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Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs SonicWall TZ comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

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
5.7
Fortinet FortiGate delivers cost-effective security, quick integration, and minimal maintenance, providing substantial ROI and operational efficiency within a year.
Sentiment score
4.5
Fortinet FortiGate-VM enhances network stability and security, offering cost savings and scalability, though ROI perceptions vary among users.
Sentiment score
5.8
SonicWall TZ is favored by small businesses for its cost-effectiveness, security, and fast ROI within eight months.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
I observed a fifty to sixty percent reduction in operational costs after migrating to FortiGate VM.
They have a platform that organizes their networks and access effectively.
We haven't used MPLS for over five years now, and it was extremely beneficial to see the changes from MPLS to SD-WAN using Fortinet FortiGate.
That is a reason to buy a firewall, and it is challenging to put a monetary value on security.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Fortinet FortiGate's customer support experiences vary widely, with praise for responsiveness but criticisms for slow response and escalation issues.
Sentiment score
5.5
Fortinet FortiGate-VM support is praised for responsiveness but faces criticism for response times, expertise, and regional consistency.
Sentiment score
3.9
SonicWall TZ receives mixed reviews on customer service, with technical support praised but improved response times requested.
They offer very accurate solutions.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
The speed of Fortinet's technical support is significantly faster compared to Palo Alto.
Their support is helpful and effective.
The end-user support is delayed at levels L2 and L3.
Customer service is excellent.
For support, I would rate SonicWall TZ five out of 10.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Fortinet FortiGate is highly scalable, suitable for medium to large enterprises, but requires careful planning for effective hardware upgrades.
Sentiment score
7.2
Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers scalable and efficient performance in virtual environments, with flexibility and enhanced capacity compared to hardware.
Sentiment score
7.1
SonicWall TZ suits small to mid-sized businesses but planning and model choice are key for extensive scalability.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
Scalability is well-supported, with the notable ability to implement features easily.
It can start with a single core and scale up to a 32-core license for a robust deployment.
We currently have a little over 2,000 users working with Fortinet FortiGate in our environment.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Fortinet FortiGate is praised for high stability and reliability, with rare issues often resolved through updates.
Sentiment score
6.1
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is generally reliable, with occasional stability issues that improve with proper sizing, configuration, and updates.
Sentiment score
6.3
SonicWall TZ is praised for reliability and security, though occasional minor issues and update disruptions may occur.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
The product has been very stable, based on my ten to eleven years of experience.
In the past couple of years, they started releasing numerous new features, and things have become somewhat unstable.
The traffic is stable and seamless.
In terms of stability, SonicWall doesn't have performance issues.
SonicWall TZ rates 10 out of 10 for stability.
SonicWall TZ is definitely stable and offers a good value for money.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate needs updates in functionality, usability, and cost to enhance integration, scalability, and user-friendliness.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM requires improvements in UI, stability, support, pricing, cloud integration, analytics, and user-friendly management.
SonicWall TZ needs interface, reporting, and support improvements, while high pricing and complex licensing affect user satisfaction.
Investing in a solution that can accommodate such growth would be more cost-effective than repeatedly purchasing new hardware.
While Fortinet claims to offer a comprehensive network solution, it falls short in addressing computer application issues, particularly server security.
When considering Sophos XG, which we also use, the logging and reporting functionality is notably more efficient.
The constant daily revisions necessitate meticulous identification of the relevant documents to prevent the use of outdated information that could jeopardize our environment.
I am concerned about Fortinet's ability to help us meet regulatory compliance because its optimal functionality requires deploying all solutions within the mesh as Fortinet products.
The API needs better integration to match accounts and objects more effectively.
Integration with other vendors, especially with VPNs, can be challenging and requires more effort when configuring.
SonicWall TZ could benefit from newer technology.
The VPN license should be improved by providing more free SSL VPN licenses.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiGate offers competitive pricing and favorable price-performance ratio, especially compared to Cisco and Palo Alto, with manageable licensing fees.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is competitively priced, with flexible licensing, though costs can rise with scaling and advanced features.
SonicWall TZ's flexible pricing and upgrade promotions offer competitive, cost-effective solutions for small to medium enterprises despite setup costs.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
It is about 20% cheaper.
FortiGate is priced lower than Palo Alto.
The license for Fortinet FortiGate-VM costs 100K to 150K Philippine pesos per year for VM1 or VM2.
They could be slightly cheaper, however, Fortinet offers a good cost-benefit ratio.
More licenses are required to purchase the perpetual license for SSL VPN and Global VPN.
When comparing similar products across vendors, there may be a small difference in cost.
I would also position its pricing as a three, where one is the lowest price and ten is the highest.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate delivers robust security, ease of use, high throughput, and flexibility, making it ideal for diverse needs.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM provides robust security, easy management, seamless integration, flexibility, and cost-effective protection with comprehensive features and control.
SonicWall TZ offers user-friendly configuration, robust security, VPN integration, remote access, and affordability, ideal for businesses.
In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable.
FortiGate has helped reduce the risk of cyberattacks that might disrupt our client's production.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
The more integrated we become, the less we spend on solving bugs and issues, allowing us to reduce time focusing on understanding and improving our network.
Fortinet is the only provider to have successfully set up a unified operating system on all its products in the network security ecosystem.
I appreciate FortiGate's flexibility, which allows for centralized management through FortiManager.
For SMB segments, SonicWall performs well.
It was beneficial during COVID for remote work through its VPN functionality.
The advanced gateway security features such as web filter, application control filter, IPS, ideas, gateway antivirus, anti-spyware, and botnet filter are valuable.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
574
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
Ranking in Firewalls
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
132
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall TZ
Ranking in Firewalls
19th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.1%, up from 18.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall TZ is 2.8%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate20.1%
Fortinet FortiGate-VM1.8%
SonicWall TZ2.8%
Other75.3%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sitti Ridzma Salahuddin - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Subhadip Pakrashi - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides reliable performance with strong features and simplicity
SonicWall TZ is user-friendly, admin-friendly, and a beautiful product. I have been selling SonicWall since 2007 without any issues. SonicWall has been working on it excellently. They are up to date, and their research team is good, making the box feature-rich. Based out of India, I have had some issues with their faulty channel policy. It's a very good product, an awesome product for those who want to use SonicWall TZ. You can bet on it, but check out the channel policies in India. They should check out the channels in the channel business. It's just a precaution, nothing more than that. Overall rating: 9 out of 10.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business350
Midsize Enterprise129
Large Enterprise187
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business68
Midsize Enterprise30
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business61
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...
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 ...
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...
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...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM?
An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured.
Would you choose Fortinet Fortigate or Sonicwall TZ?
I’ll say it depends on your needs. Fortinet FortiGate and SonicWall TZ are both next-gen firewalls (NGFW) with simila...
What do you like most about SonicWall TZ?
The most valuable feature of SonicWall TZ is the double authentication, where it asks for one password and again asks...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall TZ?
The price is normal. It is a nominal cost for an SMB TZ used for SMB businesses. However, more licenses are required ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
Dell SonicWALL TZ
 

Overview

 

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
AeroM_xico Delta TechOps, Unimat
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. SonicWall TZ and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,445 professionals have used our research since 2012.