Fortinet FortiGate Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

reviewer1451103

Chief Information Officer at a analyst firm with 10,001+ employees

Nov 24, 2020

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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.

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Fortinet FortiGate

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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.

Gamal Al-Hamzah

Network Engineer at LinkTech

Apr 16, 2019

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Improves internet speed and improves network security

Pros and Cons

"The most important features of Fortinet FortiGate are the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and firewall control applications."

"The main aspect of FortiGate that could be improved is load balancing. Our management team does not want to buy another appliance for only load balancing."

What is our primary use case?

We are a reseller of Fortinet products. We use FortiGate for Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) support. This is the most important reason that we use Fortinet FortiGate.

How has it helped my organization?

We required our network to be more secure. We also use FortiGate for improving the speed of the internet because the network here does not perform as we would like it to.

What is most valuable?

The most important features of Fortinet FortiGate are the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and firewall control applications.

What needs improvement?

The main aspect of FortiGate that could be improved is load balancing. Our management team does not want to buy another appliance for only load balancing.

The network routing with Fortinet FortiGate can be an issue, but it generally depends on the size of the company.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

FortiGate is a wonderful appliance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have knowledge of other firewall products but FortiGate is the best.

How are customer service and technical support?

We like the Fortinet technical support and how they have responded in the past.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy and not complex at all.

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

There is only one issue with Fortinet FortiGate: It's the price. If the company makes its products cheaper then we can convince our clients to buy more.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten because I don't know all of the features of the platform personally.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

February 2025

Free Report: Fortinet FortiGate Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.

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838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.

it_user929583

Network and Security Manager at a consumer goods company with 10,001+ employees

Nov 13, 2018

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Review about Fortinet FortiGate

Pros and Cons

"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."

"The room for improvement is about the global delivery time period. Usually I need to wait for almost one month to deliver it overseas. So if you can shorten the deliver time it'd be great."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case for this solution is as a firewall protection for our company.

How has it helped my organization?

It's performed as a firewall to block those unwanted traffics, and it can protect our clients and our users from some threats. I think it is the best solution to protect the network or our users from the APT attacks.

What is most valuable?

I like the UTM features, including the web filtering and antivirus.

What needs improvement?

The room for improvement is about the global delivery time period. Usually I need to wait for almost one month to deliver it overseas. So if you can shorten the deliver time it would be great.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It keeps improving the features and I am very impressed with the effort.

How are customer service and technical support?

The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period.

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

In the past, we were using Cisco, the quite old firewall. And did not have the UTM features. So we switched to Fortinet to improve the security of our network.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved in the initial setup and it was very easy and the features and interface are very good for us to understand what is going on.

What about the implementation team?

When selecting the firewall vendor, we are considering the protection and the security features, it's the most important things we are considering. We need a good option for threat protection.

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

The beauty is the price performance ratio is great with FortiGate. It provides all the features we needed and the price is comparable with others' firewalls. The price is quite competitive with the firewalls with similar features.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at Palo Alto, Check Point and Cisco.

What other advice do I have?

It's very easy to contact, the conversation is easy and it provides us all the features on point. It is also reliable.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user867420

Network Engineer

Jun 5, 2018

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A solid product with an easy configuration and good support

Pros and Cons

"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."

"It needs more available central management."
"It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices."

What is our primary use case?

Primary use would be firewalls for the central office as well as all our branch offices. For some branches, we use the wireless feature.

How has it helped my organization?

The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support.

What is most valuable?

Stability
Ease of use
Configuration
The available feature sets

What needs improvement?

It needs more available central management.
It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Since we are not virtual, it is a physical box. It scales well if you know what to buy from a physical box standpoint. They seem to offer something for every level.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very responsive and qualified.

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

Cost and convenience are probably why we switched from our previous solution to FortiGate.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, once you understand the operating system environment.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I was not here at the time that they were evaluating other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I highly recommend the Fortinet product because of its implementation. It is a solid product with an easy configuration and good support.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:

Experience
Installations of similar types which met our needs
Pricing
Support
Ease of implementation.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user677703

Superintendent, Process Automation and Safety at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 6, 2017

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Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it readable.

Pros and Cons

"Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”"

"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."

What is most valuable?

Flexible enough to handle everything we could want
Configuration layout is easily understandable
Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”
VPN support and some anti-virus protection.

What needs improvement?

It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No scalability issues, but communications is severely limited in our case by design.

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

They were our first firewalls on site.

How was the initial setup?

It does require someone knowledgeable in routing, firewall rules, and these firewalls in particular. Once it is set up, they are easy to modify and maintain.

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

It is difficult as an end-user to setup continuing license contracts. It is possible to do between emails and their website, but it is practically impossible to find a phone number to call anyone directly.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We considered SonicWall .

What other advice do I have?

It is an excellent product and works extremely well. If it is set up in a logical way, it is very easy to understand and modify. It is highly recommended to have a service “expert” familiar with these to set it up initially with customer direction.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Hamza_FarhanProfessioan Services Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees

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Jun 19, 2017

The easy way to migrate from one model to another is taking the config file and modify it manually, say rename port WAN to port-1 ( sometimes you need to modify the syntax of commands when moving between different versions) and upload the config back. Another method is to divided the config file to multiple sections say interfaces , NAT policies , Firewall ACLS / objects / object groups , then modify every part as required and upload them one-by-one.

it_user69816

Network Manager at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 1, 2013

Fortigate is Hard to Beat for the Money

Fortinet has been a darling of the stock market ever since its IPO in 2009 as its stock price has accelerated over recent years. Its stock performance has mirrored the adoration that its line of security devices consistently receive. Fortinet is the current UTM market leader, boasting a 20% market share. Fortinet is now expanding out of its core SMB strength and into the large enterprise market where the increasing performance of its solutions are making it attractively priced.

