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Fortinet FortiGuard vs MetaDefender comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 FortiGuard
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MetaDefender
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th), Anti-Malware Tools (3rd), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGuard is 1.7%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MetaDefender is 2.0%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MetaDefender2.0%
Fortinet FortiGuard1.7%
Other96.3%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Kamran Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief information security officer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Improves email filtering and network protection but has limited accessible support and feature discovery
When going for support and asking for support for features, the support team asks to go for professional services, which are not covered in the support agreement. This is the reason exploration of the product features has been limited. To learn or explore something about the product, professional services need to be taken. When creating a ticket for support with configuration features, the support is reluctant to provide that support. This is the reason every feature of Fortinet FortiGuard cannot be explored. Currently Fortinet FortiGuard is working fine with no issues, but newsletters or communications about new features in the product are not being received from Fortinet. This limits knowledge of what new features are available in the product. There is no knowledge about the behavior analytics feature in Fortinet FortiGuard.
Manoday Ahire - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Dynamic Solutions
Multi-engine security scanning has strengthened our AWS deployments and streamlines threat checks
MetaDefender already provides many useful capabilities. However, I think it could be improved with better integration into CI/CD pipelines such as Jenkins and GitHub Actions, automated scanning, faster scan results, clearer vulnerability reports, and real-time alerts would make it easier for DevOps teams to identify threats and block unsafe files before production deployment. Better automation, detailed reporting, and smoother DevOps integration would make MetaDefender even more useful for teams managing cloud infrastructure and frequent deployments. Regarding MetaDefender's AI capabilities, I think they are valuable, especially when it comes to identifying suspicious files and potential security threats. Governance and data protection are equally important, and I would like to see strong data privacy controls, transparent AI decision making, clear audit logs, and strict access management to ensure sensitive files and information remain protected.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of the solution are its ease of use and efficiency."
"The benefits I gain from using Fortinet FortiGuard include peace of mind; it has contributed to ensuring that we are always available and can meet our availability targets, which means that productivity is maintained and revenues will rake in as planned."
"The best features in Fortinet FortiGuard that I appreciate are the nice interface, ease of use, and straightforward administration and setup."
"The content filtering feature helps protect data by filtering potentially dangerous websites and brings significant benefit to the organization."
"The main benefits Fortinet FortiGuard provides are that it secures the network from external threats, it provides security, and it has a very perfect graphical user interface that is very easy to use."
"MetaDefender has positively impacted my organization by reducing the risk of file-based attacks, which has significantly improved our overall defense against phishing and malware delivery techniques."
"I assess the effectiveness of Deep CDR in reconstructing files safely and without signatures as a ten out of ten, as I really appreciate how it is done."
"MetaDefender is a useful tool for scanning all incoming and outgoing files and keeping our applications and servers in compliance, and I found it useful because we can integrate it with multiple file transfer tools such as Globalscape EFT, GoAnywhere, or Sterling, which is the best feature as it integrates with multiple tools."
"Multi-engine scanning helps us identify potentially malicious files early, reduce security risks, and deploy with greater confidence."
"My advice to others looking into using MetaDefender is that if you are looking ahead at a solution which can be implemented quickly and at a lesser cost, go ahead with it."
"For one of my clients, a major bank in Turkey, they reported saving approximately 30 percent of their SOC time on analyzing emails since implementing MetaDefender."
"MetaDefender is flexible because, for a free product, you can enroll up to 50 devices, and I have only used about eight devices so far."
"I assess the effectiveness of MetaDefender in blocking or sanitizing content based on policy as very good."
 

Cons

"If the tool can be cheaper or less expensive, it can be good for users."
"I think that automated response could be improved if they can add automated response features into Fortinet FortiGuard."
"The dashboard is an important and integral part of the product that could be improved."
"When creating a ticket for support with configuration features, the support is reluctant to provide that support."
"Currently, for our usage, the areas that have room for improvement are pricing and customization."
"The main improvement needed is pricing because, as an enterprise solution, smaller partners do not often receive the attention they deserve."
"I would rate it an eight because its interface can be improved and it can improve their integrations as well, so there is room for improvement."
"From the last year that we integrated OPSWAT in our company, I have not seen any improvements."
"The documentation is not well written, and I often need to talk with support."
"In some cases, the reconstruction of the file led to a failure of code deployment and it flagged a valid file as malicious, which was not effective; however, in other types of files, it was very effective and could scan files properly."
"While MetaDefender's mail gateway already gives fewer false positives, there is still room for improvement in reducing those even further."
"MetaDefender is strong, but integration with SIEM and SOAR platforms could be smoother, and faster scanning for large files would be welcome."
"One area where MetaDefender could improve is by making the user experience more intuitive, especially for new users, with clear guidance, simpler navigation, and a more detailed explanation of scan results and outcomes, which would enhance the effectiveness for users, while better onboarding and learning resources would help users get familiar with the different features more quickly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as a six to seven."
"We bought a three-year license, and that was pretty expensive. We agreed that it was really worth buying. It could be cheaper, but we understand that quality comes at a price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Educational Organization
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGuard?
Regarding pricing, I must say it is quite pricey, but if you look at the value it gives you, I think the value justifies the cost.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGuard?
When going for support and asking for support for features, the support team asks to go for professional services, which are not covered in the support agreement. This is the reason exploration of ...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiGuard?
Fortinet FortiGuard is used to filter emails coming to the email server. Fortinet FortiGuard threat intelligence is utilized, but not dedicatedly or specifically for threat intelligence purposes. F...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MetaDefender?
The setup and pricing are managed at the organization level, and the security department or the infrastructure department would have better knowledge of costing and pricing.
What needs improvement with MetaDefender?
If there is any major vulnerability, then it is understood that it should not allow access to the protected resource. However, if the vulnerabilities are not serious and are at the information or w...
What is your primary use case for MetaDefender?
Before accessing the company's protected resources, it is being scanned through MetaDefender Endpoint, which scans the local operating system and machine before the request actually hits the compan...
 

Also Known As

No data available
OPSWAT MetaDefender, MetaDefender Core
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGuard vs. MetaDefender and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.