Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs WatchGuard XTM [EOL] comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Fortinet and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 98% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Read 151 Fortinet FortiGate-VM reviews

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11,507 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

Read 34 WatchGuard XTM [EOL] reviews

90% willing to recommend

Fortinet FortiGate-VM

WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and WatchGuard XTM [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Cisco and others in Firewalls.

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Firewalls

September 2026

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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-VM

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

151

Ranking in other categories

Firewalls (11th)

WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Ehab Ali

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.

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Generalm4545

General Manager- IT & Automation - Serum at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Protects from attack software and hacking but it doesn't provide the reports in a readable format

In my opinion, image clarity is very important, because I don't get the proper image product on reports. This means that functionality is not there. My engineer does not know how he can replace an order. We attach a log after any kind of keys using a utility instead. For the internet policies that we are implementing, the policy should be based on proper protocols. We use the default policies and there are a number of third-party protocols that appear here. Management with WatchGuard XTM means that out of policy is the problem from our side. In this way, we can not do effective services for people with this one. The policy definition with WatchGuard XTM is not proper for all use case requirements. I've got weekly business reports that I am expecting attachments with from WatchGuard XTM that display data for all kinds of consideration which should be required. Main User Functionality Level Order must adhere to using the admin functionality on the registry, or else our users publish their own name. Maybe these recommendations are irrelevant, but I say that the issue to improve most with WatchGuard XTM is the Main User Function.

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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

"Apart from the firewall, it comes with antivirus, IPS, and Web Application Firewall, and it has a lot of integration with external connectors, such as Teams, that are protected from threats that come from external sources."

"The solution integrates well with other Fortinet products."

"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."

"I find the simplicity to be most valuable."

"The product is quite user-friendly so we didn't have a lot of issues that needed to be addressed."

"FortiGate integrates well."

"The pricing of the solution is good."

"FortiGate was quite useful for this scenario, but we are just in the planning and analyzing phase."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pros

"For the current network demand, I think the product is worth buying as it is not too expensive and it has almost all the features that I need."

"I like the hostwatch because I can see what traffic uses the most bandwidth and I can block that site."

"We switched because WatchGuard offered better value for money without sacrificing security."

"After it is installed, you will have plenty of time to do something else, because it is stable and does not require you to reboot all the time."

"VPN tunnel creation in WSM is very easy to set up BOVPN tunnel between two sites by dragging and playing."

"I have found the GUI interface to be invaluable, as it is very intuitive and easy to manage."

"We compared this solution to Juniper, and we find that WatchGuard is a much better product."

"There is a site-to-site VPN configuration between others people."

More WatchGuard XTM [EOL] pros

Cons

"FortiGate's application load balancing has to be improved. They need to improve a lot on the load balancing and RAF side. They are far behind Citrix in that regard."

"We have had some issues with connecting to the VPN from home after firmware updates, which could be an area for improvement."

"The WAF is extremely limited."

"The debugging and troubleshooting has room for improvement."

"It would be useful to have integration with different reporting tools. This is something we are sorely missing. It would be a plus to have reporting integrations. It would be good to have more integration with the identity suites, such as Office 365 and Azure Active Directory, of different providers that we use. Integrations are already available, but it would be nice to have some more advanced options."

"In the next releases, it would be nice to see central cloud management."

"I would rate the solution at a four out of ten. It does base functions and it's doing that at a pretty high price."

"The one thing that could be improved is the integration with the exchange. The gateway level controls can be enhanced a bit more."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM cons

"Initially WatchGuard assured us regarding endpoint security, but we are not sure that the product provides endpoint security features to its full extent."

"While the wireless capability is great for roaming and seamless hand-off, there have been intermittent issues with connection dropping on Apple devices."

"The issue that we had was that the integration with Active Directory was a bit of a hassle."

"Early models of the XTM2 (e.g. 21, 22, 23) line lacked sufficient memory, and caused a number of issues that required frequent reboots."

