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Airlock Digital Application Control vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 15, 2026

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 FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
589
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Airlock Digital Application...
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Application Control (7th)
WatchGuard Firebox
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
131
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (12th), Firewalls (10th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (5th), Anti-Malware Tools (6th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (18th), Application Control (4th), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.
Mahesh Shivhare - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at a government with 10,001+ employees
Centralized policies have strengthened zero trust controls and improved audit visibility
There are a few areas of Airlock Digital Application Control that I would like to see improved or enhanced in the future. The first thing is that the new version release schedule is quite repetitive, deploying a new agent within a couple of months. This makes it difficult for us to keep in touch because we have a controlled environment, and everything must be done via change management. We cannot upgrade the server or stay up to date with the latest version all the time. Airlock Digital Application Control should release updates but also provide ample time for organizations to adapt to the latest version. The second area for improvement I think about is regarding the workflows. The workflows require careful tuning during initial rollout, especially in dynamic environments like what we have. My impression of the granular policy control offered by Airlock Digital Application Control is that it can still be improved. Granular policy control is much better for control and application. For metadata rules to work, all endpoints must be on a particular version or higher. Unfortunately, in our environment, we do not have all machines using the same client version, which becomes a problem. If you go to Airlock Digital Application Control, they have an answer that the best thing you can do is use the granular policy if you have all agents and endpoints on the same version. That is something we need to work upon. Granular policy is much better to control and apply, and this is my experience.
PS
CEO at ajuntament del Prat
Network protection has improved with stronger VPN connectivity but administration remains complex
Deploying WatchGuard Firebox was quite easy, but we have had some problems regarding the VPN and the administration of the tool and the two firewalls that we have. When comparing WatchGuard Firebox with our previous solution, Palo Alto, we have had some problems in administration because of the tools. I think that they have some aspects in their system that are cloud-provided, but they also have an on-premise solution, which makes this combination good. Although I should say that when compared to Palo Alto, we have taken a step backwards. In general, I would rate WatchGuard Firebox around 6-7; it is a good firewall, but they lack good administration tools. We experience many problems with the performance and administration tools on the web, including several issues with VPNs.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most important feature is that it's easy to use, it is user-friendly and has all the features you need."
"The GUI is good."
"It has a valuable SD-WAN feature and provides good performance."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The main benefits of Fortinet FortiGate are security and the ability to manage all information throughout the company, including managing all data inside the company to prevent intrusions from outside."
"The most useful features of Fortinet FortiGate IPS are you can create a virtual firewall within it, most other firewalls do not have this feature. You are able to manage your network and have network segmentation within your firewall. Additionally, you can create virtual switches within the firewall and have policy management, such as firewall and access policy."
"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."
"The signature database and zero-day detection are Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features."
"Airlock Digital Application Control was found to be very light, very fast, and much better than the previous one."
"Airlock Digital Application Control brings many main benefits to the table that help improve the way the organization functions."
"Using the policy management tool provided by Airlock Digital Application Control is very beneficial and completely aligns with the compliance and governance expectations of the client."
"I have far less (50-75%) less admin time trying to figure out why our system is so slow; that's gone."
"Their centralized console simplifies management for organizations with multiple Fireboxes."
"WatchGuard has a very easy VPN and branch office VPN setup, so we use those pretty extensively."
"It helps because malicious attacks coming in are things I don't have to worry about, and so far the WatchGuard has done a good job at blocking all that."
"WatchGuard Threat Detection and Response is a reliable solution."
"The most valuable feature is the correlation of logs from different devices."
"I have found the DNS Watch feature for intrusion and prevention response and APT Locker most valuable to me."
"We have witnessed an ROI as it has helped with security measures."
 

