Fortinet FortiClient Reviews

I primarily use FortiClient for VPN connectivity and endpoint security, providing protection against malware on laptops and desktops. It is particularly beneficial for internal access in the office, using VPN to access our system.

The most valuable feature of FortiClient is its user-friendly interface that allows easy navigation and access to all endpoint devices. Its vulnerability detection is very useful, as it provides insights into vulnerabilities on both desktops and laptops through EMS management. Additionally, its compliance enforcement capabilities are highly reliable, especially when enforcing policies.

The endpoint side of FortiClient needs improvement, specifically the agent-based endpoint, which requires enhancements in detection and additional features to reduce bugs.

I have been using Fortinet for almost seven years now.

The support is rated five out of ten. The main issue revolves around addressing bugs in the endpoint.

Neutral

The initial setup of FortiClient is rated eight out of ten, suggesting that it was relatively straightforward.

I rate FortiClient seven out of ten.

Our company deploys the solution for twenty customers who need ransomware protection and web application firewalls. 

The solution's TNA feature blocks devices from entering the network that do not meet compliance protocols such as the absence of antivirus protection. 

The TNA security feature allows integration with FortiClient, FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiSandbox. 

The solution creates a security fabric with all devices connected and sharing the same log so it is easy to automatically quarantine any device.

The solution has some issues with stability on the user side. 

I have been using the solution for two years. 

The solution has some stability issues on the user side but is improving. 

New releases are more stable than past versions. 

The solution is scalable based on your license. 

Adding users that extend beyond your current license is simple because you just upgrade your license. 

Technical support is quite impressive and available 24/7. 

Support engages with us and provides relevant resolutions for issues.  

The initial setup on the server side is very easy. 

The setup steps include installing the solution on the server, configuring any ports or IPs, creating an installer to run on user systems, and then deploying the solution on the user side. 

Deployment on the user side can be done manually if there are few users. Our clients have thousands of users so we push the installer through ED by creating group profiles that contain specific policies. 

Users receive policy updates that administrators want to push to them. 

Our company implements the solution for customers. 

The solution is moving toward stability so I recommend it.

I rate the solution a six out of ten. 

It is for a VPN connection. It only has one purpose, and Fortinet is doing very well.

It is used for mobile offices, and/or for our own company so that we can connect to the company network using the VPN. We also do remote access to our customer's environment. They all have FortiGate equipment for firewalls, and we connect to their networks.

We are using its latest version.

We like its centralized administration, integration with Active Directory, deployment, and stability of the connection.

It fits perfectly with our FortiGate firewall equipment. We are just using FortiGate firewalls, and these FortiGate firewalls make it very easy to use FortiClient because it is just a natural fit. Another advantage is its integration with the antivirus solution of Fortinet. If someone is using the antivirus software by Fortinet, it is the same agent. So, it perfectly integrates with the complete security stack if you are using the VPN and antivirus from the same brand.

The user interface on the central server could be improved.

In terms of additional features, the only thing I could imagine is that it should handle not only FortiClient VPN connections; it should also integrate with OpenVPN, for example. They should open it up for non-FortiGate devices. It is not a must, but it would be nice to have.

I have been using this solution for about two years.

Its stability is great.

We haven't reached the limit.

The support of Fortinet for their products is great. The same is true for the Fortinet VPN client. There are a lot of online resources, and you can go through frequently asked questions. You have an online knowledge base, and you have a support company in the background to call and open a ticket with Fortinet. The responsiveness of Fortinet is very good. I would rate them a four out of five.

Positive

It is straightforward. If you set up your environment correctly and it is centrally managed, it is just a matter of 10 to 15 minutes to set up a VPN connection to a new client. It is absolutely fast.

We are an integrator. Its deployment and maintenance can be perfectly handled by one administrator. We have a team for management because if a person is on vacation or ill, the other person can take over, but one administrator would also be perfectly okay.

We do not track return on investment. So, I don't have any numbers.

