Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs SonicWall TZ comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Fortinet Logo
122,353 views|90,183 comparisons
Fortinet Logo
15,634 views|8,871 comparisons
SonicWall Logo
13,536 views|12,382 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jul 11, 2023

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VMand SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

Features: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is commended for its robust protection features, including geofencing, firewalling, IPS, and antivirus. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface. SonicWall TZ is recognized for its comprehensive threat management, VPN capabilities, web security, ease of use, reliability, and content filtering.

Fortinet requires enhancements in several aspects such as key activation, log management, cloud management, MFA offerings, web filtering options, application inspection, GUI features, IPsec failover, monitoring tools, setup process, layer-seven functionality, bandwidth issues, VPN connectivity, pricing, performance, and security. SonicWall needs improvements in throughput, secondary DNS hosting, cloud management, user interface, reporting analytics, affordability, automation, application signatures, syncing, proxy feature, DPI-SSL clients, DNS hosting, technical support, VPN connections, and pricing.

Service and Support: Some customers appreciate the prompt and knowledgeable support team at Fortinet. However, others have faced challenges with slow response times and difficulties in accessing information quickly. SonicWall TZ has received mixed reviews, with some customers facing delays and language barriers when dealing with support from India. On a positive note, there have been instances where local partners have provided exceptional support for SonicWall TZ.

Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is generally uncomplicated and can take a varying amount of time. It is user-friendly and not excessively complicated. The initial setup for SonicWall TZ is described as quick, intuitive, and can be finished within a short to moderate timeframe. It is considered straightforward and not troublesome.

Pricing: Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers a competitive setup cost. It includes licensing fees without any extra expenses. SonicWall TZ has varying reviews on pricing and licensing, with some users finding it cost-effective while others find it pricey. Additional licenses are necessary, and users have expressed the desire for more features in the basic subscription.

ROI: Fortinet FortiGate-VM provides enhanced security and stability, resulting in a favorable return on investment. It is crucial to select the appropriate size initially to prevent any financial drawbacks. SonicWall TZ has achieved positive ROI and is suggested for improved performance. Both products are essential for ensuring network security.

Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is highly recommended in comparison to SonicWall TZ. Users value its robust security capabilities, user-friendly interface, and seamless deployment. It offers comprehensive filtering options and scalability.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall TZ Report (Updated: November 2023).
745,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well.""I like Fortinet's cloud management. It allows me to manage all my devices in different branches for three cloud accounts. Even though I use on-prem devices, I can manage everything on the cloud.""The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and there are several operating systems that can include the hardware capacities. In the newer releases, the resources were more useful because they were included in the operating system.""Whenever I need something, Fortinet improves and updates the software for me.""In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable.""The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely.""From the firewall perspective, the rules and policies are very sufficient and easy to use.""The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."

More Fortinet FortiGate Pros →

"I've found the UTM features and the SD-WAN to be most valuable.""It is highly scalable because it has a mesh architecture that allows consistent policies.""Good for the servers and can stop network attacks, including spam.""I like the visibility and monitoring features because they're easy to use to monitor traffic. Features like geo-blocking and more have AI, and we're currently using all of it. But for now, we're only using geo-blocking, and we're able to block traffic from different countries. I also like that it's highly responsive. VM04 is also very powerful.""The thing that I like the most is that they're very willing to work with us to resolve issues that they haven't taken care of before in their product.""The product can scale.""The best part about FortiGate-VM is its strong security.""All the security features that are built into the product are valuable."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM Pros →

"SonicWall TZ think it's a good, solid, and stable product.""The VPN is quite useful for us, as well as the ATP.""It's a stable solution.""We like the unified threat management for defense-in-depth. We can terminate our site-to-site and remote access VPNs with it.""SonicWall TZ is very user-friendly and has network MAC binding. Additionally, the firewall works well.""It protects against intrusion while allowing needed access.""It is a scalable solution.""The network security is great."

