Originally, I used the solution for a graduation project. I'll soon be using it in a new context.
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Good security and fair pricing but require knowledge of command line coding
Pros and Cons
- "The pricing of the solution is good."
- "The block, the clarity, the quarantine command, is not very user-friendly. You would have to do everything through the command line and I would have preferred if it wasn't a CLI."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
My favorite feature that I enjoyed using is the SD-WAN, the application control, the IPS&IDS, and Security Fabric (which I enjoyed the most because of the visibility it offers of your whole Network) .
It's less complicated than other firewalls. FortiGate is less complicated and it's guaranteed. By guarantee I mean better control against the attack surface because no firewall 100% guarantee that you won't be attacked.
With security Fabric, I was able to see everything that was going on. The visibility it provided was excellent.
The pricing of the solution is good.
We've found the solution to be relatively stable.
What needs improvement?
There's this command in the email of service policy that you add for the email of service policy. It's hard to do in reality. It could be made easier.
The block, the clarity, the quarantine command, is not very user-friendly. You would have to do everything through the command line and I would have preferred if it wasn't a CLI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used it for a few months to a year ago and am beginning to use it again.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. In security, we handle shortouts and blackouts. Never in my time have we had a blackout, however, if you lose power, you do lose the whole firewall, which is bad.
How are customer service and support?
I've never dealt with technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are.
I have, however, used their tech demonstrations to learn about the product. That's helpful in terms of understanding, however, dealing with support directly has never come up.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
While I typically work with Fortigate, I'm still learning to work with Cisco Firepower.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is fairly reasonable. Compared to the pricing of other firewalls, it is very good. We have no complaints.
What other advice do I have?
We used to be just a customer, however, it's my understanding that now the company has partnered with Fortinet.
I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten.
I always recommend Fortigate to other users. It's quite good. As long as you know, or learn the command line, you're probably going to be okay. Any problems we've had have been relatively insignificant in nature. The features, in general, have been so great. It's really been a very good product.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Account Manager at a tech services company
A nice solution with economic interfaces and a very useful installation guide
Pros and Cons
- "It is very useful to make lists for rules and prepare firewall rules."
- "The customer care center of Fortinet is good. For all the requests that we have done, they work as fast as possible, so this is a good point for Fortinet."
- "The price is sometimes very expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We are using an IPS and an IDS at the moment.
How has it helped my organization?
Before using Fortinet, the company had an attack (DDoS) from the outside and had many points of failure, when they started to use Fortinet, I think the attacks stopped. The DDoS attacks were no more. This was from 2015.
What is most valuable?
It is very useful to make lists for rules and prepare firewall rules.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. We have not had a bad experience with the Fortinet firewall.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Not really, but it does have it limits.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support will reply quickly and everything will be okay.
The customer care center of Fortinet is good. For all the requests that we have done, they work as fast as possible, so this is a good point for Fortinet.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used pfSense (open source) before joining this company.
However, the company has been using Fortinet for a long time.
How was the initial setup?
The first setup is easy and very simple. After that, you may require assistance implementing the new rules.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price: It is a bit higher than the other competitors. This is why I started to look at other brands. For example, I am looking at Sophos firewall and whether it can meet our requirements, since I am sure that their price would be cheaper than Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend a company to use Fortinet, because it is an attractive solution. No bugs with a very easy installation guide, and also the support and the customer care, are very important.
Fortinet is a nice solution with economic interfaces and a very useful installation guide. Very nice customer care, too, but the price, it is sometimes very expensive.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Founder & Managing Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The EPM bundle is of value to many of our clients; unfortunately deployment is quite difficult
Pros and Cons
- "The EPM bundle is a good feature."
- "Deployment can be difficult and they could dispense with reliance on FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer."
What is our primary use case?
In the years that we've been using this product, we've deployed it five or six times. Most of our customers have dedicated firewalls, either physical or virtual format and a few are on a shared platform. We're authorized sellers of the product and I'm the founder and managing director of our company.
What is most valuable?
The best feature of the solution is the EPM bundle, a lot of our clients are interested in that. Truth be told, it's quite difficult to roll that out because we have very little trust in the FortiManager and the FortiAnalyzer integration and technology.
