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Cisco Security Cloud Control vs Fortinet FortiGate Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 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

Cisco Security Cloud Control
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Security Cloud Control is 1.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is 4.6%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud4.6%
Cisco Security Cloud Control1.5%
Other93.9%
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Vivek Balaji - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful guides, excellent support, integration could improve
Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components. I have been using Cisco Defense Orchestrator for approximately eight months. The Cisco Defense…
Rehan Khurram - PeerSpot reviewer
Achieve reliable cloud connectivity while benefiting from competitive pricing
The main advantage of FortiGate Cloud is its reliability, scalability, and pricing. I have deployed FortiGate devices both on-premises and in the cloud, and both are working great. The device is reliable despite being on cloud infrastructure, and the hypervisor part is managed by Azure. This reliability and the easy-to-configure GUI have been significant for our operations. Additionally, I have never faced any hardware malfunctions with these devices.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When we're looking to the policies, it identifies the shadow rules. It notifies us about anything that will supersede other rules."
"With Cisco Defense Orchestrator, we can manage the complete Cisco Security solution. It provides a simple and centralized way to manage all products."
"There are a lot of templates that are already built-in. They give you quick-to-create and quick-to-apply policies that are typically a little more complicated for people."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We spun up the VM onsite. We generated the key that it needed to talk to the Cloud Orchestrator. After that, as I started adding devices, it was relatively quick and easy."
"The bulk changes feature is definitely the most valuable."
"The most valuable feature is being able to do centralized upgrades on the ASAs. We can select all of those ASAs, and say, "Upgrade these ASAs at this scheduled time." It will copy down the ASA image, ASDM image, and then do the upgrade and failovers, and then put it all back into service as required at a scheduled time. It automates that process for us."
"For this product, they are very uncharacteristically interested in resolving whatever issue the customer reports. They're really attentive, and they address whatever we bring up as quickly as they can. That's been a very positive aspect of the product."
"If our server is blocked, this solution shows us why it is blocked and allows us to update the network routing."
"I find it particularly helpful for certificate inspection and setting up anti-DDoS, intrusion prevention, antivirus, and file inspection policies."
"The VPN features are the most valuable."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has good pricing compared to other firewall and security products."
"The intel we get from Fortinet is its most valuable aspect."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud makes it easy to manage different firewalls in different branches or locations from one place."
"We use the solution as a firewall."
"FortiGate Cloud's most valuable feature is that it's 100% managed."
"The sandboxing feature is very important."
 

Cons

"There could be some slight improvements to navigation. In some of the navigation you've got to go back to be able to get into where you need to be once you've made a change. If I make a change, I've then got to go back to submit and send the change."
"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities."
"It should have more features to manage FirePOWER appliances."
"I've found dozens of bugs over the year we've been using it. The more I use it for different things, the more problems I find... Most of the problems have to do with the user interface. A lot of thought and work has gone into the back-end component to make the product do what it's intended to do, but the way it is presented for use hasn't gotten nearly as much thought to make it smart and bug-free."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up."
"We had some MX devices that were blocking Windows Update from happening. We found out it was a Meraki issue, but it would have been nice if it had been flagged for us: "Hey, these updates are failing because the MX is blocking it." It wasn't a huge problem, but there was a loss of our time as well as the fact that the updates didn't get pushed out... It would have been nice if CDO had let us know that that was an issue."
"The dashboard needs to be more customizable to provide better reporting for our network."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud could improve the dashboards."
"I recommend that Fortinet FortiGate Cloud improve their rules for configuration with each other."
"The new versions of the tool sometimes have bugs, and so we often have to spend a lot of time fixing issues in the solution. I want the patches offered by the product to be improved."
"I would like to see better integration with other technologies."
"I had some problems with the performance."
"I would like to see Wi-Fi management inside the firewall."
"It would be better for us if Fortinet provided a private cloud, and they should provide more security on the public cloud. There are some minor issues with security with the public cloud. For example, anyone with a link can access the public cloud."
"Currently with the solution, if you want to manage more than one FortiGate you have to use a VM, and a VM can control up to 10."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."
"It is about a $100 per year for an ASA 5506 firewall, and from there it keeps going up if you have a bigger box. For example, the 5516 is $200 to $300 per year."
"I work with a lot of clients, and the price or value of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator can vary from one client to another. If you have a lot of Cisco solutions, the price of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator is justified. Whereas if you have some security components from other vendors, such as Check Point or Palo Alto. This solution would be a pretty expensive proposition considering that they don't integrate with them well."
"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."
"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."
"After our free trial was done we got a subscription for three years and it was under $3,000 or so. It's part of the EA we already paid for, so I don't know what it would be if it was a la carte."
"The price fits the needs of our clients and it is adjustable by Defender."
"If you purchase any Fortinet firewall, they will give you FortiCloud for 100 GB for free. You can access Fortinet FortiGate Cloud freely up to certain limits."
"The license does not include many of the features that are necessary, which means that you have to pay extra for them."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a one or two. The pricing is suitable for our company."
"The price is over $1,000 USD annually."
"The solution requires an annual license but the cost is reasonable in comparison to competitors in the same category."
"We pay around $19,000 a year and do not pay for extra technical support."
"FortiGate Cloud was the most affordable option I knew of, but their new pricing is less of a bargain as it has fewer levels."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
46%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
3%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up. Additionally, I suggest impro...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes.
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Those who want to use Cisco Defense Orchestrator should build their own use case and see if it fits their environment. The most significant benefit for us is the response time because it automates ...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has valuable firewall, SSL VPN, and web filtering features.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
I am very satisfied with the price and licensing cost of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud, rating it an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
The solution is a bit expensive. Pricing is the only concern as it is too expensive.
 

Also Known As

Cisco Defense Orchestrator, CDO
FortiCloud, FortiGate Cloud
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Security Cloud Control vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.