Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

Fortinet and Sangfor are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Fortinet is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5, while Sangfor is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.8. Fortinet holds a 1.9% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Sangfor’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sangfor users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Sangfor NGAF compete in the network security category, with FortiGate-VM having the upper hand due to its robust security features and ecosystem integration.

Features: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is known for its user-friendliness and robust security features, including VPN capabilities, traffic shaping, and UTM modules. It integrates well with other Fortinet products, creating a comprehensive security ecosystem. Sangfor NGAF offers affordability, application control, WAF, and DPI for granular traffic inspection. Its ease of use and deployment flexibility are notable benefits.

Room for Improvement: FortiGate-VM could enhance its reporting, third-party tool integration, and customization options. The redundancy requirement for high availability is cumbersome. Sangfor NGAF needs user interface improvements, better feature integration, and enhanced real-time reporting. Its interface complexity and scalability issues have been noted by users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FortiGate-VM supports diverse deployment environments including public, private, and hybrid clouds, with flexible options for business needs. Support can be mixed based on regions. Sangfor NGAF is primarily deployed on-premises, with user feedback suggesting that local support and user experience could be improved.

Pricing and ROI: FortiGate-VM is perceived as more expensive but offers a comprehensive suite of features, justifying the cost with its good ROI over time. Sangfor NGAF is more budget-friendly, providing a cost-effective solution for smaller businesses. It offers affordable licensing models and good ROI, praised for being less expensive than competitors.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sangfor NGAF Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sangfor NGAF

September 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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.4%, up from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	20.4%
Fortinet FortiGate-VM	1.9%
Sangfor NGAF	1.2%
Other	76.5%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Sitti Ridzma Salahuddin

System Engineer at Trends and Technologies, Inc

Integrates seamlessly and helps with real-time threat response

Since the solution we offered was a complete suite with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, it was easier for them to manage because they have FortiManager as well. The main reason they wanted to position FortiGate in the cloud was so that they could easily deploy through FortiManager. That was the selling point we had for them. Especially for their multiple branches, where they had approximately 60 sites, and some assets were in AWS, it was really a good deployment opportunity. FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer were also part of that solution.

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Zaid Farooqui

CIO at Indus Motor Company

Enhanced threat detection with integrated security features and good support

We are using application firewalling, WAF, and SD-WAN. The capabilities are mostly within the box. For example, you will get web application firewall WAF as part and parcel of this. SD-WAN is also bundled. It integrates with their SIEM and SOAR solutions very nicely. Lastly, the pricing point is very cost-efficient as well.

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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

"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."

"Secure, user-friendly, stable, and scalable network security solution. Installation is straightforward."

"Overall security features and performance routing is good."

"For the performance they provide, the price is acceptable."

"The user interface is relatively easy. The devices are easy to deploy and figure out when you have experience with other security appliances."

"We use a lot of function on the IPS and it works well for us."

"The system is very easy to scale."

"Simple interface and easy to deploy."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted our organization by allowing us to scale fast."

"This product is affordable and it's a good, high-performance appliance."

"The product is easy to implement."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are its flexibility and scalability. This solution is available as a license, which allows us to activate it based on the specific needs of the customer. This gives us and the customer a great deal of versatility and customization options."

"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."

"The most valuable features are network security, VLAN, network protection, and encryption are very valuable to us."

"The product's initial setup phase was easy."

"The Intrusion Prevention System and the web filtering are both working well."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pros

"The price versus value is good because the solution is less expensive than Sophos, Fortinet, or SonicWall."

"The tool's performance is good."

"The product is very fast and reliable."

"It is a stable solution."

"While the features are not dissimilar to other brands, configuration is much more simple, which works out great for Indonesian people."

"You might try Sangfor if you are on a tight budget. The price is affordable, and Sangfor offers a lot of features. We don't have any complaints about Sangfor."

"The built-in features function as intended, providing exceptional value."

"It offers application control features."

More Sangfor NGAF pros

Cons

"One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD."

"I would like to be able to see more log details."

"The logging details need to be improved."

"There is room for improvement in pricing."

"The performance can be improved."

"FortiGate can only retain logs for 24 hours or 7 days. I'm not sure if it holds them for a longer period, such as for a month."

"Lacks sufficient security options."

"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The reporting is not as good as it is with other firewalls and it should be improved."

"The price and licensing of the solution can be better."

"The operating system isn't stable, so it goes to memory counters every night."

"In the next release, we would like to see full integration with VMware NSX virtualized networks."

"Web filtering is a feature that needs some improvement. There should be some additional features to allow active users to change their own passwords."

"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."

"At this moment, we believe that Fortinet FortiGate should be improved by injecting more AI because the kind of threats we are seeing are more ransomware threats. Fortinet FortiGate is able to ensure these threats do not enter, but we would prefer to see more proactive alerting mechanisms come out."

"We are experiencing a failed login issue. There should also be improvements in functionalities we store to enhance our services."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM cons

"Sangfor could improve by providing better real-time reporting, as the current reports don't offer the level of detail we need, especially for runtime insights."

"Sangfor NGAF could improve the policies and default criteria. They could be much better."

