Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

The typical next-generation firewall use case is to restrict access to the users by using a firewall.

It is very flexible to use.

It is stable, but its stability can be improved. 

I have been using this solution for maybe four or five years.

Its stability is just okay. It should be better.

The scalability of the device is limited.

Technical support is okay. They could be more knowledgeable and faster.

I was using Sophos. We switched because it was very unstable in terms of both software and hardware. I found a lot of vulnerabilities. Even though they provide a lot of features for a minimum cost, these features don't do what they are supposed to do.

The initial setup was easy. The deployment duration depends on the situation. I have done the installation in one to three days.

I installed it myself. You just need one technical guy to maintain and manage the firewall. It is a small product for 200 to 500 users.

It has a competitive price. 

I would recommend this solution. We plan to continue using it. Even though it has a few stability issues, its price is competitive. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

Typically, we use Fortinet FortiGate with edge devices for businesses. 

We also use them to integrate with a SIEM product and we use it for detailed analytics.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the analytics.

Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs.

I would like the licensing price to be better. It would be nice if it were less than 25 percent of the hardware costs.

I have been using this solution for fifteen years. We are an MSSP.

The stability is good.

With respect to scalability, it's good.

We have 15 people using this solution in our organization.

We contact technical support almost daily. They have good support.

The initial setup was not straightforward but not too complex. It's a bit of both.

For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year.

Before choosing the Fortinet FortiGate, I evaluated other solutions.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

I have deployed FortiGate with multiple organizations such as universities, government institutions, healthcare, and ISP providers. I have worked with FortiGate models 30-500 series and I have deployed the 3200D model for one of the broadband service providers located in India, Namely Sikka Broadband. 

I have installed the FortiGate 500 and 400D to replace a Sophos firewall in a main corporate office. This implementation provided improved network performance.

This solution made it easier to connect all of the branches together via an IPsec VPN and remote users with SSL VPN.

The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus.

Using the FortiGate security solution provides comprehensive visibility and advanced layer 7 security, including threat protection, intrusion prevention, web filtering, and application control. They face a major complexity hurdle managing these point products with no integration and lack of visibility.

Thie solution provides a high-performance inspection of clear-text and encrypted traffic.

The FortiOS Operating system is robust, and the WAN load-balancing very much transparent.

Improvement is needed in the Web Filter quotas to restrict users with allocated quotas.

It would be an improvement to add a feature for active users to change/reset their own passwords.

Fortinet renewal prices for all models are too high, so they should offer discounts for customers on renewal. 

We use this solution for edge protection in SOHO and K-12 environments.

FortiOS has a very good, intuitive GUI.

This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI.

The Web-filter in this solution is not very good. Perhaps because Fortinet does not want to compete with its own dedicated solution.

Our primary use case for this solution is the provision of services to our customers, the end users.

This solution has improved our organization a lot. We have been able to offer several services to customers in a single box.

The firewall is a valuable feature because it offers more security for end customers. The HA function is fantastic, as the link switching time is almost imperceptible. It also offers dedicated IP, all in one box.

I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity.

My impression of the stability is very good. It is very difficult to have to replace the equipment due to lack of resources.

I found this product to be good for scalability. It offers several features, among them I can mention Application Control, Antispam, QoS and others.

I found the technical support team to be careful and committed to delivering what we needed.

Prior to using the FortiGate solution, I used the MikroTik RB1100AHx2e. I found that the FortiGate 60D offered more security.

The setup was straightforward and easy, and the equipment has a good command line interface.

We were given all the support that we needed for implementation. The vendors were fantastic.

The return is inevitable when you have equipment that offers stability and quality in services.

Before choosing a piece of equipment you have to take into account the cost-benefit offered by each one. Sometimes it is not worth paying a very cheap price to have a minimum level of security.

Our evaluation of the MikroTik RB1100AHx2e revealed that it lacks antivirus software and has no lock for botnet control centers.

There is a VOIP feature that by default is enabled on the Fortigate 60D. This greatly increases the CPU usage, which causes bad behavior in the equipment. This feature should be disabled and if necessary, the user can re-enable it.

The FortiGate 60D is a fantastic piece of equipment.

We use Fortinet FortiGate mainly for web filtering and site-to-site VPN connectivity. We establish filters based on the type of application for filtering purposes.

With Fortinet FortiGate I can do over forty enlaces. We give all of the log-based runtime support to every user and the web traffic coming in. Also, we can enlace all of the security projects from our two servers with the other forty enlaces.

The most important features with FortiGate are the web filter and application controls. We can control our internet usage and use the web filter for application purposes. All branch FortiGate devices are integrated with FortiAnalyzer and easy to download and monitor the logs from all other locations. It's easy to change the configurations using CMD-SSH. FSSO is also another good feature. 