More SonicWall TZ Pros →

Cons
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports.""Bandwidth usage in reporting could be improved for Fortinet FortiGate.""We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities.""Lacks sufficient security options.""Fortinet FortiGate is not very easy to use. The navigation could be improved to make it easier to use.""I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time.""I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation.""Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cons →

"There should be integration with an active directory — with Microsoft.""The solution can improve by adding separate interfaces for proxy and flow-based usage.""The pricing is expensive.""Support could be improved a little.""It would be better if it could provide you with options before completely blocking anything through the web filter. If you are doing a deep SSL inspection on the site if it says it's expired, it doesn't give you the option to continue at your own risk. I can't say that it's bad, but SSL internally isn't really a requirement. However, its security features can help. Right now, we have people going out and spending on purchasing the SSL certificates for internal sites.""One thing that can be better is added automation. And, on top of that, enhanced security when it comes to the automation itself.""his is not a good solution for enterprises. It's better for smaller companies.""There is always room for improvement in any solutions, including Fortinet's FortiGate-VM. Although the solution claims to have a superior throughput compared to other OEMs, upon closer examination and comparison, there is potential for significant improvement in this area. In today's rapidly evolving technology world, it is important to continuously strive for enhancement and development, and I believe Fortinet can make significant strides in this direction for the FortiGate-VM."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM Cons →

"Support for SonicWall TZ needs improvement, particularly the time it takes before you're able to speak to a support person, e.g. you have to wait for at least 30 minutes on the phone.""The quality of tech support can vary.""Getting support can be slow.""I would like to see a SonicWall integration with the DLP tool, this would be interesting. Data Loss Prevention integration.""Sometimes there is a glitch between the network connection. Last time, something happened on our IP phone, the SonicWall team did some updates to fix the issue. However, glitches happen very rarely. I did not experience any other types of problems.""I would like to see lower antivirus pricing.""I think content filtering is the area this product should improve. It's a little tricky to get put in correctly.""If the operation increases and the bandwidth consumption increases, it does not perform as per the expectations."

More SonicWall TZ Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is more expensive than Sophos. Fortinet is overall more expensive than Sophos. The small range of Fortinet, such as 60F and 80F, is more expensive than the small range of Sophos. Sophos is cheaper. In addition, if you jump from 80F Series to 100F Series, the price doubles."
  • "The license is yearly. We pay for the top end. It's called 360."
  • "Here in Brazil, we're going through difficult economic times and the tax on the dollar is high. All the solutions from minor competitors are growing in the market. The prices have come more competitive."
  • "Licensing for Fortinet FortiGate is on a yearly basis. Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
  • "The licensing scheme of Fortinet is better than Cisco. It is more logical."
  • "The solution requires a license annually, it is not a user license, you can have as many users as your want. I must renew the license regularly per device."
  • "It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive."
  • "There is a license to use Fortinet FortiGate."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The license we pay is a yearly fee. I can't say it's very expensive; it is a good price and is highly suitable for our usage."
  • "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 of the solution could be less expensive. There are some features that have to be purchased separately that have their own license."
  • "It is more expensive than its competitor, e.g. Sophos."
  • "Installation does not require another license making it an inexpensive solution."
  • "I would rate the product's pricing as four out of five."
  • "The price of the solution is competitive. Fortinet FortiGate-VM had a lot of advantages when it came to pricing. However, the competition has also geared up to a larger extent and it has become comparable now to the other solutions."
  • "Our license is yearly, but we're thinking of going monthly. I think it's somewhere around 100,000 for VM04. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a hacker, so we believe in security. That's why we also have third-party people that we involve to make sure that we're secure. I don't think the costs are too bad. You still want to get advice from people who worked in security for many years, so you add a third party. The third party also said they would give their share like 100K, or 200K or something like that, so I don't think it's too expensive for security. I think it just adds more trust."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate-VM Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "We have to pay yearly. Its licensing can be improved, and they should provide more features, such as AV, email filtering, and so on with the basic subscription."
  • "Licensing fees are on a monthly basis."
  • "There are a few features that are licensed and there should be more that are licensed. The price of the solution is midrange compared to others, I have not had anyone complain."
  • "The prices are expensive."
  • "The licensing scheme of SonicWall TZ is cost-effective. It's an affordable product, but some competitors, e.g. Sophos and Fortinet offer more competitive pricing."
  • "The price of SonicWall TZ is good for medium-sized companies."
  • "It comes to a range between five hundred to seven hundred dollars."
  • "The solution is expensive."
  • More SonicWall TZ Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewalls solutions are best for your needs.
    745,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage at… more »
    Top Answer:From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know… more »
    Top Answer:As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite… more »
    Top Answer:In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it… more »
    Top Answer:Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security Fortinet Fortigate… more »
    Top Answer:The ease of access and user-friendly setup is a valuable feature. Fortinet proves to be particularly straightforward to… more »
    Top Answer:I’ll say it depends on your needs. Fortinet FortiGate and SonicWall TZ are both next-gen firewalls (NGFW) with similar… more »
    Top Answer:It is highly priced and has a slow performance compared to other firewalls. I rate its pricing a nine out of ten for… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
    FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
    Dell SonicWALL TZ
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiGate is an innovative line of firewalls that aim to protect organizations from all types of web-based network threats. They come in a wide variety of product types. Fortinet FortiGate’s solutions are available in a large range of sizes and form factors and are key components of the Fortinet Security Fabric, which enables immediate, intelligent defense against known and new threats throughout the entire network.

