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Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.8
Organizations reported rapid returns with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall, noting cost savings, improved metrics, and enhanced security controls.
Sentiment score
4.0
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud boosts efficiency, reduces costs by 40%, and offers significant savings over alternatives like Palo Alto or Cisco.
With Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall, that need is completely eradicated.
Sales And Brand Strategist at CrossConnect
I believe there is a return on investment with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall for every company that deploys it, as they typically see returns quickly, often within a few months, and the value measured is reasonable and comes back quickly.
Solution Principal Senior . at Insight
Because of the integrated ecosystem, we are able to gain better insight and develop better controls around securing our system.
Manager, Network at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The cloud aspect provides flexibility in disaster recovery and cost management.
Vice President of Infrustructure at Core Technologies Limited
In terms of cost savings or efficiency in our company's IT network management, I would say that the tool is very efficient because we have no problems with it at all.
Chief Executive Officer at EE Solutions GmbH
The return on investment is very good due to the reliability and stability of the devices.
Systems & Network Administrator at Giampaolo Group Inc.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite licensing concerns and shift change issues.
Sentiment score
7.2
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud support is praised for knowledge and reliability, though response times vary; premium support enhances satisfaction.
I would evaluate my customer service and technical support experience as fantastic.
Manager, Network at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
I would evaluate the customer service and technical support as a white-glove experience for sure.
Sales And Brand Strategist at CrossConnect
I evaluate the customer service and technical support as excellent, as the support provided by Cisco is superior to other companies I have dealt with across various products.
Solution Principal Senior . at Insight
I have received good support from FortiGate, and I would rate it a ten out of ten.
Group IT Manager at Araliya Group of Companies
The team is responsive, and most cases are handled promptly.
Vice President of Infrustructure at Core Technologies Limited
Waiting in the queue for a technician is too time-consuming when the business is down.
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall scales effectively, supports East-West traffic, and is praised despite some deployment challenges.
Sentiment score
7.8
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is praised for scalability and flexibility, despite potential hardware limitations requiring careful sizing.
I find that Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall is well-prepared to scale with the growing needs of my organization, as it is designed with scalability in mind.
Solution Principal Senior . at Insight
It scales well with the growing needs of my organization.
IT Director at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall scales well with the growing needs of our organization.
Senior Domain Architect II at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I have a few sites running on high availability with FortiGate models that are sufficient to handle the load of users.
Systems & Network Administrator at Giampaolo Group Inc.
It is a scalable solution.
Chief Executive Officer at EE Solutions GmbH
The cost is reasonable if you compare it to maybe a SIEM or FortiAnalyzer.
Security Engineer at Exclusive Networks
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall's stability has improved, resolving initial issues and ensuring a smooth transition without disruptions.
Sentiment score
7.8
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is highly stable and dependable, with minimal issues and high user satisfaction ratings.
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
Manager, Network at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
No downtime or crashes experienced once it has been onboarded.
Solution Principal Senior . at Insight
I have not experienced any downtime or crashes with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall.
Sales And Brand Strategist at CrossConnect
It is a very stable solution.
Chief Executive Officer at EE Solutions GmbH
Once we configure the devices, the solution is stable.
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud as eight out of ten.
Group IT Manager at Araliya Group of Companies
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall needs improved licensing, networking features, integration, documentation, pricing, and enhanced security product support.
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud needs better integration, security, interface, support, scalability, and cost reduction, plus SD-WAN features.
Licensing is always a pain point and represents the worst aspect of the solution.
Senior Domain Architect II at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Whenever we ask for a feature while working with Cisco, within a day, we get the feature added.
Sales And Brand Strategist at CrossConnect
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall could be improved by refining the documentation around the migration path from Cisco Defense Orchestrator or Farsight Manager because when we were early adopters, the migration path was quite unset and very vague and ambiguous.
Director of Security Solutions North America at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They could improve the product features for telemetry and interoperability with third-party monitoring tools.
Vice President of Infrustructure at Core Technologies Limited
I feel that the product should be made cheaper because the customers are always a little bit scared about the tool's prices.
Chief Executive Officer at EE Solutions GmbH
Sometimes, the FortiAP causes a lot of problems with the Wi-Fi.
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall affordable and valuable, with special pricing, reinvestment potential, and justified investment benefits.
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud pricing varies, with mixed perceptions of cost-effectiveness, especially where security value outweighs expense concerns.
While some vendors offer cheaper options, the real value lies in the technology and the support provided by Talos and TAC, justifying its price in comparison to other vendors.
