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Fortinet FortiClient vs Fortinet FortiNAC comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.9
Cortex XDR offers significant ROI with enhanced security and efficiency, reducing costs, incidents, and boosting user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
5.7
Fortinet FortiClient improved productivity, enabled better remote work, reduced costs, and enhanced security despite some unused features.
Sentiment score
5.8
Fortinet FortiNAC enhances network security and management, reducing costs and labor while offering financial savings and efficiency.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
Detection and Response Consultant at Inovasys
I have seen a return on investment with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, as this product is offered at a minimal cost, and we can find a good ROI from it.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
The VPN performance has a substantial impact on our remote workforce.
Technology Consultant at 1ware
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Cortex XDR support is praised for proficiency, but regional differences exist in response times and expertise consistency.
Sentiment score
6.7
Fortinet FortiClient's support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for inconsistency and delayed responses compared to competitors.
Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiNAC support is varied, excelling in US and Asia-Pacific but needing improvements in EMEA, especially UK.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
Chief of IT Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
They initiate the troubleshooting process quickly and resolve issues in a timely manner.
Senior Manager IT at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
In 99% of cases, we do not have to do configurations on our own as they are normally handled by their service providers.
Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
They provide very good support, and an issue I had was resolved quickly over the phone.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
They provide sessions to help with various questions.
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
They could do more to improve, not because of the product itself but because of the support they provide.
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR provides scalable, efficient performance for thousands of users, supporting easy cloud and on-premises expansions with simple licensing.
Sentiment score
7.2
Fortinet FortiClient is scalable, suitable for small to large enterprises, but reviews on ease of scaling are mixed.
Sentiment score
7.5
Fortinet FortiNAC is scalable and adaptable, with flexible licensing, though integration and setup complexity may need improvement.
You can onboard 10,000 endpoints in just hours, which demonstrates the excellent scalability of this product.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
I think scalability for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is good.
Threat Analyst II at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
We normally take into consideration while installing the product that it can scale up to approximately 20%, but not more than that.
Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Most of our clients are using the free version rather than the paid version due to the high range of maximum users available for the free version.
Senior Technical Manager at Flexaccel
I hope Fortinet will start an insider developer program where professionals can provide feedback on new releases to ensure improvements.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
The pricing model makes it challenging as the cost is substantial due to the per-node licensing model.
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is stable and reliable, with minimal issues and consistently high performance ratings.
Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiClient is highly stable, with minor issues mostly network-related, and users frequently rate it nine or ten.
Sentiment score
7.5
Opinions on Fortinet FortiNAC's stability vary, with ratings from seven to ten, citing both reliability and persistent issues.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
Its stability level is excellent.
IT Manager at CNE
I normally get a call within 15-20 minutes after logging a complaint.
Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Fortinet FortiClient is a stable product with no glitches or latency issues.
Senior Technical Manager at Flexaccel
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs better UI, reporting, customization, cloud integration, support, and reduced false positives and resource use.
Fortinet FortiClient needs improved management, simplicity, features, compatibility, pricing, connectivity, scalability, authentication, and better support across OS.
Fortinet FortiNAC struggles with integration, usability, setup, support, and pricing, needing better documentation and enhanced features.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
Pre Sales Architect at network techlab
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
FortiClient needs improvement in restricting user information and ensuring more secure customer data to better protect source code and reduce the risk of security breaches.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
There are advanced features like Zero Trust that I currently do not use but could be beneficial for security.
Senior Manager Tech Compliance at Qenta Inc.
Fortinet frequently releases updates without thorough testing.
Senior Manager IT at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Improvement in the interface design would make FortiNAC a better solution.
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
The graphical user interface (GUI) of Fortinet FortiNAC is very poor compared to competitors like Forcepoint and Cisco ISE.
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers flexible, scalable licensing with robust features, fair pricing, and options for on-prem or cloud deployments.
