience with FortiGate NGFW. I work with the firewall for small businesses and enterprises. Currently, I'm using the enterprise version.

As for the models, I mainly use FortiGate 6800, T, 100C, 200S, and 200P.

I haven't experienced any stability issues with this product so far. It handles everything it needs to, including server requirements, client services, and computing, without any problems. I have deployed numerous firewalls, and until now, they have been incredibly stable. There haven't been any issues related to version compatibility either. So, I would say it's stable for me.

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. 

Customer service and support are good. Every time I have reached out to them, they have been responsive and helpful. In fact, I have even shared news and deployment information on my LinkedIn to showcase their excellent support.

The initial setup was easy. There were no issues during the setup.

The time taken for deployment depends on various factors. For example, if I deploy it today, I might install it the following day. However, if there are any issues with the network architecture provided by the IT vendor, it may take more time to resolve those issues before completing the deployment. But in terms of deployment alone, without considering logistics, it can be done in a day or a few hours.

In our market, the pricing is a little expensive. While we can acquire a smaller package of Fortinet, it still comes at a high cost. So, I would say the pricing is on the higher side. However, when comparing it with other vendors, it's still more reasonable.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. A rating of ten would require even more efficient reporting and swift resolution of any breakout or resilience attack. If they can provide faster fixes and proactive responses, it would be perfect.

The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary.

Its interface user-friendliness is good. When we present this interface to customers, they find it easy to understand and manage.

Support for courses available on the platform

I rate FortiGate's NGFW's stability a ten out of ten. 

The tool's scalability is good and it has helped our company. I rate it a ten out of ten. We have around 3 customers and 500~800 users. 

There has been a delay in support where I had to wait for a day to receive a response. I believe I might not have used the correct procedure, leading to inaccurate information. Consequently, I did not receive the prompt answer that I was expecting.

Positive

The Cisco Firepower is less stable compared to FortiGate NGFW. Cisco Firepower has a complex interface. 

The solution's deployment is easy. 

The tool's pricing is neither cheap nor expensive. Overall, I find it to be competitive in the market.

I recommend FortiGate NGFW because its interface is easy to understand, making firewall deployment and management straightforward. It has a good market reputation and offers information on cybersecurity, including news, threats, etc. I rate it a ten out of ten. 

There are many features that we can use. We can see all the logs. Additionally, we can connect with other devices like the FortiManager. We also have a new feature.

We mainly use the Next Generation Firewall for enhancing security. It has powerful capabilities compared to traditional firewalls, especially when dealing with current threats like those in Azure. The Next Generation Firewall can handle more effectively.

The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is always updating. For example, if there is a big attack, they fix it in their firmware. They release new firmware with the necessary patches to address the vulnerabilities.

Mainly, we are more secure than with the traditional firewall. The Next Generation Firewall helps a lot in defending against various types of attacks.

In terms of solutions, for now, we don't have any SD-WAN. Yeah. We are planning to implement SD-WAN due to some failures we experienced last year. For our high availability design, this would be beneficial.

So I would like to have SD-WAN as a part of the Next Generation Firewall. It would enhance high availability.

I work with the FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall. We started using FortiGate about five to six years ago. We have been using various versions and migrated to newer ones over time.

It's stable, quite stable. We also have it set up as a firewall with high availability. We were also talking about SD-WAN for our future plans for our stores, mainly for the internal lines, because this SD-WAN technology is something we would like to implement.

It is a scalable solution. We can connect it to any network or with other brands, not only Fortinet. For instance, we can configure it with Cisco or any other brand for connectivity.

In our company, it protects around 500 endpoints.

Customer service and support have different levels of support—level one, level two, level three—based on the severity of the issue. They can also provide scheduled delivery. We usually never face any significant problems with their support.

I am satisfied with the support. They have good knowledge. 

The first setup process was easy to do. It was not difficult at all. 

We set it up ourselves. We created policies, firewall rules, IPsec VPN configurations, and everything was handled by our team.

The deployment took around five days, and the process was quite easy. The setup was straightforward. If we encountered any issues, we could contact Fortinet support. They were helpful and provided support through the hotline in urgent issues.

Maintenance is quite easy. I did it myself. It's user-friendly. We can use the GUI, or we can use the command line, but the GUI is more user-friendly. So it's good.

The price is not very expensive compared to Cisco or Palo Alto. Like Palo Alto, which is the most expensive product.

We have always been using Fortinet. It has been quite stable for us.

I would recommend it to other users. Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. It is a good solution.