Fortinet FortiGate vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

Fortinet FortiGate vs. Juniper Session Smart Router

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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

Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

594

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)

Juniper Session Smart Router

Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Routers (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 8.7%, down from 19.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	8.7%
Juniper Session Smart Router	2.1%
Other	89.2%

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Featured Reviews

Yati Gharat

Chief Technology Officer at Litmus

Unified security management has simplified data center protection and optimized branch connectivity

In my opinion, a potential area of improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is that while it has a pretty good dashboard, which is not an issue as such, when we talk about hardware parameters, sometimes the hardware gets pretty heated up. Given the amount of traffic going through it, that is fine. However, the heat of the hardware has to be looked into. Fortinet FortiGate firewall is good, but other products like the switching part and all that fabric, in handling very audio-video traffic, sometimes it struggles on the switching part, but on the routing part, it is fine. On the firewall part, it is good; there is no issue as such up till now. Additionally, I suggest that Fortinet can add software which is in a controlled way, particularly regarding AI and ML. It should not happen that the AI/ML takes certain decisions which are not beneficial for the organization. The control should remain with the team members who are responsible for configuring this firewall.

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Esther Sultaana

Storage Consultant Storage at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Secure healthcare connectivity has protected patient data and supports reliable telemedicine

Everything can be improved. It could improve its security stack with malware detection, particularly in healthcare because of ransomware. Now you have IoT vulnerabilities, so something like advanced malware detection or threat analysis would help. This is something I worked with around 2016 to 2017. Perhaps they have added those features, but I know they didn't have it then. Some security profiles for specific medical devices would be helpful. Sandboxing would be good. Dedicated telemedicine routing profiles would be beneficial because we have a lot of telemedicine going on. Real-time sessions for clinicians may need pre-built templates for EHR and EMR. I think those would be good if they're not already there. I don't know what the latest router has, but I know they didn't have those features then. There can always be improvements because technology is constantly advancing. It is a very solid router, and that is one of many industries that could utilize it. Healthcare is one such industry, and if it works for healthcare, then that is a major plus for that router.

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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 license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."

"With Fortinet FortiGate, we improved security significantly."

"From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."

"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."

"Fortinet FortiGate has many functions, and it is one of the best next-generation firewalls with an affordable cost than other vendors."

"The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution."

"We purchased Fortinet because of the pricing, its functionality, because it met our requirements, and the total cost of ownership over five years was quite reasonable. In the market, Fortinet is rated quite well."

"There are lots of features and most of them are deployed for internet security. Users are protected if they accidentally go to some malicious sites."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Juniper Session Smart Router's real-time analytics and visibility features are easily accessible."

"Customer service is very prompt."

"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."

"I can share specific numbers; we achieved a 30 to 60% WAN cost reduction by reducing MPLS usage."

"Overall, it is very solid."

"Juniper Session Smart Router has positively impacted my organization by achieving a 30% to 40% reduction in WAN cost, which means less reliance on MPLS, with a 40% faster failover with near-zero user impact during link issues, and 20% to 30% less time spent on troubleshooting, along with fewer outages due to dynamic path selection, which facilitates fast branch deployment."

"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."

"Juniper Session Smart Router has positively impacted my organization by simplifying SD-WAN deployments, allowing us to operate with fewer staff, as its integration with Juniper Mist AI takes on much of the workload, thereby offering reliable performance and stability without software issues."

More Juniper Session Smart Router pros

Cons

"There should be some open-source training or free training for decision makers, or some webinars should be available. These would help understand the new product line and the existing product line features."

"The good things aside, there are improvements needed in the Fortinet FortiGate."

"The cloud management and automation capability could be improved."

"There are some tiny bugs that sometimes affect the operations. In the past revision of it, there was a bug. Because of the bug, we had to downgrade the version. It happened only with the last revision."

"Usually, we sell the bundle with the UTM or threat management piece with IPS, IDS. Other providers, such as Palo Alto, are ahead in terms of safe functionality. So, for me, delivering truly safe service is probably something that still needs to be improved."

"They should consider making some improvements regarding the pricing."

"There should be more testing before releasing software since it can be a little buggy sometimes when new features come out after updates."

"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"A key area for improvement in Juniper Session Smart Router is its security stack, which is not as robust as Fortinet."

"I found some weaknesses on their hardware. They are sometimes breaking very often."

"Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do."

