


WatchGuard Firebox and Check Point IPS compete in the network security category. Based on the data comparisons, WatchGuard Firebox holds the advantage in pricing and user-friendliness, while Check Point IPS excels in comprehensive threat prevention.
Features: WatchGuard Firebox offers ease of setup through its intuitive GUI, VPN configuration, and comprehensive security features like WebBlocker and URL filtering. It integrates well with WiFi access points and provides robust reporting features. Check Point IPS offers extensive threat coverage with proactive protection, real-time updates, and detailed attack reports. Its automatic threat prevention and integration capabilities are notable strengths.
Room for Improvement: WatchGuard Firebox could improve its interface and third-party vendor integration. There is a need for cloud-based administration and better setup documentation. Check Point IPS experiences performance impacts from high CPU utilization, complexity in configuration, and high licensing costs. Users desire enhanced performance, reduced false positives, and simpler policy management.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WatchGuard Firebox is recognized for its prompt and knowledgeable support, aiding efficient issue resolution. It is praised for easy deployment across various environments, including hybrid and cloud settings. In contrast, Check Point IPS, while offering robust customer service and proactive threat updates, is critiqued for its higher setup complexity and slower support response times. Users find WatchGuard's guides and online resources more helpful than Check Point's complex configurations.
Pricing and ROI: WatchGuard Firebox is appreciated for its competitive pricing and cost-effective solutions, offering affordable licensing and a favorable return on investment through reduced operational costs and enhanced security. Check Point IPS, though respected for its robust capabilities, involves higher costs with bundled licensing. Its value shines in environments needing advanced protection, balancing cost with comprehensive threat prevention. Despite strong security offerings from both, Firebox's pricing provides broader accessibility.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
We have seen a return on investment with Check Point IPS because we have not seen any security events, malicious activities, or any device compromised, so we are secure now, and money has been saved.
I have seen a return on investment as it results in money saved and time saved because the security tool is very complete and modern.
I have seen a return on investment more in the risk saved since it catches a lot of stuff security-wise that is good to catch.
I do not see any return on investment after WatchGuard Firebox implementation in terms of cost reductions.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
Our technical teams have personal relationships with our account executives and direct support people.
The customer support for Check Point IPS is very helpful, as they are able to resolve complex issues.
I reached out to customer support a couple of times, and the response has been very good.
On a scale of one to 10, I would rate the technical support of the WatchGuard Firebox a 10.
Finally, we connected with someone, and I would rate their support as eight or nine out of ten once we were able to speak with them.
The technical support is good.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
We have moved to a hyper-scale master environment, allowing us to scale by adding additional gateways to the clusters.
The scalability of Check Point IPS is on point.
The scalability of Check Point IPS is great because when I deploy gateways in the cloud, I create a cluster, which offers a very scalable option.
The user interface and features compared to newer firewalls are not up to the mark, which includes functionalities such as filtering, web filtering, threat protection, user identity, and UTM features that need improvement.
If we're going for more concurrent users, we need to change the entire box.
I find the WatchGuard Firebox scalable, as it's easy to change configurations from this product to another one.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
Check Point IPS provides a very stable and reliable environment.
Check Point IPS is very stable.
Check Point IPS is very stable with no problems regarding this solution.
There are issues with traffic hitting the firewall, which could indicate performance problems related to throughput.
We had many bottlenecks before deploying WatchGuard Firebox, but when we switched to a higher version of our firewalls, the bottlenecks were solved.
These sessions should be around five to ten minutes long, allowing users and partners to quickly grasp the information without disrupting their daily tasks.
The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection.
It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription.
Automated attack path correlation in SmartEvent to improve situational awareness.
At least 60% of all the alarms generated by the IPS are false positives or something that's not important to look at, and this generates a significant workload for my team.
More granular policy customization for Check Point IPS would allow protection to be tailored more precisely to specific applications or services, which would reduce unnecessary overhead and improve accuracy.
The cost for renewal after three years is 75% of the hardware cost, which is a significant problem.
