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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Forethought comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 30, 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
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
589
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Cisco Secure Firewall
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
456
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (5th), Cisco Security Portfolio (3rd)
Forethought
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
AI Customer Experience Personalization (25th), AI Customer Support (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Firewall7.5%
Fortinet FortiGate17.2%
OPNsense9.6%
Other65.7%
Firewalls
AI Customer Support Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Forethought1.3%
Amazon Connect1.8%
Sendbird1.8%
Other95.1%
AI Customer Support
 

Featured Reviews

Abhinandan Yadav - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Phil Shiflett - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager, Network Engineering at TTi Power Equipment
Unified policies streamline network management but complex licensing requires attention
Cisco Secure Firewall has some growth opportunities in terms of visibility and control capabilities regarding managing encrypted traffic. It has the ability to analyze encrypted traffic, and there is potential for more integration with APIs and AI to enhance these capabilities. Cisco Secure Firewall needs improvement in deployment time and the capability to access the CLI during support calls. I often encounter issues when technical support uses a CLI that is not familiar to me while troubleshooting through the GUI. My ongoing complaint for the last six years has been the lack of CLI functionality, which hinders my ability to work on the firewall, alongside concerns regarding deployment time. For the next release, they should look at the features offered by competitors such as Fortinet, including the ability to perform packet capture directly from the interface. If they enhanced their troubleshooting efficiency related to packet capture for each specific rule, it would simplify the process significantly.
Shivam Dhang - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure & Cloud Manager at Softcell Technologies Limited
AI-powered triage has improved support efficiency and enables faster global ticket resolution
Forethought's strengths lie in AI-driven ticket triage, intent classification, automated routing, along with Agent Assist for real-time recommendation. It integrates directly with our cloud and our service desks to reduce manual effort, improve SLA compliance, and scale support operations effectively. The Agent Assist feature uses AI to analyze incoming tickets and agent activity in real-time and then suggests relevant responses, internal KB articles, resolutions, and next steps, which helps our engineers achieve faster ticket resolution. It helps our support team by reducing lookup time, increasing accuracy, and speeding up resolution, especially for complex cloud or infrastructure issues where content matters. It auto-suggests relevant KB content based on ticket context and helps us maintain consistent answers across global teams. Forethought has positively impacted my organization by reducing initial ticket triage to AI-based intent detection and routing tickets appropriately, as well as improving first response and resolution time. It has helped maintain SLA compliance while scaling and increasing agent efficiency and consistency across global support teams.
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Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at Webernetz.net - Network Security Consulting
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
41%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Media Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business364
Midsize Enterprise135
Large Enterprise191
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business186
Midsize Enterprise129
Large Enterprise231
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
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 ...
Which is better - Fortinet FortiGate or Cisco ASA Firewall?
One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. Fortinet Fort...
How does Cisco's ASA firewall compare with the Firepower NGFW?
It is easy to integrate Cisco ASA with other Cisco products and also other NAC solutions. When you understand the Cis...
Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...
What needs improvement with Forethought?
Forethought could be improved with deeper customization of intent models and more granular control over confidence th...
What is your primary use case for Forethought?
Our main use case for Forethought is to enhance customer support efficiency by leveraging AI-driven automation for fa...
What advice do you have for others considering Forethought?
I would advise you to start with a clear, defined use case, such as whether you want to have ticket triage or Agent A...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Firewall, Cisco ASA NGFW, Adaptive Security Appliance, Cisco Sourcefire Firewalls, Cisco ASAv, Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall, Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Virtual - BYOL
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
There are more than one million Adaptive Security Appliances deployed globally. Top customers include First American Financial Corp., Genzyme, Frankfurt Airport, Hansgrohe SE, Rio Olympics, The French Laundry, Rackspace, and City of Tomorrow.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls. Updated: March 2026.
886,077 professionals have used our research since 2012.