Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs Symantec Secure Web Gateway comparison

Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. Symantec Secure Web Gateway

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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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.1%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is 6.1%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Secure Web Gateway is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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Ayman Said

Infrastructure System's Manager at ICAPP (Americana Group)

Enables seamless traffic handling and effective network protection

We are using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for web filtering, application control, and IDPS. Additionally, we utilize it for VPN and the main features of a firewall Web filtering is very good, as well as IDPS. SD-WAN is a perfect feature. Additionally, the VPN is stable and very good. These features…

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Malik Khan

Sr.Technical Consultant at Meta Infotech

Has an easy deployment process, but the data center's capability to manage the traffic could be better

We use Symantec Secure Web Gateway to apply URL policies for cloud security, data protection, and SSL The product is easy to deploy. It has a faster implementation process compared to other products. The platform’s data center is not capable of managing most of the traffic. We have been using…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."

"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."

"Valuable features: Within the filter: Controls (Web categories, applications, and Allow/Block list) and Network (local Subnets). Within the reporter: Logs (Event Log) and Reports."

"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."

More iboss pros

"Web filtering is the most useful feature."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is its stability."

"The product is easy to install since we only need to follow the user manual, documents, and articles provided by Fortinet to install the product."

"It has a valuable SD-WAN feature and provides good performance."

"The technical support is good."

"The product is stable and strong."

"FortiGate SWG's most valuable feature is integration with vulnerability management."

"The most useful features are application control, web filtering, and SD-WAN."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pros

"In terms of most valuable features, I like the ICAP capability and URL filtering the most."

"I find the product to be very straightforward."

"The most valuable feature is the endpoint security."

"It's nice to have it in the cloud where we can pull the reporting together for it so we can see what's happening in machines at different locations."

"The most valuable features are the website blocking capability and SSL interception."

"Typically, Symantec is more or less like any other platform that performs proxy functions."

"It is easy to manage. The graphical user interface is quite easy to navigate, and we don't have any difficulty in using it. It is a good solution."

"It offers an easy initial setup."

More Symantec Secure Web Gateway pros

Cons

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."

More iboss cons

"The price could be improved."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG's SSL offloading features need improvement."

"There's room for improvement in the interface, especially following their upgrade to version nineteen."

"Support could be improved."

"Integrating OpenVPN with FortiGate would provide a powerful combination of secure remote access and comprehensive network security."

"Their technical support could be improved a little bit in terms of responsiveness."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG can be expensive for some customers."

"We are providing VoIP and the IP licensing could improve in Fortinet FortiGate SWG."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG cons

"I find that the technical support is mediocre, at least for the Middle East. I frequently face challenges when contacting OpenStack through the distribution channel."

"It needs to be easier to set up rules for what sites it should allow or not allow us in certain areas of our computer for programs. It would also be nice really nice to have it give you better information about what it's finding. A lot of the alerts we get are very difficult to understand what it's actually telling you. It's too generic."

"Difficult and time-consuming to deploy and update."

"The major challenge is their support. The support from Broadcom is quite poor. It takes forever for them to get back to you, and when they get back to you, they ask you for so much information, which makes it more difficult. That's the only problem I have with Broadcom. This is one of the reasons why we are switching to another solution. Another reason for switching is that we have a plan to adopt solutions in the cloud so that we can offload the administration efforts to the vendor. In future releases, they can improve its reporting and the process for rules creation. They can also improve Broadcom on things such as security information and event management so that from my same platform, I can carry out functions and probably block websites. Such a feature would be nice. Currently, Broadcom is integrated with McAfee to block access to certain sites automatically. It would be nice if they can expand their integration to IBM Resilient Security Orchestration and Automation Response."

"The platform’s data center is not capable of managing most of the traffic."

"AI-driven security could be helpful, yet how effective it will be remains unclear."

"The interface could be made more user-friendly."

"There's a need for increased firewall functionality and capabilities. I'm not seeing a competitive Symantec cloud product. Specifically, functionalities with security as filtering from the cloud. I am aware that there is a product, a proxy in the cloud but I have compared it with other vendors and I don't find it that powerful. I think the worst thing that we're experiencing is very poor and inadequate technical support. It seems to me that tech support engineers aren't qualified to fulfill their job duties."

More Symantec Secure Web Gateway cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"The product is expensive."

"The cost has increased since the update so I would rate it eight out of ten."

"I rate the price of Fortinet FortiGate SWG a seven and a half out of ten since it is not a cheap solution, though I feel it is a good product for the money one pays."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. The additional cost depends on the extra feature requirements."

"It is less expensive than a Cisco solution."

"Pricing for Fortinet FortiGate SWG is more suitable for enterprise or large-sized organizations because they are the ones who can afford it versus small and medium-sized organizations."

"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. Its one-year license cost is competitive with three and five-year licenses offered by other products."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pricing and cost advice

"Symantec Secure Web Gateway is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"There is an additional charge for advanced security features."

