Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs McAfee StoneGate [EOL] comparison

Check Point Software Technologies and McAfee are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 96% of Check Point Software Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of McAfee users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

McAfee StoneGate EOL and Check Point Quantum Force NGFW compete in the network security market. Check Point Quantum Force NGFW has the upper hand for those valuing comprehensive security solutions due to its advanced features.

Features: McAfee StoneGate EOL provides solid traffic management, effective intrusion prevention, and affordable security. Check Point Quantum Force NGFW offers extensive threat prevention technologies, superior integration options, and advanced security features, making it a preferred choice for comprehensive security needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: McAfee StoneGate EOL has a straightforward deployment model and reliable customer support, reducing setup complexity. Check Point Quantum Force NGFW stands out with a refined deployment process and enhanced support services, ensuring rapid deployment and dependable assistance.

Pricing and ROI: McAfee StoneGate EOL offers competitive pricing and reasonable ROI, appealing to budget-conscious buyers. Check Point Quantum Force NGFW, despite higher initial costs, provides significant ROI through extensive features and security enhancements, making it worth the investment for organizations prioritizing robust security.

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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

Featured Reviews

Abhinandan Yadav

Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd

Unified security and sd-wan have improved uptime and cut wan costs for multi-site branches

Users report stability issues in certain versions, which requires regular updates. Real-world attacks have also highlighted the need for urgent patching of vulnerabilities.Fortinet FortiGate, while a powerful and feature-rich web firewall, could improve in areas like firmware stability, documentation, and ease of use. The learning curve can be steep for some users. For beginners, support quality can vary, and frequent updates with occasional vulnerabilities call for careful patch management. However, once Fortinet FortiGate is configured, it remains highly reliable and efficient. Customer support needs improvement, as I find it very slow, with reports from other users reflecting that customer support is inadequate.

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San Naing Htun

Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Has improved threat prevention and protection but presents deployment and licensing challenges

The best features Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) offers are AI-powered threat prevention, zero-day protection, unified management, and scalability. These features have helped me in my daily work or my organization by allowing us, as a SAAS company operating across AWS, Azure, and handling external partner access or a multi-tenant model, to preemptively stop unknown attacks, which is critical. Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) has positively impacted my organization as it is a high-end enterprise grade firewall. I have noticed that it is very good if your SAAS business has high traffic volume, serious threat prevention requirements, and you are ready for the investment.

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it_user935460

Computer Framework at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It works well with a highly-active cluster.

It is important for us in case of a disaster, or in case of a failure of one server. This means that the high availability is the most important part for us. It is important for us that the system is available and no connection is going to be lost if the system is restarting one note, or something like that. This is the main request for us for a good firewall protection product.

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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 solution has a user-friendly interface."

"I like its ability to prevent external intrusion into our database."

"Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

"The product is easy to configure."

"I appreciate FortiGate for its reliable, powerful, and flexible setups."

"Better visibility into traffic patterns Lightening fast troubleshooting and reduced management complexity overall."

"It enables our organization to become more productive, and it protects our NetWare from viruses and malware."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are remote access, web filtering, and IPS."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The Check Point firewall is providing advanced-level security and, compared to before, our company is more secure now."

"Check Point provides dedicated blades to monitor network traffic, which helps while troubleshooting network and packet-related issues."

"I have always found that Check Point's fully integrated management provides significant improvements to organisations where I have deployed them."

"It filters unwanted traffic."

"I like the SmartEvent feature. When we see a threat, SmartEvent can create a rule for that. SmartEvent works with the SmartCenter to block a threat attack with a block monitor. The SmartCenter has the management for all the firewalls and data centers in a single dashboard."

"Check Point NGFW products have improved the operation of our organization by allowing us to secure our perimeter from attacks, probes, malware, DDoS, bots and general bad actors, while fine tuning user access to resources in order to prevent privacy issues, loss of operations, or downtime."

"The biggest thing is the central management. It is quite good and allows us to manage the different firewalls from it. We can implement and configure many firewalls and push our policies to them as well."

"The ease of configuring VPNs can be very useful especially for companies with lots of remote locations."

More Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) pros

"The stability of the product is fantastic; it is a really proven system and I never had any type of problem where the system was unstable or had a software failure."

"It has given us better application control."

"It works well with a highly-active cluster."

"We did not have issues with scalabiliy."

"High availability is very consistent and provides good firewalling and stability."

Cons

"There's a limitation wherein you can only have about 30 virtual or secondary IPs on a particular interface."

"We have never encountered any issues with it. The price and deployment part of Fortinet FortiGate is good, but it can always be better."

"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters."

"We are pretty happy with it. If anything, I believe the web interface could be simpler, especially for someone who has limited networking experience."

"There is room for improvement in being proactive about identifying and integrating new signatures."

"There are no areas that need improvement at this point in time."

"Over time, there is a lot of worry about insecurity. For big accounts, we are not able to satisfy the customer with the Fortinet firewall because they ask for a lot of features."

"The solution could improve by having some additional features, such as IBS and better cloud administration."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The antivirus feature is a little bit weak and should be improved."