    Fortinet FortiGate provides users with next-generation firewall solutions that provide proven protection with unmatched performance across the network, from internal segments to data centers to cloud environments. You can protect every part of your network without exception. Additionally, your protections can be managed from a single central location. This ensures that the task of protecting your network is infinitely easier to accomplish.

    Benefits of Fortinet FortiGate

    Some of the benefits of using Fortinet FortiGate include:

    • The ability to manage your firewalls from a centralized automated control console. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiManager enables administrators to exercise control of their firewalls in a streamlined manner. Administrators have full visibility and control over their system from a single location. It utilizes automation that collects information in real time, which greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of running various types of workflows. Administrators can free up resources by automating the most basic tasks.
    • The ability to produce uniform, appropriate, and coordinated responses to threats across networks. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiGuard feature generates system protections in near real time. This allows administrators to address threats to the system with custom-made solutions that can be uniformly enforced.
    • The ability to scale up your security to fit your changing security needs. Fortinet FortiGate’s design allows users to accelerate the transfer of data between users and escalate the number of users that are covered without compromising security of performance. This means that users can grow their networks and continue to collaborate without worrying about the system slowing down or coming under attack.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall solutions are cutting edge. They stand out from competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the robustness and power of their firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall provides users with many valuable features that allow them to maximize what they can do with the solution. These firewalls enable users to use a single piece of software to accomplish tasks that often require the use of multiple pieces of software.

    PeerSpot user Eric S., a Solutions Engineer and Consultant at a tech-services company, notes the robustness of this solution when he writes, "One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface.”

    PeerSpot user Jim M., a network admin at Penobscot Valley Hospital, notes the power of Fortinet FortiGate’s security software when he writes, "It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall.”

    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.

    The secure, sophisticated SonicWALL TZ is widely deployed at small businesses, retail, government, remote sites and branch offices. It combines high-performance intrusion prevention, malware blocking, content/URL filtering and application control.
    Offer
    Learn more about Fortinet FortiGate
    Learn more about Fortinet FortiGate-VM
    Learn more about SonicWall TZ
    Sample Customers
    Pittsburgh Steelers, LUSH Cosmetics, NASDAQ, Verizon, Arizona State University, Levi Strauss & Co. Whitepaper and case studies here
    Security7 Networks, COOPENAE
    AeroM_xico Delta TechOps, Unimat
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization21%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company22%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Construction Company13%
    Healthcare Company13%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Retailer7%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business53%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise24%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise16%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business43%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall TZ
    November 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall TZ and other solutions. Updated: November 2023.
    745,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 8th in Firewalls with 27 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 14th in Firewalls with 23 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.8, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate-VM writes "Flexible with good cloud management and a straightforward user interface". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Multifeatured firewall solution with a user-friendly interface, high availability, scalability, and stability". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Netgate pfSense, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, SonicWall NSa, Meraki MX and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall TZ report.

    See our list of best Firewalls vendors.

    We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.