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Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.5
Fortinet FortiGate is valued for affordability, cost savings, enhanced security, operational efficiency, quick implementation, and long-term ROI benefits.
Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiGate-VM enhances network stability and security, offering cost savings and scalability, though ROI perceptions vary among users.
Sentiment score
7.6
Sophos Cyberoam UTM offers cost-effective management, reducing expenses and supporting efficient remote issue resolution for small to medium businesses.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Fortinet FortiGate's customer service varies, with praise for responsiveness but criticism for slow, sometimes inadequate technical support.
Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiGate-VM support is praised for responsiveness but faces criticism for response times, expertise, and regional consistency.
Sentiment score
7.2
Sophos Cyberoam UTM's support is generally reliable, with responsive assistance, but experiences mixed feedback due to occasional delays.
I would rate their support for FortiGate a nine out of ten.
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.
Their support is helpful and effective.
The end-user support is delayed at levels L2 and L3.
Customer service and support are very good.
They resolve issues timely once connected.
Technical support is effective and responsive.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Fortinet FortiGate scales well for diverse enterprises, though planning and licensing are crucial to avoid hardware limitations.
Sentiment score
8.1
Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers scalable and efficient performance in virtual environments, with flexibility and enhanced capacity compared to hardware.
Sentiment score
7.6
Sophos Cyberoam UTM offers scalable solutions for medium-sized businesses, though some upgrades may require hardware changes.
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.
It can start with a single core and scale up to a 32-core license for a robust deployment.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiGate is generally stable and reliable, with minor issues arising from new features, firmware updates, or hardware constraints.
Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is generally reliable, with occasional stability issues that improve with proper sizing, configuration, and updates.
Sentiment score
8.6
Sophos Cyberoam UTM is highly stable with minimal issues, appreciated for reliability, and improved since Sophos acquisition.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
We have not had any problems with the operating systems or maintenance of subscriptions.
Recently they have had more, requiring internal testing to ensure deployment stability.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate needs enhancements in firmware, usability, integration, support, reporting, VPN, cloud integration, and documentation for seamless use.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM requires improvements in UI, stability, support, pricing, cloud integration, analytics, and user-friendly management.
Sophos Cyberoam UTM struggles with performance, outdated architecture, high costs, and demands better usability, support, and feature enhancements.
By providing an integrated solution, users would have access to all features and functionalities within a single window, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple windows.
Investing in a solution that can accommodate such growth would be more cost-effective than repeatedly purchasing new hardware.
The constant daily revisions necessitate meticulous identification of the relevant documents to prevent the use of outdated information that could jeopardize our environment.
The API needs better integration to match accounts and objects more effectively.
Now, these features require separate products like FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and a FortiCloud subscription for reporting.
We cannot really position the Fabric if the licenses, renewal parts, or other components have monetary requirements that hinder full utilization.
It would be beneficial if phone calls or SMS for two-factor authentication were available.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiGate offers competitive pricing with upfront affordability, simple licensing, and long-term value, despite potentially high renewal costs.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is competitively priced, with flexible licensing, though costs can rise with scaling and advanced features.
Sophos Cyberoam UTM pricing varies with flexibility, offering competitive yet potentially high costs, depending on enterprise size and needs.
The most expensive part is the renewal of the license subscription.
FortiGate is priced lower than Palo Alto.
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.
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.
FortiGate VM is considered a premium product, which can be costly.
The price is appropriate, but if you want the real truth, it's actually quite expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate delivers robust security features and intuitive management, offering scalable and affordable network protection solutions.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM provides robust security, easy management, seamless integration, flexibility, and cost-effective protection with comprehensive features and control.
Sophos Cyberoam UTM offers robust security with advanced features and user-friendly management, enhancing enterprise productivity and network efficiency.
The firewall, IPS, and VPN functions are the most valuable features.
FortiGate provides solid protection against viruses, malware, and other threats.
In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable.
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.
FortiGate VM allows me to avoid the hardware lease recycle every five to eight years.
Fortinet Security Fabric and real-time threat response capabilities are the main selling points.
It provides bandwidth management, category management of websites, blocking certain elements, IPS blocking, DDoS protection, and VPN management between sites and clients.
The way the rule sets are configured makes it an easily understandable way to manage.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
357
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
121
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (9th)
Sophos Cyberoam UTM
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (10th)
 

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.
Dipak M Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
Centralized management enhances remote work with comprehensive security and efficient VPN
The VPN is the most usable feature and is advisable for us to work from home. It provides bandwidth management, category management of websites, blocking certain elements, IPS blocking, DDoS protection, and VPN management between sites and clients. It offers centralized management, which allows us to use everything from a central console.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
29%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Media Company
10%
Real Estate/Law Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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.
What do you like most about Sophos Cyberoam UTM?
The solution works perfectly without any users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Cyberoam UTM?
The price is appropriate, but if you want the real truth, it's actually quite expensive. The annual software licensin...
What needs improvement with Sophos Cyberoam UTM?
I face issues when connecting to the VPN since it requires an authenticator. It would be beneficial if phone calls or...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
No data available
 

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
Gulf Corporation for Technology, Maridive & Oil Services, Fidelity Bank, Petra University, Capital FM Kenya, Safari Park Hotel and Casino, Mayfair Casino, Pacific International Lines, Mozambique Ministry of Education, University of Namibia, Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, University of Hawai, New Delhi Municipal Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.