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Systems Engineer at Vernity
Real User
Flexible, integrates well, and offers good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "It's an easy solution to set up."
  • "The stability could be a bit better."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is mostly used for the connection with VPN clients. We use the solution for network security and network segmentation.

What is most valuable?

It's a flexible solution. The security that it's providing is a valuable aspect of the product.

FortiGate integrates well with other equipment such as FortiSwitch, FortiIB, and more, and delivers one pane of glass for the management of those devices. 

It's an easy solution to set up.

Technical support has been good.

What needs improvement?

The configuration option availability is not 100% from the website of the FortiGate web management site. When we log on to the web interface on FortiGate, we do not have everything under this web solution. If we need some specific configuration or need to do some specific configuration, we need to do additional things on the CLI. 

The stability could be a bit better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for at least the last 12 months.

Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, there are some areas in which they need to improve. There are different versions and we understand from past implementations which will work best according to our client's needs. The wrong one may not be as stable as they would like. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Some clients may increase usage in the future. FortiGate is fast becoming a very popular solution and its use will likely grow in general. 

How are customer service and support?

In general, technical support is helpful. We are quite happy with the level of support on offer.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult. 

The length of time it takes to deploy really depends on the size of the project. 

While we do assist the client with the implementation, they tend to handle the maintenance on their end. 

What about the implementation team?

Typically we, as integrators, will assist the client with the initial setup. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The overall costs are pretty typical. It's not overly cheap or overly expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I work as an integrator and maybe 60% of my work is around FortiGate. My company is a Fortinet partner and integrator.

If companies are thinking about the security of their network, they should consider FortiGate as a gate to the internet. I would highly recommend it to others. 

For small or mid-size businesses, I'd rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1784364 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder / Principal at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
The hardware is reliable, and it provides best performance per dollar spent and ease of licensing and management
Pros and Cons
  • "It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."
  • "The cloud management and automation capability could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We're a Fortinet partner and reseller. We work with FortiGate models 40 through 600, and our customers have hybrid and on-prem deployments. The cloud providers are Microsoft Azure and Wasabi.

Its use cases are related to increasing the security posture, SD-WAN implementation, simplified management and licensing, and cost savings.

What is most valuable?

It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation.

The hardware is reliable. There are no surprises in terms of performance or add-on pricing.

What needs improvement?

The cloud management and automation capability could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with this solution for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is excellent.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is very good. There are 100 to 3,000 users, and they are knowledge workers with different roles, such as engineers, lawyers, accountants, etc.

How are customer service and support?

Their technical support is very good. I would rate them a four out of five.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Most of the customers replaced Cisco.

How was the initial setup?

It is straightforward for someone with Fortinet experience. If you don't know anything about Fortinet, you can take it out of the box and plug it in.

Its deployment is usually on a location-by-location basis. Each location often takes one day for the implementation of a new data service. One person is usually enough for its deployment and maintenance.

What was our ROI?

I don't know the numbers, but it typically results in a 20% to 30% reduction in data communications costs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Fortinet costs are 25% lower than the high-cost provider. There is an equipment cost and a recurring monthly cost for licenses and technical support.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Most of the customers look at Cisco, Cisco Meraki, Palo Alto, and Fortinet. They go with Fortinet because of the best performance per dollar spent and ease of licensing and management.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise sizing the equipment appropriately to support future growth. You should look for a four to six-year life of a server. You should compare vendors for price versus performance, ease of management, ease of use, and completeness of features.

I would rate it a nine out of 10. We've had a good experience with it. There were no surprises.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Consultant at Resolve Technology Limited
Consultant
Good next-generation firewall features with good pricing and stability
Pros and Cons
  • "We've found the solution to be pretty stable."
  • "The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now."

What is our primary use case?

We mostly use the solution for our internet-facing firewall.

What is most valuable?

The next-generation firewall features are the solution's most valuable aspect.

The implementation and deployment are pretty simple.

The pricing is very good.

