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Fortinet FortiOS vs Hillstone A-Series 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 FortiOS
Ranking in Firewalls
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Hillstone A-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
49th
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiOS is 1.1%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone A-Series is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiOS1.1%
Hillstone A-Series0.3%
Other98.6%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Associate Director IT Operations at Procento
Single-pane management has simplified firewall control and has improved risk mitigation
I would not say that Fortinet FortiOS is not very scalable. Generally, what happens is that for enterprises, we hire consultants who do the capacity planning and sizing to determine what kind of firewalls to put in place. At the same time, it is not only the number of users; it also depends on the number of WAN links coming in and everything, because we have been using Fortinet for bandwidth shaping and many other bandwidth-related functions. They should improve their machine learning AI capabilities of Fortinet FortiOS because there is too much competition. Other players are also improving and making a lot of changes in their UI and overall operating system.
Albert-Wang - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant at SiS Technologies
Good performance, responsive support, and an easy setup
We use the product for small and medium-sized businesses. Their scalability is good. They have a lot of choices based on their performance. Even on one unit, they have multiple ports to support customers so that they can connect to different devices. I'd rate the scalability nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is an easy means of setting up high-availabilty firewall protection."
"The technical support is very good and the assistance they gave was very good and I learned a lot from them."
"The technical support on offer has always been quite good."
"I find Fortinet to be on the higher end of the scale in terms of technical support."
"The user experience is great, and the graphical user interface is also good."
"All networks are security-driven, we get throughputs and security."
"It has worked well for us overall, and we are happy with its capabilities."
"The best aspects of the solution are the wire signature and VPN, secure VPN encryption, and bulk packet monitoring."
"The antivirus is very good."
 

Cons

"The central management can improve in Fortinet FortiOS. It is sometimes difficult to manage all the devices."
"Right now, we have to contend with CLI. We'd like it to be easier. We need the features to be in a UI."
"I think the technical support is not really very good."
"The solution needs improvement with DDoS protection."
"The reporting for this solution could be improved. It could also be more stable and offer better pricing."
"Some features I have found to be hidden and cannot be accessed through the graphical user interface, you can only access them through the command-line interface (CLI). All the features should be accessible through the graphical user interface."
"There is no flexibility."
"In terms of what needs improvement, the pricing could be lower. The price is very steep."
"It would be helpful if they could integrate more with third-party security systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not cheap; it is also not expensive. It is somewhere in the middle."
"The Fortinet solutions can be a bit expensive."
"FortiOS is affordable, but its price could be lower."
"A medium 100 or 200 Series box costs around $3000, and the software cost is around 55% of the hardware cost."
"Be sure to choose a licensing plan that leaves a little headroom so performance is not an issue."
"The cost is around $40,000."
"The price of Fortinet FortiOS is reasonable and it is paid annually. You are able to select the features that you want."
"Pricing depends on implementation and licensing choices and is usually not a practical budget choice for small businesses."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise23
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiOS?
I rate the pricing for FortiOS as eight or nine out of ten. It is an affordable solution for us.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiOS?
I would not say that Fortinet FortiOS is not very scalable. Generally, what happens is that for enterprises, we hire consultants who do the capacity planning and sizing to determine what kind of fi...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
1. Google 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. IBM 5. Cisco 6. Oracle 7. Intel 8. HP 9. Dell 10. Apple 11. Facebook 12. Twitter 13. LinkedIn 14. Netflix 15. Adobe 16. Salesforce 17. VMware 18. Samsung 19. Sony 20. Toshiba 21. Panasonic 22. LG 23. Nokia 24. Ericsson 25. Siemens 26. Philips 27. General Electric 28. Honeywell 29. BMW 30. Mercedes-Benz 31. Audi 32. Volkswagen
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Cisco and others in Firewalls. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.