"My overall rating for Juniper Session Smart Router as a product is that earlier it was good, but currently, the replacement of the devices is very difficult, and the staff is also a challenge."

"One area for improvement that I have observed is related to the VPN, where I frequently notice VPN flaps or disconnections between Juniper Session Smart Router and the SD-WAN hub device in the data center, which should be addressed to prevent users from experiencing any downtime."

"Juniper Session Smart Router could improve its documentation to become more competitive. It has very little documentation, and you have to rely mainly so much on support to do something, which I feel should not be that way."

"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."

"Everything can be improved. It could improve its security stack with malware detection, particularly in healthcare because of ransomware."

More Juniper Session Smart Router cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is a bit pricey for small businesses, but it is still bearable in terms of cost."

"On a scale of one being cheap and ten being expensive, I rate the tool's price as an eight."

"I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall a five out of ten for pricing."

"The pricing is better compared to other solutions like Check Point, Arista, or Cisco."

"Setup costs and pricing depends on many variables, but it's mostly affordable."

"It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price."

"The price range is quite acceptable and normal."

"FortiGate SWG is a cost-effective solution well-suited for organisations of all sizes."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."

"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."

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Comparison Review

it_user216600

Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

21%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	372
Midsize Enterprise	138
Large Enterprise	195

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

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...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Session Smart Router?

I personally did not do the pricing. I imagine it was okay because the company did purchase it. In a lot of instances, particularly as it pertains to healthcare, they don't want to spend too much. ...

What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?

I think the current Juniper focuses more on switching rather than routing, which is a weak point in the product. Currently, I and my customers have not utilized the Session Awareness feature of Jun...

What is your primary use case for Juniper Session Smart Router?

I have been running my own company and working with Juniper Session Smart Router for almost 10 to 12 years because Larsen & Toubro is my client who will use Juniper devices for switching and fi...

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Comparisons

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

MikroTik Routers and Switches vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 9% of the time

Mist WAN Assurance vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 8% of the time

NFX Series Network Services Platform vs Juniper Session Smart Router

Compared 8% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Juniper Session Smart Router

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Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Juniper Session Smart Router

Download Juniper Session Smart Router product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Juniper Session Smart Router offers real-time analytics, zero-trust segmentation, and simple deployment, providing efficient and secure connections. Its tunnel-free secure vector routing sets it apart in the SD-WAN market, enhancing scalability with Mist Cloud integration and application-aware AI operations.

Juniper Session Smart Router is recognized for improving network management through its blend of edge-to-cloud stack capabilities, application-aware AI, and seamless integration with Mist Cloud. Users leverage its zero-trust segmentation, bandwidth-efficient SDR channel, and unique no-tunnel secure vector routing to streamline SD-WAN deployments and ensure optimal connectivity across global branches. Its strengths include rapid configuration rollback, clear visibility, and application-aware operations, offering detailed insight into network performance. The dynamic full-stack operations ensure enhanced scalability and management of complex network environments, meeting the diverse needs of telecom and ISP networks by providing smooth session failovers and bandwidth savings.

What are the key features of Juniper Session Smart Router?

Real-Time Analytics: Provides detailed insights into network performance with AI-driven operations.
Zero-Trust Segmentation: Ensures secure, efficient connections through stringent segmentation.
SDR Channel: Delivers secure connections with enhanced bandwidth efficiency.
Tunnel-Free Secure Vector Routing: Unique in the SD-WAN market, offering efficient, secure pathways without tunnels.
Integration with Mist Cloud: Enhances scalability and network management through seamless cloud operations.

What are the benefits and ROI for businesses using Juniper Session Smart Router?

Enhanced Scalability: Supports growing network demands with a comprehensive edge-to-cloud stack.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlined deployments and rapid rollback capabilities simplify complex operations.
Cost Management: Offers bandwidth savings and effective resource use for optimal financial efficiency.
Application Awareness: Manages diverse SLAs with AI-powered operations for improved application performance.
Network Visibility: Provides detailed insights and monitoring for proactive network management.

Juniper Session Smart Router finds applications mainly in managing BNG and streamlining operations across branches. It supports inter-location connectivity and bandwidth bundling, addressing diverse application SLA requirements. Commonly utilized by telecom and ISP networks, it ensures efficient management of large-scale environments.

Juniper

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

Revation Systems

Fortinet FortiGate vs. Juniper Session Smart Router