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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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
7.5
Fortinet FortiGate is valued for affordability, cost savings, enhanced security, operational efficiency, quick implementation, and long-term ROI benefits.
Sentiment score
7.2
Cisco Secure Firewall offers improved security and efficiency, but cost and ROI vary based on deployment and usage.
Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiGate-VM enhances network stability and security, offering cost savings and scalability, though ROI perceptions vary among users.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
The biggest return on investment when using Cisco Secure Firewall is that there's no waste in any infrastructure cost and licensing costs for us.
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Secure Firewall is the single pane of glass, which is a huge plus for us.
The biggest return on investment for me when using Cisco Secure Firewall is reliability and robust network design.
I observed a fifty to sixty percent reduction in operational costs after migrating to FortiGate VM.
They have a platform that organizes their networks and access effectively.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Fortinet FortiGate's customer service varies, with praise for responsiveness but criticism for slow, sometimes inadequate technical support.
Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Secure Firewall support is highly rated for knowledgeable assistance, though response times and access vary based on contracts.
Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiGate-VM support is praised for responsiveness but faces criticism for response times, expertise, and regional consistency.
I would rate their support for FortiGate a nine out of ten.
They offer very accurate solutions.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
I have to provide many logs, yet problems remain unresolved, often requiring workarounds rather than solutions.
I have been working with them on firewalls, wireless, switching, and routing, and the support is the best.
They have expertise and provide solutions for the most difficult problems.
Their support is helpful and effective.
The end-user support is delayed at levels L2 and L3.
Customer service and support are very good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Fortinet FortiGate scales well for diverse enterprises, though planning and licensing are crucial to avoid hardware limitations.
Sentiment score
7.2
Cisco Secure Firewall offers scalability and integration, though licensing complexity and scalability challenges in growth may concern some users.
Sentiment score
8.1
Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers scalable and efficient performance in virtual environments, with flexibility and enhanced capacity compared to hardware.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
Scalability presents a challenge.
Compared to FortiGate and Palo Alto, it lags in configuration and other aspects.
Even with the highest one, the 4600, we still face issues, particularly when transitioning between screens; it becomes very slow.
It can start with a single core and scale up to a 32-core license for a robust deployment.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiGate is generally stable and reliable, with minor issues arising from new features, firmware updates, or hardware constraints.
Sentiment score
7.2
Cisco Secure Firewall is highly reliable with minimal outages, though occasional upgrade issues are typically fixed with updates.
Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is generally reliable, with occasional stability issues that improve with proper sizing, configuration, and updates.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
We have not had any problems with the operating systems or maintenance of subscriptions.
We have often encountered split-brain scenarios during failover processes and code upgrades, which have been persistent problems for us.
We work with a cluster with high availability, so if something goes wrong, we have it functioning.
Cisco Secure Firewall offers exceptional performance and stability.
Recently they have had more, requiring internal testing to ensure deployment stability.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate needs enhancements in firmware, usability, integration, support, reporting, VPN, cloud integration, and documentation for seamless use.
Cisco Secure Firewall faces criticism for its complex GUI, high costs, and demands better features, integration, and performance improvements.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM requires improvements in UI, stability, support, pricing, cloud integration, analytics, and user-friendly management.
By providing an integrated solution, users would have access to all features and functionalities within a single window, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple windows.
Investing in a solution that can accommodate such growth would be more cost-effective than repeatedly purchasing new hardware.
The constant daily revisions necessitate meticulous identification of the relevant documents to prevent the use of outdated information that could jeopardize our environment.
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.
Firepower Management Center is quite out of date compared to other vendors.
The integration between Cisco products themselves presents difficulties, such as SD-WAN configuration.
The API needs better integration to match accounts and objects more effectively.
Now, these features require separate products like FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and a FortiCloud subscription for reporting.
We cannot really position the Fabric if the licenses, renewal parts, or other components have monetary requirements that hinder full utilization.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiGate offers competitive pricing with upfront affordability, simple licensing, and long-term value, despite potentially high renewal costs.
Cisco Secure Firewall is costly but offers robust support and reliability; licensing complexity can be mitigated by smart licensing.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is competitively priced, with flexible licensing, though costs can rise with scaling and advanced features.
