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Barracuda Web Security and Filtering vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG comparison

Barracuda Networks and Fortinet are both solutions in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #28 with an average rating of 6.3, while Fortinet is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7. Barracuda Networks holds a 0.8% mindshare in WSG, compared to Fortinet’s 5.9% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Barracuda Web Security and Filtering and Fortinet FortiGate SWG compete in the web security solutions market. Fortinet FortiGate SWG often leads with its extensive feature set, justifying its higher price compared to Barracuda.

Features: Barracuda provides URL filtering, malware protection, and real-time reporting, focusing on ease of use and integration. Fortinet offers advanced threat protection, AI-driven insights, and high-performance throughput suitable for large-scale operations.

Room for Improvement: Barracuda could enhance its threat detection capabilities, improve scalability for larger organizations, and offer more advanced analytics features. Fortinet could work on simplifying its deployment process, reducing setup time for new users, and improving cost efficiency for smaller enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Barracuda is known for straightforward deployment requiring minimal resources, appealing to smaller IT teams. It receives high marks for responsive customer service. Fortinet, while more complex to deploy due to its advanced features, requires robust IT support but offers comprehensive guides and support services.

Pricing and ROI: Barracuda's lower setup cost and simple pricing model attract budget-conscious firms, offering solid ROI. Fortinet, while more expensive, delivers performance and feature richness that can justify higher costs where advanced security is needed.

To learn more, read our detailed Barracuda Web Security and Filtering vs. Fortinet FortiGate SWG Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Web Security and Filtering vs. Fortinet FortiGate SWG

July 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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.1%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda Web Security and Filtering is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is 5.9%, down from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate SWG	5.9%
iboss	2.1%
Barracuda Web Security and Filtering	0.8%
Other	91.2%

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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Wealie Antar

Manager, Systems, Information Technology at Icddr, b

It comes with useful policy creation features but needs to improve its outdated tech and poor support

Apart from that, considering other tier-one applications, like Next-Generation Firewall, they also have web security in-built within their appliances or applications. Barracuda is still lagging behind in features like that, so they need to update if they want to be in the top spot. Other features I'd like to see in Barracuda Features are ease-of-use for remote users. If you are a roaming user using an organization laptop, the organization has the right to apply the policy. When you are on-premises, you are opening the policy, not out-of-premises. The application that Barracuda Web Security Gateway provides is pretty clumsy and not very easy to work with, and they need to develop that. Either they provide a test platform that redirects the traffic or vice versa. Moreover, the database is pretty average. Barracuda needs to enhance the database to stop unsolicited traffic. Reporting also needs to be quicker than it is. Barracuda doesn't give you any flexibility to provide reports to higher management. Organizations like us need to do a lot of reporting. When we submit our quarterly report, other appliances allow us to customize or get the reports in a way Barracuda can't because it is rigid with its reporting. Barracuda needs to give users the flexibility to create their reports. The reports offered by the solution are just fine. Finally, acceleration. Right at this moment, most websites are dynamic. For example, organizational websites get updated once a month. If Barracuda can help reduce bandwidth usage and accelerate browsing performance by analyzing these sorts of sites and doing their catching technology work accordingly. Barracuda should also include DNSSEC, which offers strong protection for web security and is offered by competitors. Barracuda should also up their game for scanning and sandboxing. Likewise, their signatures need augmented intelligence or machine learning because you won't always be able to appraise things, and sometimes you have to go beyond that. You need to block it through its behavior.

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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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

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

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

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

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"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."

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."

"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."

More iboss pros

"The solution is very simple to use and implement."

"The most valuable features are Barracuda's policies for filtering various websites according to the organization's policies and blocking traffic for any P2P application like torrents."

"I like that it does a lot of malicious content and is easy to manage. There are a lot of checkboxes, and you can add your own URLs or get it preconfigured."

"I have found the most valuable the ability to have insight into our web traffic and control its flow."

"It is straightforward to deploy and manage."

"The support is fantastic."

"The ease of use. It's pretty easy to use and navigate the UI... to either block or whitelist a web address."

"Barracuda Web Security and Filtering efficiently blocks phishing emails and provides flexible policy settings."

"It's a flexible solution."

"It is simpler to configure. It is not like Cisco Firepower, where you go crazy trying to follow the Cisco documentation to figure out how to configure one little thing. Unlike Cisco Firepower, where you can't do everything through the web interface and you have got to do some command line stuff, Fortinet FortiGate SWG is simpler. There are four different things in Cisco to get in, which is not the case with Fortinet FortiGate SWG. It is one of my favorite solutions to work with. I would much rather work with it than Cisco Firepower, for example. Even though I've got 20 years of Cisco experience with different firewalls, I would much prefer this solution."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG's content is its most valuable feature."

"We have found the product to be scalable."

"The interface and other reports are all user-friendly."

"Web filters, particularly web application controls, grant us the ability to regulate user access effectively."

"One of the features I appreciate the most is application control which offers great flexibility."

"The solution is easy to use and checks the access control as a firewall."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pros

Cons

"One thing I would like to see differently with their Zero Trust platform is that some of the AI aspects related to high-risk activities have more false positives."

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

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

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."

"Its pricing could be better."

