Azure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series comparison

Microsoft and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Microsoft is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.3, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #36 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft holds a 2.1% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 0.1% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Azure Firewall and Palo Alto Networks K2-Series are two prominent firewall solutions. Based on user reviews, Azure Firewall excels in pricing and customer support, while Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is favored for its advanced features and overall performance.

Features: Azure Firewall offers scalability, seamless integration, and a straightforward deployment process, making it suitable for large environments. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is known for its comprehensive security features, robust threat intelligence, and detailed documentation. The K2-Series stands out for its superior security capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Azure Firewall could improve its threat detection and management tools, streamline configuration processes, and reduce costs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series could focus on simplifying the configuration process, enhancing user-friendliness, and reducing hardware costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure Firewall is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer support. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series, despite its comprehensive documentation, may require a more complex setup and users sometimes experience longer support response times.

Pricing and ROI: Azure Firewall is considered cost-effective with a transparent pricing structure and quick return on investment. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series, although delivering high-quality security, is seen as a more expensive option, potentially impacting ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

September 2025

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.4%, up from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Firewall is 2.1%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	20.4%
Azure Firewall	2.1%
Palo Alto Networks K2-Series	0.1%
Other	77.4%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

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.

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Rashedul Khan

Senior Software Engineer at cimsolutions

Seamless integration enhances security while reducing manual effort

We didn't use TLS termination or malware filtering extensively because those are part of the premium features for Azure Firewall. At this point, I cannot see much improvement needed for Azure Firewall, because it served my purpose; having used it for four months, I am satisfied with the features and performance that I needed for my project. Features that integrate AI functionalities into Azure Firewall could be added, which can also address costing issues. We have features that we require, but they are in the premium offerings. If some features with limitations, for example, limited users, could be made available in the standard Azure Firewall, it would be easier for beginners choosing Azure Firewall at a very first level to test those features without needing to upgrade to premium.

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Krishnakumar M

enterprise architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

One of the best tools for the prevention of evasive threats

There is a feature called granular application controls, which I liked. Instead of relying on ports and IP addresses, they use AMP ID. This kind of solution is very good. Another valuable feature is the prevention of evasive threats, which is one of the best tools I've encountered. SSL decryption and app ID-based SSL decryption are also impressive, along with the integration with user ID. Identity-based policies ensuring only authorized users can access specific resources are excellent features. Normally, there is something called SIM or SCIM in IDA IDM, but this feature is provided on the box, which is exemplary.

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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

"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the IPS or IDS implementation."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a very stable solution."

"The product is stable and strong."

"What's most important is the ease of use."

"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."

"Generally, every aspect of it being a next-generation firewall provides good value."

"FortiGate is more feature-rich and has a broader range of hardware. T"

"The security for endpoints is the most valuable. It is very secure for our workers. It allows us to secure a transaction and enable security for a specific segment in the workflow."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Azure Firewall integrates well with multiple platforms."

"Among the most valuable features are the DDoS protection that protects your virtual machines, the threat intelligence, and traffic filtering."

"Azure's cost-effectiveness is its major advantage."

"The feature that I have found the most valuable is the control over the network permissions and the network."

"Azure Firewall is a cloud-native solution that removes the pain of load balancers."

"The Layer four features are okay and meet my business needs."

"The features of Azure Firewall that I find most valuable include DNS inspection, forward proxy, and security, particularly on the edge."

"The solution has many useful features. For example, the solution allows users to create virtual IP addresses."

More Azure Firewall pros

"The solution offers effective security features such as HIDS (Host-based Intrusion Detection System) in global products."

"Overall product rating: Nine out of ten."

"This is a very reliable firewall and we have never had problems with it."

"Simple integrations with the domain controllers and other inventories"

"Palo Alto's App-ID is what differentiates it from other competitors."

"The most valuable features are the virtualization of the firewall and the antivirus."

"It's easy to configure."

"The customer service and support are really good."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pros

Cons

"WAN load-balancing could be a lot better at detecting when a link is poor or inconsistent, and not just flat out dead."

"They should add a feature for detailed reporting."

"One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD."

"The ease of use could be improved."

"Application management can be improved."

"The solution has many heightened points which we cannot get to without working on CLI."

"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."

"They could simplify their deployment process, especially when customers have existing devices."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"It is a cloud service, but the lending speed for each region is not always the same. For example, in China, the speed is slow. They need to think about how to make sure that the service pace or speed is always the same in all regions. It would be a great improvement if they can provide the same pace worldwide."