The most expensive part is the renewal of the license subscription.
FortiGate is priced lower than Palo Alto.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
It's good to have them, however, it costs us a lot.
It's considered a premium, but people pay that price for Cisco.
There are a lot of in-place contracts for us that provide the benefit of discounts.
The license for Fortinet FortiGate-VM costs 100K to 150K Philippine pesos per year for VM1 or VM2.
They could be slightly cheaper, however, Fortinet offers a good cost-benefit ratio.
FortiGate VM is considered a premium product, which can be costly.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate delivers robust security features and intuitive management, offering scalable and affordable network protection solutions.
Cisco Secure Firewall provides robust security, scalability, and central management, with intuitive tools for efficient threat protection and network monitoring.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM provides robust security, easy management, seamless integration, flexibility, and cost-effective protection with comprehensive features and control.
The firewall, IPS, and VPN functions are the most valuable features.
FortiGate provides solid protection against viruses, malware, and other threats.
In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable.
What stands out positively about Cisco is their training and support, which has effectively prepared engineers to work with their products.
This is very important to my organization, as we work extensively with security because we are a bank, so we can keep the data safe.
Cisco Secure Firewall allows me to safeguard Layer 7 or Layer 3 and manage the security rules with the business needs of my organization.
The more integrated we become, the less we spend on solving bugs and issues, allowing us to reduce time focusing on understanding and improving our network.
FortiGate VM allows me to avoid the hardware lease recycle every five to eight years.
Fortinet Security Fabric and real-time threat response capabilities are the main selling points.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
357
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Cisco Secure Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
428
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (4th)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
Ranking in Firewalls
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
121
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.4%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall is 6.0%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Jorge Martínez - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good SD-WAN capabilities and integrates easily with Fortinet devices
I am not part of the initial setup or deployment process since I work in presales. The setup or deployment is quite easy, as you can do a one-touch deployment that automatically connects to the FortiManager cloud when you connect it to a broadband or dynamic IP, allowing you to start the configuration from that point. We usually sell it for on-premises setups. It's on the cloud only when the client has virtual machines or their own service. Sometimes they have a service on the cloud like AWS, but it's more difficult to sell now because AWS has an e-commerce option where you can buy FortiGate directly. The only thing you need is someone to manage and configure.
Carlos Reis - PeerSpot reviewer
Proven reliability and strong support spark trust but system updates slow and complex
The Cisco Secure Firewall product in general has room for improvement. I had a problem this weekend working with one of them, and I think it's very specific, though I'm going to be more general with my answer. Cisco has the FMC as a centralized tool, but sometimes they have too many dependencies. I faced a problem this weekend because while trying to solve an issue with one of the company's firewall management centers, I couldn't update or install an update on the platform due to a remote site being down. The device got stuck in my queue. I had to cancel my maintenance because of that. Everyone was expecting me to fix many bugs, but because of one device, I had to cancel everything. Sometimes the ID is nice around Cisco, but another area they need to improve is the capability to manage multiple devices. The FMC manages many devices, but if I put too many, around 300 devices, it becomes very slow, and the system becomes heavy. When you compare that with solutions such as Palo Alto, Palo Alto can manage many more devices on the same type of platform. Cisco is better at managing things such as RMAs. They do that exceptionally, even with the support. However, when we're talking about the FMC itself, sometimes they have some small issues; the platform is very slow and has too many bugs in the versions. We constantly need to update the platform to maintain stability.
Sitti Ridzma Salahuddin - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrates seamlessly and helps with real-time threat response
Since the solution we offered was a complete suite with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, it was easier for them to manage because they have FortiManager as well. The main reason they wanted to position FortiGate in the cloud was so that they could easily deploy through FortiManager. That was the selling point we had for them. Especially for their multiple branches, where they had approximately 60 sites, and some assets were in AWS, it was really a good deployment opportunity. FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer were also part of that solution.
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Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Educational Organization
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
41%
Computer Software Company
14%
University
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM?
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Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Firewall, Cisco ASA NGFW, Adaptive Security Appliance, Cisco Sourcefire Firewalls, Cisco ASAv, Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
 

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.
Security7 Networks, COOPENAE
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.