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Fortinet FortiManager vs NetScaler comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 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 FortiManager
Ranking in Network Management Applications
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetScaler
Ranking in Network Management Applications
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (1st), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiManager is 5.5%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 1.6%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

HamedWasel - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up with good integration capabilities but we've had troubles when moving devices
We've faced an issue when we need to move devices. Templates need to be recreated instead of having the policies, et cetera, cut and pasted over. Everything should just move over when we need to move devices instead of recreating everything from scratch. For the IPSEC tunnels, Fortimanager doesn't have all of the features that are available on Fortigate.
DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU - PeerSpot reviewer
A tool for centralized management including inventory and sales tracking
Citrix ADM has the ability to implement policies to tighten security. For instance, you can restrict access to your network from outsiders or lack necessary security measures such as antivirus programs. Additionally, there's the Delivery Controller, which allows for comprehensive monitoring and management tasks such as remote restarts, maintenance, and registration. Another essential component is the Director, which provides detailed insights into sessions, including identifying session failures, connection issues, user lockouts, etc. It presents a list of problems to address, enabling you to click on them and resolve them efficiently.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I find Fortinet's technical support for FortiManager effective and I would rate it eight out of ten."
"Fortinet FortiManager allows you to manage multiple FortiGate devices from a single console, and this is a valuable product feature."
"The central management feature is the most valuable to me."
"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiManager was easy."
"I pushed templates from FortiManager to our site, and they were deployed successfully."
"It can scale well."
"There is something called zero-touch provisioning, where you can add a new device without any configuration. You just add it to FortiManager and then forget about it."
"FortiManager offers a full zero-touch provisioning feature that allows us to create a template of our devices and onboard them remotely without visiting the site."
"Enables a Web service that offers persistent client-server connections, IP restriction, URL rewrite (such as remove "/assets/" path from client-side URL path), and cache for CSS or JS files... You can easily use the GUI to set up all these requirements on the same network device within 20-30 minutes. (If you do the same steps on CLI, it might take less time.)"
"Available on any device and can be accessed on a wide area network."
"The most impressive thing about Citrix ADM is that we don't encounter latency."
"HTTP analysis and action. We have a lot of custom web applications that sometimes require custom header insertions. Some of these custom apps are external and, via the content switching, we can use one IP and leverage various back-end web app servers."
"The MAS integration for HDX Insight has provided teams with significant visibility into network performance of the user's connection."
"My customers have told me that the performance of this solution is good."
"The NetScaler appliance has provided a lot of customers with greater high availability for their enterprise applications within a single site and across multiple locations."
"Content Redirection and SSO integration with Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop. The GUI was wonderful."
 

Cons

"If you have more than one FortiMail device, you can't manage it then with FortiManager on FortiGate."
"The CLI could be enhanced."
"The response times from technical support need to be a bit quicker."
"The GUI is not ideal."
"Having FortiManager work with all of the Fortinet products would be a good improvement."
"I prefer configuring rules and the VPN on the standalone device, not on the manager."
"There is a degradation of performance if we activate logs on FortiManager."
"I would like to be able to manage other products such as Endpoint and FortiAnalyzer through FortiManager. That is, the integration with other solutions needs to be improved."
"I would like to see support for scripting, like "iRule", which gives you the option to implement any configuration which is not available out of the box."
"Citrix NetScaler has been recently acquired by another company and the support has been negatively impacted, the solution is at its end of life. The support for the solution could improve. The sales team needs to be improved."
"They need to make the solution a little more familiar with easy study guides, learning videos, etc."
"This is an expensive solution."
"There are certain features that are very useful and Citrix makes you pay a bit more for them."
"We would like to see some fairly large scale improvement in the configuration process for this solution."
"Technical support could be improved."
"When a new version comes out, sometimes, my existing configuration gets wiped out. They should work on this so that my existing configuration doesn't get impacted with an upgrade to a newer version. There could also reduce frequent firmware upgrade activities and have a stable version so that once we upgrade it, we don't have to upgrade it for two to three years."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For us, it is a little bit expensive."
"Compared to Check Point or Cisco, Fortinet FortiManager is more affordable but it is still on the higher end."
"FortiManager isn't expensive, but its cost is dependent on which services are required."
"Fortinet FortiManager can be expensive."
"Fortinet is a high-end product and the cost is high. They should consider reducing the price, especially for existing customers."
"FortiManager is reasonably priced - I pay around US$40,0000 per year, which covers fifty locations."
"Fortinet FortiManager is costly."
"If you compare Fortinet and Palo Alto, Fortinet is cheaper, but if you compare Cisco and Fortinet, sometimes Cisco is cheaper because Cisco gives us more discounts because of the size. Cisco isn't cheap, but sometimes, we get a big discount from them."
"It is an enterprise solution. Thus, its costs are reasonable."
"The client pays for the Citrix NetScaler license annually."
"There isn't much of a difference between the cost of Citrix and that of other similar solutions."
"The price for Citrix ADC here in Mexico was good, when you compare it with F5 and Radware."
"It is true that it is a bit pricey compared to newer technologies coming to the market. For example, A10 is a load balancer that does everything that Citrix can and it does a lot more than what NetScaler does when it comes to the security space, and their prices are so cheap. Every box comes with its own license and support built into it. When you compare that with NetScaler, you have to buy licenses separately, you have to buy a support agreement that is going to be separate. A small NetScaler, even if it is a VPX which is a virtual server, could cost you close to $150,000 to $200,000 dollars. So the pricing is really high."
"Our licensing fees including technical support are approximately $3,500 USD."
"The license for Citrix NetScaler is on an annual basis and it is reasonably priced."
"Licensing is adequate. I wanted to have a more prominent license, but until I do they don't give enough support. The additional cost would be too much."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiManager?
The most valuable feature is the centralized management console.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiManager?
I find Fortinet FortiManager to be a bit more expensive, especially when considering the environment. It shows cost-effectiveness when managing more than ten devices, whereas it is less effective w...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?
The deployment of Fortinet FortiManager is quite complex and should be easier. It requires improvement in vulnerability management and should integrate automated AI features to enhance its reliabil...
What do you like most about Citrix ADC?
The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADC?
After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive.
What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?
Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity. While it could be easier to manage, it is like transitioning from driving a ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiManager vs. NetScaler and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.