"We find it's different implementing it region-to-region. It might help if it was universal across all regions."

"It needs a lot of improvement, especially on intruder detection. They are working hard on that."

"The solution lacks artificial intelligence and machine learning. It might be in the roadmap. However, currently, it's not available."

"One thing that would help engineers adopt it better is the documentation."

"For large organizations, a third-party firewall would be an added advantage, because it would have more advanced features, things that are not in Azure Firewall."

"Currently, it only supports IP addresses, so you have to be specific about the IPs that are in your environment."

"I would like the premium and standard features to be available on the basic package. Additionally, it lacks some functionalities when compared to competitors like Check Point and Fortinet, such as WAF or load balancing."

More Azure Firewall cons

"Palo Alto has many other products. It would be nice for these products to be centralized under one tool"

"The ease of management and configuration should be improved."

"The scalability of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is good. It is good for larger environments over smaller ones."

"It would be nice if it could easily be integrated with Elasticsearch or Nagios."

"Sometimes there are interactions with support or the provider that are not ideal."

"If we have issues, they take anywhere from two days to a week to respond. I even wrote to their CEO because there was no response. When it comes to support, this is the worst company."

"The solution's commitment time could be reduced as it often takes a lot of time to execute."

"It is recommended that the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series be implemented step by step for the Panorama. Sometimes we can't overwrite the configurations because it fails."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall a five out of ten for pricing."

"The price of FortiGate support is too expensive."

"There is a license required to use Fortinet FortiGate with all the features. It has to be updated with the threats on an ongoing basis for the signatures to prevent threats and a license is needed to receive those security updates."

"Fortinet has more device options that are affordable for small businesses than Palo Alto, and its enterprise-level models are also cheaper. Palo Alto also has a separate license for VPN connections and SD-WAN, but FortiGate offers these features standard."

"In the Asian economy in which we operate, FortiGate is expensive."

"It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet."

"Fortinet FortiGate is reasonably priced."

"Its price is affordable and lesser than Cisco. Cisco is expensive. In terms of licensing, there is only one issue. If a customer's license has expired a month ago and they do the renewal after one month, Fortinet renews the license from the start of the previous month. The activation of the product is done from the previous month, not from the date of renewal. The customers usually shout and complain that because they are paying today, the renewal should start from today. The support contract renewals or licensing should be renewed from the date of renewal, but Fortinet starts from the day it had expired. It is a loss for customers. They might have had some problems because of which they did not take the license one month before. Fortinet should work on this. Cisco doesn't do this. Cisco always starts from the day they apply for the license."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Azure Firewall is quite an expensive product."

"The solution is cheaper than other brands. My company has an enterprise contract and we finally got a good price with Azure."

"Azure Firewall is more expensive. If Microsoft can make Azure Firewall cheaper, I can see that all clients will think of using it. One client used FortiGate because it is much cheaper. Some clients ask me for Cisco, but in the cloud estimate, I found its cost is the same as Azure Firewall."

"Before choosing this solution, we evaluated others, and we found this to be the most cost-effective."

"It is pay-as-you-go. So, you pay based on the usage. If I remember it well, there is a basic fee, and there is a traffic fee. It is not per month. It is per hour or something like that. It is not so expensive."

"The pricing of Azure Firewall is pay-as-you-go. Fortinet also has a pay-as-you-go model, but Azure's pricing is higher and, with FortiGate, you also have the license."

"I rate the product pricing a five out of ten."

"Azure Firewall comes with Azure native services. We did not buy any kind of license for it. Whether you have a free subscription or a pay-as-you-go model, you can deploy the Azure Firewall service... The amount that you use will determine how much you pay."

More Azure Firewall pricing and cost advice

"Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is an expensive solution, the price could be reduced. They are more expensive than some of their competitors."

"This solution is expensive compared to other, similar products."

"Palo Alto firewalls are very expensive."

"This product is designed for large companies. The price would not be suitable for a small or medium size company."

"It would be nice if they lowered their prices for small businesses."

"The price of this solution is too high."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"It is an expensive solution."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

23%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	130
Large Enterprise	187

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	13

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...

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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...

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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 ...

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What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?

Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firew...

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How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?

Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the...

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Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?

Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...

