We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Fortinet FortiGate based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Cisco IOS Security has many good features, but compared to other solutions, it has a more user-friendly interface with steps to apply and manage rules. Another good part of the solution is that it's more straightforward."
"The capabilities for scalability with this product are huge"
"The technical support is good."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability. The nice thing with the bigger vendors is that they're very good at scale."
"Cisco IOS Security is very robust and works very well."
"The technical is excellent."
"Cisco is head-and-shoulders above all of the competition when it comes to technical support."
"You can scale it when you need to."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"The web filtering facility and application control are the most valuable features from the point of view of our clients. The VPN feature is also quite popular amongst our clients. Two-factor authentication is one of the good features in Fortinet. These features are important for the current scenario of security. Security has become a necessity nowadays. With cyber-attacks becoming more common, protecting an organization's data is one of the major tasks. It is also very stable and scalable, and it is very straightforward to configure. Their technical support is also good."
"It has improved our security capabilities."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"Some of the valuable features are the firewall, IPS, web filter, and gateway capabilities. Additionally, it is easy to use and flexible."
"We need to pay for the license and it is expensive."
"The company needs to make its solution more affordable to make it more accessible to larger markets. Otherwise, it's seen as an enterprise-level solution that small or medium-sized organizations can't afford and therefore they won't even look at it."
"Cisco is an expensive firewall, so the pricing can be improved."
"There are the usual bugs that are inherent to some software upgrades. Sometimes this provides some unexpected issues, however, it happens with all brands all the time."
"I would like upgrading iOS to be a bit easier."
"I think they should bring back remote VPN for users."
"Cisco IOS Security's monitoring is rather rudimentary and could be improved."
"I would love it if it has a link-by-link feature, integration with Unified Threat Management (UTM), and load balancers. They haven't got any link-by-link feature right now, which can be a very attractive option. This link-by-link feature can also be made available for Cisco's UTM firewalls. The link-by-link feature is available in some of the other firewalls. Currently, integration with UTM is missing. Cisco IOS Security also doesn't have the load balancers and a few things that need to be done to get a good UTM firewall. Normally, other firewalls have UTM. As a next-generation firewall, it's good, but as a UTM, it has to do some work."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding FortiAnalyzer to its solution, we should not have to use another solution. FortiAnalyzer can provide more detailed information."
"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."
"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."
"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"FortiOS is not simple."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 23rd in Firewalls with 21 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 67 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "It's a reliable solution that will be around for a long time, but the configuration and reporting interfaces need improvement". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense and OPNsense, whereas Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX and Check Point NGFW. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Fortinet FortiGate report.
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