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Fortinet FortiClient vs ZoneAlarm comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiClient
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (12th), Endpoint Compliance (1st), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (1st)
ZoneAlarm
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Endpoint Security solutions, they serve different purposes. Fortinet FortiClient is designed for Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) and holds a mindshare of 1.7%, down 2.2% compared to last year.
ZoneAlarm, on the other hand, focuses on Anti-Malware Tools, holds 2.4% mindshare, up 2.1% since last year.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiClient1.7%
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint8.2%
CrowdStrike Falcon7.0%
Other83.1%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
Anti-Malware Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ZoneAlarm2.4%
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint9.1%
F-Secure Total4.4%
Other84.1%
Anti-Malware Tools
 

Featured Reviews

KL
Senior Technical Manager at Flexaccel
Remote access has become seamless and secure while deployment remains simple for our users
Performance could be improved today. People are now moving toward SASE, which stands for Secure Access, Secure Edge Solution. Fortinet also has that offering, which would be easier since it operates through the cloud, acting as a first line of defense. When the user connects to the internet, they connect to the cloud first for posture assessment and monitoring before connecting to the outside world. The impact is significant because nowadays people are adopting SASE. During COVID time, many users were trying to connect back to their office, causing the performance or CPU utilization of the firewall to increase tremendously, which slowed down performance. I have not worked with endpoint telemetry in Fortinet FortiClient that could have been helpful for threat mitigation.
Bala_Krishna - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at esupport Solutions Pvt ltd
Security suite has protected individual devices from threats, while installation and network features require improvements
BIG-IP is actually the LTM, Link Load Balancer, which comes with ASM, meaning Application Security Module. It consists of multiple modules, such as ASM, SWG, and a domain DNS manager. ZoneAlarm allows defining trusted and public networks, which helps maintain security in public Wi-Fi environments. It offers comprehensive protection, securing PCs against threats. Users do not experience any system slowdowns while scanning. Harmony Browser protects all your browsing activity and is bundled with Harmony Endpoint and Harmony Connect. It provides a small but effective security layer and sometimes comes packaged with the larger Harmony suite.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"From my perspective as an end user, it's consistently stable, and I would rate the stability as a nine out of ten."
"The initial setup is very good."
"The setup for FortiClient is really straightforward."
"The initial setup is easy. Our clients use the FortiClient EMS, which is the central console for installing FortiClient. It is easy and very user friendly."
"Remote connectivity is its most valuable feature."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"It's got a very friendly user interface."
"Fortinet FortiClient provides several benefits such as saving time, saving money, and improving security."
"Personally, I find the Game Mode of the Firewall very useful."
"It gives us security for the users' mobiles and ends up protecting us in a significant way."
"ZoneAlarm protects all computers from viruses, spyware, and hackers."
"It is easy to use through interfaces and easy to configure each of the customizations we created based on the characteristics that we wanted."
"It is quick and easy to configure."
"This antivirus is regularly updated, and the updates can be scheduled."
"The solution maintains reasonable scalability."
"The product's most valuable feature is the detection engine due to its ability to identify threats."
 

Cons

"The solution could add data to the endpoint."
"The solution's access control could be improved."
"The cost of FortiClient could be better."
"The reports could be easier to set up."
"Fortinet FortiClient should improve its visibility of the consumption of traffic and end-user action, which is very low."
"Everybody else is doing AI, machine learning, self-healing, next-generation features. It needs more next-generation features. Everybody else is doing AI, machine learning, self-healing, next-generation features. It needs more next-generation features."
"They can improve the interface because it is very technical for a normal client to understand."
"When we change our endpoint, we have to connect again, which means having to enter our credentials and permissions."
"We'd like better performance of the network equipment. There are high-speed environments where an immediate response is required."
"Currently, the client is only available for the Windows Operating System but it would be good if it were released for Mac OS as well."
"Some of our users say that the interface is a little bit outdated for 2020, and want it to be more modern and cozy."
"I would like it to be integrated with the Check Point centralization solution like Infinity Portal. It would be great to be able to manage it through the same website."
"They need to update and improve the features available for Mac."
"Perhaps the primary area for potential enhancement is to make it faster, ensuring a more seamless experience while maintaining robust security features."
"The solution's efficiency in threat containment and overall protection needs improvement."
"ZoneAlarm should be a light application that does not take too much memory in mobile phones."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet requires you to buy a lot of product in order for you to have proper protection."
"The solution is more cost efficient than Cisco, as FortiGate tends not to charge for the client license, which allows one to make free use of whatever is supported on the device."
"As a technical team member, I am not responsible to look into the pricing matters. These aspects are typically handled by the management team, who have the authority to obtain the necessary licenses based on certain established principles."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"It is not that expensive. It was within the range. A dollar per user per month is nothing."
"The licensing fee varies with what one is trying to accomplish. It can range from being free to costing several hundred thousand dollars per year."
"FortiClient is costly."
"I don't know it by heart, but it is comparable to other solutions. It is based on the number of clients. It is probably 50 Euros per year per client. It greatly depends on the number of clients you're handling because the more clients you are ordering it for, the cheaper it will be."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing fee for ZoneAlarm, which is cheap."
"The pricing is reasonable, with a yearly renewal license costing seventy dollars."
"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
"We use the free version of the software, but it can be upgraded to the paid Extreme Security edition."
"This is a freeware product and I recommend using it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Hospitality Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?
Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and security. It has a very fast connection rate and has a built-in VPN. With this solution...
What's the difference between Fortinet's FortiEDR and FortiClient?
I suggest Fortinet’s FortiEDR over FortiClient for several reasons. For starters, FortiEDR guarantees solid protection because it continually scans servers for emerging vulnerabilities, which gives...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ZoneAlarm?
ZoneAlarm has an acceptable price. Not much detail can be provided as I am not the one to judge the price.
What needs improvement with ZoneAlarm?
Check Point support needs improvement. Currently rated at 9 out of 10, more support is required. There are some concerns on support that need addressing. The integration of new products with their ...
What is your primary use case for ZoneAlarm?
I work with vendors such as F5 and deal with F5 as a reseller. I work with F5 BIG-IP regarding F5 Shape Security. BIG-IP Advanced WAF is what I work with regarding BIG-IP DNS or BIG-IP AFM. Advance...
 

Also Known As

FortiClient
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Terma, Optix, Samsung Research Amercia, SF Police Credit Union, Independence Care System, Mattias Thomsen, Carmel Partners, Desert Research Institute, CRIF, FXCM Inc, US State Agency
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, Microsoft, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: December 2025.
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