Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

I currently work in the automotive industry, providing software for automotive dealers, and we only use Fortinet FortiGate for corporate purposes.

One of the best features of Fortinet FortiGate is how effectively the software is written; the virtual network interfaces significantly outperform Cisco in my project. I didn't need separate switches or load balancers because I was able to resolve internal FQDNs of the load balancers, which was impressive. The centralized management allowed us to manage 50 devices effectively, which I found better than Cisco.

During a recent upgrade from old devices to the latest ones, corporate IT faced challenges as there was no straightforward migration process, requiring many manual steps. I've completed upgrades with Cisco before where the process was simple, but this time it wasn't the case for corporate IT. I also heard that SSL-based VPN will be discontinued, which could be concerning.

I have used Fortinet FortiGate for several years; initially, I brought FortiGate to my previous company during a project.

Integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward, with minimal complexity involved.

My experience with Fortinet FortiGate support has been excellent, as I was fortunate to have an office in Vancouver where Fortinet had staff. We worked closely with tech personnel through the project. While I usually don't give perfect scores, the support was great. However, one area for improvement is that many functions can only be accessed via CLI, which has discrepancies between the web interface and direct connection.

I pushed corporate IT to replace SonicWall with Fortinet FortiGate, and now in my current company, we have FortiGate that we recently upgraded to the latest models.

Managing Fortinet FortiGate involves three corporate IT personnel, and although it initially took them quite a while to handle some tasks, I provided scripts that allowed them to work much quicker. What took them a day or two is now a job of just 10 to 15 minutes. Scripting and utilizing Git repositories would make things smoother, and I intended to publish modules for Terraform but haven't had the time yet.

Overall, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate around an eight, as there is always room for improvement.

Our main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is as a firewall. We are using it for cybersecurity purposes.

Our main purpose when we started working with Fortinet FortiGate was to secure our network in all aspects. Fortinet FortiGate performs a very important role in blocking malicious activity in our network. I'm not sure how much it has improved, but it has made our network stable and secure.

The hardware is very stable. Once you install the system, it works in any condition.

The dynamic segmentation feature in Fortinet FortiGate is pretty good.

The main thing they have to improve in Fortinet FortiGate is the technical support; the rest of the features are good enough. We can handle them, but sometimes you really need support, and in that case, we are not getting it at the proper time. I have been mentioning this for the last two years.

There is a migration issue from 600D to 600E, as we are not able to export the configuration file to 600E. It should be like export and import in all variants.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate since 2016, which is approximately nine years.

It's very stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.

It's scalable. 

Their support is very poor.

Neutral

I have not worked with other vendors for the last ten years, but if I get any chance, I will explore Palo Alto.

We want to purchase more Fortinet FortiGate devices, but people are not giving us a proper quotation. There needs to be more transparency in giving quotations. Sometimes prices are very high, and even after the conclusion, the buyer thinks there may be some more reduction in the price.

Currently, we don't have any Fortinet FortiGate data center solutions, but in the future, we are going to plan this one. 

I will recommend Fortinet FortiGate to other users only because the hardware is very stable. I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

I was involved in deciding on Fortinet FortiGate, but I am not the one who's using it on a day-to-day basis.

We want to make sure that our on-prem servers are protected. We basically use VPN to configure that on Fortinet FortiGate, so that is the major purpose, and that part is working well.

We have not had any incidents where our servers got compromised. It's all good.

For security, it has all the required features, such as the web filter and DNS filter. Also, for accessing the network, we have various rules.

Our IT staff says that some of the security features are better than Sophos's.

Its usability is good. We can easily navigate the system, and we have a very good user experience. It's easier to understand the software compared to Sophos, which I feel is a little more technical and could be difficult for a first-time user.

I want some additional features. For example, I want something to ensure that when we are using Google email or Microsoft email, or Google Workspace, emails can only be accessed on designated machines given to our employees. I would like them to access data from designated machines, not from any machine. It should work for designated mobiles and laptops. I don't know if Fortinet provides something like that out of the box.

