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Fortinet FortiGate-VM pros and cons

Vendor: Fortinet

4.2 out of 5

144 reviews
98% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers efficient initial setup and centralized management featuring SD-WAN and antivirus for enhanced security. Its scalability and integration with Fortinet products ensure flexibility, though improvement is needed in IPSec Module, pricing transparency, and third-party tool integration. Despite excellent technical support claims, response times and expertise often fall short. Users encounter challenges with delivery and setup, highlighting the need for enhanced service. Complex licensing further complicates buyer decisions.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers a straightforward initial setup, making deployment fast and easy.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM allows centralized management and reporting with features like SD-WAN, web filtering, and antivirus, enhancing security and control.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is highly scalable, allowing more flexibility and versatility for varying customer needs.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM integration capabilities enable efficient use alongside other Fortinet products, providing a cohesive network security environment.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM provides excellent technical support and customer care, ensuring high satisfaction and rapid resolution of issues.

CONS

Performance and scalability issues exist, requiring improvements in IPSec Module and overall system stability.

Pricing and licensing models are considered expensive and complex, lacking transparency.

Support services are frequently deemed unsatisfactory, with slow response times and inadequate expertise.

Integration capabilities with third-party tools and other networking products need enhancement.

Long delivery times and complex initial setup processes are challenges that users often face.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM Pros review quotes

BETHEL SCIENCE AND MATH CONTENT COACH with 51-200 employees

Dec 24, 2017

Use of this product does not require daily interactions.

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LB

Responsable de Ingenieria at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Dec 26, 2017

The IPS module is my favorite because of the security advantage reached with a few clicks and its automatic updates.

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Information Technology

Dec 26, 2017

Initial setup was quite straightforward, as we can simply head to the required sections to apply the planned network.

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Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Free Report: Fortinet FortiGate-VM Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

881,360 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Managing Partner

Jan 3, 2018

There is an interesting possibility of building a tunnel to a firewall from access points. We use this feature for small branch offices with one to two employees with access to central RDP servers.

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Account Manager at a tech services company

Jan 17, 2018

It is very useful to make lists for rules and prepare firewall rules.

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System/Network Administrator with 11-50 employees

Jan 17, 2018

High network throughput while providing leading edge network security technology for a competitive price.

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Director of Business Development

Jan 21, 2018

We use it to ensure that our network is properly protected from viruses and malware.

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Network Admin at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 23, 2018

Initial setup is very straightforward with a wizard, if needed.

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Platforms and Products Manager at a media company with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 21, 2018

It handles our current load with ease, and I think it can handle a bit more. It definitely can handle a lot more capacity than we currently use.

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reviewer1224273

Manager Information Technology at a media company with 51-200 employees

Jan 29, 2020

FortiGate is a nice and very good product.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 133)

Fortinet FortiGate-VM Cons review quotes

BETHEL SCIENCE AND MATH CONTENT COACH with 51-200 employees

Dec 24, 2017

There were challenges during setup, and many of them were self-inflicted.

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LB

Responsable de Ingenieria at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Dec 26, 2017

We have experience stability issues, when the product sizing is wrong or on configuration errors.

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Information Technology

Dec 26, 2017

Improvements are needed for the responsive UI and JIT traffic reporting.

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Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Free Report: Fortinet FortiGate-VM Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

881,360 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Managing Partner

Jan 3, 2018

In the first two releases of FortiOS 5.6, we had some trouble with the SSL VPN service. Sometimes it stopped working, and the IPS daemon too.

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Account Manager at a tech services company

Jan 17, 2018

The price is sometimes very expensive.

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System/Network Administrator with 11-50 employees

Jan 17, 2018

The user interface (UI) and the performance of interface both need improvement.

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Director of Business Development

Jan 21, 2018

The management tools should be more user-friendly.

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Network Admin at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 23, 2018

The tech support calls were not the best and could be improved. There have been times when we felt as if we knew more about the device than the support person on the phone.

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Platforms and Products Manager at a media company with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 21, 2018

The GUI could be improved.

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reviewer1224273

Manager Information Technology at a media company with 51-200 employees

Jan 29, 2020

FortiGate should be more customer friendly and budgeted better.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 133)

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