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Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls

In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

The pricing for the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series solution is affordable and there are no complaints about the licensing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

The graphical user interface is a little complex and difficult to manage. L1 engineers cannot work on the Palo Alto N...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 9% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Azure Firewall

Compared 18% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Azure Firewall

Compared 16% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Azure Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Azure Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Azure Firewall Competitors

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Compared 54% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Compared 46% of the time

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

September 2025

Download Palo Alto Networks K2-Series product report

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate excels in providing integrated VPN, firewalling, and Unified Threat Management (UTM) with centralized management and high availability. It supports remote access and comprehensive threat protection, making it a preferred choice for securing networks.

Fortinet FortiGate offers a robust security platform with features such as strong intrusion prevention, application control, and web filtering. Its integration with Active Directory and SD-WAN functionality provides scalable solutions for large networks. Users appreciate its ease of use through centralized management interfaces, ensuring robust security with flexible configurations. However, FortiGate could enhance its graphical interface and technical support responsiveness, address firmware bugs and costly licensing, improve logging, integrate better with third-party tools, and strengthen scalability and memory for log storage. Complexity in configuration and the need for intuitive features are noted challenges, and there's a demand for advanced security, zero-trust capabilities, and AI integration.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN: Secure remote access and connectivity.
Firewalling: Protects networks from unauthorized access and attacks.
UTM: Offers a comprehensive approach to threat management.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routing for efficient network performance.
Web Filtering: Controls and monitors web access and ensures Internet security.

What benefits or ROI should be considered?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administration and monitoring.
High Availability: Ensures consistent security and network availability.
Scalability: Adapts to the needs of growing networks.
Comprehensive Threat Protection: Provides robust security measures.
Ease of Use: Minimizes the complexity of security management.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries like education, finance, and government. Companies use it for firewall protection, VPN, and SD-WAN capabilities, ensuring secure perimeter and data center security. It facilitates remote access management and traffic routing optimization, offering reliable security and connectivity solutions.

Fortinet

Azure Firewall is a user-friendly, intuitive, cloud-native firewall security solution that provides top-of-the-industry threat protection for all your Azure Virtual Network resources. Azure Firewall is constantly and thoroughly analyzing all traffic and data packets, making it a very valuable and secure fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability. Azure Firewall allows users to create virtual IP addresses and provides for secure DDoS protection for the virtual machines on your network. It also provides fast and efficient east-west and north-south traffic security.

Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service built to protect your Azure Virtual Network resources. It is a fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability.

Azure Firewall has two significant offerings, Standard and Premium.

Azure Firewall Standard works directly with Microsoft Cyber Security and supplies excellent L3-L7 filtering and threat awareness. The proactive real-time threat awareness will quickly alert you and immediately deny all traffic to and from any known problematic or suspicious domains or IP addresses. Microsoft Cyber Security is updated continually to protect against all new and known potential threats at all times. To learn more about Azure Firewall Standard, click here.

Azure Firewall Premium provides everything the standard version does, and additionally adds extra levels of data encryption, network intrusion detection, extended URL filtering, and Web category filters. To learn more about the added features of Azure Firewall Premium, click here.

Key Benefits and Features of Azure Firewall:

High availability - You do not need load balancers with Azure Firewall; it's already built in and ready to go.
Self-scalability - Azure Firewall is intuitive and will auto-scale as needed based on traffic flow to be ready for peak traffic times.
Threat awareness - Using Microsoft Cyber Security to filter traffic, Azure Firewall will deny any known problematic threats to keep your network safe.
Additional IP addresses - You can securely add up to 250 public IP addresses with Azure Firewall
Improved web category filtering - You can set up specific protocols to allow or deny categories within websites that are deemed inappropriate for use within your network. You have the ability to organize categories based on a defined set of descriptions.

What our real users have to say:

Many PeerSpot users found Azure Firewall to be very user-friendly and easy to use. They liked that it offers seamless integration to the cloud and were especially pleased with the threat filtering options.

Regarding integration and threat intelligence, our users wrote:

“The most valuable feature is the integration into the overall cloud platform.”

“The most valuable feature is threat intelligence. It is based on filtering and can identify multiple threats.”

“I think that one of the best features is definitely the premium version, along with the IDPs in terms of the intrusion detection and prevention system.”

Microsoft

Designed to handle growing throughput needs due to increasing amounts of application-, user-, and device-generated data, the K2-Series offers amazing performance and threat prevention capabilities to stop advanced cyberattacks and secure mobile network infrastructure, subscribers, and services.

Palo Alto Networks

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

State of North Dakota, SEGA, Alameda County Office of Education, Temple University, VERGE, CAME

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

September 2025

Free Report: Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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