When implementing a rule using a group of IPs, it is not possible to do that directly.
It is also difficult to diagnose issues if any devices get compromised; for example, if someone hacks our system, it becomes hard to trace who made changes or accessed the firewall.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
It is about 20% cheaper.
Comparisons with Fortinet show that Check Point IPS is relatively more expensive, but we found it cheaper to retain it rather than switch.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point IPS is good; it's baked into the firewall licensing, so that's very good.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point IPS is great, and I have no problem with the price.
When we tried to renew the Palo Alto license, the cost was beyond any reasonable range.
It's expensive us here.
I have faced challenges with the WatchGuard Firebox regarding price since we work with customers who use the Stormshield product, which is less expensive and French-made.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring.
We got a firewall and gave an SSL VPN to my client to connect to their servers, after which, such kind of activities involving ransomware attacks stopped.
The integration with Check Point ThreatCloud ensures the IPS engine is updated with the latest attack signatures.
The solution employs behavioral heuristic analysis to block zero-day attacks using AI-powered engines.
Whenever any zero-day attack is detected, it downloads that signature into the firewall and prevents that threat.
The Firebox offers valuable features such as network security, URL filtering, UTM features, intrusion prevention and detection, and authentication.
Basically, we have received a good return on investment.
I utilize AI within the WatchGuard Firebox, as we use the interconnection with threat syncs, and AI is implemented.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Fortinet FortiGate | 13.9% |
| Check Point IPS | 3.9% |
| WatchGuard Firebox | 6.8% |
| Other | 75.4% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 357 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 133 |
| Large Enterprise | 188 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 50 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 22 |
| Large Enterprise | 23 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 92 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 27 |
| Large Enterprise | 15 |
Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.
Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.
What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.
Check Point IPS is an intrusion prevention system that aims to detect and prevent attempts to exploit weaknesses in vulnerable systems or applications. The solution provides complete, integrated, next-generation firewall intrusion prevention capabilities at multi-gigabit speeds with a low false positive rate and high security. It helps organizations secure their enterprise network, and protect servers and critical data against known and unknown automated malware, blended threats, and other threats.
Check Point IPS Features
Check Point IPS has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:
Check Point IPS Benefits
There are many benefits to implementing Check Point IPS. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
Check Point IPS is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has granularity capabilities for rule creation, quick updates of signatures, and a helpful mechanism that allows users to turn IPS signatures to a different mode automatically.
A System and Network Administrator at Auriga mentions, “The Check Point IPS module allows me granularity in creating rules. I can specify which definition to apply and to which scope or network.” The reviewer also adds, “I can create multiple profiles, which is helpful.”
“The quick updates of the signatures when a new threat is identified are great. For instance, when Microsoft releases patches, we usually see new signatures for those issues that have to be patched in a day. This gives us time to test/deploy the patches while already being protected from the threats. Also, it's very good with reporting. I can generate reports for management automatically based on the threats of the last day/week/whatever is needed,” says a Systems en networks engineer at CB.
Another PeerSpot user, a Network Engineer at VSP Vision Care, writes, “The mechanism where you can let the system automatically turn the IPS signature to a different mode (prevent / monitor / inactive) is a nice feature that allows us to easily adjust the balance between security protection and the risk of business impact.”
WatchGuard Firebox is a high-performance firewall known for its ease of setup, offering robust security with layered protection and centralized management capabilities.
WatchGuard Firebox stands out for its intuitive management and high throughput, addressing security needs with features like VPN, web filtering, and threat detection. Its centralized control and reporting abilities, along with Active Directory integration, make it popular among varied organizations. Its user-friendly interface and ongoing updates enhance usability and reliability. However, there's a call for better cloud-based administration, scalability, and improved integration with third-party vendors.
What are the key features of WatchGuard Firebox?WatchGuard Firebox is implemented across industries to secure internet gateways and protect data in multi-site businesses. Its applications span from Unified Threat Management (UTM) and intrusion prevention to compliance support in business environments requiring secure connectivity through VPNs.
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