Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Juniper Session Smart Router

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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 June 2025, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.9%, up from 20.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 2.7%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

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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Martin Raška

Senior Security Engineer & Instructor at Arrow Electronics

Unification of security features strengthens network protection

The overall network security is good. It's big-picture, all in one bundle. It's valuable to have everything in one place instead of spreading across different products. Unified security management positively affects a company's security operations. They have one unified view of the security. I can connect multiple gateways to the management and have it in one place. I can have reporting and views in a single pane of glass on the consolidated platform. It's easy to use. The management is the best on the market. It's very easy to work with, read, understand, and navigate. It helps increase our customer's security posture. We can see in some cases CloudGuard improves our customers' posture overall.

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SRI GANESH PHANIYAPPA

Sub Divisional Engineer NOC Bangalore at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited

Delivered tailored features and meets requirements effectively

We are using it as a DNG. This means all subscriber PPPoE sessions or ILS Smart VPN connections are terminated through the access network to this BNG, Uniphore BNG. From there, they are managed Everything has been fine. Although we did not explore much about the solution, they provided us with a…

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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

"Fortinet FortiGate has a very simple configuration, is easy to set up, and includes SD-WAN features at no additional cost."

"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."

"It is very flexible to use."

"Fortinet FortiGate is the best option on the market when it comes to firewalls."

"Good performance, stability, and virtual domain ability."

"Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features."

"The primary feature I appreciate about Fortinet FortiGate is the ease of setup."

"The product has been very stable, based on my ten to eleven years of experience."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The product has allowed us to develop applications from the cloud - even with large environments and well-segmented security lines."

"Moving into the cloud without having to change a lot of our internal processes and retrain staff is one of the biggest benefits of this solution."

"It makes my life easier. I have on-prem and cloud firewalls. I can use the same policies in both places."

"The main benefit of the Check Point Virtual Systems solution is its ability to split up the hardware appliances that we have into several logical, virtual devices with separate traffic handling policies, as well as the switching and routing."

"The visibility, the one-pane-of-glass which allows me to see all of my edge protection through one window and one log, is great. Monitoring everything through that one pane of glass is extremely valuable."

"Any kind of cloud environment anywhere can be protected through this effortlessly."

"I found the access control policy through SmartConsole, which was formerly SmartDashboard, to be very valuable. It deeply explores source, destination, and port protocols. Competitors struggle to match this simplicity and effectiveness."

"A unique architecture makes this product stand out from other solutions."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security pros

"They provided us with a customized product according to our requirements."

"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."

"As compared to the other major vendors in the SD-WAN market, such as VeloCloud, Cisco, and others, the tunnel-free and secure vector routing technology is its major USP, which gives plenty of room to discuss with the customer why IPSec from 1998 is a bit outdated."

"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."

"Customer service is very prompt."

Cons

"The customization could be improved. Cisco, for example, is much better at this. They need to work to be at least as good as they are."

"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."

"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."

"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."

"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."

"FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment."

"Fortinet doesn't provide multiple virtual firewalls which would facilitate end users and customers."

"The documentation available for Fortinet FortiGate should be improved"

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Pricing in Jamaica is a major issue, with users often citing it as a reason for not using Check Point."

"The solution is not that flexible when deploying on-prem."

"We have had occasional issues with two gateways that used to break or are broken. We are not sure yet."

"The solution needs to improve the interruptions that happen during gateway upgrades."

"Integration could be easier, especially with Scale Set and related features."

"Everything we do with Check Point must go through the vendor first, which is somewhat inconvenient. It would be easier to deal with Check Point directly, however, it depends on the vendor."

"In future releases, I would like to see the data loss prevention (DLP) feature could scale along with the virtual machine scale sets."

"It's meeting our needs at this time. If I could make it better, it would be by making it more standalone. That would be beneficial to us. I say that because our current platform for virtualization is VMware. The issue isn't any fault of Check Point, it's more how the virtualization platform partners allow for that partnership and integration. There has to be close ties and partnerships between the vendors to ensure interoperability and sup-portability. There is only so far that Check Point, or any security vendor technology can go without the partnership and enablement of the virtualization platform vendor as it relies on "Service Insertion" to maintain optimal performance."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security cons

"Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do."

"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."

"Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments."

"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks. What we are missing there are wizards. For example, I have two applications, and I want one application to be prioritized against the other. In such a case, a wizard for assigning policies to a service without configuring each step by hand would be very helpful. There should be an overhaul of the GUI of the conductor. The functionality they have got in the Mist portal should be baked into the conductor itself. It would be really great, but as we all know, that won't happen."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

"It was worth the money overall. It's good value."