I don't know it by heart, but it is comparable to other solutions. It is based on the number of clients. It is probably 50 Euros per year per client. It greatly depends on the number of clients you're handling because the more clients you are ordering it for, the cheaper it will be.

I would totally recommend it. The stability of the connection is great. The performance is also great, and I don't see any big improvements that are necessary. 

I would rate it an 8 out of 10. I haven't seen a software I would give a 10 because 10 would just mean that the company can just sit back and do nothing else in the future.

We primarily use the solution for the VPN as well as for end protection. Those are the only two use cases for us. We don't use it for anything else.

The solution has improved our organization as the VPN has allowed us to work from home, which has been quite handy during COVID. We don't need to be at the office to access the VPN. We can work from anywhere. It's made work much more flexible.

The anti-virus that the product offers is the most valuable aspect of the solution for us.

The VPN has proven to be quite useful. We access the VPN through FortiClient. 

The stability is very good.

Technical support is okay.

The version we have is free to use. It doesn't cost us anything.

We've found the solution to be very user-friendly. It's easy to navigate.

I'm now looking for some sort of option that can maybe be centrally located. We want the IP in our office to centralize the settings and so on. The one that we use, hasn't had that kind of capability to push the settings.

We'd like to be able to properly encrypt the data more effectively. We want them to offer encryption of the hard drive.

The initial setup can sometimes be complex.

I've been using the solution for a while now. It's likely been about five or so years. I've had some time to get to know it.

The stability is pretty good. there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. Its performance is reliable. 

We use the solution on every PC right now. We use FortiClient, and we are happy with it, however, we do not have plans to increase the usage as our employee count has remained the same and we haven't added anyone to our team.

Technical support is okay. It's been fine. If we need assistance, we simply create a ticket. It's not hard to get a hold of them. I would say that we are satisfied with the level of support.

We used McAfee previously. It was the standard one that is already installed in the software. It's pre-installed software that was available on the computer. However, we needed to centralize the system. That's why we use FortiClient now instead.

I haven't handled the initial setup personally. Usually, it's handled by my IT team. They are the ones that install it for me. I don't know whether it's complex, or not. However, from my point of view, sometimes I've heard that it has failed, and therefore it's possible it's quite complex.

Since I didn't handle the initial setup, and can't speak to how much time the deployment actually took.

We are currently using the free version of the solution. We don't pay a licensing fee to use the solution.

We are Fortinet partners.

I would recommend the solution to other users and companies. It's a very useful tool and I have enjoyed working with it. It meets our expectations.

I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

I am a senior Network and Security Solution architect and having certifications, like JNCIE-SP, JNCIP-Sec, JNCDA, Fortinet certified, Sophos Certified Engineer, and certified in ethical hacking v10. with hands-on experience of Tele 3G, 4G, Metro Ethernet, IGW, and large Data Center Design. my primary focus is to recommend cost-effective solutions, to save End customer CAPEX & OPEX.

Comprehensive protection and user visibility when using FortiGate Firewall with FortiClient.

Right now, my opinion is that FortiClient is very inexpensive for what it is. They have a very feature-rich product available in the UTP (Unified Threat Protection) bundle when compared to what other vendors offered Endpoint. Other vendors sell different parts of their security solutions in different pieces, but Fortinet sells all the features like a unified solution in one UTP bundle. For example, they included limited WAF (Web Application Firewall) features, load balancing, SD Wan (a very important feature), cloud sandbox, antivirus, anti-spam, web filtering, IPS protection, and Remote VPN including SSL VPN. All of this is included in the one UTM bundle.

If we compare with other products like Cisco, Juniper, Sophos, and Palo Alto, those companies require separate purchases for all the different features. So this is why I consider Fortinet very inexpensive. But it is also not a sacrifice because even with low cost for what you get, their security rating is very high. Many customers right now in the situation caused by the pandemic are having budget issues. These companies have lower budgets right now and they have to be aware of the value. They still have the same security need and they want a very feature-rich solution. Fortinet fits in their budget and that is why customers prefer to buying Fortinet as compared to other solutions.