What needs improvement?
The solution could be improved by making deployment easier and dispensing with the reliance on FortiManager, as well as FortiAnalyzer to get any meaningful reporting out of it. If they could exclude both of those from the whole equation so that it bundles direct to the firewall, that would be a big improvement. It should be decoupled from the whole ecosystem, the security fabric side of it, and that would improve things. I get the feeling we have limited functionality if we just look at the data itself, and that's not cool when you're spending thousands of dollars on a product.
The technology is just not there yet in terms of UX and true integration. We have had endless woes with our Analyzer services and the Manager seems rather rudimentary on its own. We believe that the actual Fortigate should have all this disparate functionality baked-in.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for close to six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is absolutely awful. Every time Fortinet releases a new version, there's always some bugs that you absolutely can't avoid, so stability from our perspective, in between maintaining the service on the FortiGate, is really tricky. It's difficult to trust the quality.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable if you have the budget. If you don't have the budget, it's not tied into customer budgets very nicely. There are too many moving parts and it is too expensive.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is horrific, absolutely terrible. I'd give them a negative rating.
How was the initial setup?
To install a FortiGate is a complex task. The installation engineer need to be strong technically and familiar with FortiGate. The end user also needs to be well versed in their network and have a firm technical grasp on their business requirements and how those translate to what the firewall is capable of doing/ enhancing. This can drive a prolonged pre-install and installation process.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. As a piece of tech, as a firewall, it's really good. Local channel support in South Africa is very strong. The functionality of the gate is good. I think it probably surpasses many of its competitors. So I would recommend it. I'm very familiar with the realities of looking at it so I'll be very open with my customers in recommending FortiGate and at the same time explaining the pitfalls to them.
I would rate this product a seven out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Easy to learn and use
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are the SD-WAN and the web filtering applications control."
- "Areas for improvement would be application control and web filtering."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use of this solution is to provide information about SD-WAN and how Fortigate helps to reduce costs.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the SD-WAN and the web filtering applications control.
What needs improvement?
Areas for improvement would be application control and web filtering.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't seen any problems with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of this solution is limited.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward, and deployment did not take a long time.
What other advice do I have?
This is a very easy appliance, and they make it easy to learn. I would rate it as 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.
Director Of Technology at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Flexible pricing, versatile, scalable, stable, and the support is good
Pros and Cons
- "It is very versatile."
- "It has a monitoring tool, but it could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM may be installed on Azure or AWS.
You can either install it in your data center alongside your virtual applications or put it in the public cloud to secure it.
What is most valuable?
It is very versatile.
What needs improvement?
More monitoring should be included with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, in my opinion.
It has a monitoring tool, but it could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been selling Fortinet FortiGate VM for at least 12 years. It could be 15 years because it has been exclusive since the beginning.
It's available both on-premises and in the cloud.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is very scalable because you can use Fortinet FortiManager.
We have a big team of many people.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
With Fortinet FortiGate-VM you can bring your own licensing, or it can be paid on a yearly basis.
Pricing is very flexible.
What other advice do I have?
Definitely, I would recommend this solution to others.
FortiGate Cloud and FortiGate-VM are the same product.
FortiOS is the operating system on FortiGate.
Fortinet has a very large product portfolio. You have the VM, and you have physical appliances for Firewalls.
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a nine 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:
Associate Pre Sales at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
High visibility, great overall support, and has plenty of features
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are locking applications from in and out of my test network and testing malware on different devices. I use malware detection, antivirus, and basic firewall policies to check for different types of security breaches. The UI is really nice and easy to use."
- "I have had a data issue with physical devices that could improve."
What is our primary use case?
I am using this solution for testing the protection, but not in a production environment.
How has it helped my organization?