"Pricing and licensing is stunted and licensing is expensive. We have many customers who are now thinking about other solutions due to the cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

16%

Comms Service Provider

Real Estate/Law Firm

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

What is your primary use case for iboss?

Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

The interface and other reports are all user-friendly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

Fortinet products are very expensive compared to competitors like Sophos and SonicWall. From a pricing perspective, I...

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

More improvement in AI would be a good edge. We would like the VPN to act as a web filtering solution because users o...

What do you like most about Symantec Secure Web Gateway?

It has a faster implementation process compared to other products.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Secure Web Gateway?

I believe that pricing is on par with peers. Symantec and other vendors offer discounts when cutting a deal with a cu...

What needs improvement with Symantec Secure Web Gateway?

AI-driven security could be helpful, yet how effective it will be remains unclear. I plan to evaluate whatever new fe...

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Comparisons

Compared 18% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 14% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

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Fortinet FortiProxy vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 44% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 20% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 6% of the time

Sangfor Internet Access Gateway (IAG) vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 6% of the time

TitanHQ WebTitan vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 1% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG Competitors

Skyhigh Security vs Symantec Secure Web Gateway

Compared 34% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs Symantec Secure Web Gateway

Compared 34% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Symantec Secure Web Gateway

Compared 31% of the time

More Symantec Secure Web Gateway Competitors

Product Reports

iboss

Download iboss product report

Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Download Fortinet FortiGate SWG product report

Symantec Secure Web Gateway

June 2025

Download Symantec Secure Web Gateway product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

FortiGate SWG, FortiGate Secure Web Gateway

Symantec Complete Website Security

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is a comprehensive web security solution provided by Fortinet. FortiGate SWG combines web filtering, malware protection, data loss prevention (DLP), and application control capabilities into a single integrated platform. It is designed to protect organizations from web-based threats, enforce compliance policies, and provide secure access to web resources.

FortiGate SWG Benefits:

Comprehensive web filtering and security features
Ease of use and management
Integration with other Fortinet products
Strong threat detection capabilities
Scalability and flexibility
Granular control over user access and activity

FortiGate SWG Features:

Web Filtering: FortiGate SWG employs URL filtering and content categorization to control and enforce web access policies.
Malware Protection: The solution provides real-time protection against web-borne threats, such as malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP): FortiGate SWG helps prevent sensitive data from being leaked or exfiltrated through web channels.
SSL Inspection: The solution supports SSL/TLS decryption and inspection, allowing organizations to examine encrypted web traffic for threats and enforce security policies.
Application Control: FortiGate SWG enables granular control over web applications and protocols.
Advanced Threat Intelligence: FortiGate SWG leverages Fortinet's threat intelligence services to provide up-to-date information about emerging threats and zero-day vulnerabilities.
User Authentication and Access Control: The solution supports various authentication methods, including single sign-on (SSO) and integration with identity providers, to ensure secure user authentication and access control for web resources.
Reporting and Analytics: FortiGate SWG provides comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities.

FortiGate SWG is typically deployed as a hardware appliance or as a virtual appliance in on-premises environments, but it may also be available as a cloud-based service. It is part of Fortinet's broader security fabric ecosystem, allowing integration with other Fortinet products to provide a unified and coordinated security infrastructure.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by FortiGate SWG users.

David Carlson, CIO at Camco Mfg., says that "Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help".

Suresh Vijayen, Product Manager at IX Telecom, writes that FortiGate SWG "Provides helpful technical support, but its dashboard needs to be more user-friendly".

Chandan Munshi, Chief Technical Officer at Provision Technologies LLP, states that "The user interface is intuitive. Anyone can configure the firewall with little knowledge of the product. The back-end is robust with good security."

Fortinet

Symantec Secure Web Gateway is a comprehensive web security solution that provides advanced protection against web-based threats. It offers real-time threat detection and prevention, content filtering, and data loss prevention capabilities to safeguard organizations from web-based attacks. With its advanced threat intelligence and machine learning capabilities, it can detect and block even the most sophisticated web-based threats, including malware, phishing, and ransomware attacks. The solution also provides granular control over web access, allowing organizations to enforce web usage policies and prevent access to malicious or inappropriate websites. It offers flexible deployment options, including on-premises, cloud, and hybrid deployments, to meet the unique needs of different organizations. Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with other Symantec security solutions, such as Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Data Loss Prevention, to provide a comprehensive security posture. Symantec Secure Web Gateway is designed to provide a seamless user experience, with minimal impact on web browsing performance. It offers a range of reporting and analytics capabilities, allowing organizations to gain insights into web usage patterns and identify potential security risks. With its comprehensive web security capabilities, Symantec Secure Web Gateway is an essential component of any organization's security infrastructure.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Salt Lake County, Catholic College Bendigo, Azienda Unita Sanitaria

Information Not Available

Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. Symantec Secure Web Gateway