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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 (5th), Identity Management (IM) (14th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)
Symantec Siteminder
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Web Access Management (1st), Access Management (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is 3.7%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 3.0%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Single Sign-On (SSO) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator3.7%
Symantec Siteminder3.0%
Other93.3%
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 most valuable feature of the solution is RADIUS service and the social network integration feature."
"We use this product for SSL two-factor authentication and FortiToken management."
"We use multi-factor authentication for enhancing security."
"FortiAuthenticator is really good software that integrates very well with Fortinet products."
"This was a regulation we needed to fill and it worked at a good price."
"It made things much easier for dealing with users BYOD for our secured wireless networks."
"For someone concerned with multifactor authentication, I'm satisfied with the product."
"FortiAuthenticator is really good software that integrates very well with Fortinet products."
"The solution has saved our company from a lot of problems."
"It has the ability to authenticate and authorize users. It is the main feature for our security."
"That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency."
"The most valuable feature for us is the configuration feature; it permits us to connect our company to the offices of our subsidiaries, so when we buy a company we can connect their IT infrastructure to ours."
"Authentication Authorization for our websites are important because all the sites need authentication for security purposes and that has been handled pretty well all these years with SSO."
"Right now, federation that comes out-of-the-box with single sign-on is the most valuable feature that we have, and also scalability."
"This is the only access management product that I have come across which configures end-to-end and hosts resources."
"We almost never have outages nor see slowdowns."
 

Cons

"I would like to see integration and customization capabilities with the end-user portal to solve authentication issues with diverse implementation scenarios."
"FortiAuthenticator's interface could be better."
"The solution's command line interface could be improved to provide better support for low-level debugging and advanced configurations."
"The only way the solution could be improved is if it were cheaper."
"A lot of configurations are available only from CLI."
"We had issues trying to integrate the keys properly during the initial setup."
"Other features that would improve the product are a single sign-on where people can use their Gmail ID to log-in, etc."
"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."
"We had some performance-related issues that caused some outages. Outages actually happened pretty frequently back then."
"The performance could be better. The support could be faster."
"We would like the OAuth to be more stable, more issues being fixed rather than not."
"CA SSO does have stability issues."
"I would say it is a relatively complex setup. We have a relatively complex environment so with all of the availability requirements we have, it is quite complex but having said that, it is no more complex than any other enterprise systems that has to be highly available."
"In future releases, I would like to see maybe more capabilities with some more modern authentication."
"Upgrade planning is extensive and costly and involves a lot of applications, so we’d like to see that improved."
"I think they need to integrate some of the newer types of authentication into the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price and ten is a low price, I rate the pricing a seven."
"The platform provides a user-based pricing model rather than a subscription pricing model."
"FAC is an affordable solution for Middle Range (200E/400E) and also needs a package of mobility agents (2,000) perpetual."
"I would rate the pricing a four out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. It is not that costly. It is cheap, easy to manage, easy to install, and easy to configure."
"The cost of the license could be less expensive. The license is paid on a yearly basis."
"The licensing structure is cost-effective for us compared to some of the other solutions that have recurring monthly costs."
"The product could be more competitively priced."
"It costs more to license the high-availability option."
"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."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Performing Arts
5%
 

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: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.