More iboss cons

"The AD agent is an issue which my customers and I have encountered. Sometimes it refuses to start and, only as time goes by, does it become apparent that things are not working the way they should."

"Considering other tier-one applications, like Next-Generation Firewall, they also have web security in-built within their appliances or applications. Barracuda is still lagging behind in features like that, so they need to update if they want to be in the top spot."

"They need to provide a Sandbox to safely examine phishing links within emails without infecting our network. Also, I would like more end-to-end email tracing for a clearer understanding of why an email was blocked or not blocked."

"It doesn't allow adding DNS filtering for off-site clients."

"Barracuda products are cheap."

"The price could be better."

"Our problem is that it's a virtual appliance and we're moving to a new platform and, for whatever reason, we can't move it as it is... When we were migrating our virtual machines from the old to the new system, we determined rather quickly that it wouldn't migrate over."

More Barracuda Web Security and Filtering cons

"The solution is expensive."

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

"I would rate the technical support of Fortinet a six or seven out of ten. It is not very helpful. I would like to see improvements in their support."

"Fortinet needs to continue to improve network traceability. Other than that, we haven't run into anything that would give me any concern."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG could improve the price, it is expensive."

"They should make the product user-friendly and enhance the security features."

"One area of improvement I've noticed is the lack of built-in monitoring capabilities in the firewall. Currently, we rely on third-party solutions for monitoring purposes. However, I believe the firewall itself has the potential to do a better job in this aspect. Another aspect of Fortinet that concerns me is related to redundancy. We have a setup with two firewalls working in parallel, which requires a highly adaptable configuration. However, it feels unfair that clients need to purchase two licenses, especially when one of the firewalls serves as a backup. We have noticed that other manufacturers have different policies on this matter."

"Another issue is how deduplication services don't work reliably after enabling deduplication on Fortinet."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"The price could be better. Barracuda started adding more features at the end of 2022. There was no price increase if you bought the maintenance package before the end of 2022. If you signed a three-year contract, you are lucky because there won't be a price increase on those features. Their pricing has increased if you wanted to install all of their features. But they are segmenting. You can buy the whole group, or you can get pieces. But it's tedious. The cost is getting higher than it should."

"The solution's pricing is neither cheap nor expensive."

"The pricing and licensing are comparatively reasonable."

"Barracuda products are cheap."

"It is a cost-effective solution."

"There is a need to pay for a license for the product."

"We pay about $4,000 for a yearly license, and there aren't any additional fees."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an affordable solution."

"The price is relatively expensive compared to other solutions which are providing similar features."

"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."

"While slightly more affordable than competitors, it remains relatively expensive due to its inclusive subscription."

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

"The solution is cheap."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

12%

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

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

See all answers

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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...

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What do you like most about Barracuda Web Security Gateway?

The solution is very simple to use and implement.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Barracuda Web Security Gateway?

They need to provide a Sandbox to safely examine phishing links within emails without infecting our network. Also, I ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Barracuda Web Security Gateway?

Mainly, I use it for blocking suspicious emails, such as malware or phishing emails, so they don't pass through our e...

See all answers

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

The interface and other reports are all user-friendly.

See all answers

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...

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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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 14% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 12% of the time

FortiSASE vs iboss

Compared 3% of the time

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Symantec WebFilter vs Barracuda Web Security and Filtering

Compared 23% of the time

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway vs Barracuda Web Security and Filtering

Compared 20% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs Barracuda Web Security and Filtering

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Barracuda Web Security and Filtering

Compared 16% of the time

TitanHQ WebTitan vs Barracuda Web Security and Filtering

Compared 11% of the time

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Fortinet FortiProxy vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 43% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 19% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 7% 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

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Web Security and Filtering

August 2025

Barracuda Web Security and Filtering report

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Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate SWG

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate SWG product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Barracuda Web Security Gateway, Barracuda Web Filter

FortiGate SWG, FortiGate Secure Web Gateway

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

Barracuda Web Security Gateway lets organizations benefit from online applications and tools without exposure to web-borne malware and viruses, lost user productivity, and misused bandwidth. As a comprehensive solution for web security and management, it unites award-winning spyware, malware, and virus protection with a powerful policy and reporting engine. Advanced features ensure that organizations adapt to emerging requirements like social-network regulation, remote filtering, and visibility into SSL-encrypted traffic.

Unlimited remote user licenses are included to enforce content and access policies for mobile and desktop devices outside of the corporate network. Barracuda Web Security Gateway is also available as a virtual appliance.

Barracuda Networks

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

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.

Citizen Farmers Finance, Osoyoos Credit Union, Supreme Services, Camden County Technical Schools, Frederick County Schools, Pine Belt Mental Healthcare, Paulsboro Public Schools, Dysart Unified School District, St. Michael's Grammar School, Southfield Schools District, Total Threat Protection - Wade Ford, Alain Pinel Realtors, Southfield Public Schools, Major League Baseball (MLB)

Salt Lake County, Catholic College Bendigo, Azienda Unita Sanitaria

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Web Security and Filtering vs. Fortinet FortiGate SWG

July 2025

Free Report: Barracuda Web Security and Filtering vs. Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Web Security and Filtering vs. Fortinet FortiGate SWG and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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