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Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall vs Fortinet FortiOS 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
6.3
Fortinet FortiOS offers cost-effective, scalable security, with competitive pricing and partnerships, enhancing ROI compared to top brands.
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
Once it is deployed, I do not have to revisit or replace the hardware.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The pricing of FortiOS is competitive and reasonable compared to other leading products such as Palo Alto and Check Point.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
Fortinet is strong in terms of cost and compatibility with other vendors.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
 

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
8.2
Fortinet FortiOS support is responsive and helpful but sometimes slow with complex issues, lacking top-tier vendor standards.
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 would rate them nine or ten out of ten.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
Fortinet technical support is very responsive and helpful.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
Support engineers sometimes lack eagerness to assist with issues such as the memory problem.
Director, IT Infrastructure Department at Zemen Bank S.C.
 

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
8.2
Fortinet FortiOS is highly scalable, adapting to different organizations, supporting growth and global deployments, yet may need hardware upgrades.
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
When customers' networks grow and needs expand, we can easily switch between models to trade up devices.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
It allows for the expansion of users and devices without additional licensing costs.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
We have been using Fortinet for bandwidth shaping and many other bandwidth-related functions.
Associate Director IT Operations at Procento
 

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 FortiOS is praised for stability, with minor issues usually tied to configurations or external factors, not the system.
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
While the product is largely stable, it sometimes faces memory issues in specific versions like 11 OE, which can be disruptive.
Director, IT Infrastructure Department at Zemen Bank S.C.
There were no lags, there were no issues, and no hanging of the firewall.
Associate Director IT Operations at Procento
Stability is a seven out of ten because during version migrations, and sometimes with new versions, Fortinet is not as good.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall needs improved licensing, networking features, integration, documentation, pricing, and enhanced security product support.
Fortinet FortiOS requires improvements in VPN, pricing, compatibility, UI, security features, support, updates, deployment, and pricing consistency.
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
Fortinet FortiOS faces memory issues, which can lead to unexpected downtimes.
Director, IT Infrastructure Department at Zemen Bank S.C.
There should be more documentation on how to use the CLI or how to perform CLI versions of tasks that can be done through the GUI.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
Compared to other market leaders like Palo Alto and Check Point, FortiOS has many bugs in its initial releases.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall affordable and valuable, with special pricing, reinvestment potential, and justified investment benefits.
Fortinet FortiOS is often pricey but justified by features, with agreements influencing costs, suitable for mid-size businesses.
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
It is an affordable solution for us.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
Fortinet products are somewhat pricey, similar to Cisco equivalents, however, they have justified their price point.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
I am satisfied with the pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiOS, rating it nine out of ten compared to other familiar leading firewalls.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall offers centralized management, integration, monitoring, segmentation, and machine learning for streamlined security operations and cost savings.
Fortinet FortiOS is praised for UTM, user-friendly interface, robust security, excellent performance, cost-effectiveness, and seamless management.
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
It is user-friendly when it comes to turning on features, and it has been reliable and effective.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
The solution offers good threat intelligence, which is crucial for our customers' security purposes.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
21st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Firewall Security Management (9th)
Fortinet FortiOS
Ranking in Firewalls
20th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
82
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.
MS
Associate Director IT Operations at Procento
Single-pane management has simplified firewall control and has improved risk mitigation
I would not say that Fortinet FortiOS is not very scalable. Generally, what happens is that for enterprises, we hire consultants who do the capacity planning and sizing to determine what kind of firewalls to put in place. At the same time, it is not only the number of users; it also depends on the number of WAN links coming in and everything, because we have been using Fortinet for bandwidth shaping and many other bandwidth-related functions. They should improve their machine learning AI capabilities of Fortinet FortiOS because there is too much competition. Other players are also improving and making a lot of changes in their UI and overall operating system.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise23
 

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...
Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiOS?
I rate the pricing for FortiOS as eight or nine out of ten. It is an affordable solution for us.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiOS?
I would not say that Fortinet FortiOS is not very scalable. Generally, what happens is that for enterprises, we hire consultants who do the capacity planning and sizing to determine what kind of fi...
 

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 FortiOS and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.