I use Fortinet FortiAuthenticator to access VPN. Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is an easy-to-use solution.
System ADM at a recreational facilities/services company with 501-1,000 employees
An easy-to-use solution that can be used to access VPN
Pros and Cons
- "Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is an easy-to-use solution."
- "I would like to see some email options for Fortinet FortiAuthenticator."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
I would like to see some email options for Fortinet FortiAuthenticator.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiAuthenticator for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Fortinet FortiAuthenticator an eight out of ten for stability.
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Fortinet FortiAuthenticator
December 2024
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Around 200 users use Fortinet FortiAuthenticator.
I rate Fortinet FortiAuthenticator an eight out of ten for scalability.
How was the initial setup?
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator’s initial setup is simple.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate Fortinet FortiAuthenticator an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
MS at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
FortiAuthenticator has made our operations more secure
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the OTP on the mobile phone."
- "The speed of deployment on the cloud could be improved. It took a few days when it should have been just two days"
What is our primary use case?
My customers use this solution for accessing banking applications online.
I'm a reseller. I sell to my customers, and they use whatever I have. I provide Fortinet for my customers.
We work with the latest version of this solution. It is deployed on the Fortinet cloud. We don't do it independently.
There are 3,000 customers using this solution in my company on a daily basis.
How has it helped my organization?
FortiAuthenticator has made our operations secure.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the OTP on the mobile phone.
What needs improvement?
The speed of deployment on the cloud could be improved. It took a few days when it should have been just two days.
In the next release, I would like to see compatibility with non-Android and non-Apple platforms.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is fine. You can grow it easily.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very quick.
How was the initial setup?
It wasn't difficult to set up. It took two days to deploy this solution and a week to roll out.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is fair.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.
I would absolutely recommend this solution to others.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiAuthenticator. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,019 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Scaling Engineer at Lutessa 2S
Ensures double authentication for the user
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is so easy and there is no problem in the implementation."
- "If you want some other FortiAuthenticator from one site to another site, you should have requirements, but really if you have authentication and directory or another solution, you should change the password of the authenticator between the solution and the directory and other things. So transfer of data and other information should be simpler."
What is most valuable?
The solution is really important to ensure double authentication for the user. For example, if you have an internal messenger and you want to ensure the access externally for users, you can implement the two-factor authentication. Also, for the VPN, you can implement two-factor authentication to avoid any kind of hacks.
What needs improvement?
If you want some other FortiAuthenticator from one site to another site, you should have requirements, but really if you have authentication and directory or another solution, you should change the password of the authenticator between the solution and the directory and other things. So the transfer of data and other information should be simpler.
In the future, I think h02.exe is very important to authenticate users internally. To economically move the person from vnom to vnom. Also, the ESO to ensure the authentication of users should be a bit more automated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my opinion and my experience, I didn't have any problem with the solution, just the requirements for other solutions that we should integrate with it. I think the solution is easily implemented, and, in my opinion, there is no problem with this solution. Just a bit of correction is needed, and that's it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My impression is that the solution is good and I like it and I would work with it for another project and increase my skill on the solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have worked with them, so I like the technical support of Fortinet. I would give them a good mark.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is so easy and there is no problem in the implementation. We can implement it easily in a different kind of infrastructure.
What other advice do I have?
I started working on FortiAuthenticator from last year. I have had a chance to deploy many, many projects on FortiAuthenticator. I deploy 10 next-gen projects on FortiAuthenticator. I deploy many defensive scenarios. Also, I have good experience with large products.
You should make sure to implement the requirements via experts like me, so you can implement the product carefully. In that way, you can use it clearly in a simplified manner.
For FortiAuthentication, it's a good price in comparison to any other competitor. Other products are so expensive, and the features are the same. There might be a bit of difference between the two products, but if you want just double authentication and some other features, I think I recommend the FortiAuthenticator, and it is low cost and has other defenses.
In my opinion, I recommend the solution. You can also use it for other things like h02.exe for authentication of users. Also for ESO. There are five things you can use it for, so I recommend the product. The low cost is very important for any customer.
I would rate this solution eight out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Security Engineer at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Helps us control security settings. Allows us to add and monitor users.
What is most valuable?
The valuable features are the granularity of the security settings and the relative ease of adding users. It also makes it really nice and easy to remove access from users that have left us or who are doing things they shouldn’t be doing.
How has it helped my organization?
It made things much easier for dealing with users BYOD for our secured wireless networks. We also use this in conjunction with an MDM solution. It makes a nice package that is easy for our end-users and is very secure.
What needs improvement?
The interface is a bit misleading in areas. Finding some settings can be a bit confusing and difficult. I would also like to see a few more real world examples given in the setup section.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have used this solution for one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We did not have any stability issues. This runs on our VMware environment and we have never had an issue with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
As this is a virtual device, we had no scalability issues. If we need more users, we just add more licenses. This makes it nice as there is no physical appliance to outgrow.