Solution Principal Senior . at Insight
Pricing has been competitive, and any savings we make on infrastructure can be reinvested in patient experience, care, and safety.
Manager, Network at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been satisfactory.
IT Director at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
A FortiGate box costs less than 2000000 Naira, while Palo Alto might range between 3000000 to 4000000 Naira.
Vice President of Infrustructure at Core Technologies Limited
Every year, the product's prices go up and it has been continuing since the past three years.
Chief Executive Officer at EE Solutions GmbH
The solution's pricing is good compared to that of Cisco and Meraki devices.
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall offers centralized management, integration, monitoring, segmentation, and machine learning for streamlined security operations and cost savings.
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud provides robust security, centralized management, and scalability, excelling in SD-WAN, VPN, and integration features.
The centralized management console has helped my organization streamline security policies because we have a single place to view logs, ingestion, and to correlate all logs and events from one dashboard.
Solution Principal Senior . at Insight
We also have the ability to document changes and indeed have the ability to roll back failed changes in a much more expeditious manner with an audit trail, which ensures that both our network team and our security and compliance organizations are confident that we can not only effectively implement change, but we can also manage the risk that comes along with change.
Director of Security Solutions North America at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable feature is the integration with all of the other Cisco tools that we have, and its platform-first approach.
Manager, Network at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use.
Chief Executive Officer at EE Solutions GmbH
The most effective features for managing cyber threats are IPS and application control.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud provides effective threat protection by blocking unwanted IP addresses and websites.
Group IT Manager at Araliya Group of Companies
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (21st)
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

BC
Sales And Brand Strategist at CrossConnect
Smart switching has transformed data center security and now simplifies stateful segmentation
To improve Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall, I think right now awareness is the biggest area for improvement. Cisco should focus on raising awareness about what the firewall on the switch actually is and how policy has changed. That is a massive story that has not been emphasized enough regarding saving time and effort due to the combination of all these tools. From a feature perspective, I am discovering new features as we deploy, so I do not know if there is a good answer yet because we are at the forefront of this technology. I can tell you that whenever we ask for a feature while working with Cisco, within a day, we get the feature added. For instance, understanding flow data is crucial. Within the N9300, to be able to apply the policy as we are discussing, you need to understand your network flow and what communicates with what. We were able to collaborate with the Cisco BU to refine how we consume that data and migrate old policies to the new structure necessary with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall and HyperShield.
FS
Security Engineer at Exclusive Networks
Cloud logs have supported long-term auditing but security vulnerabilities still raise concerns
It depends on the user. When he needs maybe data retention for one year, for three months or more, I recommend Fortinet FortiGate Cloud. If he doesn't want to set the log on FortiAnalyzer, I will recommend him with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud. It depends. As I mentioned before, if they don't have a syslog server or any other SIEM, I will recommend it. If they need an audit for one year of data retention, I will recommend it because it's worth the money for one year of log retention. It's straightforward. If I enable Fortinet FortiGate Cloud feature on the FortiGate on-premise or VM, it will copy the configuration on the cloud. Depending on my license, I can configure it or have it as read-only with a limited license. That's one of the main purposes of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud for me. The report doesn't have many templates, but the log retention is so good with one-year retention. If you compare it with the FortiAnalyzer or maybe with any other product such as a FortiSIEM template, with the limited license, you only get the 360 template, it's called. I think the security function, I mainly use it for configuration purposes and log retention purposes. The security is the same as the VM or the hardware, I think. The sandbox. I think it has it, but not a lot if you only have the default capability with only 10 files per minute. I think the user needs to be selective with the files that they want to send to the sandbox on the cloud.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall?
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall is that it was minimal compared to the cost difference between what traditional N9300 would have cost to empo...
What needs improvement with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall?
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall could be improved by refining the documentation around the migration path from Cisco Defense Orchestrator or Farsight Manager because when we were early adopters, the mig...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall?
My main use case for Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall is the consolidation of multiple tools into one management platform.A specific example of how I use Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall for consolidation is t...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
I am very satisfied with the price and licensing cost of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud, rating it an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
It needs to improve the vulnerability that I found recently regarding the single sign-on from Fortinet FortiGate Cloud account. That became a concern for my user. The CVE that was leaked recently a...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
I am not a user at this time. I am a system integrator. Mostly firewall and network protection. Rarely with endpoint protection. I can say a partner and reseller, I think.
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiCloud, FortiGate Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.