Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs Skyhigh Security comparison

Fortinet and Skyhigh Security are both solutions in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category. Fortinet is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.7, while Skyhigh Security is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.7. Fortinet holds a 6.4% mindshare in WSG, compared to Skyhigh Security’s 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Skyhigh Security users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

In the competitive field of cloud security and network security, Skyhigh Security and Fortinet FortiGate SWG offer distinct solutions. Based on this comparison, Skyhigh Security tends to have the upper hand in deployment flexibility and threat detection features, while Fortinet FortiGate SWG is commendable for its robust integration and network security features.

Features: Skyhigh Security stands out for its ability to identify shadow IT, perform risk assessments, and ensure compliance through its Cloud Registry. It employs advanced threat prevention to detect abnormalities like suspicious login attempts. Fortinet FortiGate SWG excels in URL categorization, antivirus filtering, and application control, with strong SSL decryption and integration across diverse environments.

Room for Improvement: Skyhigh Security users mention challenges with console performance, report generation, and integration for unsanctioned applications. Fortinet FortiGate SWG could benefit from an improved user interface and easier deployment while needing enhancements in reporting features and pricing models.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Skyhigh Security offers flexible deployment options, including hybrid, on-premises, and cloud, catering to varied user needs and maintaining good customer service, though support quality varies. Fortinet FortiGate SWG primarily supports on-premises deployment, praised for its reliable support, yet desires for deployment flexibility remain.

Pricing and ROI: Skyhigh Security offers cost-effective pricing based on API integrations, slightly premium but justified by its comprehensive features. Fortinet FortiGate SWG is generally viewed as expensive, with a pricing model more suited to larger enterprises rather than smaller businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. Skyhigh Security Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. Skyhigh Security

April 2025

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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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.1%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is 6.4%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Skyhigh Security is 3.2%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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David Carlson

CIO at Camco Mfg.

Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help.

FortiGate is easy to configure. We configured one of the units and sent it to Indiana to be installed. We asked them to give us a call when they got it, so we could help them through the process, but they called us back to tell us it works great. Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help. That was fantastic. Fortinet also offers a single pane of glass that we can use to manage our routers with gateways, so that's convenient. We're running a VPN to our remote location, and the performance is good. We're changing all our VPN connectors on our laptops from Cisco's Anywhere to Fortinet's VPN because the performance is just so much better.

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Santiago Gomez

Cio at a security firm with 11-50 employees

Has improved the organization's PCI compliance with data loss prevention

I use the solution on a Macintosh computer and it has issues and does not work when I try to log in from the Safari Browser, but it works fine when I log in from the Google Chrome browser. The console has issues when the login is done through a Safari Browser. The console has to be more competitive and the compatibility of the browser needs to be better. I want to know about Skyhigh's competitiveness with other brands and about the vulnerability assessment and micro segmentations. I know Skyhigh has other products, but right now, I am studying what this new product is about. They only have English support, so I would like for them to add some Spanish support.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."

"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."

"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."

"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

More iboss pros

"It is simpler to configure. It is not like Cisco Firepower, where you go crazy trying to follow the Cisco documentation to figure out how to configure one little thing. Unlike Cisco Firepower, where you can't do everything through the web interface and you have got to do some command line stuff, Fortinet FortiGate SWG is simpler. There are four different things in Cisco to get in, which is not the case with Fortinet FortiGate SWG. It is one of my favorite solutions to work with. I would much rather work with it than Cisco Firepower, for example. Even though I've got 20 years of Cisco experience with different firewalls, I would much prefer this solution."

"The product is easy to install since we only need to follow the user manual, documents, and articles provided by Fortinet to install the product."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is inspection."

"FortiGate is easy to configure. We configured one of the units and sent it to Indiana to be installed. We asked them to give us a call when they got it, so we could help them through the process, but they called us back to tell us it works great."

"The security for endpoints is the most valuable. It is very secure for our workers. It allows us to secure a transaction and enable security for a specific segment in the workflow."

"The product is highly stable."

"The technical support is good."

"I would rate the scalability of this product a nine out of ten because it is highly scalable. We have not had problems with customers in terms of scalability."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pros

"User analytics."

"It also prevents you from writing data to your Gmail and does not allow you to move your data outside of the corporate system. That is the most important feature for me."

"In terms of their compatibility with major cloud providers, in terms of their abilities, capabilities, and features, they exceed everyone's capabilities in the CASB market."

"It's an easy-to-use product."

"It help us monitor high risk services, blocking them, and also feeding them to our egress points."

"The threat protection capabilities are very strong."

"All the information available on each service, including its risk assessment."

"The solution significantly helps in enhancing security management."

More Skyhigh Security pros

Cons

"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

"The reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

"Its pricing could be better."

"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."

More iboss cons

"Fortinet's support team consists of a huge networking team, because of which there is a delay in response at times."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG could improve the price, it is expensive."

"It could always be more secure."

"Another issue is how deduplication services don't work reliably after enabling deduplication on Fortinet."