We have just installed Fortinet FortiGate, and it has been two months since our installation.

Fortinet FortiGate is stable.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable.

We are going through the vendor for technical support. If we have any issues, we raise a ticket, and they respond immediately.

Positive

Previously, we were using another firewall device, Sophos. Compared to that, Fortinet FortiGate provides more features and better security. Fortinet FortiGate supports WAN migration. Fortinet FortiGate is also better in terms of speed. In the dashboard, we can get all the stats reports and logs.

Deployment is not very difficult because they have their migration tool.

We are facing some challenges. We are working with a third-party vendor, not FortiGate directly, for the installation and other things. The problem is that their knowledge is very limited. We are facing some challenges. With Sophos, we could enable multi-factor authentication for VPN users. FortiGate also allows that, as per our initial analysis. The people we are working with are not able to configure MFA. They are having some technical issues. Fortinet needs to ensure that its partners are well-trained.

Only two people were involved in the deployment process. The vendor side had their own technician, and we had one person here.

Cost-wise, there is not much difference from Sophos, but feature-wise, we get more features.

We did some comparisons between Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos. We went with Fortinet FortiGate because of the security features and easy-to-understand console.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

We primarily use Fortinet FortiGate as endpoint firewalls for our campuses. Nothing too extravagant, just providing access out and limiting access to certain applications and restricting unauthorized access from external sources. I have recently been using it also as the controller for the wireless access points.

It is pretty straightforward to manage and has robust capabilities. I appreciate that Fortinet FortiGate can be a central controller for other Fortinet products, such as switches and access points. I have used its VPN abilities a little bit, but not a great deal. I appreciate that it has some SD-WAN capabilities, though I've only used that to a limited degree. It is a solid, usable, reliable solution. 

It's one of the more expensive brands.

FortiManager has not been my favorite. I don't use it and cannot say I really care for FortiManager for managing the firewalls. I primarily just access and manage the firewalls individually. Nothing else particularly comes to mind, as it has been a pretty good experience.

I have about four and a half years of experience with Fortinet FortiGate.

The stability has been very good. I have had very few issues. I had one unit that required some reboots and eventually needed a factory reset. But outside of one issue, I've never had stability issues or problems with them going down or disconnecting or having other issues. They have been very stable and reliable.

I have experienced no scalability problems thus far. We expand out with other campuses as needed. If there are any scalability problems, I think that would probably be with making FortiManager a little bit better. Otherwise, scalability is fine. 

We are a medium-sized business with 17 campuses. We plan to increase its usage. We'll probably continue with FortiGate for any other campuses that we extend out to, as well as keeping them when we do our hardware refresh.

Fortinet FortiGate has very good support. I've been able to contact them on a couple of things for FortiGate and other products, and I've never had an issue. They've always been polite and helpful and worked to get me to solutions. I've had a good experience with Fortinet support.

Positive

We've always had Fortinet FortiGate in place, so I don't have a previous firewall here to compare it to, but it has basically done its job. It's manageable, and it has not created a lot of problems. Only once, I had to call their support to apply a patch update across a couple of them. One of the best features is that it does not require a lot of extra attention for me to fix problems. It's not a problem generator, so that's probably the best quality.

I've set up several Fortinet FortiGate firewalls, and it's a pretty straightforward setup. I haven't ever really had any particular issue with getting them in place.

It's deployed physically at the locations for our campuses. To deploy one, it takes approximately an hour to program and then another hour or so to install. It can get deployed within three hours.

Just one person can manage Fortinet FortiGate; I'm able to manage everything by myself.

The implementation was done by me, one person. Sometimes I need to walk through someone else to physically install it because it might be at a site remote from me. If I'm not physically there, it requires a second person. However, if that was not the case, I could do it as a single person.

It's one of the more expensive brands.

The 100 series costs around $4,000. They are similar in pricing to what you might get from Cisco solutions and probably other similar ones. They're not more expensive than other similar solutions, but they're certainly not cheaper either.

