We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiOS and Hillstone E-Series based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."This version is stable. I don't have any issues with this solution, in our environment, it works well."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was straightforward."
"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."
"The FortiGate controls the user's activities and maximizes my bandwidth use overall."
"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."
"The main features I find useful are intrusion prevention and web filtering. Additionally, the solution is easy to manage."
"The technical support on offer has always been quite good."
"We have expanded the wireless access point and switches using Fortinet FortiOS."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the ease of use and user-friendly interface."
"The SSL VPN is fee for use is most attractive."
"The interface is easy to understand, so when there are threats you get alerts. It's quite intuitive, but if you are ever confused they have instructional videos. For example, if you don't understand a graph there's a link to a video that explains what the graph means. It makes it very user-friendly."
"It's simple to use in terms of inbound and outbound traffic management."
"It efficiently manages large-scale firewall deployments."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients a secure connectivity."
"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."
"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."
"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."
"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."
"There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated."
"The reporting in Fortinet FortiGate could improve. Customers are having to purchase additional reporting components. When I have used the Sophos solution it is a complete solution, in Fortinet FortiGate you have to use additional tools to have the features needed."
"The main aspect of FortiGate that could be improved is load balancing. Our management team does not want to buy another appliance for only load balancing."
"We would like to see a better training platform implemented."
"The platform's interface could improve."
"To some degree, it's almost a question as to why some of this stuff isn't simpler. For example, for an AP deployment, while it's integrated, the number of steps that you have to go through in order to get the AP up, seems like a lot."
"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."
"Technical support could be better. Some competitors have much more responsive support teams."
"You can enable and disable certain modules in it. However, with disabling, nobody can really tell us if that module is disabled."
"Fortinet FortiOS could improve by having better authentication methods with Microsoft or Google Services."
"The threat time interval lags a little, especially if there's a heavy load on the firewall."
"I would like to see fewer bugs. If you use the box with its basic features, the solution is straightforward and stable, but you can run into bugs when using newer features or in more complex use cases. They included a DNS filter as a new feature, and I had issues that required raising a ticket with customer support."
"Fortinet FortiOS's integration could be improved."
"The solution needs to adjust its pricing models. With the way they are structured, everything is very disparate and sold separately, and, depending on the solution, it can get quite pricey."
"Fortinet needs to make this solution even more robust. Sometimes when we get a DDoS attack, the cannot withstand it. We can run out of sessions very easily. That said, I suppose if you want more a robust system, then you could purchase higher-end solutions, which are more expensive. Still, I would like to see more protection from even in the low-end version."
"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."
"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
"The current usage reporting is very basic."
"The tool needs to improve its price."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews while Hillstone E-Series is ranked 33rd in Firewalls with 9 reviews. Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4, while Hillstone E-Series is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Hillstone E-Series writes "A user-friendly and marketable solution with a virtual switching capability". Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiWeb, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection and Darktrace, whereas Hillstone E-Series is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, OpenVPN Access Server, Netgate pfSense and Meraki MX. See our Fortinet FortiOS vs. Hillstone E-Series report.
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