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Fortinet FortiGate vs SonicWall NSv comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

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 Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
346
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
SonicWall NSv
Ranking in Firewalls
28th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.4%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSv is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Brian M. - PeerSpot reviewer
A solid firewall with straightforward management and robust capabilities
It's one of the more expensive brands. FortiManager has not been my favorite. I don't use it and cannot say I really care for FortiManager for managing the firewalls. I primarily just access and manage the firewalls individually. Nothing else particularly comes to mind, as it has been a pretty good experience.
Sileesh Sivadasan - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps small businesses expand branches more easily
The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support. If I want to talk to a customer executive, they ask many trivial questions. Even if I explain that I am asking for a Dell partner, they still ask specific questions, and they will explain many unnecessary questions.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This solution has helped our organization by having strong functions and a reliable firewall."
"The solution is extremely reliable."
"The pipe filter application is an outstanding feature."
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"The ECC management and the GUI that offers single interface management are the most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate."
"The interface is very good."
"The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus."
"Customers are more inclined towards FortiGate because of application control, web filtering, and anti-spam features. The support from the FortiGate team is good, and price-wise, it is affordable."
"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."
"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"For my small NFB banking services, when they are expanding their branches, I could incorporate a little bit easier."
"We are very impressed with it."
"SonicWall excelled in threat management, evident in how users handled it effectively."
"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."
"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."
 

Cons

"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"Currently, FortiGate is providing SSL VPN. But they're missing some features that are available in Palo Alto's SSL VPN."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."
"In most cases, the IPS engine uses too many resources, which makes Fortinet FortiGate devices unstable."
"The solution lacks sufficient filtering."
"There are too many updates coming for VPN, and the VPN keeps disconnecting frequently, which I find problematic. It does what it's supposed to do, but I practically face reconnection issues with the VPN."
"Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details. At present, they do not provide detailed reports compared to other products."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
"The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support."
"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."
"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."
"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."
"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."
"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's one of the more expensive brands. The 100 series costs around $4,000. They are similar in pricing to what you might get from Cisco solutions and probably other similar ones. They're not more expensive than other similar solutions, but they're certainly not cheaper either."
"Fortinet is reasonable in pricing and licensing. Overall, FortiGate is affordable. The licensing fee can be a little high, depending on the budget for your project."
"The price is really low. It's cheap in comparison to the cost of Cisco or CheckPoint, for example."
"We have the full license that included all of the features and support."
"Its price could be better."
"Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive."
"Setup costs and pricing depends on many variables, but it's mostly affordable."
"The license for Fortinet FortiGate is affordable in my country."
"The solution's pricing is good for the technology it offers."
"The tool is moderately priced."
"SonicWall NSV is not very costly."
"We are currently using the trial version."
"Our initial purchase, which included a three-year term of support, was about $25,000 USD."
"The solution’s pricing is less compared to other products."
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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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
27%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
Retailer
7%
Legal Firm
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...
What do you like most about SonicWall NSV?
The product helps improve our security.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSV?
The tool is moderately priced. We need to purchase an additional license for NSM. We can manage all the firewalls through NSM. Otherwise, we would have to connect each location manually to manage t...
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSV?
The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support. If I want to talk to a customer executive, they ask many trivial questions. Even if I ...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
SonicWall Network Security Virtual
 

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
Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate vs. SonicWall NSv and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
853,831 professionals have used our research since 2012.