The advice is to go ahead and try it out and see how it works. The product speaks for itself. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten, as I always prefer to leave a little bit of room for improvement.

As a customer, we work with Fortinet FortiGate. Our major use case for Fortinet FortiGate is our Internet, serving as the main device for routing, firewall features, and everything.

Fortinet FortiGate is one of the best firewalls in the market currently, with a lot of next generation firewall features embedded into it, including SD WAN, which is one of the best services for traffic steering, managing packet log jitter and latency for any applications, making it unbeatable in terms of pricing compared to other firewalls.

It has a significant impact on our network performance as we are a health care company where users access health care business website URLs, and any latency is managed by SD WAN without manual intervention, benefiting the operation as we have more than a thousand users across different locations.

Fortinet FortiGate Unified SASE is effective in providing security policies across multiple locations, incorporating zero touch provisioning that is very impactful and beneficial in managing network problems.

In terms of hardware-assisted DDoS protection with Fortinet FortiGate, it is performance-based, depending on the number of concurrent sessions, users, and the specifications of the hardware product.

The one concern I have with Fortinet FortiGate is the firmware versions, which often have many bugs when upgraded, leading us to revert back to older versions multiple times in my lifecycle.

For example, when upgrading the firmware version, we noticed that one of the services was not working, resulting in no packet flow for a VLAN until we reverted back.

The main area for improvement in Fortinet FortiGate is the firmware versions, as we face uncertainties regarding upgrades and frequent bugs that require self-fixing of problems.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate since two thousand three.

Fortinet FortiGate is very much scalable, with all models from Fortinet being impactful.

Technical support from Fortinet is generally good, though there are times when it could be better.

Positive

We have used other firewalls, including Palo Alto, which we find to be very pricey compared to Fortinet FortiGate.

The deployment process for Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward.

We conducted the deployment ourselves without the help of an integrator or consultant.

The return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate is very good, as it is one of the best products available in the market.

In terms of price for Fortinet FortiGate, it is not considered that expensive when compared to other products; it is medium priced for SMB businesses.

Palo Alto is a premier product, but both solutions have their unique advantages, making it difficult to declare one superior to the other.

We have Fortinet FortiGate in different locations, where every location serves as a data center using hub and spoke technology, connecting all spokes to a primary hub and a secondary hub for reliability.

We use segmentation in core switches; however, the segmentation features are primarily managed by Cisco switches and not by Fortinet FortiGate firewall.

The effects of SD WAN integration on remote users and application performance are very positive, as we integrate all traffic through Fortinet FortiGate SD WAN and aim for configurations that enhance efficiency across locations.

We have been using SD WAN with Fortinet FortiGate for more than five or six years.

Fortinet FortiGate Unified SASE is effective in providing security policies across multiple locations, incorporating zero touch provisioning that is very impactful and beneficial in managing network problems.

The effects of SD WAN integration on remote users and application performance are very positive, as we integrate all traffic through Fortinet FortiGate SD WAN and aim for configurations that enhance efficiency across locations.

With Fortinet FortiGate, the SD WAN feature is included with no additional costs, which stands in contrast to other products like Cisco and Palo Alto, which charge extra for similar features.

I would rate this review an eight out of ten.

Fortinet FortiGate is a perimeter firewall which we are using for protecting our network and for defining policies so that only restricted access is given from outside to serve this purpose.

Fortinet FortiGate serves as our perimeter firewall which we utilize for protecting our network and defining policies to ensure only restricted access is given from outside.

A disadvantage exists when we are collecting the logs, as it sometimes becomes very difficult to interpret the logs that are generated from the firewall. The main challenge is finding out which IP is generating what kind of traffic.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for more than 10 years. We started with FGT 60, then moved on to 100, then 300, and currently we are using 501E.

It went smoothly and we have found it very useful because we have a redundant internet lease line. It takes care of all our requirements.

