Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

The compared Cisco and Fortinet solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #5 in Firewalls , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 7.5% mindshare in the category. Fortinet is ranked #1 in Firewalls , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 18.3% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Cisco Secure Firewall

Read 456 Cisco Secure Firewall reviews

23,655 Views
19,634 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Fortinet FortiGate

Read 588 Fortinet FortiGate reviews

69,521 Views
53,531 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Stormshield Network Security

Read 18 Stormshield Network Security reviews

2,826 Views
1,328 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco Secure Firewall

Fortinet FortiGate

Stormshield Network Security

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, and Stormshield Network Security based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls.

To learn more, read our detailed Firewalls Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

March 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Firewall	7.5%
Fortinet FortiGate	18.3%
OPNsense	10.3%
Other	63.9%

Firewalls

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	18.3%
OPNsense	10.3%
Sophos Firewall	9.4%
Other	62.0%

Firewalls

Unified Threat Management (UTM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Stormshield Network Security	4.0%
Fortinet FortiGate	30.5%
WatchGuard Firebox	9.2%
Other	56.3%

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

Featured Reviews

Phil Shiflett

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.

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Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Zsolt Jónás

System Administrator at NaxoNet

Advanced GUI and layered security have supported compliance and simplified intrusion prevention

I haven't had a task that I couldn't solve with Stormshield Network Security. The active-active high availability solution would be beneficial because currently, if you build a high availability solution with Stormshield Network Security, you have a main device and another one is a backup device. The HA can switch between them, but it would be good to have a master-master solution, not just a master-slave one. I could set a URL that I can call to update the DNS record. Currently, Stormshield Network Security devices support DynDNS, which is not a usual feature request from a server environment. I have my own solution instead of DynDNS because I don't prefer it, so I have my own service for that. However, the GUI does not support using a custom service instead of DynDNS. I had to solve it in the console on Stormshield Network Security device, but it would be much better if it was reachable on the GUI. I had to figure out a trick for the IPsec configuration. In the IPsec config, we have to provide the remote side's IP address, but it's always changing. This means that an office, for example a company that has an office but without a fixed IP address, cannot be used with IPsec VPN.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think all the companies should use Cisco because it's number one in the market and has the best security, better stability, and better scalability."

"Cisco delivers a powerful firewall -- it’s not just a firewall but also a modular device that can deliver IPS hosting and wireless LAN controller as well."

"I am used to the ASA syntax, therefore it is quite easy to make up new rules. I have found that DNS doctoring rules are useful."

"I have never seen such a powerful device which can handle 2 million connections at 20Gbps speed."

"The context aware module gave us good visibility and control over the ingress and egress communications, allowing us to filter unnecessary communications like streaming video and control bandwidth utilization."

"This solution helped us to identify the key areas where we need to focus to block traffic that is malicious to our organization."

"The fact that it's a full inspection firewall."

"The ASDM makes it very easy to navigate and manage the firewall."

More Cisco Secure Firewall pros

"The biggest lesson would be that Fortinet FortiGate provides a high level of security at a good total cost of ownership."

"The product's most valuable features are SD-WAN and the integration of WiFi and switches."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are that it does the job effectively and protects our environment."

"I am satisfied with the technical support from Fortinet FortiGate."

"The most valuable feature is the interface, which is very user friendly. We are utilizing most of the features, like content filtering. The firewall is powerful."

"It is a safe product."

"This solution is very stable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."

"Fortinet, Dell SonicWall and Check Point because these products offer a wide range of features that are not available with Netasq."

"I like that it works fine. Stormshield is a very good solution."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the URL filtering database, which is great and contains all internet categories, the highly scalable interface that I can turn into what I want including hybrid, bridge, or router mode, the security with no back doors that is more secure than other solutions, and the hardware performance that is also better than others."

"Our organization's main concern is stability, and this is a stable solution."

"Stormshield Network Security is a very stable solution and the solution works perfectly so we never had to contact technical support."

"It's an easy, straightforward management platform to use."

"I feel we have more options with the Stormshield firewall and new features that we haven't previously had."

More Stormshield Network Security pros

Cons

"I think the ASA layer is thin. It's always Layer 3 or Layer 4 source controller and doesn't control the Layer 7 traffic. It's important, and you'll need an additional firewall."

"There may have been one or two incidences of malicious threats."

"The access layer of this solution could be improved in terms of the way the devices interconnect with our network."

"Speed of execution and security options needs to be improved."

"Cisco Secure Firewall's integration with cloud providers has room for improvement. We could do more in terms of integration, for example, if we had a tag on an instance."

"ASA context should be able to support site-to-site VPN, but the current Cisco Context does not support VPN."

"It is surprising that you need to have a virtual appliance for the Firepower Management Center. It is not good if you have to setup a VMware server just for it."

"At times the product is sluggish and slow. Sometimes when deploying a new configuration or role, it is painstakingly slow."

More Cisco Secure Firewall cons

"In terms of pricing, the solution is a bit expensive, but I think it was a better option than Checkpoint, which is why I replaced it."

"The solution's GUI is not very appealing."

"The UI/UX experience can be a little better."

"They should make the product user-friendly and enhance the security features."

"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."

"I cannot say definitively about the return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate because I have always been in the technical field, but most of our clients are very happy since threats were stopped, generating confidence in the Fortinet brand among our clients."

