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Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Smoothwall Firewall comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 17, 2025

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
412
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point Quantum Force (...
Ranking in Firewalls
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
328
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Smoothwall Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
32nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) is 3.0%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smoothwall Firewall is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Hailemichael Yigrem - PeerSpot reviewer
Advanced security features enhance threat detection and prevention
Check Point NGFW provides granular application control and detailed visibility over application and user activity. It integrates with the ThreatCloud ecosystem, enabling real-time threat detection and prevention. The User Identity Awareness blade integrates with Active Directory, identifying user traffic sources. Check Point NGFW is highly scalable and has centralized management through SmartConsole, which manages policies, logs, and threat data. It reduced our incidents and decreased the time to analyze cyber threats by 70 percent.
Himanshu-Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good scalability and monitoring features
There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages. For example, if we're creating a rule, we should be able to do everything on the same page. Just a drop-down thing or something. This would improve productivity.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it."
"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."
"Offers good security and filtering."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution."
"Overall security features and performance routing is good."
"On the firewall side, the security efficacy is good."
"Its management web interface is very easy and user-friendly."
"It excels in malware prevention, utilizing features like fan black pattern and vulnerability-driven detection, ensuring comprehensive security against evolving threats."
"The uncomplicated configuration ensures that mistakes are avoided and rules are easily audited."
"We have all the features we want or need in this appliance. It's been good so far."
"Its usability is the best for me. As compared to Palo Alto, Juniper, or Cisco firewalls, Check Point firewall has the best user interface for management, reading logs, looking for some objects, and looking for policies."
"The SmartView monitor and SmartReporter help us to monitor and report on traffic."
"The product's ease of use is a significant advantage, and the interface is very intuitive."
"It was easy to initially deploy it."
 

Cons

"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a very good device overall, though it can be improved in certain areas regarding the licenses, particularly the big one called unified threat management, which has many capabilities."
"Monitoring and reporting could be better."
"I would prefer to have more detailed logs within the FortiGate products themselves rather than relying on a separate tool."
"At this moment, we believe that Fortinet FortiGate should be improved by injecting more AI because the kind of threats we are seeing are more ransomware threats."
"The support is inadequate. The support staff I have dealt with lately are very rude. Some support staff are not up-to-speed with the technology. They basically read a script."
"They are doing good, but they can improve the distributor assignment. The availability of the product and the timeline of delivery are the main things. The distribution should be swift, and the distributor should not reach out to end customers directly. They should work as a distributor. There should also be one more local distributor. Currently, there is only one distributor in Pakistan, and the rest of them are in UAE. It is difficult to work with only one distributor. Sometimes, you don't get along with the same distributor, and that's why they should have one more distributor. Their licensing should also be improved. The activation or renewal of the product should be done from the date of renewal, not from the date on which the license expired."
"With the standard support subscription, if the device goes down, the customer has to first ship the box, and then Fortinet sends the replacement. With the higher support, the customer has to ship the device after they have the replacement. It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription."
"Although the GUI is simple to use and fairly comprehensive, more support via CLI would be beneficial for bulk operations."
"While the Smart Console is powerful, I find that it can feel heavy and slow with a large rules base, where a simple policy change sometimes takes longer than expected, impacting agility in a fast-moving environment."
"We faced many challenges. For example, an issue with the managed view that Check Point has."
"The current reporting capability needs to be parsed and edited to be appreciated by leadership."
"The study material for Check Point needs to be improved, as well as the cost for certification."
"Check Point should add additional management choices."
"Although very efficient, the product could be developed in a way that does not take a lot more system resources."
"The one thing I have been continually asking for is a more robust certification process including self-paced study material similar to Cisco's Security certification track."
"There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive. You need to pay for the subscription every year, which is very expensive. The subscription includes technical support and hardware exchange in case of failure."
"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."
"The price is fair for what we get with FortiGate."
"Fortinet is the least expensive solution."
"The pricing is very reasonable."
"The cost is too high... They have to focus on more features with less cost for the customer. If you see the market, where it's going, there are a lot of players offering more features for less cost."
"Fortinet is competitive price-wise."
"Fortinet FortiGate's price can be reduced."
"It is more expensive than Cisco ASA but cheaper than Palo Alto."
"It comes with a significant price."
"When comparing the price of Check Point NGFW to other solutions it's difficult to compare because even though everything is included in the Fortinet price, there are large differences between the models. You need to go to a quite expensive Fortinet firewall to receive the same throughput and functionality as in a Check Point firewall. In the end, they are quite similar in price, Fortinet might be a bit cheaper."
"The price is on the higher side."
"Check Point should provide some basic license for mobile access VPN by default, for at least five to ten users."
"The prices are good for its features. The benefit of its license is we get timely security prevention updates. The price is good for the technology that we get."
"Check Point is competitively priced; however, there is an additional charge for the Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) and it is easy to understand."
"Check Point is a little more expensive than FortiGate."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
21%
Educational Organization
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
11%
 

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?
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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...
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 ...
How does Check Point NGFW compare with Fortinet Fortigate?
I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such). -Ch...
Which would you recommend - Azure Firewall or Check Point NGFW?
Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall ...
What do you like most about Check Point NGFW?
Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion...
What needs improvement with Smoothwall Firewall?
There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we d...
What is your primary use case for Smoothwall Firewall?
Our use cases are for monitoring and security. The primary purpose of the firewall is maintaining security and benefi...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Information Not Available
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