It is mainly our own application of FortiGate that we need to improve. If you compare FortiGate to any other products, all of the other products have more signatures. I couldn't find that many signatures available in the application.

Some features of Fortinet FortiGate are actually fee enabled that are inconvenient for deploying in production. Other issues relate to isolation with Cisco products and your server.

Fortinet should make it so that we are not able to use analytics from Cisco at the same time that FortiGate is installed. We are not able to do real-time network monitoring.

For the next release, FortiGate should be improved to support these issues. For the setup, you need to prepare a lot for that before engaging the deployment. 

I learned a lot about FortiGate from books. That should be important in preparation. Fortinet should implement these changes, then we would be able to do more.

Stability is good. The only issue is that in the VPN, I have seen many times that there is no stability in the VPN configuration and VPN connectivity. That is our only issue.

If we implement Fortinet to Fortinet connections, then the solution works fine and there are no issues. If we connect with any other vendor like Cisco, Palo Alto, or these kinds of devices, I can see sometimes that the connectivity issue is there.

From IIS, the I/O packet works and connectivity is ideal. Connectivity is fine, but the title clock unnecessarily comes in and sometimes it doesn't reach the destination.

We use Fortinet FortiGate in twenty to twenty-five locations at the time, although we are basically focused on healthcare industry requirements.

For the deployment and maintenance, we have two people we are using right now. Regarding maintenance and deployment, we employ experts in network and security support. 

We don't have any plans to increase usage of Fortinet FortiGate. We only use it in 25 locations.

We have evaluated Fortinet FortiGate's technical support and it is good.

The initial setup is straightforward. The normal VLAN interface configuration with the LAN configuration is fine. There is no problem with that. 

Our deployment took a maximum of half an hour to forty-five minutes. It only took this much time for the entire configuration including the LAN and policy configuration.

We did not use an integrator or consultant. Our security engineers completed the configuration.

In terms of rating, Fortinet FortiGate will come in with an eight out of ten. We are satisfied with the product overall. 

We use Fortinet FortiGate as our firewall and Layer 3 switch. Together, they connect all our locations for internal and external access with an MPLS as the primary connection and a backup VPN over a secondary DSL/Cable ISP.

Fortinet FortiGate has improved our routing and made us more secure. Using OSPF tables with an MPLS VPN, along with the combined security of the firewalls, has made a huge difference in our organization.

• The ability to customize UTM features and add or remove features as we like.
• Availability of different locations as options.
• The VPN features are easy to deal with.
• The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips.

It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco.

Their proxy-based inspection is responsive and secure.

1. The prompt and knowledgeable support behind them. 
2. Their reliability and their policy of pre-shipping replacements when a unit has failed.
3. The simplicity and clarity of their user interface and documentation.
4. Their 'cookbooks' that walk you through the most common installation scenarios.

I am a one-man show, so there is not much that can be done to improve the way that I function. However, these products provide best-in-class security at reasonable prices. 

One of the most helpful features is their VPN, the client could not be any simpler to set up and use.

I can't think of too much which they can improve upon. I just have not come across any situation where they have fallen short of expectations.

I am a consultant who supports these units for my clients who use them. I have had over 10 years of experience with Fortinet products.

The products are extremely stable. I have only had one instance where a unit did not function as expected, and Fortinet replaced the unit, despite the fact that it was still operational.

Scalability is the one area where there is room for some improvement. Currently, customers need to purchase more powerful units as their network traffic and requirements grow. Fortinet will occasionally offer trade-in credits in such situations, but this is not always the case. Their product line allows customers to scale from SoHo through enterprise-level requirements, which is what I like about them so much.

Their tech support is outstanding.

I have sold and supported other solutions in the past. Fortinet is not always the least-cost solution available, but from a value standpoint, I find them hard to beat.

Initial setup complexity will vary with the complexity of the installation. It is relatively straightforward and simple to set up basic configurations. More complex requirements entail reading through a lot of documentation in order to complete the firewall configuration because of the myriad of features and options that are available in their O/S. The 'cookbooks' are a big help in these instances.

Pricing and licensing have to be taken in context with value. Fortinet is usually not the least expensive alternative when considering an upfront investment, but if you take into account the support costs over several years, they are often as cost-effective as the 'cheaper' solutions.

In this particular instance, Fortinet was evaluated against an equivalent solution sourced from D-Link. I also evaluated a solution from Xirrus (now Riverbed) which promised better signal strength. However, when I ran the various WiFi planning tools from each supplier, the coverage differences did not merit the more expensive Xirrus solution.

Anyone evaluating this product should consult the documentation available and plan out their solution before making a decision. From personal experience, I find that I am able to save hours of planning and implementation time because Fortinet's documentation is so helpful.