We have been informed by Fortinet FortiGate that it has already reached the end of service. It will be supported until next year, so we might procure a new solution. It cannot be scaled, so we will have to replace the box itself.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for quite a long time. As mentioned, we have used the last four series, and we found the product to be very stable. We regularly update it when updates are available, and the support has been good so far.

Positive

We are not using any previous solutions.

The system integrator performed the installation and it went smoothly. My team mentioned it is very easy to do the setup. Since it is software-based rather than hardware-based, and our people are very familiar with the software, the implementation proceeded smoothly.

The system integrator performed the installation.

We have received a very good ROI. It has provided significant time savings of almost 20-25%.

The solution is affordable.

My team has indicated that Fortinet FortiGate is more simple and secure compared to alternatives.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

We usually use Fortinet FortiGate for a perimeter firewall, but also for our outbound traffic as well as for the tunnels, with around 40 to 50 tunnels on our firewall.

We are using it in our data center; we have the 2,000 series HA firewalls.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to replace all the firewalls in other locations, as around 90% of our company operates on Fortinet.

We enable the SD-WAN zone to handle multiple ISPs, allowing it to automatically switch over the WAN link if any latency hits the threshold value, eliminating the need for manual failover. The impact of SD-WAN on our network performance provides great stability with zero downtime; it immediately switches over without any delay, not even a fraction of a second.

Fortinet addresses many vulnerabilities with respect to SSL VPN on their devices; quarterly patch upgrades are released, and the Fortinet team is retiring remote VPN services in favor of whole encrypted IPsec remote VPN to enhance security against hackers.

I have found Fortinet FortiGate's user-friendly design to be the most valuable feature so far. Anyone can easily understand how exactly it works, unlike Palo Alto and Check Point which are complex to understand. 

I believe one area that could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate is posturing, specifically for remote VPN users, as there are OS-based limitations I encountered with only Windows; adding domain restrictions for VPN access would make it more competitive and useful.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for almost five years.

Overall, my impression of the stability of Fortinet FortiGate is very good, as I haven't seen any issues in the five years I've been using it, and there is no degradation of services on the firewall. However, I have observed some issues with FortiAPs, which is a different platform.

Based on my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is very scalable. Earlier it was suitable for mid-infra, but now we can use the firewalls for enterprise-level needs.

Whenever I am stuck or need help, Fortinet support is available 24/7, regardless of the time zone I'm in, and they immediately jump in to assist, provided it is licensed.

Positive

Before implementing Fortinet FortiGate, we were using SonicWall and ASA firewalls, which have now been replaced. The reason the previous firewalls were not suitable for our company anymore is that they were not competitive; they lacked UTM features, had limited VPN capabilities, and were outdated, which led us to select Fortinet over Cisco FTD for future needs.

It's not so complex. It's user friendly. I have implemented more than hundred devices from scratch.

As partners with Fortinet, we are end-users of this tool for our customers.

I am not exactly aware of the pricing of Fortinet FortiGate, but I would say it is considerably cheaper compared to other firewalls.

I evaluated other options, particularly Palo Alto. Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and as competitive as Palo Alto, Check Point, and FTD. It has the same features as other vendors but at a lower cost.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.

I have experience with Fortinet solutions.

I have had experience recently with FortiGate as well.

All the basic and important features needed for perimeter solutions to protect branches and headquarters are valuable with the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW).

The FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is deployed in a company that is a carrier of telecommunication services, providing solutions to all kinds of companies around the world, especially in Mexico.

It addresses new and emerging security threats in the telecommunications industry, as we recognize that it is a highly effective solution that provides robust protection. That's the reason it was the main product we used to sell for perimeter security.

We use FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) for the access points and their switches.

All the basic and important features needed for perimeter solutions to protect branches and headquarters are valuable with this solution.

The antivirus, malware, anti-malware, anti-spam, IP VPN connections, and firewall rules bring the most value for me and my clients. 

The segmentation capabilities enhance our security posture because they work effectively combined with the switching solutions, allowing us to easily combine switching with the firewall, as we could segregate the VLANs. They were powerful and appropriate for the solution we needed while supporting all the adequate features we required.

