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A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) vs Fortinet FortiWeb 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

A10 Networks Thunder SSL In...
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
SSL/TLS Decryption (2nd)
Fortinet FortiWeb
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) and Fortinet FortiWeb aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) is designed for SSL/TLS Decryption and holds a mindshare of 32.5%, up 24.8% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiWeb, on the other hand, focuses on Web Application Firewall (WAF), holds 7.3% mindshare, up 6.9% since last year.
SSL/TLS Decryption Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)32.5%
GigaSMART26.2%
Symantec SSL Visibility Appliance21.4%
Other19.900000000000006%
SSL/TLS Decryption
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiWeb7.3%
F5 Advanced WAF9.2%
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway7.8%
Other75.7%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

CH
We used to have to bypass on the firewall, proxy, and IPS; now we can do it in one place
For us, it would be great if it supported SSL operations according to Active Directory users. For example, if we want to bypass one of the servers or a client's internet access for SSL interception, we have to do it according to the IP address. It would be better if we could do it according to the Active Directory username. A10 says they kind of support that but we haven't tested it. Another thing is SNI. A10 intercepts all the traffic according to the SNI, the server name indicator. It would be better if it intercepted traffic according to the IP addresses. A10 can only understand that a website is within the banking category or the website is in the social media category, according to the SNI. Without SNI, there is no way to understand it; there is no bypass operation. It would be better if worked without SNI as well. Also, the solution comes with web categories like banking and social media. There are suspicious URLs, malicious URLs, etc. It would be better if it had an application category as well. For example, it would be helpful if we had the chance to bypass all Office 365 applications: OneDrive, Skype, Outlook, etc. According to Microsoft, we need to bypass SSL for all Office 365 applications but we need to create custom categories and put all the Microsoft URLs in them and then we can bypass. It would be great if an application category could recognize Dropbox, for example. For now, we have to put the Dropbox URLs in one custom category and bypass them. Application categories could be very useful.
OcheEluma - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced security with comprehensive traffic inspection and some downtime automation needs
One area that needs improvement is the handling of SaaS downtime. When there is downtime at their data center, it becomes a transit point issue for us, causing downtime in our environment as well. Although measures like built-in redundancy and manual switching between data centers exist, there is room for improvement in making these transitions automatic without impacting the customer. Automating the migration without manual intervention would significantly enhance user experience during downtime. Additionally, being able to read non-flagged traffic for operational purposes could also be an area to improve.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With the Thunder SSLi, we're better protected. We can stop use of VPN and proxies. We are better protected against dirty traffic coming back to our schools. Having a secure decrypt zone with the equipment lowers the chances that our security infrastructure could possibly miss an attack."
"We have several proxies in our environment, so we localized internet traffic between these proxies. Instead of getting a really huge proxy box, according to our size, we can use three boxes and share the traffic with A10's load-balancer feature."
"Its most valuable feature is its ability to do its job accurately, effectively, and very quickly. The amount of traffic that we have going through our system is astounding... The delay with the SSL decryption turned on is almost unnoticeable."
"The most important feature of this solution is protection from attack."
"The ease of configuration is valuable. We have Azure WAF, we have OCI WAF, and we also have Cloud Armor for GCP, but their configuration isn't very easy. It's pretty simple in FortiWeb, and we can enable or configure whatever we want."
"This product is very user-friendly."
"FortiWeb provides the level of security we need at an excellent price point. It's easy to deploy and operationally efficient."
"Some of the threat detection analytics and the filtering capabilities they give us for filtering a certain type of information that we don't want coming into the site are its valuable features. The analytics are pretty good in terms of being able to see what threats have been detected and mitigated, where they're coming from, and things like that."
"Deployment can be straightforward"
"Provides good vulnerability scanning, IPS, and geolocalization."
"SSL Offloading simplifies the public certificate handling and brings additional protection features."
 

Cons

"I would like them to have a better UI (better universal design)."
"It would be great if it supported SSL operations according to Active Directory users. For example, if we want to bypass one of the servers or a client's internet access for SSL interception, we have to do it according to the IP address. It would be better if we could do it according to the Active Directory username. A10 says they kind of support that but we haven't tested it."
"There is one thing I would like to see changed. In their features for setting things up, there is a templating system that would normally assist clients. However, we had a better time setting up the device either through the command line or through the interface and not using the templates that were pre-installed. So there is room for improvement to the templates for initial installation."
"Fortinet FortiWeb could improve data integration."
"A user interface or dashboard for troubleshooting is needed."
"FortiWeb does not exist in a cloud-based form. Its only available for deployment as a virtual appliance on AWS and Azure IaaS platforms. Because of the trend to WAF environments, it would be good to have it as a SaaS. Also, FortiWeb would be more competitive if it combined WAF and DDoS protection."
"No solution is 100% secure and the security could always be worked on."
"Lacks a VM demo to enable testing prior to purchase."
"The Layer 7 DDoS attacks need improvement, it could be better."
"The solution is not very scalable, to scale up would require another deployment with a new appliance and a change to the network."
"Maybe the load balancing options could be enhanced."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our licensing costs, yearly, are just under $15,000. Your initial cost of acquisition is obviously going to be more than $15,000..."
"We always pay for support. Any organization of our size who doesn't is asking for problems."
"When you purchase the equipment, you purchase the licensing and warranty. It's all fairly standard. We haven't been caught with anything surprising."
"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"The pricing is average; the product is neither particularly expensive nor affordable."
"It should be somewhere about 36,000 Euros. That's the cost for three years. It's moderately priced."
"The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten. It feels like a justified cost for the features."
"When I use any other firewall, I have to take a license. It could be a perpetual license or subscription-based. In both cases, we have to pay some amount in advance, whereas in the case of FortiWeb, when using it as a service, I am paying half a dollar only for the domain name, and then I am paying based on the traffic or the number of requests."
"Due to the situation in Iran with the sanctions, the price of this solution is very expensive."
"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the tool an eight."
"​The pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Recreational Facilities/Services Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business47
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise30
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiWeb?
The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiWeb?
The pricing for Fortinet FortiWeb varies with different models having different prices. It depends on the requirement. For VM machines, the price increases based on CPU configurations of 2, 4, or 8...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiWeb?
There is room for improvement in Fortinet FortiWeb. The team was only from FortiGate itself. They are making new firmware versions and releasing them before checking, which leads to many bugs in th...
 

Also Known As

Thunder SSLi
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Klein Independent School District
Lush, Barnabas Health, Options, Riverside Healthcare, Hillsbourough County Schools, Columbia Public Schools, Schiller AG
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, A10 Networks, Fidelis Security and others in SSL/TLS Decryption. Updated: September 2025.
868,229 professionals have used our research since 2012.