"We purchased a five-year bundle package, which worked out cheaper than competing solutions."

"Some of our customers are using Sophos and SonicWall due to price concerns, as they can't manage the pricing of Fortinet FortiGate."

"It is cheaper and more competitive compared to other options. For example, when comparing Palo Alto products to others, Palo Alto tends to be more expensive. If you compare Cisco's platform, including Cisco Meraki, with Fortinet products, you'll notice that Cisco's offerings are generally higher priced than Fortinet's firewall solutions."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate when compared to other solutions is high. However, my knowledge of the price is from third parties and I am not sure how accurate it is. I typically work in the technical area of my organization."

"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."

"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."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The product is expensive but also valuable."

"I do not know the exact price, but it is fairly priced. It is neither cheap nor costly."

"We got discounts on pricing."

"It is the most expensive part of the product. There is a lot of room for improvement. Security comes with a price, but it is still a big chunk just for the service."

"Licensing is available on a monthly or yearly basis."

"It is fair. Its license covers all the features. There is a cost-benefit. The licensing for the cloud is better than on-premises because, with on-premises, you have to pay separately for different things."

"As a partner and solution provider for the last fifteen years, I have distanced myself from specific numbers. However, customer trust in the product is evident due to its comprehensive protective capabilities."

"I quite like the way they priced it. It is very reasonable."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security pricing and cost advice

"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."

"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

13%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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 do you like most about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

The tool's most valuable feature is its management console.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Pricing in Jamaica is a major issue, with users often citing it as a reason for not using Check Point.

What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

They could improve the documentation. The interface is fine for me since I have been using it for some time.

What do you like most about Juniper Session Smart Router?

The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Session Smart Router?

Juniper Session Smart Router is not significantly cheaper than, for example, Cisco.

What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?

I did not find any problem with Juniper. Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do.

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Comparisons

Compared 20% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 16% of the time

Azure Firewall vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 13% of the time

VMware NSX vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Competitors

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 28% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 14% of the time

NFX Series Network Services Platform vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma SD-WAN vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 12% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 6% of the time

More Juniper Session Smart Router Competitors

Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Download Check Point CloudGuard Network Security product report

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security report

Routers

Download Juniper Session Smart Router product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is designed to secure cloud assets, offering robust firewall capabilities and protection for both internal and external traffic across AWS, Azure, and on-premises environments.

Enterprises rely on Check Point CloudGuard Network Security for comprehensive network protection, threat prevention, and compliance enforcement. Supporting virtual machines and hybrid environments, it delivers advanced security measures including intrusion prevention and application control. Key functions include firewall security, network segmentation, and cloud environment protection, ensuring businesses maintain a secure and compliant IT infrastructure.

What are the most valuable features of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Flexible Architecture: Adaptable to diverse cloud and on-premises environments.
UTM Capabilities: Unified Threat Management delivering multi-layered security.
Advanced Threat Prevention: Includes IPS, application control, and anti-malware.
Auto-scaling: Automatically adjusts capacity based on traffic and demand.
Comprehensive Threat Prevention: Protects against known and unknown threats.
Ease of Use: Streamlined deployment and management processes.
Integration with Cloud Platforms: Seamlessly works with AWS, Azure, and other clouds.
Centralized Management: Single-pane-of-glass visibility and control.
User Identity Awareness: Enhances security policies based on user identities.
Zero-touch Deployment: Simplifies initial setup and deployment.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Email Protection: Shields email communications from threats.
Anti-malware: Guards against malicious software.
Single-pane-of-glass Visibility: Provides a unified view for better security management.
Scalability: Grows with the business needs.
Seamless Cloud Transition: Eases the move from on-premises to cloud environments.

In industries such as financial services, healthcare, retail, and education, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is implemented to safeguard sensitive data, ensure compliance, and protect critical infrastructure. Companies in these sectors benefit from its advanced threat prevention and flexible deployment options, meeting their stringent security requirements while enabling secure digital transformation.

Check Point Software Technologies

The 128T Networking Platform (128T) natively provides network-based security, control, and insight across data centers, wide-area networks (WAN), and edge locations for enterprises, service providers, and cloud companies alike. 128T is reshaping the way organizations design, deploy, and operate real-world networks by making them dramatically simpler, smarter, and more secure — it’s going to fix the router — and ultimately the network — as we know it.

Juniper

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

Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance

Revation Systems

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Juniper Session Smart Router