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Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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 FortiGate-VM
Ranking in Firewalls
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
151
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sangfor NGAF
Ranking in Firewalls
31st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 2.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM2.2%
Sangfor NGAF1.4%
Other96.4%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Ehab Ali - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Presales Consultant at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Unified security fabric has simplified multi-country deployments and strengthened threat response
FortiGate VM delivers exceptional performance and security with no degradation of service or protection (same features as the HW option). As part of the Fortinet Security Fabric, it extends across clouds and distributed locations, mitigating blind spots in virtual infrastructures. FortiGate VM can be rapidly deployed, managed through a centralized platform, and offers a range of purchasing options to suit every need. Also, FortiGate VM offers versatile deployment options across both public and private clouds, supporting all major public clouds including AWS, Azure, and Google as well as most hypervisors such as VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM. These deployments enable organizations to create scalable, high-performance firewalls that can be tailored to different virtualized environments and hyper-scale public cloud infrastructures. FortiGate VM integrates seamlessly with various infrastructure as code (IaC) tools such as Jenkins and GitLab, supporting security as code practices.
AK
Network Administrator at GC University Lahore
Leverage detailed reporting for effective attack management
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications hosted there, websites, FTP portals, making it quite comprehensive. Essentially, it performs all the…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate-VM as an internet gateway or firewall is very good for us."
"FortiGate-VM has many valuable features: it's easy to use, it's intuitive, it's got very good traffic inspection features, it's got comprehensive filtering categories, and it has an extensive threat database, using FortiGuard."
"Its technical support is excellent."
"The reporting is good."
"It provides an ease of management and configuration as well."
"The solution's initial setup process was very easy."
"The most valuable feature is the WAN optimization."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate include web filtering and application category functionality; the application category allows web filtering based on categories, which is one of the strengths of the Fortinet FortiGate firewall."
"While the features are not dissimilar to other brands, configuration is much more simple, which works out great for Indonesian people."
"It enables us to not only detect but also prevent various types of incoming threats, allowing us to take appropriate corrective actions and exercise control over the network."
"Particularly good in the DPI where we can inspect inbound and outbound traffic."
"This product is very user-friendly, and its Layer 7 security is very much improved."
"It offers application control features."
"The solution is quite safe and good, and furthermore, it is very good for different environments."
"We are Sangfor Gold partners and I'd recommend this solution for the SMB market, as it is cost-effective and reliable."
"So far, the performance and reliability of the product have supported our company's critical network traffic."
 

Cons

"In the first two releases of FortiOS 5.6, we had some trouble with the SSL VPN service. Sometimes it stopped working, and the IPS daemon too."
"Not a ten because I think that Cisco is better."
"It might be that it should be a little cheaper for us."
"They could enhance the product's functionality for more comprehensive threat detection and mitigation, especially for large-scale deployments."
"In the next release, we would like to see full integration with VMware NSX virtualized networks."
"We mainly get firmware upgrades from time to time, and there are bugs."
"Fortinet FortiGate-VM still lacks some more features and has room for improvement in user-friendly traffic inspection."
"The product may not be as robust as Palo Alto."
"Sangfor NGAF could improve by refining its application control policies, especially in addressing challenges with certain types of applications."
"The GUI needs to be improved, lacks logic in some areas."
"The product must provide more IPS features."
"Sangfor NGAF could improve the policies and default criteria. They could be much better."
"The setup phase is quite complex."
"They need to improve their research team and they need to study their data to analyze it and build the product."
"The solution has too many bugs and these slow down the implementation."
"Sangfor could improve their interface capacity on the 5100 series model and upgrade their hardware from one gig to 10 gig. This would improve the overall throughput."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a mid-ranged product."
"It would be nice to have the ability to extend FortiGuard subscriptions at a reasonable yearly cost versus a bulk three year pricing.​"
"We have been waiting a long time for the vendor to give us licenses, it has been five months and we are still waiting. However, the price is reasonable."
"The price is similar to Symantec Endpoint, but it's more expensive than Forcepoint solutions. Fortinet is better than Forcepoint."
"It is a medium-priced product."
"It has a flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model."
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is very expensive, I rate the solution around two or three. I think the solution's prices are okay, considering the services and features they offer."
"The pricing is really good."
"It is one of the cheapest tools in the market."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The price could be more competitive."
"If you know you have around 200+ computer users on your network, then the Sangfor NGAF 5200-F-I model would be the minimum recommended model for that amount of users. This model includes modules for packet filtering, deep packet inspection, malware scanning, DSCP filtration, and many other features."
"The price falls in the mid-range, neither exceptionally low nor high."
"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten."
"It costs about 8 to 10 thousand dollars per year for 500 users, standard licensing fees included."
"I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business74
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filteri...
Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigate VM integrates well and has excellent centralized reporting. It is very easy to...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate-VM?
I am not involved in the pricing and costs associated with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, as those are handled by the CFO. We are in operations, and we just access the product as it is and take care of the...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor NGAF?
The licensing cost is quite high compared to other available firewalls in the market.
What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?
The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardware scalability, allowing for more storage and memory capacity. Making the soluti...
What is your primary use case for Sangfor NGAF?
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applicatio...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Security7 Networks, COOPENAE
The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.