Cons

"I could not configure sFlow from the FortiGate graphical user interface. I realized that the sFlow configuration is available only from the CLI, and discovered that sFlow is not supported on virtual interfaces, such as VDOM links, IPsec, or GRE."
"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."
"There are some license issues. Not every feature must have a separate license. There must be some of kind synergy between the license so we don't have to pay for every individual license that we would like to have."
"Some time ago we upgraded to the Fortinet solution of our previous partner and there was a memory leak which created problems."
"To some degree, it's almost a question as to why some of this stuff isn't simpler. For example, for an AP deployment, while it's integrated, the number of steps that you have to go through in order to get the AP up, seems like a lot."
"The firmware updates are sometimes not stable. The stability issues can vary, sometimes happening once a month or quarterly. New firmware updates can occasionally introduce bugs, causing some policies to fail. We then have to raise a ticket, and Fortinet usually provides a fix within a few days."
"It's one of the more expensive brands."
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"The first thing is that the new version release schedule is quite repetitive, deploying a new agent within a couple of months, which makes it difficult for us to keep in touch because we have a controlled environment and everything must be done via change management."
"Some of the vulnerabilities that are meant for CVEs specific to Airlock Digital Application Control need to be addressed in newer versions."
"They could expand the amount of applications that are on the list, but it's pretty intensive anyway, so it's pretty good."
"We've found that sometimes the solution is not easy to understand and we need to bring in some specialist assistance."
"There are a couple of things I wished that it would do, but I can't think of those off the top of my head."
"They could expand the amount of applications that are on the list, but it's pretty intensive anyway, so it's pretty good."
"The software in it could be a bit more friendly for an amateur user. I look at it and don't understand what half the stuff is. Looking at the interface, it is all mumbo-jumbo to me. It's not a simple interface. You have to be an IT guy to understand it. It is not for your average person to use, then walk away from it. It is much more entailed."
"An area for improvement is that when we use a web administration link, there is no security."
"They need to stop the VLAN limitation. They have a VLAN limitation on the size of their boxes. It is the worst thing ever. They basically sell their boxes by the size and the number of VLANs it can handle, which is a real issue. You spend a couple of thousand dollars for a firewall, and you can only do 30 VLANs, which is extremely silly, as a matter of fact. It would be really great to have something for easier mass rule changes. It also needs a drag-and-drop function so that you don't have to constantly duplicate firewall rules. It would be nice to have such a feature because you got one WatchGuard, and you want to mirror its config and change a couple of things in another one and move some things around. It is not as easy as you would necessarily think. It is kind of expensive, and its pricing can be a little better for sure."
"One area for improvement is the limitation in the product portfolio compared to competitors like Fortinet, which offers a broader portfolio including Authentication, VPNs, FortiMail, Sandbox, and Email Security."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is reasonable. They have a clear pricing policy. It is not complicated by the number of VPN users at a time. We know what the price is. The yearly subscription for the security license is rather high, but it is all included for whatever number of users you have and the kind of functions you need."
"The cost of Fortinet FortiGate is competitive and not expensive compared to other enterprise- grade solutions. On average, the license cost per year is around seventy percent of the firewall's purchase price."
"I had to pay for the license for the firewall, but it is guaranteed to have updates. I expect a good service for it. It was about €1000 for a year, and there was no additional cost."
"The price for the Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable. Secure SD-WAN is free of charge. If you have their firewall, it's free of charge. It's very tempting."
"They are more expensive than others."
"Fortinet FortiGate is cost-efficient. Palo Alto is expensive, but Fortinet FortiGate is not."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is the lowest in the market."
"Its price is good."
Information not available
"Their price point worked, which is the reason why we stayed with WatchGuard."
"I buy a three-year renewal on the main device, which is usually around $3,000 to $4,000. They usually upgrade the device when I do it. You get a big discount when you do three years."
"WatchGuard had a very competitive price. It was only 10 to 20 percent more than a single instance device but with that extra cost it provided a second load balancing device... unlike other brands whose method of hardware and software licensing would have doubled our cost."
"The licensing contract we have is on a three-year basis. There aren't any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees—usually, every three years, we just purchase or renew the same license and we are okay. Every six years, we completely change the firewall, but that's the usual schema. So after three years, we just renew the licenses for another three years, and then after that particular period of time, we just purchase another firewall equivalent to the ones that we currently use."
"We pay about $3,500 every three years."
"Very competitive pricing regarding throughput compared to other alternatives."
"Over the years, the costs have increased, especially since I cater to very small businesses."
"The licensing can be a one-time purchase unless you need the extra services for example twenty-four seven support."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
No data available
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business363
Midsize Enterprise135
Large Enterprise190
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business95
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...
What needs improvement with Airlock Digital Application Control?
There are a few areas of Airlock Digital Application Control that I would like to see improved or enhanced in the fut...
What is your primary use case for Airlock Digital Application Control?
I use Airlock Digital Application Control as part of my role in the security team managing endpoint controls and broa...
What advice do you have for others considering Airlock Digital Application Control?
Utilizing Airlock Digital Application Control does help to prevent malware within our systems to some degree. We have...
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?
We are providing our services to all WatchGuard customers in the region.
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?
We just use it as a secondary WiFi device. We're a small office and we needed to set up a WiFi device for a few of ou...
What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?
We're a hospital and we use it for developing our incoming and outgoing policies, and we also use it for VPN.
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
WatchGuard Threat Detection and Response, WatchGuard Application Control, WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention, WatchGuard Gateway AntiVirus, WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Information Not Available
Ellips, Diecutstickers.com, Clarke Energy, NCR, Wrest Park, Homeslice Pizza, Fortessa Tableware Solutions, The Phoenix Residence
Find out what your peers are saying about Airlock Digital Application Control vs. WatchGuard Firebox and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.