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Fortinet FortiGate vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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
7.1
Fortinet FortiGate provides cost-effective security, reducing operational costs and enhancing efficiency with quick ROI for enterprises.
Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiGate-VM enhances network stability and security, offering cost savings and scalability, though ROI perceptions vary among users.
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
6.9
Fortinet FortiGate support varies, praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow responses and regional inconsistencies in efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiGate-VM support is praised for responsiveness but faces criticism for response times, expertise, and regional consistency.
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.
Their support is helpful and effective.
The end-user support is delayed at levels L2 and L3.
Customer service and support are very good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable with ease of expansion, though hardware integration and sizing can pose challenges for users.
Sentiment score
8.1
Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers scalable and efficient performance in virtual environments, with flexibility and enhanced capacity compared to hardware.
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
7.8
Fortinet FortiGate is favored for its stability and reliability, with some performance issues resolved through updates and sizing.
Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is generally reliable, with occasional stability issues that improve with proper sizing, configuration, and updates.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
The solution is very stable.
Recently they have had more, requiring internal testing to ensure deployment stability.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate users seek improvements in stability, integration, scalability, cost, and advanced features like monitoring and zero-trust technology.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM requires improvements in UI, stability, support, pricing, cloud integration, analytics, and user-friendly management.
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.
While Fortinet claims to offer a comprehensive network solution, it falls short in addressing computer application issues, particularly server security.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiGate offers various licensing models, balancing affordability and performance, though renewals can increase costs.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is competitively priced, with flexible licensing, though costs can rise with scaling and advanced features.
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.
It is about 20% cheaper.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate provides robust security features, user-friendly management, and scalability, making it a preferred choice for organizations.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM provides robust security, easy management, seamless integration, flexibility, and cost-effective protection with comprehensive features and control.
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.
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.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
373
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
7.4
Number of Reviews
121
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.2%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Q&A Highlights

RT
Jun 14, 2021
 

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.
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Answers from the Community

RT
Jun 14, 2021
Jun 14, 2021
Purpose-built appliances offer tested performance measures and provide proven results for the specified traffic and service configuration. VM can only provide vCPUs, RAM, and hard disk resources. However, in some cloud environments, you only have the VM option, no appliances accepted. We have several Fortigate VM firewalls operating for 3 years now in the cloud and appliances in our center...
2 out of 4 answers
William Yragui - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 11, 2021
Fortigate appliance is purpose built with NPU and SPUs designed to increase throughput while maximizing the ability to decrypt packets in search of malware.  VM deployments are software only and do not include the NPU and SPUs. 
AT
Jun 13, 2021
FortiGate VM  FortiGate-VM delivers the same FortiOS and FortiGuard real-time threat intelligence as the hardware models, in a virtual form factor. FortiGate-VM offers flexible licensing and provisioning for virtual network deployments. Support for multiple virtualizations and cloud platforms. Full support for Forti Hypervisor deployments enabling line-speed security in vCPE requirement. The architecture of a VM is a little more complex than that of Hardware. Virtual machines are less efficient than real machines because they access the hardware indirectly. FortiGate Hardware The hardware firewall is an ASIC-based device. It has hardware limitation, for example, Memory, CPU, etc Easy deployment in the network No complexity
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Government
6%
 

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 at large. In my opinion, Fortinet would be the best option and l use Fortinet too...
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 the firewalls change every 5 to 7 years as stated but you really do need to upg...
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 good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
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...
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...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM?
An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured.
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.