I'm not completely sure how Fortinet can improve the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), however, there were situations of availability related to their switching solutions due to box errors. Fixing the bugs in their switching solutions is necessary because I have faced several situations where we lost connectivity because of their firmware.

I have almost 12 years of experience with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW).

Regarding next-generation firewalls, I would give the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) a rating of ten out of ten for stability.

The scalability of the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is quite good; it is easy to make it scalable.

I would place the scalability between nine and ten on a scale of one to ten.

I would rate Fortinet's support a ten out of ten. They are excellent and very available whenever we needed their help.

Positive

We used to struggle with Cisco because it didn't have most of the features that Fortinet has, and when comparing with Palo Alto or Check Point, the prices are higher, which is important for solutions needed by mid-sized companies.

Their deployment team is substantial, consisting of between 100 and 150 people.

Most clients realize the benefits from deployment immediately. They look for internet availability and the security needed for their endpoints.

Fortinet has good prices compared to other vendors; there were cheaper options, and when we compared Cisco, Fortinet's prices were lower.

I don't remember how I bought the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), so I can't say if it was purchased through AWS Marketplace.

The FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) helps with the economic aspect because it effectively protects what we needed with the companies in designing the products and solutions.

I'm not familiar with how the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) utilizes artificial intelligence or if it has AI-driven features to improve threat detection and response, so I cannot detail its existence or help.

I would recommend FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) to others. It is a very good product. In my position, I sold approximately 1,000 units.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution a ten.

I integrate service with Fortinet FortiGate. I integrate service, and some manage service, so the customer already has the firewall and we manage them, or we sell the hardware. But mostly for hardware, there are a lot of sellers, so mostly we do the services.

If the customer wants Fortinet FortiGate, I give Fortinet FortiGate. If the customer wants Sophos, I give Sophos. Both have a different market and different customer profile.

Whatever the customer asks, we provide. I'm running Fortinet FortiGate now because a customer wants that in my data center.

I find Fortinet FortiGate valuable due to Fortinet's ASIC, as I have known Fortinet FortiGate since a long time ago, from the first time they ran. They use ASIC. While Sophos also has a special hardware solution such as Xstream, they have all different purposes and different advantages, so I can utilize both. It depends on the customer.

I don't have any problem with Fortinet Unified SASE. Mostly in Indonesia, in our market, customers buy the brand without knowing the full capability of it. So actually with Fortinet FortiGate, you also have to implement FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer and for hardware control, FortiNAC and so on. But because it's so modular, sometimes customers mistakenly just buy the firewall. The firewall doesn't work right. That's a problem. I understand that this product design philosophy of Fortinet FortiGate is meant to serve very big corporations which have established SOC teams. They put segmentation of who is the manager and who is the analyzer. That's why they put the separate server for that. But because the brand is so famous, even small customers want to buy it.

I think Fortinet FortiGate could learn from its competitors that there's nothing to change. Perhaps they could just launch a lightweight version of the SIEM and SOAR tool, which is cloud-based. This would be for small organizations who cannot afford to build the full scale SOC facility and team.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for maybe five or six years, or maybe longer than that. It could be 10 years as well.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for quite a long time, but I am not a partner yet. Last year I took partnership with Sophos, so we do both.

I don't have experience integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate yet, as we had a case but the project didn't go. SD-WAN is not mostly firewall. Yesterday, I just had a discussion with a new customer that wants to buy ZTNA and NAC.

I think the pricing of Fortinet FortiGate is affordable to some small customers, but they can only afford the firewall without the other components. Mostly firewall, so it's just selling products, not selling a security system.

In my opinion, Fortinet FortiGate doesn't need to be improved. It's because it has a different market. I had a case maybe five or six years ago. There was a tender of SD-WAN implementation for 10,000 mini marts. A company that has 10,000 outlets of mini marts needs security. In the data center at their headquarters, they need a very big firewall, up to 500 Gbps. But in the outlet, which is a small store or mini mart, they need a very small firewall that's capable to do SD-WAN, authentication, security, VPN and so on. Fortinet FortiGate has it all. Fortinet FortiGate is suitable for that kind of organization. They have a special SOC, so they buy FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer and so on. I rate this review an 8.