"FortiGate's reporting features could provide a better picture of what is happening in the box."

"It is complicated to manage different kinds of on-premise boxes."

"We have experienced a number of failures when trying to upgrade firmware and the process takes a long time. We only experienced this when doing major upgrades between versions."

"The UI/UX experience can be a little better."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG cons

"The encrypted disk implementation could be improved. I currently use it from a dongle or USB key with two-factor authentication to access my computer."

"You have to have some kind of background with cloud-based security, like working with different providers and how to make instances in the clouds and that kind of stuff - including cloud, networking cloud, cloud application development, anything like that is a requirement to be in the CASB space."

"It would be nice to be able to get more advanced search functions to filter out data and quickly obtain the data that we need."

"Though the Skyhigh Dashboard is processing large amounts of data, the speed of the Dashboard could be improved."

"They only have English support, so I would like for them to add some Spanish support."

"SkyHigh has the ability to place users or groups on a ‘Watchlist’; which allows you to see certain views with these Watchlists users/groups in them. This is great when you are looking at live data but if I wanted to generate a report on "only" the watchlists."

"An area for improvement in Skyhigh Security is its UI. It needs to be enhanced and made more user-friendly. Right now, the UI of Skyhigh Security is sometimes confusing. For example, my company is deploying Skyhigh Security for a client and integrating it on the cloud, from an on-premises deployment to a hybrid deployment. Though the experience isn't bad, there needs to be more enhancements. Another room for improvement in Skyhigh Security is the limited training resources, especially when you compare it with Cisco, which has many study materials in the market, even free training resources. You'll get limited resources if you search for Skyhigh Security tutorials on Google and YouTube. Because of high-security requirements and the training material for Skyhigh Security not being available, most engineers and architects avoid the product because there'd be a lack of knowledge in configuring and achieving the goals you'd want to reach via the use of Skyhigh Security. The NOC team deploying the product is having difficulty getting training resources for Skyhigh Security. You'll be charged an enormous amount if you search the market for training because of the limited resources available. Skyhigh Security needs to work on marketing and awareness as an improvement to the product."

"The performance of the tool can be improved to provide faster report generation."

More Skyhigh Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten."

"The price is relatively expensive compared to other solutions which are providing similar features."

"While slightly more affordable than competitors, it remains relatively expensive due to its inclusive subscription."

"FortiGate SWG is reasonably priced."

"The product is expensive."

"It is a cost-effective solution that meets the user's needs."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. The additional cost depends on the extra feature requirements."

"The product is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pricing and cost advice

"Skyhigh provided a FedRAMP solution, tokenization, a better shadow IT capability, and lower cost."

"The biggest thing to watch for is the difference in price per monitored user for the different API integrations."

"Some of our clients have a perpetual license and pay additional support yearly."

"The price of the solution is good and we pay an annual license."

"The tool is not expensive."

"Commercially, I find Skyhigh Security a little costlier, compared to other products such as SentinelOne or Cybereason which are really novelty products. I'm not comparing Skyhigh Security with Trend Micro, but with other products, in particular the new, next-generation products. The price for Skyhigh Security is high in terms of value and ROI. I would rate the product price combined with product efficacy a six out of ten."

"It's an expensive solution."

"This is an expensive product, but you have to compare that with other solutions that are on the market."

More Skyhigh Security pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

52%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

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What needs improvement with iboss?

Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctl...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

We used it for student and faculty filtering on campus.

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What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

The interface and other reports are all user-friendly.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate the pricing for FortiGate AWG as nine, which is perfect.

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What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

I would rate the technical support of Fortinet a six or seven out of ten. It is not very helpful. I would like to see...

See all answers

What do you like most about McAfee Web Gateway?

Data loss prevention and user behavior analysis are two valuable features.

See all answers

What needs improvement with McAfee Web Gateway?

The solution has room for improvement in its DDoS protection. Additionally, the documentation needs enhancement to pr...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for McAfee Web Gateway?

The typical use case for our clients is cloud security.

See all answers

Comparisons

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 15% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 14% of the time

Cloudflare One vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense vs iboss

Compared 5% of the time

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Fortinet FortiProxy vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 48% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 20% of the time

Sangfor Internet Access Gateway (IAG) vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 6% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 5% of the time

Trend Micro Web Security vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG Competitors

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Skyhigh Security

Compared 16% of the time

Netskope vs Skyhigh Security

Compared 13% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs Skyhigh Security

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Skyhigh Security

Compared 5% of the time

Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance vs Skyhigh Security

Compared 3% of the time

More Skyhigh Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate SWG

April 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate SWG product report

Buyer's Guide

Skyhigh Security

April 2025

Download Skyhigh Security product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

FortiGate SWG, FortiGate Secure Web Gateway

McAfee MVISION Cloud, McAfee MVISION Unified Cloud Edge, McAfee Web Gateway, McAfee MVISION CNAPP, and Skyhigh Networks, McAfee Web Gateway

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

iboss

Demo not available

Fortinet

Skyhigh Security

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is a comprehensive web security solution provided by Fortinet. FortiGate SWG combines web filtering, malware protection, data loss prevention (DLP), and application control capabilities into a single integrated platform. It is designed to protect organizations from web-based threats, enforce compliance policies, and provide secure access to web resources.