How was the initial setup?
Configuration of the virtual device was very straightforward.
The configuration of the settings in the authenticator was a bit more confusing. We did have to contact support a few times to work through some configuration issues. They also helped us set up some configurations for the active directory and our local certificate servers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price was very reasonable given what it can do. Licensing was also very reasonable.
Just make sure you do an accurate count of what you will need for licenses. If you run out of licenses, no additional users will be able to authenticate through this device.
What other advice do I have?
Planning is the key to a successful implementation. Know what you want to accomplish out of the gate before you get started. Make sure you test before rolling out to end users. Due to really tight timelines, we missed a couple of key settings and configurations.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It keeps track of users and their IPs no matter where they are in the network
Pros and Cons
- "It keeps track of users and their IPs no matter where they are in the network. When users roam, we don't have to worry about not mapping them to an IP."
- "Valuable features include the robust SSO features, when you have more complicated authentication within an organization. We can mix AD, Radius, Portal, SSO Portals (Google, etc.), and build our own environment. It is very flexible."
- "The GUI is on the older side but I'm sure that it will be upgraded soon. It works, but it looks a little dated."
What is our primary use case?
We implement FortiAuthenticator in situations where there are multiple Active Directory domains. Other use cases include:
- When we need to use FortiClient to keep track of users as they move around different locations where normal FSSO would have issues
- When we need to use one FortiToken for multiple Fortigates
- When we want to use it as a domain controller.
The FortiAuthenticator can do many things.
How has it helped my organization?
It keeps track of users and their IPs no matter where they are in the network. When users roam, we don't have to worry about not mapping them to an IP.
What is most valuable?
Valuable features include the robust SSO features, when you have more complicated authentication within an organization. We can mix AD, Radius, Portal, SSO Portals (Google, etc.), and build our own environment. It is very flexible.
What needs improvement?
The GUI is on the older side but I'm sure that it will be upgraded soon. It works, but it looks a little dated.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Network & Security Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Affordable solution with a friendly UI
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is a valuable point on Fortinet products. Most of the time, putting the theory into practice on the devices is quite friendly and straightforward. As long as you can read English you can find your way around the solution and make it work. This is a high value point on Fortinet - the way everything is laid out in the web UI is user-friendly and quite straightforward. The UI is quite simple."
- "We would like to see Linux-based operating systems be able to integrate with FortiAuthenticator to get two-factor authentication running on them. as well. This is a shortcoming that I have faced a few times already."
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is being used in our clients' companies. These companies are medium to enterprise level.
What is most valuable?
The feature that I have found most valuable is the fact that you can utilize your tokens across the whole Fortinet fabric once you have the FortiAuthenticator. You can use FortiAuthenticator to provide two-factor authentication among all your network devices as long as they support the RADIUS protocol. Even for servers, especially Windows OS-based servers.
If you have any products that support RADIUS, you will be able to use the two-factor authentication. You can integrate them with the FortiAuthenticator and you can make use of the 2FA token among all our network devices, not just the Fortinet ones.
What needs improvement?
So far there hasn't been any major feature that we wished for and didn't find, but I would say in regards to bugs, sometimes we face unexpected issues that delay the implementation a little. However, I believe Fortinet will sort this out soon. Hopefully the solution will be more stable overall.
In terms of what additional features we would like to see in the next release, we would to see support for more of the common operating systems. They already support Windows OS, with the use of an agent installed on the windows machine.
However, we would like to see support for Linux-based operating systems for example. This is a shortcoming that I have faced a few times already.
Also a nice addition would be agents for End-user Machines especially Windows OS & MAC OS.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've done quite few deployments of Fortinet FortiAuthenticator over the last one and a half years.
How are customer service and technical support?
Some bugs that we find we can work around, but usually we open the ticket with Fortinet anyway. This is because sometimes we suspect that we do not have the proper understanding or maybe there is something that we need to get an insight on from the technical support because they have their big databases and can provide us with additional valuable information about our cases. Sometimes we may find a workaround, but if we don't know what happened and why, we open a case anyway to get the full details.
Fortinet support is quite good. Their engineers are experienced and well-trained. Generally speaking, we feel that the technical support is capable and know what they're doing. You don't feel that you're speaking to someone who doesn't understand what the product is, which we face sometimes with other vendors. I would say, generally speaking, we are happy with it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a valuable point on Fortinet products. Most of the time, putting the theory into practice on the devices is quite friendly and straightforward. As long as you can read through the menus, you can find your way around the solution and make it work. A 10 minute surf through the tabs will give you an idea of what you can do and how to do it. Documentations and guides are also available when needed.
