Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Zyxel Unified Security Gateway comparison

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Zyxel Unified Security Gateway

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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

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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Alexander Azikov

It Manager at Diamond Braces

A robust appliance that is reasonably priced and straightforward to set up

Although manageable, the user interface is a little bit slow and could be improved. There are two user interface options available, namely the basic and the advanced. The basic UI is not very good and doesn't have a lot of features, although it is fast. The advanced UI allows me to do whatever I want, but this is where the issue of speed exists. At one of our sites, the CPU utilization was very high, and for no reason. Technical support needs to be more responsive to requests.

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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

"The product's most valuable features are SD-WAN and the integration of WiFi and switches."

"The detection is great."

"You can create multiple Virtual Domains (VDOMs), which are treated as separate firewall instances."

"Fortinet FortiGate is among the best firewall solutions, having a significant market share in Egypt."

"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is value for money."

"The solution is user-friendly and easy to operate."

"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."

"Fortinet FortiGate is among the best options in the market."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The tool improved the security in our company's virtualized environment, as it was helpful in creating an additional layer of security for the organization and for the use of the internet."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are the servers, analyzer, and track protection."

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

"The solution integrates well with other Fortinet products."

"The customer care center of Fortinet is good. For all the requests that we have done, they work as fast as possible, so this is a good point for Fortinet."

"What I appreciate the most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM is that it is not much different than hardware appliances."

"The configuration, graphical interface and command line are easy to use."

"Good for the servers and can stop network attacks, including spam."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pros

"The most valuable features of the solution stem from web filtering, malware protection, and antivirus."

"The solution can scale well."

"This is a capable appliance and the standard features work well for us."

Cons

"They need faster serviceability and more security features."

"It should have a better pricing plan. It is too expensive. It should also have a more granular view of the attack. I don't have FortiAnalyzer, and it is difficult for me to have a complete view when there is an attack on my server."

"Whitelisting could be better."

"The performance can be improved."

"The AI part needs improvement to enhance its functionality."

"The area that Fortinet may improve is customer support."

"It could always be more secure."

"The stability could be a bit better."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"It is difficult to size the VM in terms of machine resources, and for this reason, clients prefer the appliance."

"The previous version 5.6 had integrated features for logging, monitoring, and management. Now, these features require separate products like FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and a FortiCloud subscription for reporting."

"The product is satisfactory. I haven't identified any features to improve, and based on the number of deployments I've handled with FortiGate-VM, there haven't been any complaints from the customer's side."

"Areas for improvement would be application control and web filtering."

"The user interface needs to be improved."

"The key activation is very complicated at times."

"We haven't attempted to scale the solution just yet. If we want to scale this solution we may have to look at other models. With certain requirements, we probably wouldn't be able to scale it so well as it is right now."

"The scalability feature of the solution has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM cons

"The product has some scalability and data management issues where improvements are required."

"Sometimes it reboots when you least expect it, and that's the main issue."

"Although manageable, the user interface is a little bit slow and could be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay about $4,000 for a yearly license, and there aren't any additional fees."

"Fortinet FortiGate has different licensing models, depending on what you're going to do. Services included would depend on the license model. Licenses can be renewed annually."

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

"We pay for the solution annually."

"For the price, I'd rate it a ten because it's very cost-effective."

"When I look around at other products, such as Sophos, Fortinet FortiGate is 20% to 30% more expensive with our current cost."

"No comment."

"When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"At present, the SD-WAN licenses are on an annual basis."

"We are on an annual license for this solution and it could be cheaper."

"The price falls somewhere in the middle; it's neither cheap nor expensive."

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

"I would rate the product's pricing as four out of five."

"There is a support fee that can be bought on a yearly or two-yearly basis. I don't think they do five years. The best benefit is that the same pricing is guaranteed for that duration. If you can afford it, I would recommend using the longest possible time span."

"The pricing is really good."

"The product’s licensing must be a little cheaper."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pricing and cost advice

"The price of Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is good compared to other similar products in the market."

"This gateway is pretty cheap."

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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

Financial Services Firm

Government

Comms Service Provider

21%

Computer Software Company

15%

Retailer

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	129
Large Enterprise	187

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

No data available

Questions from the Community

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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 Zyxel Unified Security Gateway?

The most valuable features of the solution stem from web filtering, malware protection, and antivirus.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zyxel Unified Security Gateway?

I cannot definitively comment on whether Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is an affordable product as I haven't done co...

What needs improvement with Zyxel Unified Security Gateway?

The integration capability is quite challenging. The system is very complicated, and many features are hidden. I'm lo...

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

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Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Download Fortinet FortiGate-VM product report

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

August 2025

Download Zyxel Unified Security Gateway product report

Also Known As

No data available

FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM

No data available

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

ZyWALL USG Series delivers high-access quality to help businesses satisfy the demand for always-online communications. For internal deployments, the ZyWALL USG Series provides active-passive High-Availability (HA) service to support device or connection failover.

With Device HA Pro service, the ZyWALL USG Series also supports instant failover, so connections are always maintained when a failover event occurs. For external deployments, the ZyWALL USG Series features multi- WAN load balancing/failover and a comprehensive mobile broadband USB modem support list for WAN backup operations. The ZyWALL USG Series also supports IPSec load balancing and failover, providing additional resilience for mission-critical VPN failover with VTI Interface deployments.

ZyWALL USG110/210/310 thoroughly protects networks with industry-leading firewall, Anti-Malware/ Virus, Anti-Spam, Content Filtering, IDP, and Application Patrol functionality. Regulate unauthorized use of Web applications over your network, such as Facebook, Google apps, and Netflix, among others. Zyxel security measures are enhanced with SSL Inspection, blocking threats hidden in SSL-encrypted connections while facilitating deeper policy enforcement. Furthermore, newly improved Content Filtering 2.0 enhances HTTPS Domain Filter, Browser SafeSearch, and Geo IP Blocking for an array of security enhancements to ensure clean Web connections.

Zyxel

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

Information Not Available

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Zyxel Unified Security Gateway