FortiGate SWG Benefits:

Comprehensive web filtering and security features
Ease of use and management
Integration with other Fortinet products
Strong threat detection capabilities
Scalability and flexibility
Granular control over user access and activity

FortiGate SWG Features:

Web Filtering: FortiGate SWG employs URL filtering and content categorization to control and enforce web access policies.
Malware Protection: The solution provides real-time protection against web-borne threats, such as malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP): FortiGate SWG helps prevent sensitive data from being leaked or exfiltrated through web channels.
SSL Inspection: The solution supports SSL/TLS decryption and inspection, allowing organizations to examine encrypted web traffic for threats and enforce security policies.
Application Control: FortiGate SWG enables granular control over web applications and protocols.
Advanced Threat Intelligence: FortiGate SWG leverages Fortinet's threat intelligence services to provide up-to-date information about emerging threats and zero-day vulnerabilities.
User Authentication and Access Control: The solution supports various authentication methods, including single sign-on (SSO) and integration with identity providers, to ensure secure user authentication and access control for web resources.
Reporting and Analytics: FortiGate SWG provides comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities.

FortiGate SWG is typically deployed as a hardware appliance or as a virtual appliance in on-premises environments, but it may also be available as a cloud-based service. It is part of Fortinet's broader security fabric ecosystem, allowing integration with other Fortinet products to provide a unified and coordinated security infrastructure.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by FortiGate SWG users.

David Carlson, CIO at Camco Mfg., says that "Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help".

Suresh Vijayen, Product Manager at IX Telecom, writes that FortiGate SWG "Provides helpful technical support, but its dashboard needs to be more user-friendly".

Chandan Munshi, Chief Technical Officer at Provision Technologies LLP, states that "The user interface is intuitive. Anyone can configure the firewall with little knowledge of the product. The back-end is robust with good security."

Fortinet

Skyhigh Security protects organizations with cloud-based Zero Trust security solutions that are both data-aware and simple to use. Skyhigh’s Security Service Edge portfolio goes beyond data access and focuses on data use, allowing organizations to collaborate from any device and from anywhere without sacrificing security, while providing the visibility and control required to monitor and mitigate security risks.

The Skyhigh Security Service Edge portfolio includes Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway, Skyhigh Cloud Access Security Broker, Skyhigh Private Access, and Skyhigh Cloud Native Application Protection Platform. All solutions form a fully converged, consolidated platform, and are managed from the same single console.

Skyhigh Cloud Access Security Broker protects data and stops threats in the cloud across SaaS, and PaaS, and IaaS environments from a single, cloud-native enforcement point. It enables organizations to accelerate their business by giving them visibility and control over their data in the cloud and protection from threats with a frictionless deployment model.
Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway connects and secures your workforce from malicious websites and cloud apps from anywhere, any application, and any device. It protects users from threats and data loss with integrated Remote Browser Isolation, Cloud Access Security Broker and Data Loss Prevention capabilities while providing the ability to access the web and cloud.
Skyhigh Private Access is the data centric Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution that provides integrated Data Loss Prevention scanning and seamless Remote Browser Isolation integration for robust data protection, using Zero Trust principles. Apply a unified policy across web, SaaS, and private apps.
Skyhigh Cloud Native Application Protection Platform is the industry’s first platform to extend Cloud Access Security Broker, bringing application and data context to converge Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) with IaaS Data Loss Prevention for IaaS public clouds. Skyhigh CNAPP provides consistent data protection, threat prevention, governance, and compliance throughout the cloud-native application development lifecycle.

Skyhigh Security Benefits

Modern Data Protection. Extensible data protection policies to determine what can be accessed, shared, and how it can be used.
Zero Trust for the Cloud. Extend zero trust to the cloud ensuring that your sensitive data is accessed, shared, and stored appropriately.
Actionable Insights. Unified view of data and risk, regardless of where and how the policy is enforced.

Skyhigh Security Features

99.999% Uptime. Connects users seamlessly and without disruption through Hyperscale Service Edge with cloud-native web security that operates with ultra-low latency and 99.999% uptime.
Remote Browser Isolation. Prevents threats of a web page from reaching endpoints with intelligent, multi-layer remote browser isolation technology that provides secure web browsing through robust machine learning analysis on real-time telemetry.
Cloud Registry. The world’s largest and most accurate registry of cloud services based on a customizable 261-point risk assessment to support risk-aware cloud governance.

Skyhigh Security

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Salt Lake County, Catholic College Bendigo, Azienda Unita Sanitaria

Western Union.Aetna.DirecTV.Adventist.Equinix.Perrigo.Goodyear.HP.Cargill.Sony.Bank of the West.Prudential.

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. Skyhigh Security

April 2025

Free Report: Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. Skyhigh Security

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs. Skyhigh Security and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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