This is a high value point on Fortinet - the way everything is laid out in the web UI is user-friendly and quite straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Generally speaking, Fortinet prices are competitive enough. It depends on the markets, but in our market, the price sensitiveness is high, especially now with the current economic situation after the COVID-19. This became something to take into consideration even more. Price is always important, but after such a situation, it's even more so. Customers became even more sensitive to the prices. So, price is another value point for Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
If two-factor authentication is needed also for the end-devices, for example a endpoints or servers, I think FortiAuthenticator is not yet the most mature solution. However, if it is great for network devices, then this product is competitive enough price-wise and easy to use. It just works.
On a scale from 1 to 10, I would say Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is an 8.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Systems Administrator at Interswitch
Easy to deploy with intuitive interface; integration with certain enterprise applications lacking
Pros and Cons
- "Intuitive interface and easy to deploy."
- "Integration with some other enterprise applications could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for two-factor authentication of most of our services. It includes VPN but also many other services that we have on our internet servers. We use the on-premise version because we also want it integrated into our in-house applications. We are customers of Fortinet and I'm a systems administrator.
How has it helped my organization?
Security is such a big issue these days, a password alone is no longer enough for securing identity. In that sense, providing a second layer of authentication for users gives the company some level of comfort.
What is most valuable?
I think the ease of deployment is a valuable feature. I like that the interface is intuitive and that natively and easily, it integrates with radios, ILDAP, fan mail, and with any applications supporting those protocols
What needs improvement?
I'd say that the integration with some other enterprise applications could be improved. For instance, ADFS. FortiAuthenticator does not work natively with ADFS and the company is not looking in that direction. It's one of our in-house applications and it was a challenge integrating with FortiAuthenticator. We had to write a separate, customized adapter for ADFS before we could make it work. We tried to get Fortinet to work on it but I don't think their development team is interested. It's not in their plan. The other challenge was when I integrated with I think VMware - there was an issue between the radio adapter and FortiAuthenticator. Both parties were not ready to work together and the implementation was buggy.
I believe this solution can be adapted to so many things, depending on the technical side and the implementation engineers. I'd like to see some additional use cases that can be infused into the solution, such as ADFS.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't had any issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a very scalable solution. They now have the option of deployment as a VM, and then they have the hardware. I believe we use the 1000D for the hardware - it's able to support up to 10,000 users. You license the appliance based on the number of users and if you need to add more, you buy additional licenses. Almost everybody in the company uses it and I'd say we've had a total of around 4,000 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is mid-range It's not your wow kind of support but they do have levels of support. The support is in connectivity with their clients and it has to be renewed every year. You might do better if you go through their partners or something similar. They're not really there when it comes to support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used RSA SecurID before Fortinet. We switched because of the high costs associated with RSA. I believe that with RSA you need to pay a token license every three years but with Fortinet, once you buy it, you own it. Even if a token is lost, you can always reposition the token and that will not come at any extra cost. It's cost-effective for us. We also have several channels we can use for authentication with FortiAuthenticator. With RSA, users are stuck with either carrying the dongle, the hardware token, or maybe having the mobile application token on their phone. With Fortinet you can decide whether to use a hardware token, soft token, email token, push notification, or SMS. It gives us flexibility and comfort.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was pretty straightforward. We were up and running within three days. I carried out the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license is a one-off payment.
What other advice do I have?
Every environment is obviously different so each user needs to know what they are looking for, and make a decision based on that. This is a cost effective and flexible solution. If a company is looking to use it on their server, it's important to look at the integration channels and your environment, the support. It's important to know that the channels are supported.
I would rate this solution a seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Good support, integrates well with Fortinet products, and the licensing is cost-effective
Pros and Cons
- "FortiAuthenticator is really good software that integrates very well with Fortinet products."
- "I would like to see more ways to authenticate, such as adding facial recognition to the two-factor, where you log into your phone or another device."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is two-factor authentication, and we use it for a handful of our clients.
What is most valuable?
FortiAuthenticator is really good software that integrates very well with Fortinet products.
The licensing structure is cost-effective for us compared to some of the other solutions that have recurring monthly costs. We like that it has more one-time costs than the monthly recurring cost per user.
What needs improvement?
Although two-factor authentication has come a long way, there are a lot of companies that are going further. The reason for this is because people are finding ways to compromise traditional, web-based solutions. I would like to see more ways to authenticate, such as adding facial recognition to the two-factor, where you log into your phone or another device. That would be great.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have had stability issues with FortiAuthenticator.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
As long as you purchase the right amount of licensing, it's scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Generally, the technical support is very good. I know some people that work for Fortinet and we haven't had any issues with getting to the right resources when needed.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have always used Fortinet products.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is fairly simple because there's product training available for all of the tools from Fortinet. Our team is fully versed in those products, so it wasn't very difficult.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing fee is less in the long term because it's not a recurring cost.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is that for any solution you want to deploy, you have to ensure that your team is trained so that you can support it. Before FortiAuthenticator goes into play, make sure that your team is trained.
Overall, we are pretty satisfied with FortiAuthenticator.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Updated: December 2024
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