The network security and cloud security are most valuable.
Group Manager Procurement/SCM at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Good security, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The network security and cloud security are most valuable."
- "Its price could be better."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
Its price could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been dealing with this solution for hardly two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We have 10 clients who are using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
We have never contacted them.
How was the initial setup?
It is a little complicated. It took four months.
What about the implementation team?
We have a team of about 20 people for deployment and maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price could be better.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. I would rate it a nine 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.
System ADM at a recreational facilities/services company with 501-1,000 employees
Stable, with a quota to monitor and control user access
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is Quota."
- "In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution as our Firewall.
FortiGate is a service, and because of that, I don't use it very much. The equipment is for the operator that monitors who is on the internet, nothing more.
How has it helped my organization?
It has improved our productivity because we can control the people who go on the internet, and we control their access to social networks.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is Quota. It allows the user to go where they want to go and to use the internet.
What needs improvement?
The price could be improved.
In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. It works for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is not an area fully explored. It has been sufficient for what we need.
We have 700 users in our organization who are using this solution. We don't have plans to increase our usage at this time.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not needed any technical support for the Fortinet FortiGate service.
How was the initial setup?
The initial set up was not something that I was concerned with.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price could be lower.
What other advice do I have?
It's a good tool to control users.
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate 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.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
Network Manager at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Installation is super easy, stable operations, and has prompt and responsive customer service
Pros and Cons
- "The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit."
- "Some of the software stability could improve."
What is our primary use case?
We use it as a firewall for securing our HQ and branch.
What is most valuable?
The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit.
What needs improvement?
A feature for bandwidth monitoring and the ability to have more bandwidth testing would be useful to include in future releases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for just about a year.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have approximately 40,000 employees and the product is very scalable. The different hardware units are quite good and are an appropriate size for enterprise-sized businesses.
How are customer service and technical support?
They're very prompt and responsive, and very helpful. In our experience, they responded on the same day and the next day for fixes.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was super easy, we were up and running in less than 50 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
We did it the implementation ourselves. We used an in house team of four to do the deployment.
What was our ROI?
Some of the software stability could improve.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend FortiGate to others.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate 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.
Chief Information Officer at a analyst firm with 10,001+ employees
A stable and scalable solution but the setup is pretty complex and not easy to implement
Pros and Cons
- "Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
- "The setup is pretty complex and not easy to implement."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for our paralegal security, our internet operations, and network zone segmentation.
What needs improvement?
It could be more stable and secure. They can improve the ability to make changes, change requests, and provide more rounded monitoring in terms of security and potential threats.
For how long have I used the solution?
My team has been using Fortinet FortiGate for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate appears to be stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Palo Alto.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is pretty complex and not easy to implement.
What about the implementation team?
Implemented by our in-house team.
What other advice do I have?
I would give Fortinet FortiGate a seven 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.
Network Security Coordinator at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The VPN capabilities provide a reliable connection to our corporate network over low cost internet services.
Pros and Cons
- "LinkGreat firewall capabilities"
- "Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
How has it helped my organization?
These devices allowed my organization to connect a network of gas stations and convenience stores nationwide. The VPN capabilities provide a reliable connection to our corporate network over very low cost internet services (basically, any Internet service locally available can be used for this connections).
We also leverage the NGFW, UTM and WLAN controller features to provide security for corporate network traffic, and secure, content-filtered guest internet access for customers in the convenience stores. All this at a relative low cost.
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We’ve had cases of unexplained bugs that go away with a simple device reboot. Software updates usually help with these issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have personally found that Fortinet advertising can be misleading. The devices will usually fail way before reaching the capacity advertised in the data sheets, especially when you activate several of the features the device can handle. This is not a dealbreaker for me, especially because of the cost. But I would advise care when dimensioning the devices you’ll need.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Customer service in Fortinet is OK. Lately they've been making efforts in this area. They actually call you when licenses are about to expire which is a nice touch on their part.
Technical Support:
I would say technical support is 6/10. I’ve found tech support to vary, sometimes being decent, sometimes painfully inefficient. Much room for improvement here IMHO.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We still use Cisco for some cases. However, where we need the advanced security and UTM features, Cisco’s prices can be very restrictive. Fortinet is a much more cost-effective choice for those cases.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was very straightforward. Interface is very friendly and easy to comprehend.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing this product, we also evaluated Cisco.
What other advice do I have?
Be careful with dimensioning. Don’t expect the device to handle ALL the features. Usually firewall, Web Filter and the WLAN controller work well. But if you need IPS, app control and AV, I would advise over-dimensioning the device a bit (taking Fortinet data sheets as the reference).
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Systems Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Fortinet has a strong reputation at the high end, but for midsize shops there are more affordable options
I pulled our organization off Fortinet a year ago for three reasons - the high cost, the constant bugs in code that either blocked access that should be allowed or general failures during system updates, and the killer - a poor design on their clustering which caused configuration corruption to pass from the primary to the secondary.
Oh, let's not forget the static ram exhaustion that began the cluster failure to begin with. I can understand the limitation of static ram, but the decision to solder that in place (making replacement impossible) meant that particular unit has roughly a 4 year lifespan.
I am well aware that Fortinet has a strong reputation at the high end, but for midsize shops there are more affordable options that seem to need less hand-holding.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Lead at Yssy
Has good inspection and web security features and is useful for SD-WAN purposes
Pros and Cons
- "The inspection and web security features are most valuable."
- "There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."
What is our primary use case?
My company is a system integrator in Brazil, and we are also a partner. We mainly use it for SD-WAN purposes. It is being used in the public sector and the commercial sector.
In terms of deployment, some customers deploy it on-premises, and some customers deploy it on the cloud.
What is most valuable?
The inspection and web security features are most valuable.
What needs improvement?
In Brazil, the main problem that we have is related to the protection from various attacks and ransomware in the public sector and the commercial sector. The main focus in Brazil is to deploy a solution to counter-attack ransomware and other attacks.
There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it a 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Popular Comparisons
Netgate pfSense
OPNsense
Cisco Secure Firewall
Sophos XG
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls
Azure Firewall
Check Point NGFW
WatchGuard Firebox
SonicWall TZ
Juniper SRX Series Firewall
Untangle NG Firewall
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
SonicWall NSa
Sophos XGS
Fortinet FortiOS
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Comparison of Barracuda F800, SonicWall 5600 and Fortinet
- Sophos XG 210 vs Fortigate FG 100E
- Looking Into Implementing a Web Security Solution.
- Cyberoam or Fortinet?
- Fortinet, Palo Alto or Check Point?
- What Is The Biggest Difference Between Cisco ASA And Fortinet FortiGate?
- Cisco Firepower vs. FortiGate
- We're trying to choose between Fortinet or Checkpoint UTM firewalls. Can you help?
- What Is The Biggest Difference Between Fortinet FortiGate and Meraki MX Firewalls?
- What Is The Biggest Difference Between Fortinet FortiGate and WatchGuard XTM?
I agree with the drawbacks you presented in the review. I would like to ask you, can you give me some examples of other options that are more affordable for midsize shops? Thank you.