I am working as a presales engineer or system engineer, designing solutions for other clients.

The clients use this solution for their data centers and perimeter security.

The main reason customers prefer Fortinet FortiGate is that it's security-centric, allowing them to implement security features such as a next-generation firewall and translate this to the WAN or SD-WAN architectures, or as a base if they want to grow in more security features or other verticals such as ZTNA and SASE. It's a little baseline for the rest of the verticals or features that can be exploited.

Fortinet FortiGate compares favorably to others in terms of the technology. Second, it's about the relationship they build with their customers. I'm in Colombia, and I can say they have an excellent sales and engineering team that provides a great experience for their clients. They are very attentive and engaged. This company has a rich history; they grow alongside their clients. They take the time to show clients all the benefits and features of the technology they offer. It’s a much more personal experience for everyone involved.

Fortinet Unified SASE is strong for providing consistent security policies across multiple locations. Working with Fortinet in the SASE aspect has been easy. Customers appreciate the features we can offer with Fortinet SASE and ZTNA solutions. They particularly appreciate how they can integrate everything with the baseline of Fortinet FortiGate, and how they can easily apply all the features they need to secure access to different applications from a single console. Some clients use the Fortinet FortiGate data center solution for their data centers as a hub and the perimeter security service.

My experience integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate is in the middle ground. Fortinet FortiGate, as a security-centric fabric, can implement an SD-WAN solution. It can be somewhat manual in some cases, but using other tools that Fortinet has, such as FortiManager, makes implementing an SD-WAN network easier with less effort.

The implementation depends more on the engineer's skill when integrating SD-WAN with Fortinet FortiGate. If you don't have extensive skills in implementing Fortinet FortiGate, it can be difficult, but with more experience, it becomes easier.

In the presales team, I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for about five years, and as a customer, I worked with it for about two years between 2016 and 2018.

Fortinet FortiGate is very stable and secure for customers.

It's easy with Fortinet FortiGate as they have a very good solution for scalability. If we need to grow in branches or licenses, we can easily do it. The most important aspect of growing this solution is their strong enterprise-level account managers, who always help customers find the best solution and an easy path to grow their architecture with Fortinet.

I would rate their customer service around eight because not everything is perfect, but they have very good customer experience and relationship management.

Positive

It depends on the size of the company or the solution they want to implement with Fortinet FortiGate. Most companies could have another vendor or baseline products, so we need to depend on the scenario.

It is very straightforward to set up initially. The duration depends on the size of the company and the solution they want to implement. They might already have another vendor or a different baseline of products, which makes things more complex.

As for deployment models, we typically offer both on-premises and cloud options. We have been working with AWS, and it has been a very positive experience. They provide readily available machines, and everything is easy to find in the marketplace.

I believe it's a fair price for the kind of technology they offer their customers. Sometimes, I think they could apply more discounts to engage customers further. This approach would be beneficial, as it helps us expand the solutions available to clients. As for discounts, they do engage clients with them, particularly in strategic business situations, such as with large accounts in sectors like banking and big retail.

When comparing Fortinet to other vendors, Fortinet generally tends to offer better discounts. However, this does not imply that their solutions are of lower quality; rather, they demonstrate expertise in meeting customer needs.

Some users utilize AI and machine learning enhanced features, such as the FortiGuard services, though not all do as the AI features are relatively new. However, we have successfully positioned some features, particularly in areas such as AI. For example, the threat detection capabilities and the AI assistant available in the FortiAnalyzer service are noteworthy. Fortinet offers a license that can be utilized for AI features, especially in FortiManager. Users appreciate this feature because it helps them achieve better network configuration. If they encounter any issues within the network, they can easily leverage AI to find solutions to those problems.

Overall, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten because while not everything is perfect, they're really doing their best and demonstrating it through their technology.