In Gartner’s latest Unified Threat Management Magic Quadrant (UTM) Fortinet is listed at the top of the leader quadrant. Says Gartner, “We believe attributes that contributed to the leadership position include Fortinet’s high awareness in the industry, in Gartner client’s short-lists and in competitive situations; Fortinet’s aggressive price/performance.”

A UTM or Unified Threat Management device is a firewall that includes other features as well. The Fortinet UTM package includes gateway firewall, anti-virus, web filter, intrusion protection, application control, VPN, email filtering and WAN optimization. Think of it as the “Everything Box.”

There line of UTM security appliances is called the Fortigate series. It offers an appliance to meet every type of network, from the home office to large enterprise networks, as well as Managed Security Service providers. Its smallest unit, the Fortigate-20C, also serves as a wireless router and offers four internal switch port in addition to a WAN port. At the top of the food chain is its new 5000 Series chassis based network appliance. It supports two, six, or fourteen FortiGate-5000 series network security blades, and allow you to scale security and customize your unique environment. These large units are ideal for virtual infrastructures as they can control up to 3,000 virtual domains.

The admin console for the Fortigate is browser based. Sometimes, browser based can have a cheesy rudimentary look but not with the Fortigate. Navigating the Fortigate is simple with its expandable menu. The admin console opens up to a Dashboard which displays a series of widgets that the administrator can populate according to their needs. It also comes with a command line interface which can be accessed through the admin console itself or through Putty.

Like all UTM appliances, the Fortigate units do some things better than others. Its web filtering is certainly more than suitable for most environments but if you are looking for super high granularity with a complicated array of user based filtering and exceptions, you probably would be better suited with a dedicated filtering appliance. The same probably holds true for its email filtering as well.

With this in mind though, what IT professionals are looking for first and foremost in a UTM device is security, and this is what Fortinet does best. Configuring the firewall of the Fortigate is a breeze. Simply create your firewall objects, consolidate them into groups if possible, and then create your policy rules. You can right click on any of your policies to view a separate context menu that will allow you to do things such as delete, move or edit the policies.

Integrating the other core components with your firewall policies is a snap. Simply apply the various UTM services you desire to the designated policies. For example, you would enable email filtering only to the rule configured for email traffic. You would then configure web filtering for the rule regarding your HTTP and HTTPS traffic while you would apply anti-virus to both rules.

Backing up and restoring your Fortigate configurations is as simple as clicking a single link and can be completed in less than a minute. Fortinet is continually releasing new builds and updates for all of its models. Simply download these firmware upgrades to any local device and click the update link and browse to the downloaded updates. You can revert back to an older firmware release at any time. Some of the more robust Fortigate models can be clustered into active-active or active-passive configuration.

Fortinet recently released version 5 which among other things includes Mobility Management. This feature does not include an additional license and is ideal for those organizations who allow BYOD devices.

If you browse some of the UTM discussion boards out there, you will find the phrase, “can’t beat it for the price” when discussing the Fortigate. The combination of its strong UTM features with a very affordable price point should certainly put Fortinet on the short list for any organization shopping for a new UTM appliance.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user3483Senior Consultant at Unify Square

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Jan 9, 2014

Great review Brad.
Only for the part related to upgrades from one version to another, I think you are a bit too optimistic :-)

Sometimes the update (and rollback) are not devoid of hassles (including parts of the configuration that not always work "as they are" in the new firmware).

Suresh Bora

IT Infrastructure Lead at iConnect IT Business Solutions DMCC

Mar 30, 2022

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Offers good protection and security

Pros and Cons

"Overall security features and performance routing is good."

"Lacks sufficient security options."

What is our primary use case?

Fortinet protects us from web attacks. We also use it to connect our remote users. I'm the IT infrastructure lead.

What is most valuable?

I think the overall security features and the performance routing is good.

What needs improvement?

The security features are good but I'd like to see additional security options.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution, yes.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is simple and took us about half an hour. We have 50 users in the company. We have one person who deals with all our maintenance and deployment issues.

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

We have a three-year license.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution and rate it eight 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.

Eric TOURE

System & Network Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Jan 31, 2022

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Scalable and stable tool for securing networks, with good SD-WAN, VPN, and URL filtering functions

Pros and Cons

"The stability and scalability of this solution are satisfactory. Its SD-WAN, VPN, and URL filtering features are very useful."

"Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure the network.

What is most valuable?

The features I found most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate include their SD-WAN features and their VPN. They are good and very useful. My remote user and I are using them all the time. The URL filter is also good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started using Fortinet FortiGate five years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I'm satisfied about the stability of this solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution wasn't complex at all.

What about the implementation team?

This solution was implemented in-house. I was the one who implemented it.

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

Licensing for Fortinet FortiGate is on a yearly basis. Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper.

What other advice do I have?

Deployment of Fortinet FortiGate took one to two days, because I needed time to put my existing environment and what we have, and what we intended to do with our network, to convert it into the Fortinet FortiGate system.

We were on another platform which was a concurrent platform and it wasn't a good one, and it was our first time to go on Fortinet FortiGate, so we had an issue and it took me a few days to deploy.

Maintenance of this solution requires two people. The number of users of Fortinet FortiGate in our organization depends on whether it's direct or indirect. If indirect, it will be all the users we have in the organization, but if it's direct, it could be just the administrator. If indirectly, it'll be a hundred users on our actual site, and 2000 to 3000 users on the other site, all done remotely.

I didn't have to contact Fortinet's technical support, so I can't evaluate their level of responsiveness. I was able to make all the configurations I wanted, without needing to contact support. This solution is good for me.

I'm rating Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

I'm recommending this solution to be deployed for a new user. I'm really happy with it.

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.