Fortinet FortiClient is cost-effective for basic VPNs, with competitive licensing for advanced features despite recent price increases.
Fortinet FortiNAC offers competitively priced license tiers, considered valuable with options for yearly or perpetual licenses and support.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
FortiClient is a value-for-money product and is not considered expensive compared to similar products on the market.
Global Head of IT Infrastructure at EPL Americas
Justifying the price to clients can be difficult.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
FortiClient is included in a package with the UTM features, so there is no separate cost for it.
Senior Manager Tech Compliance at Qenta Inc.
Fortinet FortiNAC is relatively cheap compared to other solutions.
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR offers AI-driven security, seamless integration, and automation, enhancing threat detection and risk reduction for networks.
Fortinet FortiClient provides cost-effective, comprehensive security with seamless integration, advanced features, and ease of deployment and management.
Fortinet FortiNAC ensures robust security, visibility, and integration, with features like compliance checks and customizable reporting for diverse networks.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
Pre Sales Architect at network techlab
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The most valuable feature of FortiClient is its high security level.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
We appreciate its VPN capabilities and the features that offer extra security functionalities like antivirus and malware scanning.
Infrastructure Manager at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
I strongly recommend this solution, especially for Fortinet customers who use FortiGate or other Fortinet products, as they can easily integrate these features and exchange information seamlessly.
Technology Consultant at 1ware
I appreciate the feature where it can connect with different vendor equipment, regardless of the network devices from other vendors.
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
The main advantage of Fortinet FortiNAC is its integration with the entire Fortinet product portfolio.
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
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Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (5th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (7th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Fortinet FortiClient
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (12th), Endpoint Compliance (1st), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (2nd)
Fortinet FortiNAC
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiClient1.8%
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint7.8%
CrowdStrike Falcon6.6%
Other83.8%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiNAC15.0%
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)21.7%
Aruba ClearPass20.8%
Other42.5%
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration
Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.
KL
Senior Technical Manager at Flexaccel
Remote access has become seamless and secure while deployment remains simple for our users
Performance could be improved today. People are now moving toward SASE, which stands for Secure Access, Secure Edge Solution. Fortinet also has that offering, which would be easier since it operates through the cloud, acting as a first line of defense. When the user connects to the internet, they connect to the cloud first for posture assessment and monitoring before connecting to the outside world. The impact is significant because nowadays people are adopting SASE. During COVID time, many users were trying to connect back to their office, causing the performance or CPU utilization of the firewall to increase tremendously, which slowed down performance. I have not worked with endpoint telemetry in Fortinet FortiClient that could have been helpful for threat mitigation.
Ahmed_Shalaby - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
Struggles with interface and integration while benefiting from portfolio synergy
We use Fortinet FortiNAC for security assessment, penetration testing, and posture assessment. These are the typical use cases for any NAC solution The main advantage of Fortinet FortiNAC is its integration with the entire Fortinet product portfolio, which includes the self-security fabric of…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...
Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...
How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...
How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?
Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and securit...
What's the difference between Fortinet's FortiEDR and FortiClient?
I suggest Fortinet’s FortiEDR over FortiClient for several reasons. For starters, FortiEDR guarantees solid protectio...
What is the biggest difference between Aruba ClearPass and FortiNAC?
I've done quite a lot of work with ClearPass, and not a lot with FortiNAC/Bradford. ClearPass incorporates a number ...
How does Cisco ISE compare with Fortinet FortiNAC?
Cisco ISE uses AI endpoint analytics to identify new devices based on their behavior. It will also notify you if some...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiNAC?
The support responds to our queries within two to four hours.
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
FortiClient
FortiNAC, Bradford Networks, Bradford Networks Sentry, Network Sentry Family
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Isavia, Pepperdine University, Medical University of South Carolina, Columbia University Medical Center, Utah Valley University
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiClient vs. Fortinet FortiNAC and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
883,712 professionals have used our research since 2012.