"The WatchGuard gateway wireless functionality for managing access points leaves much to be desired."

"One huge issue with WatchGuard XTM is that I'm not getting reports in a readable format."

"One huge issue with WatchGuard XTM is that I'm not getting reports in a readable format. Readable means, I don't want Excel online. We repeat auditing when we trigger the report or setup calendar. That functionality is what we are looking for from WatchGuard XTM here."

"I would like them to improve the product's overall protections. This would be good for all product users."

More WatchGuard XTM [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Of all the firewalls that we compared, FortiGate is the cheapest and most affordable, so we are satisfied with the pricing."

"We can tailor the suitable license for the customer, whether they require UTB or enterprise features. The options are flexible based on their needs."

"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."

"There is no additional cost. Once you get the licensing fee, you're good."

"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 basic pricing in Austria is OK, but asking for special offers, e.g., NPOs, NGOs, trade up, and/or trade in, is always useful."

"If you are in a licensed solution, like Cisco or Palo Alto, it is cheaper. I do recommend using it with a license, because it is a security solution and it needs updates."

"It is an expensive solution if you are migrating from an open source solution."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pricing and cost advice

"Like all other manufacturers, there are a lot of features and different pricing. The best is to talk to a representative."

"The licensing and renewal is very expensive."

"It costs less than the SO works and others (like SonicWall, Cisco, and Barracuda) without increasing so much CPU use."

"Get at least a maintenance contract for the updates and take a larger WatchGuard than you need. A WatchGuard creates new ways to secure your network."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

14%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Marketing Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	74
Midsize Enterprise	35
Large Enterprise	43

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	3

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 filtering a...

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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 Fortigate VM integrates well and has excellent centralized reporting. It is very easy to...

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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...

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Comparisons

Azure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 6% of the time

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM Competitors

Fortinet FortiGate vs WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

Compared 20% of the time

Sophos UTM vs WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

Compared 15% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

Compared 9% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

Compared 5% of the time

More WatchGuard XTM [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate-VM

September 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate-VM product report

Buyer's Guide

WatchGuard XTM [EOL]

August 2026

Download WatchGuard XTM [EOL] product report

Also Known As

FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate-VM delivers robust security services and advanced network management suitable for cloud environments, providing solutions like firewall and SD-WAN, with seamless integration across Fortinet devices.

FortiGate-VM is designed for enterprise security, offering comprehensive features like intrusion prevention and application filtering. It's known for its scalability and flexibility, supporting cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS. It enhances threat response and network management efficiency, thanks to real-time threat response, intuitive integration with existing systems, and cost-effectiveness.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM?

Strong Security: Offers firewall, intrusion prevention, and application filtering.
SD-WAN Capability: Improves network connectivity and performance.
Scalability: Efficient scaling in cloud environments.
Integration: Seamlessly connects with other Fortinet devices.

What benefits can users expect from Fortinet FortiGate-VM?

Enhanced Network Management: Simplifies deployment with real-time threat response.
Cost-Effectiveness: Optimal for managing network protocols at reasonable costs.
Flexibility in Deployment: Suitable for secure virtual machine operations on platforms like Azure or AWS.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is predominantly employed in industries requiring stringent data center security, enabling network segmentation and VPN services. It's particularly favored by organizations using virtual and cloud networks due to its Unified Threat Management capabilities, making it an efficient solution for protecting virtual environments from threats.

Fortinet

Small businesses need big security, too, and the WatchGuard XTM Series firewall/VPN appliances deliver that strong protection, but without the hefty price tag. Enterprise-grade security includes full HTTPS content inspection, VoIP support, and optional security subscriptions like Application Control and Intrusion Prevention Service.

WatchGuard

Sample Customers

Security7 Networks, COOPENAE

AVG, Cyren, Kaspersky Lab, Lastline, NCP engineering, Trend Micro, Websense

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Cisco and others in Firewalls. Updated: September 2026.

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