The improvement required for Fortinet is that they must increase RAM in low-end Firewalls. because low-end Firewalls come with very low RAM, due to low RAM users faced performance issues when increase user traffic, that can cause performance issues. even we know other vendors are using a minimum of 04 GB RAM. But Fortinet for their low-end entry-level box is using only one/two GB RAM. That is very low and can be a performance issue.

If we compare the performance based on their datasheet, it does not really meet the full requirements. For example, if we are using the FG-60F Network Security Firewall 10xGE, the throughput is 10 gigs. But the memory is two GB. Two GB of memory is too low to handle the throughput. So they should increase the memory in the box. Fortinet can gain end customer confidence.

I have been working with Fortinet products and FortiClient for five years.  

FortiClient is stable as per my experience with multiple clients. Right now, we have installed the FortiClient internally as well. It is protecting our network as well so we are not only resellers. We do not experience any issues with the endpoint security.  

Fortinet technical support requires a little bit of effort to improve their services. The level of services is based on the customer's purchased support bundle. So if a customer purchases a 360 support bundle, then the customer can contact directly at a higher level with the technical support team. But if the customer purchases the normal 24/7 bundle and they try to open a ticket and make a case for service — either on a call or using the websites — your customer can open only a maximum P3 (Third Priority) level case. This is a low level of priority and it is not suitable for more serious problems. My experience with Cisco and Juniper is different. Those companies have an excellent way of dealing with support cases and they are very skilled. A customer can open a P1 case via phone immediately. With Fortinet, if you want to open a P1 case, you can not do it that way with a standard support package. Support for FortiClient needs to be more in line with the severity of the case.  

I previously worked with Kaspersky and Sophos Intercept X products. I used both as endpoint security.

The main difference is the advantage of FortiClient in CAPEX cost and feature-richness.

One problem I faced was when a customer went to renew FortiClient for their second Year, in Fortinet SKU is the same as a new purchase.

even other venders having renewed SKU for next year.

The case was really more like an upgrade than an initial purchase and should have been somehow included as a bundle. If we compare that with Intercept X and Kaspersky, those companies give the option to renew in similar cases and the renewal pricing is very low compared to the initial cost. It is maybe a place where the Fortinet pricing structure could be modified to appear more competitive.

As per my experience, Fortinet has the simplest way of making deployments compared to other products and companies like Sophos. It is very simple and predictable. Just follow the simple steps and — one, two, three — the firewall is ready to deploy. So you do not need to get more experience and you do not need to study up too much documentation or courses to determine how to configure it. All the information you need is available for free. The customer does not need a technical expert to configure and operate Fortinet products. But if the customer wants to configure competing products like Juniper, Cisco, Palo Alto, and Sophos, they need the technical knowledge to configure the products to achieve proper functionality.  

FortiClient is very simple and user-friendly. The GUI is very user friendly and it is the simplest GUI compared to other vendor products. This is another plus point for Fortinet.  

Clients need not only to look at the price of the product as a bottom line. Some products offer more as a package, as Fortinet does in this case. Some customers see only dollar signs when there is more to evaluating the value of a product offering than the only cost.

My advice to Fortinet is that they should make a change to FortiClient pricing. They should have a renewal price that is lower than the new purchase price. They should include the price bundle as a renewal price, like say you were purchasing UTM (Unified Threat Management) next year for support. They should include a renewal process in their pricing scheme, and not just treat all purchasing as a new contract.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate FortiClient as an eight-out-of-ten.  

We are using FortiClient for five to six users. Our primary use for this solution is to access a resource in our partner's network. They manage our call center.

This allows us to connect with our client who uses the FortiGate Firewall solution.

This is a standard VPN client, and it works for our requirements.

I haven't found that that solution does anything amazing. There is nothing special about it. It works trouble free just like any other client.

It's pretty stable, and I don't have any problems with it.

Scalability doesn't apply to the client. It works on a single endpoint. Scalability is something that is relevant to the FortiGate Firewall, and we do not use that product.

