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Fortinet FortiGate-VM pros and cons

Vendor: Fortinet

4.2 out of 5

117 reviews
98% willing to recommend

576 followers

Pros & Cons summary

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is praised for its ease of setup and user-friendly configuration, allowing for rapid deployment. It offers comprehensive security features including web filtering, IPS, antivirus, and advanced threat protection. It is recognized for high performance and stability, supporting demanding network environments. Its scalability in virtual environments is highly valued. The ability to integrate seamlessly with other Fortinet products enhances its functionality, creating a cohesive security environment.

Buyer's Guide

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

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

It is user-friendly and straightforward to set up, enabling quick deployment and use.

Its security features, such as web filtering, IPS, and antivirus, provide robust protection.

FortiGate-VM offers impressive flexibility and scalability, ideal for various deployment scenarios including hardware and virtual environments.

Technical support is responsive and effective, enhancing customer satisfaction.

The initial setup and administration are considered highly efficient, appealing to a broad range of users.

CONS

Fortinet FortiGate-VM has issues with stability and needs to improve its reliability.

Customization and integration with other vendors and tools require enhancement.

The pricing structure is unclear and could be more transparent.

Technical support response times are lackluster and need improvement.

Scaling Fortinet FortiGate-VM may pose challenges, and it might require looking at other models for better scalability.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM Pros review quotes

PS

Owner / Principal Consultant at Stratus Concept LLC

Jan 19, 2022

I did like the ability to back up the configuration into the cloud, as opposed to having to store the configurations or just downloading them, the backups, to local devices.

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RD

Richard Domikis

Chief Technology Officer at cornerstone defense

Apr 1, 2021

It's a relatively simple product that is easy to use. It's not overly complex.

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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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Fortinet FortiGate-VM

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Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.

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reviewer1641246

Senior Security Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 5, 2021

It's very easy to set up, even for more junior developers.

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EX

Director at Treasure Technology

Jun 15, 2020

While the stability maybe isn't quite to the level of Cisco, it is a very cost-effective solution. It's cheap compared to Cisco.

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TN

Network Administrator Team Lead at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Feb 10, 2023

I like the visibility and monitoring features because they're easy to use to monitor traffic. Features like geo-blocking and more have AI, and we're currently using all of it. But for now, we're only using geo-blocking, and we're able to block traffic from different countries. I also like that it's highly responsive. VM04 is also very powerful.

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MA

Morad Abdelrahman

Network Engineer at MDS Arabia

Jan 16, 2024

Regarding specific features, I appreciate the option for external selection, where you can choose either to use a default or create a self-description. This simplifies the process compared to other vendors that require creating a test extension profile and then applying it to the installation. With FortiGate, there is a streamlined approach. From the benefits perspective, clients mainly see cost reduction, especially with FortiGate VM Firewall, as it eliminates the need for additional hardware.

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reviewer1357092

General Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Feb 7, 2023

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are its flexibility and scalability. This solution is available as a license, which allows us to activate it based on the specific needs of the customer. This gives us and the customer a great deal of versatility and customization options.

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AF

Global sales head at MEPCSA

Jul 15, 2020

We are able to closely monitor the usages of individual users and see their usage habits and other items, including the data itself, which gives us quite a bit of visibility.

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Tenishan Fernando

Solution Architect - Network and Cybersecurity at NCinga

Aug 21, 2023

The ease of access and user-friendly setup is a valuable feature. Fortinet proves to be particularly straightforward to configure, offering simplicity without complexity. Moreover, visibility is easily attainable due to certain factors. Price, implementation, and budget considerations play a role. When it comes to Cisco implementation, the process tends to be more intricate, which many customers find unfavourable for their business needs.

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Fortinet FortiGate-VM Cons review quotes

PS

Owner / Principal Consultant at Stratus Concept LLC

Jan 19, 2022

Now they do have the ability to pop up a command line, which is nice, however, the fact that you can't do everything within the GUI is probably a problem.

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RD

Richard Domikis

Chief Technology Officer at cornerstone defense

Apr 1, 2021

The product does not have a good graphical interface.

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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.

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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: November 2024.

815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer1641246

Senior Security Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 5, 2021

Their offering for MFA isn't the cleanest.

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EX

Director at Treasure Technology

Jun 15, 2020

The stability could be improved. I find Cisco to be more stable than Fortigate, which is I major differentiator between the two.

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TN

Network Administrator Team Lead at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Feb 10, 2023

It would be better if it could provide you with options before completely blocking anything through the web filter. If you are doing a deep SSL inspection on the site if it says it's expired, it doesn't give you the option to continue at your own risk. I can't say that it's bad, but SSL internally isn't really a requirement. However, its security features can help. Right now, we have people going out and spending on purchasing the SSL certificates for internal sites.

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MA

Morad Abdelrahman

Network Engineer at MDS Arabia

Jan 16, 2024

The product is satisfactory. I haven't identified any features to improve, and based on the number of deployments I've handled with FortiGate-VM, there haven't been any complaints from the customer's side.

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reviewer1357092

General Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Feb 7, 2023

There is always room for improvement in any solutions, including Fortinet's FortiGate-VM. Although the solution claims to have a superior throughput compared to other OEMs, upon closer examination and comparison, there is potential for significant improvement in this area. In today's rapidly evolving technology world, it is important to continuously strive for enhancement and development, and I believe Fortinet can make significant strides in this direction for the FortiGate-VM.

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AF

Global sales head at MEPCSA

Jul 15, 2020

The one thing that could be improved is the integration with the exchange. The gateway level controls can be enhanced a bit more. For example, it's still little here and there. You do get malicious attacks and suspicious emails like spam. It's not like Sophos where we got a lot of spam email, and yet, it's still relatively vulnerable. It can be upgraded, maybe with a fifth-generation firmware that it is ready for unknown threats.

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Tenishan Fernando

Solution Architect - Network and Cybersecurity at NCinga

Aug 21, 2023

Fortinet devices are acknowledged as highly potent and come with a notable cost. These devices offer extensive visibility, an array of configurations, and a range of security features. However, there's room for enhancement in their routing and switching security aspects, akin to Cisco's offerings. A noteworthy aspect here is Meraki, which offers cloud controllers. If FortiGate were to introduce a similar cloud management solution, it could strongly compete with both Meraki and Cisco products. Cisco operates in two sectors: enterprise and SMB. Particularly in the SMB market, they hold sway due to their convenient cloud management features. For instance, Meraki's cameras and wireless access points can be easily controlled through their cloud management portal. If FortiGate were to provide cloud-based management solutions for SMB customers, it could cater to a significant portion of the market, considering that a substantial number of customers fall within the SMB and mid-level enterprise categories.

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