"The product has to be upgraded every few weeks."

"The interface could be better."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"This is not a next-generation firewall."

"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."

"It could be better if it were more user-friendly for us as we dont use it very often even if we never had problems to modify setup when needed."

"This solution has a big problem with web filtering and it needs to be improved."

"Being more cost effective. I went with a pair of Watchguard M300 recently when buying a new firewall cluster for our own use because it was way cheaper than NetASQ/Stormshield N700 while being faster, and it offers true multi-master firewall clustering if needed."

"It could be better if it were more user-friendly. It's too complicated for us to use it. The price could be better as well."

"Support is always an issue because they're constantly busy."

"An application firewall like other next generation firewalls have."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Watch out for hidden licensing and incredibly high annual maintenance costs."

"The price is not too high, but the subscription is a little bit high. We compared the activation of Cisco and Fortinet, and when we activated the whole portfolio of the UTM of Fortinet, the speed reduced. We tested the same situation with the Cisco 2140 series, and there was no reduction in speed."

"Pricing depends on partnerships and certifications."

"Acquiring licensing for Cisco Secure Firewall can be a bit cumbersome, therefore a more straightforward licensing process would be preferable."

"The price is good."

"It is more expensive than the other solutions."

"We pay a lot of money for it."

"There are licensing costs."

More Cisco Secure Firewall pricing and cost advice

"It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price."

"The Indian market is different than the European and American markets. When you compare they need to be a bit more aggressive on pricing."

"The platform offers a reasonable price point compared to its competitors."

"There is a subscription-based model to use Fortinet FortiGate. We pay annually for the solution along with the support. If you want to have all the updates, and security patches you will need to renew your support."

"They are very competitive, but we like to have the factory warranty taken care of."

"The price is really low. It's cheap in comparison to the cost of Cisco or CheckPoint, for example."

"The initial setup is super straight forward and as far as the licensing goes for the small product that we have, the pricing was pretty competitive. It wasn't as simple and as cheap as a SonicWall but for the service we would get it was a good price."

"Fortinet is competitive price-wise."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."

"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."

"The pricing could be better."

"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."

"I think the price is good."

"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."

"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."

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Comparison Review

it_user216600

Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees

Jan 3, 2016

Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate

I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	186
Midsize Enterprise	129
Large Enterprise	231

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	364
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	191

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

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It is easy to integrate Cisco ASA with other Cisco products and also other NAC solutions. When you understand the Cis...

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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...

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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 ...

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Fortigate 60d vs. Meraki MX67 for a small company without a dedicated IT Department

We have Meraki Mx devices now, we are looking to replace them. But that is because the Meraki MX platform lacks SSL I...

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What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?

The tool is like a firewall and works well. I don't have any issue with it. I rate it an eight out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Secure Firewall Competitors

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 18% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 9% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 7% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Stormshield Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Firewall

April 2026

Download Cisco Secure Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

April 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security

March 2026

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Also Known As

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

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

NETASQ Firewalls

Overview

Cisco Secure Firewall provides comprehensive network security with advanced features such as application visibility, URL filtering, and malware protection. It combines a user-friendly interface with robust VPN capabilities, making it a reliable choice for varying network environments and industry applications.

Cisco Secure Firewall offers exceptional protection with its integration into Cisco's broader ecosystem, ensuring enhanced threat detection and policy unification. Despite its complexity in command-line interfaces and management, Cisco Secure Firewall remains a potent tool for safeguarding data. It is widely adopted for edge security, VPN services, perimeter defense, and traffic segmentation, especially in hybrid settings. Essential sectors like banking and telecom benefit from its stable connectivity and centralized security management. Though there are challenges with costs and support for third-party APIs, the firewall's scalability and high availability provide comprehensive support for protecting network assets.

What are the key features of Cisco Secure Firewall?

Application Visibility: Offers in-depth visibility of application traffic to monitor and protect against threats.
Advanced Malware Protection: Protects against known and emerging malware threats with powerful detection capabilities.
URL Filtering: Manages and restricts access to websites, enhancing organizational data security.
VPN Capabilities: Ensures secure remote access and encrypted communication through strong VPN features.
Integration with Cisco Ecosystem: Enhances security measures with seamless integration with Cisco's suite of security tools.

What benefits and ROI should be expected from Cisco Secure Firewall?

Comprehensive Protection: Offers multi-layered security for diverse network environments, increasing overall data protection.
Performance Efficiency: High availability and scalability lead to improved network performance and resource management.
Management Simplification: Centralized security management streamlines policy deployment across networks.
Enhanced Threat Detection: Integration capabilities improve threat detection and mitigation for better security posture.

Cisco Secure Firewall is widely implemented across sectors like banking, education, ISPs, and telecoms. It fortifies data centers and network edge security, delivering strong protection for client access, hybrid environments, and intrusion prevention. In these industries, firewall solutions ensure secure connectivity and manage RTU traffic effectively, leveraging centralized management and integration with Cisco's security tools.

Cisco

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

NETASQ's integrated intrusion prevention engine uses protocol conformity analysis, application filtering and antivirus analysis to inspect authorized traffic flows and strengthen application security. NETASQ enables you to establish and configure user-based security policies, giving you greater control over which network resources each user is authorized to access.

Stormshield

Sample Customers

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.

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

ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls. Updated: March 2026.

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