"The VPN part was actually one of the most complex parts for us. It was not easy for us to switch from Cisco, because of one particular part of the integration: connecting the Check Point device to an Entrust server. Entrust is a solution that provides two-factor authentication. We got around it by using another server, a solution called RADIUS."

"One feature that could be improved is the internet object in the application control/URL filtering blade."

"There is no email security."

"It's too expensive for mid-market companies."

"If you have the standard support level, sometimes they take a long time to understand or even give you a solution or good workaround to a problematic situation."

"The upgrade process for Check Point NGFW is not very simple, making it difficult to find the resources needed for the upgrade compared to competitors like Fortinet."

"It's complex because it's not too easy to use, but the brand and our partner help us with NG Firewall configuration issues or other solutions like Harmony."

More Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) cons

"After some experience with the solution, we had to do some redesign, but generally, we were happy with the product."

"The hardware needs improving as we had a lot of problems with the hard drive reliability, both with the firewall and the intrusion protection system."

"After some experience with the solution, we had to do some redesign, but generally, we were happy with the product."

"HA failover is not stable."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet FortiGate as a less expensive solution than Palo Alto."

"In my opinion, the pricing of the product is reasonable."

"We pay $500 per year for the license."

"This is not a cheap solution but it isn't expensive, either. It's a good solution for the right price."

"I think that the pricing is fair."

"It's very affordable."

"The price for the device and software is high. However, the solution is of good quality and has a lot of features."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is affordable. Most of our customers are on a three-year license to use the solution. All the features and support are included in the price."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The tool is a bit expensive."

"Check Point Firewall costs more compared to the other firewalls in the markets, as pricing is little high. However, it is easy to take the license and use it in the firewall."

"Check Point NGFW is much cheaper than other platforms, including Palo Alto. Its scalability, especially with the Maestro solution, is a big advantage. If you're looking for good security at a reasonable price with a good return on investment, I believe Check Point NGFW is the way to go."

"Each blade requires that you have a license."

"Maybe the pricing is a bit high but you get the durability and the duration."

"It comes with a significant price."

"I have done licensing and contracts for multiple firewalls. The license and contract configuration is completely fine, but if it is possible to make them cost a bit less, then this would be better."

"It is quite an expensive product, although security is a top priority."

More Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Construction Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	367
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	193

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	163
Midsize Enterprise	95
Large Enterprise	198

No data available

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 18% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)

Compared 12% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)

Compared 5% of the time

OPNsense vs Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)

Compared 4% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)

Compared 4% of the time

More Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) Competitors

Cisco Secure Firewall vs McAfee StoneGate [EOL]

Compared 68% of the time

More McAfee StoneGate [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

May 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)

May 2026

Download Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

April 2026

Download McAfee StoneGate [EOL] product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall

McAfee Next Generation Firewall, Stonesoft, Intel Next Generation Firewall, Intel Security StoneGate

Overview

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?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

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.

Fortinet

Check Point Quantum Force NGFW provides centralized management with scalable security for network perimeters. As a reliable firewall, it ensures advanced threat prevention and offers seamless integration, making it suitable for various network environments.

Offering comprehensive security, Check Point Quantum Force NGFW helps control ingress and egress traffic, secures data center firewalls, and integrates seamlessly with cloud and on-premises setups. Users appreciate its application control, deep packet inspection, and identity awareness features for enhanced protection against cyber threats. Despite pricing issues and interface complexity, its IPsec VPN and robust logging provide valuable insights into network activities.

What are the key features of Check Point Quantum Force NGFW?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administrative tasks across different environments.
Advanced Threat Prevention: Shields against evolving cyber threats with real-time protection.
Deep Packet Inspection: Analyzes traffic to prevent intrusions without impacting performance.
Application Control: Manages access to applications, enhancing security policies.
IPsec VPN: Secures remote connections with encrypted tunnels.

What benefits should users consider for Check Point Quantum Force NGFW?

Scalability: Adapts to the changing needs of organizations of different sizes.
Integration Capabilities: Works alongside existing systems for a comprehensive defense strategy.
Logging and Reporting: Offers detailed insights into network activity and threats.
User-Friendly Interface: Streamlines management with intuitive controls despite initial complexity.

Check Point Quantum Force NGFW is deployed across industries for securing network boundaries, supporting critical data center operations, and enabling secure VPN connections. In finance, it helps meet stringent compliance standards, while in healthcare, it's crucial for protecting sensitive patient data through robust security protocols.

Check Point Software Technologies

StoneGate is a Highly Available Firewall/VPN. The StoneGate fault-tolerant VPN maintains sessions across multiple VPN devices and multiple Internet or network connections, regardless of device or connection failures. StoneGate provides Security, Manageability, Availability, and Scalability thus reducing network security complexity and costs. Stonesoft was the inventor of high availability for security solutions and a recognized leader in network security.

McAfee

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

Control Southern, Optimal Media

Avency, R€SLER Oberfl_chentechnik GmbH, MAUSER Group, CEMEX, Cegedim, Fusion Media Networks

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls. Updated: April 2026.

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