Our partner is the one who runs the system, so if we need technical support then it is them that we contact.

The other one that we use is AnyConnect, which is for the majority of our remote users. Only one of our partners requires us to use FortiClient.

The setup is straightforward for a VPN client. The deployment takes about ten minutes.

The implementation and deployment were completed in-house.

We just installed the clients and put in the configurations.

Anyone can download this product for free, but you have to have a FortiGate gateway that you are connecting to.

This product is not terrible, but I don't have any basis in which to say that it is good.

Because we don't really have any problems with it, I would rate this product a ten out of ten.

We use Fortinet FortiClient based on the end user's firewall structure. If my customer uses a FortiGate firewall, we usually use Fortinet FortiClient for the VPN instead of a WatchGuard.

Fortinet FortiClient's scalability is very good because it has no limitations.

Fortinet FortiClient should improve its visibility of the consumption of traffic and end-user action, which is very low.

I have been using Fortinet FortiClient for two years.

We didn't face any problems with Fortinet FortiClient's stability.

I previously used a solution called WatchGuard.

Fortinet FortiClient's initial setup is quite simple.

Fortinet FortiClient's deployment took around five to ten minutes. We manually set up the software while configuring the end-user device. We deployed the solution through an in-house team.

I would not recommend Fortinet FortiClient to other users because of its low visibility of end-user actions.

Overall, I rate Fortinet FortiClient a seven out of ten.

We typically use the solution for remote access. We do not typically use any of the other features.

This solution has improved the way our organization functions.

We find the VPN features valuable.

SAML authentication was newly introduced (Post 6.2) but the free customizable version (Forticlient Configuration tool) from FNDN is still at 6.0.10. I would like to see in an upcoming release the free version of Forticlient Configuration tool supporting authentication and customizable for the customers. This is available in the FortiClient developing networks, but it is only available without SAML authentication. 

Also would like to see more descriptive error messages when authentication fails in Forticlient specially when using forticlient VPN connection from Windows Login with Fortitoken as a 2FA

I have been using the solution for three years.

There are some stability issues with the solution, compared with other solutions such as Cisco. We were having glitches, bugs, and sometimes crashes.

The bugs that I received was on a PC on the client-side, the authentication would almost never provide feedback about what the cause of failure was. This was a usability related issue, it is not built on the actual firewall. We need to look at the application level to see what is really happening on the user level.

The solution is quite scalable, there are approximately 60 people using it.

I used technical support for FortiClient and I would say that they are good. They are knowledgeable and responsive. The product quality itself or the way in which it debugs is relatively complex to other solutions. This could be the reason why support is needed.

I rate Fortinet FortiClient technical support an eight out of ten.

We've used OpenVPN and it is quite limiting. However, It is free. We wanted to have a solution that was more scalable towards high-level deployment. In some countries, where we operate as well, OpenVPN is censored. We also used Cisco Anyconnect (As clients only with our customers)

FortiClient is excelling there because they are not censored or have features blocked.

Relatively straightforward 

The install is not straightforward. It was complex and the guidelines are not straightforward. If you want to have something secure and segregated, it is advanced.

The base price should include basic VPN support in addition to Vulnerability scanning, and I think this is beneficial against other solutions. The price is reasonable compared to competitors, it is very good to upgrade to paid EMS + forticlient for the additional features covering Endpoint protection.

OpenVPN was our primary VPN solution for internal usage

I would advise looking into the EMS feature we are considering it right now, it is worth investing into. In the free base solution for FortiClient, you do not get to customize your VPN solution in the with the client. The current versions that are available for FortiClient they are quite old. If you want to use the solution to its potential, get the Enterprise Management System (EMS). Additionally, purchase the customization of the FortiClient tool, it is also beneficial.

I gave this solution a seven out of ten because I would say its stability needs serious improvements, but on the upside it is relatively cheap to implement and free for basic features also well integrated into the Fortinet solution. To get my scoring up to a ten they need to have better stability.

I rate Fortinet FortiClient a seven out of ten.