The Security Fabric feature is beneficial allowing us to have centralized visibility of all our devices and traffic on our network in one place. This is not typically offered on traditional firewalls.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are locking applications from in and out of my test network and testing malware on different devices. I use malware detection, antivirus, and basic firewall policies to check for different types of security breaches. The UI is really nice and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
I have had a data issue with physical devices that could improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a few months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable in terms of performance, but I have faced some issues with memory. The solution does not use the creation memory approach, that other vendors do, or what you would normally find in these kinds of devices. I think it is because the memory gets over-utilized a lot is why I am having the issue with the memory.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In my previous employment, I used to work with approximately six people, and we were responsible to monitor and manage FortiGate itself. I most recently switched my employment and in this particular role, there are approximately five other testers using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am satisfied with all of the support for this solution. They have great documentation that is well written of everything that you need to know, such as UI functionality. There are different guides for many things that are really helpful. The technical support is really good.
How was the initial setup?
Before installation, you are able to download the solution online based on the platform you are planning to use it on. For example, if you are going to use it on ESXi, Hyper-V, or AWS, you will have a separate specific installer file for each. The installer is based on the platform you are trying to install it on.
If you have some experience with using virtual technologies or virtualizing software, it is not that complicated to do the installation. For beginners, it might get a little complex or complicated because you have to replicate the properties of a physical device in a virtual container.
What other advice do I have?
For firewall devices, Fortinet is very good. They can improve on other solutions, I have used some solutions in the past that did not have a good UI. There are other things that Fortinet as a whole can focus on.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a nine 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.
Project Coordinator at a marketing services firm with 201-500 employees
Great performance and easy to setup
Pros and Cons
- "It gives all the features of a full-fledged firewall with great performance."
- "We are experiencing a failed login issue. There should also be improvements in functionalities we store to enhance our services."
What is our primary use case?
We use Fortinet FortiGate-VM as a firewall to deliver high-performance network security solutions that protect our network and data from evolving threats.
What is most valuable?
It gives all the features of a full-fledged firewall with great performance.
What needs improvement?
We are experiencing a failed login issue. There should also be improvements in functionalities we store to enhance our services.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for the past ten years.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup process was straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There should be a reduction in the setup price and licensing costs.
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 Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
A complete solution with great features and good firewall capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The product can scale."
- "The log settings and filters could use some improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for firewall purposes.
What is most valuable?
The firewall capabilities are great.
We like the EPS antivirus.
It's quite a complete solution. The features on offer are good.
We find the solution to be stable.
The product can scale.
What needs improvement?
We occasionally have issues when we are doing firmware updates.
The log settings and filters could use some improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for ten years. It's been about a decade.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good. There are no bugs. It's not glitchy. I can't recall it crashing or freezing. It offers pretty good performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have found the scalability to be very good. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so.
We have about 500 users on the solution right now.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been fine. We have no complaints. They are pretty helpful and responsive.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We only use Fortigate. We don't use any other solution.
How was the initial setup?
We only have one person for deployment and maintenance.
It took us only two days to deploy it with our desired configurations.
What about the implementation team?
I am able to set up the solution myself. We did have a reseller who assisted us as well.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We currently have a three-year licensing agreement. There are standard features and you do not have to pay extra fees for extra add-ons.
What other advice do I have?
We are customers and end-users. We don't have a business relationship with Fortigate.
I would advise potential new users to check the compatibility of the UTM firewall, of the rules of your organization. It's not magic. It's hard work implementing that.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been pretty happy with its capabilities.
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?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate-VM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
Product Categories
FirewallsPopular Comparisons
Fortinet FortiGate
Netgate pfSense
Cisco Secure Firewall
Sophos XG
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls
Azure Firewall
Check Point NGFW
Juniper SRX Series Firewall
Untangle NG Firewall
SonicWall NSa
Sophos XGS
Fortinet FortiOS
KerioControl
Sangfor NGAF
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate-VM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
- How is FortiGate-VM different from the physical FortiGate firewall?
- Looking for a piece of advice and tips on the deployment of VPN concentrators for SD-WAN tunnels?
- What happens if FortiGate VM next-generation firewall in VMware NSX license becomes expired?
- Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
- What do you recommend for a corporate firewall implementation?
- Comparison of Barracuda F800, SonicWall 5600 and Fortinet
- Sophos XG 210 vs Fortigate FG 100E
- Which is the best network firewall for a small retailer?
- When evaluating Firewalls, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?