We've found the solution to be pretty stable.

What needs improvement?

The solution isn't really lacking features per se.

The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now.

The solution needs to do more on the deployment in the multi-cloud. For example, clients have GCP and AWS. How do we deploy FortiGate in a cloud environment? Right now, there's no solution for that.

We're worried that the scalability isn't as good as it could be.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for about two years or so. It hasn't been an extremely long time, however, it's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability, in our experience, is quite good. It doesn't run a lot of unexpected downtimes or anything of that nature. We haven't encountered any serious problems. There have been a few minor items here and there, however, by and large, it's quite good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution isn't exactly scalable, especially when it comes to the public cloud environment. We'll need to scale up, so we will have to figure out how to do it effectively.

We primarily work with medium and large enterprises.

How was the initial setup?

We find the solution to be pretty straightforward to set up and deploy. We didn't have any difficulties with implementation. 

The deployment takes less than a week. It's a pretty quick process.

We provide maintenance services for our clients.

What about the implementation team?

We actually provide deployment services to our customers that need it. We can handle this aspect for customers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is on the cheaper side. There are other products that are competitors that are much more expensive.

That said, the pricing isn't just based on licensing costs. There are add-on costs as well a company will need to consider.

What other advice do I have?

We are more of a solution integrator. We are not a straight reseller. We are partners, however. We recommend people to use products. That said, we don't actually resell the actual boxes.

We use different versions and deployments of the solution. It really is dependant on the client and their needs.

We mostly work with Fortinet. It's the main solution we recommend and use.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations. We've had a pretty good experience.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
it_user755889 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at MT Pockets Computers
Consultant
The reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards
Pros and Cons
  • "We use a southern institution that's audited for IT security and the reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards and makes it easier as far as the amount of time that has to be spent to compile that information. If you get your reporting set up correctly when you initially set it up, you just select the one you want and hit print. The auditing trail on it is the best feature."
  • "They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of this solution is for intrusion detection and prevention.

How has it helped my organization?

We use a southern institution that's audited for IT security and the reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards and makes it easier as far as the amount of time that has to be spent to compile that information. If you get your reporting set up correctly when you initially set it up, you just select the one you want and hit print. The auditing trail on it is the best features.

What is most valuable?

There's an all-inclusive appliance where all of the logs, registers, and everything is customizable as far as the way reporting comes back.

What needs improvement?

They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much so when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to their remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that.

There's a link off of the reports that you can click and make suggestions, which is pretty awesome because it seems like somebody is reading those and doing something about it. If I could save reports on a format where I could save space and not have to reprint them and move information down from letterheads and that sort of stuff that would be great. Formatting reports is the only thing I would change about that product right now.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's solid. It's a rock solid solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is excellent. Across three locations we have 120 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did use a different solution. We switched primarily because of the audit trails because the user interface, what you saw on the screen and the options you were presented with were difficult to configure and we ended up spending a lot of time trying to get the information that we wanted. 

How was the initial setup?

For the product that it is, the initial setup was straight forward but not so simple. The Dell EMC product is simple, this is more complicated than that but it wasn't incredibly difficult. We rolled that out on a test network initially and to try to get our rule sets correct so that we didn't run into issues and did testing for about a week. The initial set up time took around an hour and a half, and it was on a virtual network with a bunch of virtual machines. We just tested it for about a week just to make sure that we weren't going to run into a lot of issues switching from the old IDS to the new one.

What about the implementation team?

I installed it. I did the product research and was involved in the purchase decision but I did not purchase the product, I was not a vendor of the product, and I did not make any money on it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

As far as the licensing goes for the small product that we have, the pricing was pretty competitive. It wasn't as simple and as cheap as a SonicWall but for the service we would get it was a good price.

What other advice do I have?

