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Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

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 FortiAuthenticator
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (4th), Identity Management (IM) (15th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)
Symantec Siteminder
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Web Access Management (1st), Access Management (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is 3.8%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 3.1%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Single Sign-On (SSO) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator3.8%
Symantec Siteminder3.1%
Other93.1%
Single Sign-On (SSO)
 

Featured Reviews

Sachin Vinay - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Manager-Networks at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Supports secure remote authentication and provides comprehensive user activity tracking
The most important feature is the security capability because it provides a substantial amount of security for admin-related activities. Fortinet FortiAuthenticator can be used from anywhere in the world, and the authenticator services function globally. This global accessibility is one of the critical advantages, particularly since admin features are critical and security is a real concern. With Fortinet FortiAuthenticator, secure usage of firewall services and related functions is achieved. A complete log of all users who access the authenticator setup is maintained. Monthly logs are reviewed to check for any unnoticed activities. Each authenticated user's complete activity history is recorded. This logging capability allows for providing access to more admin users while ensuring security is not compromised and all users can be monitored.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa
Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation
The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The logs have great detail that make it easier to evaluate and control the security environment."
"Technical support is excellent with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator."
"The feature I value the most is the one-time passwords because it helps to authenticate users so you know the timing of their usage."
"In my opinion, the main benefits that end users receive from Fortinet FortiAuthenticator include more security for their applications, for their systems, and for all their network devices that they are logging into."
"The most valuable features are the performance and ease of use."
"The implementation has significantly improved access management within our organization."
"It integrated with the existing Cisco wireless infrastructure to solidify the way people authenticate onto the network."
"It integrates very tightly with the rest of the Fortinet ecosystem."
"The security and single sign-on (SSO) features are the most valuable."
"As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable."
"You can quickly deploy the entire product with a basic config within couple of hours."
"Single Sign-On is the number one feature of SiteMinder that we're using."
"It's definitely a good product and you won't go wrong if you choose this product."
"It really improved the speed to market from account creation through provisioning and onboarding, and as users move from system to system, their account access follows them so you don't need to create new credentials every time."
"This solution is meeting our requirements for all of our applications."
"The most valuable feature is the Federation part of Single Sign On, which is customizable and is easily integrated with any customer application or any third party application."
 

Cons

"We've had some issues with integration."
"The technical support could be improved as some staff lacks the necessary knowledge to assist effectively."
"The technical support team is bad."
"If two-factor authentication is needed also for the end-devices, for example endpoints or servers, I think FortiAuthenticator is not yet the most mature solution."
"The GUI is not fancy enough and some of the settings are difficult to access."
"Their technical staff needs improvement because they take too much time to resolve issues."
"We have issues with HA (high availability). These should be addressed in future releases."
"Technical support used to be much better. Fortinet seems to be downgrading, so everything takes longer to get a response in comparison to the past."
"I think that one drawback to this product is that it's too big."
"The GUIs are not very clear, especially when integrating with other products from CA."
"The initial setup of Symantec SiteMinder was a bit tricky. I would rate it a seven on a scale of one to ten, where ten indicates an easy setup."
"For us, getting to that person or to the second level of support is time consuming."
"To add more value to this solution it needs to be more user-friendly."
"Symantec SiteMinder is not easy to set up and maintain at an infrastructure level."
"Better documentation. I went through some sessions on single sign-on for version 12.7."
"CA has reporting at the moment. With the reporting, every particular segmented product has a reporting engine. I would like to see centralized reporting for all of them together."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product has affordable pricing compared to other vendors."
"I rate the product price as two or three on a one-to-ten scale, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap."
"FAC is an affordable solution for Middle Range (200E/400E) and also needs a package of mobility agents (2,000) perpetual."
"We pay for licensing on a yearly basis."
"It is usually cheap. Without a license, you can use some basic features. You can buy a 20-year license and implement the solution once."
"The pricing is fair."
"I would start off with a VM including the base license and scale according to the number of users you need to authenticate."
"The price seems okay. It's not that expensive compared to other authenticators."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
Fortinet can make Fortinet FortiAuthenticator better by having a cloud version of it. Currently, Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is only available for on-premises, and it is an on-premises solution. It...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is primarily used for authenticating admin users, including remote admin use cases. Remote admin use cases utilize Fortinet FortiAuthenticator to securely authenticate a...
What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?
Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Siteminder?
I deploy and support Symantec Siteminder ( /products/symantec-siteminder-reviews ). I have been a partner and reseller.
 

Also Known As

FortiAuthenticator
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,647 professionals have used our research since 2012.