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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)
14th
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)
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th), Anti-Malware Tools (3rd), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGuard is 1.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MetaDefender is 1.9%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MetaDefender1.9%
Fortinet FortiGuard1.6%
Other96.5%
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.
RS
Senior Associate at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
File protection has improved and now keeps millions of daily transfers secure and compliant
In my organization, while using this tool, we found that there were a few files flagged as suspicious; however, those were not suspicious and it was a false positive, so that can be improved. False positive results were an issue, and it took time to scan files if the file size was greater than 1 GB. For larger files greater than 1 GB, it needs to be improved. 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. We have already covered all the main suggestions; however, it can be improved to reduce false positive results, and scanning could be faster to process more files in a day.

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 best features in Fortinet FortiGuard that I appreciate are the nice interface, ease of use, and straightforward administration and setup."
"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."
"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 content filtering feature helps protect data by filtering potentially dangerous websites and brings significant benefit to the organization."
"I assess the effectiveness of MetaDefender in blocking or sanitizing content based on policy as very good."
"MetaDefender OPSWAT provides that solution, and also the ICAP scans."
"OPSWAT is the best alternative."
"The best feature of MetaDefender is that it can isolate USB devices from the connected network, blocks malware and unsafe files, and ensures all endpoints follow security policy, so that my organization remains safe and reduces the risk of these threats."
"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."
"The best features of MetaDefender include its ability to detect malware and vulnerabilities, which I also use at server levels, including production and testing servers, helping me identify and address vulnerabilities by applying patch updates."
"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."
"The percentage of accuracy is great and the integration of multi-scanning and Content Disarm and Reconstruction affects my data security operations effectively because OPSWAT blocks the file types that we are not willing to have inside the company or are not approved."
 

Cons

"I think that automated response could be improved if they can add automated response features into Fortinet FortiGuard."
"When creating a ticket for support with configuration features, the support is reluctant to provide that support."
"The dashboard is an important and integral part of the product that could be improved."
"Currently, for our usage, the areas that have room for improvement are pricing and customization."
"If the tool can be cheaper or less expensive, it can be good for users."
"We could enhance the user interface and user experience, as the platform has many security capabilities, but some configuration and policy management tasks can take time to understand, especially for someone using the product for the first time."
"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."
"Most of the time, in our experience at Danet Communications, we work with government offices, and they need the CDR. However, because CDR is affecting files such as MSI and EXE files, they are always creating new passes of scanning."
"I did not manage to enroll my IoT devices, including my child's device running on iOS and some Amazon products."
"MetaDefender can be improved by upgrading the Linux version, which is using many free tools such as MongoDB, Postgres, and OpenSSL."
"I would like to see improvements in the tool's automation capabilities."
"The UI can be more user-friendly, and initial steps and policy tuning take some time."
"What I would like to see improved in MetaDefender includes reducing the high cost of the license, as the pricing is very high."
 

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
Educational Organization
12%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
14%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise12
 

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?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the cost and license fee is increasing every year.
What needs improvement with MetaDefender?
MetaDefender can be improved by upgrading the Linux version, which is using many free tools such as MongoDB, Postgres, and OpenSSL. It can be easily targeted by hackers. If MetaDefender can upgrade...
What is your primary use case for MetaDefender?
My main use case for MetaDefender involves the Central Management Console, core service, and ICAP service. In my day-to-day work, I use MetaDefender to scan endpoint security, but we did not have a...
 

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.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.