There's a setup guide on the Fortigate website that is a video that is far better than the written manual that is provided. If you've set up other products before, that may get you through, but the training on their website was far more useful to me than the user manual.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Mohamed El-Sherbini - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Mada Insurance
Real User
Top 5
Easy to use UI, excellent support, and simple implementation
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos."
  • "Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Fortinet FortiGate for security on all devices, VPN, and IPsec.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos.

What needs improvement?

Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens. 

The upgrades should be reviewed more frequently, such as daily, to avoid any corruption or issues that can happen, without losing my VPN client. We should not need to downgrade the solution to fix the problems until the Fortinet FortiGate support solves it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable.

Fortinet FortiGate is good for medium to large-sized enterprises.

How are customer service and support?

The support from Fortinet FortiGate is amazing.

How was the initial setup?

The setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

I am able to do the implementation myself. There is no need for assistance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The license of Fortinet FortiGate should be reduced.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten 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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1285998 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Affordable, reliable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
  • "They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."

What is our primary use case?

In my previous company, which was a silver partner, we installed 300 and 301 for a few use cases. The most selling product at that time was FortiGate 100E.

What is most valuable?

I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable.

What needs improvement?

They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down.

For how long have I used the solution?

I worked with this solution for four years in my previous company.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. When you compare it with Palo Alto, it is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable.

How are customer service and support?

They are very knowledgeable and helpful.

How was the initial setup?

Based on what my engineers told me, it is easy to install. It is straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it a nine out of 10.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Hariom Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Technical Support at Rubik Infotech Pvt. Ltd
Real User
Easy to set up and configure with good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very easy to configure."
  • "It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily sell FortiGate to clients. We have customers such as pharmaceutical companies and hospitals that require the security on offer. It is a great firewall. 

What is most valuable?

With many companies dealing with users now working from home, definitely a great feature is the SSL VPN. With that, a user can control everything from their own devices and get connected to the servers even if they are off-site.

The initial setup is easy. It's not overly difficult. 

The solution offers very good security. 

It's a good firewall. It's very easy to configure.

What needs improvement?

We require troubleshooting and those kinds of things. We have to worry about debugging. It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics. That would be much better. FortiGate has only CLI-based diagnostic capabilities. Sometimes it's become very difficult to do all this troubleshooting.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been handling security solutions lie FortiGate for ten to 15 years at this point. It's been a while. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There are some bugs you have to deal with. There's some troubleshooting that needs to be done. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution isn't scalable per se as it is hardware. However, you can always buy more hardware to expand it if you need to. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good. You get very good support from this product overall. We're quite satisfied with their level of service. 

How was the initial setup?

The implementation process is not complex. It's an easy solution. It's not complex setting everything up.

What other advice do I have?

We are resellers of security products. 

New users should be aware that this solution offers very good security. The different level of security we have in Fortinet, in general, is good. They can use various security products to help protect their organizations.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
PeerSpot user
IT Specialist at Divante
Real User
Intuitive and simple administrative panel and useful for filtering everything on our network and protecting our devices
Pros and Cons
  • "Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
  • "They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company."

What is our primary use case?

IPS is the main use case because we want to protect our devices, users, and data from external dangers. 

We most probably are using the model of the last year. If the services connected to the hardware are possible on the cloud, we always prefer the cloud. The hardware must be placed on-premises. 

What is most valuable?

Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies.

We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID. 

What needs improvement?

They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. 

They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for the last two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable, and I don't see any cons of this. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Currently, everyone who is connected with the company is using this solution. We have up to 240 people.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have interacted with them but only through emails. There were separate tickets and stories, and I don't remember right now how it was.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

It was just a product for home-usage. It was a Cisco device from the small business series. It was less advanced than the similar devices available in the market currently. It was a huge step forward for us to switch to FortiGate.

How was the initial setup?

It was a huge jump for us on the administrative side to implement this kind of hardware because we previously used just a simple product for home-usage. 

What about the implementation team?

We hired a consultant to do this for us and to explain how the system works. After a few weeks, we did new certifications and training for this, and now, it works well for us.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. We plan to keep using this solution.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.