"Sangfor need greater exposer in the market because the market is mainly saturated by Fortinet. The user experience of Fortinet is quite different compared to NGAF. If we want to switch our users from Fortinet to NGAF, we have to convince them that the user experience will be much easier once once they start to use it."

"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."

"The GUI needs to be improved, lacks logic in some areas."

"They need to improve their research team and they need to study their data to analyze it and build the product."

"The setup phase is quite complex."

"They need to increase the number of ports in the firewall."

More Sangfor NGAF cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is neither cheap nor expensive. Overall, I find it to be competitive in the market."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a very cheap solution."

"The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is an expensive solution."

"We pay for the solution annually."

"The price is okay."

"I give the pricing of the solution a six out of ten."

"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"The tool is neither expensive nor cheap, so it is okay."

"It has a flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model."

"For medium and enterprise organizations, FortiGate is more affordable."

"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 pricing is really good."

"The price is fair for what we get with FortiGate."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive. There are some features that have to be purchased separately that have their own license."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, I would not consider Sangfor NGAF to be a cheap product. It is an expensive firewall solution, though not as expensive as something like Palo Alto, which is costly. However, the higher price point is justifiable given the feature set the tool provides that other firewalls may not offer in a single dedicated appliance."

"For four to five physical appliances for a licensed firewall, it costs approximately $4,000."

"The product is very cost-effective compared to other brands or vendors."

"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten."

"The price is unmatcheable."

"It is one of the cheapest tools in the market."

"The price could be more competitive."

"The solution has a TCO that is 32% to 50% less than Sophos, Fortinet, and SonicWall."

More Sangfor NGAF pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	130
Large Enterprise	187

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	68
Midsize Enterprise	30
Large Enterprise	33

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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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...

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Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?

Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...

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What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM?

An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured.

See all answers

What do you like most about Sangfor NGAF?

I think Sangfor NGAF is more valuable than Cisco products because of its simplicity and ease of management. If I comp...

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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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?

The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardwa...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 9% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Azure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 23% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 4% of the time

Juniper vSRX vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM Competitors

Sophos XG vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 6% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 6% of the time

H3C SecPath Firewalls vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 3% of the time

More Sangfor NGAF Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

October 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate-VM

October 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate-VM product report

Buyer's Guide

Sangfor NGAF

September 2025

Download Sangfor NGAF product report

Also Known As

No data available

FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM

Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate excels in providing integrated VPN, firewalling, and Unified Threat Management (UTM) with centralized management and high availability. It supports remote access and comprehensive threat protection, making it a preferred choice for securing networks.

Fortinet FortiGate offers a robust security platform with features such as strong intrusion prevention, application control, and web filtering. Its integration with Active Directory and SD-WAN functionality provides scalable solutions for large networks. Users appreciate its ease of use through centralized management interfaces, ensuring robust security with flexible configurations. However, FortiGate could enhance its graphical interface and technical support responsiveness, address firmware bugs and costly licensing, improve logging, integrate better with third-party tools, and strengthen scalability and memory for log storage. Complexity in configuration and the need for intuitive features are noted challenges, and there's a demand for advanced security, zero-trust capabilities, and AI integration.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN: Secure remote access and connectivity.
Firewalling: Protects networks from unauthorized access and attacks.
UTM: Offers a comprehensive approach to threat management.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routing for efficient network performance.
Web Filtering: Controls and monitors web access and ensures Internet security.

What benefits or ROI should be considered?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administration and monitoring.
High Availability: Ensures consistent security and network availability.
Scalability: Adapts to the needs of growing networks.
Comprehensive Threat Protection: Provides robust security measures.
Ease of Use: Minimizes the complexity of security management.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries like education, finance, and government. Companies use it for firewall protection, VPN, and SD-WAN capabilities, ensuring secure perimeter and data center security. It facilitates remote access management and traffic routing optimization, offering reliable security and connectivity solutions.

Fortinet

FortiGate Virtual Appliances allow you to mitigate blind spots by implementing critical security controls within your virtual infrastructure. They also allow you to rapidly provision security infrastructure whenever and wherever it is needed. FortiGate virtual appliances feature all of the security and networking services common to traditional hardware-based FortiGate appliances. With the addition of virtual appliances from Fortinet, you can deploy a mix of hardware and virtual appliances, operating together and managed from a common centralized management platform.

Fortinet

Sangfor Next Generation Firewall (also known as NGAF) is a converged security solution providing protection against advanced threat, malware, viruses, ransomware and web-based attacks using integrated security features like firewall, IPS, anti-virus, anti-malware, APT, URL filtering, Cloud Sandbox, and WAF. As the world's first AI-enabled and fully integrated Next Generation Firewall & Web Application Firewall (WAF), NGAF offering the security visibility, real-time detection and response, simplified operation and maintenance and high-performance application layer security needed to operate an enterprise network in total security. Tested and proven to provide cutting-edge network security by ICSA Labs and endorsed by Gartner Inc., NGAF harnesses the power of Sangfor’s Neural-X threat intelligence and analytics platform and Engine Zero’s innovative malware detection to provide next-generation protection for today’s enterprise.

Sangfor

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Security7 Networks, COOPENAE

The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sangfor NGAF

September 2025

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