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Fortinet FortiOS vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.5
Fortinet FortiGate is cost-effective, easy to manage, enhances security, reduces costs, and offers high returns and efficiency.
Sentiment score
8.0
Fortinet FortiOS offers competitive pricing, easy scalability, and reliable security, resulting in solid ROI and reduced upgrade costs.
Sentiment score
7.5
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series offers cost-effective ROI with advanced security features, strong performance, and long-term user satisfaction.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Once it is deployed, I do not have to revisit or replace the hardware.
The pricing of FortiOS is competitive and reasonable compared to other leading products such as Palo Alto and Check Point.
Fortinet is strong in terms of cost and compatibility with other vendors.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Fortinet FortiGate support receives mixed reviews on responsiveness and accessibility, excelling with third-level engineers but needing consistency improvements.
Sentiment score
7.8
Fortinet FortiOS support is helpful but inconsistent, with quick basic solutions, delays on complex issues, and documentation needing improvement.
Sentiment score
7.1
Customers praise Palo Alto Networks PA-Series support for quality and speed, though initial response times could improve.
I would rate their support for FortiGate a nine out of ten.
They offer very accurate solutions.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
I would rate them nine or ten out of ten.
Fortinet technical support is very responsive and helpful.
Support engineers sometimes lack eagerness to assist with issues such as the memory problem.
Initially, it took one or two hours to get a Palo Alto engineer, which is quite slow.
I am happy with the technical support from Palo Alto.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for various organizations, though hardware scaling and licensing can present challenges.
Sentiment score
8.6
Fortinet FortiOS offers scalable solutions for varying business sizes, though some hardware upgrades may be needed for expansion.
Sentiment score
7.3
PA-Series offers scalable solutions but some models need upgrades; choosing the right model is crucial for adaptability.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
When customers' networks grow and needs expand, we can easily switch between models to trade up devices.
It allows for the expansion of users and devices without additional licensing costs.
Fortinet FortiOS is scalable, allowing the addition of users and firewalls as required.
The solution can handle more than ten thousand users in my organization.
There are no restrictions in scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiGate is praised for reliability, though configuration and environment impact stability, with newer features occasionally causing issues.
Sentiment score
7.5
Fortinet FortiOS is stable and reliable, outperforming alternatives, with any issues mainly due to configuration challenges.
Sentiment score
8.5
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is praised for its robust stability, reliability, and effective performance, though frequent updates are noted.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
We have not had any problems with the operating systems or maintenance of subscriptions.
While the product is largely stable, it sometimes faces memory issues in specific versions like 11 OE, which can be disruptive.
Stability is a seven out of ten because during version migrations, and sometimes with new versions, Fortinet is not as good.
I would rate the stability of FortiOS as an eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate users experience firmware instability, poor support, non-intuitive interface, and desire improvement in pricing, integration, and VPN capabilities.
Fortinet FortiOS users want improved usability, better management, enhanced security features, and more efficient support, especially for 60D models.
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series needs enhanced security, usability, support, integration, and pricing flexibility to address current user challenges.
By providing an integrated solution, users would have access to all features and functionalities within a single window, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple windows.
Investing in a solution that can accommodate such growth would be more cost-effective than repeatedly purchasing new hardware.
The constant daily revisions necessitate meticulous identification of the relevant documents to prevent the use of outdated information that could jeopardize our environment.
Fortinet FortiOS faces memory issues, which can lead to unexpected downtimes.
There should be more documentation on how to use the CLI or how to perform CLI versions of tasks that can be done through the GUI.
Compared to other market leaders like Palo Alto and Check Point, FortiOS has many bugs in its initial releases.
The interface of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series should be made much more user-friendly.
For the next release of the Palo Alto Networks PA-Series firewall, I would like to see logs monitoring included.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiGate offers competitive pricing and cost-effective licensing, though renewal and support costs can be high.
Fortinet FortiOS pricing is moderate and scalable, with renewal costs potentially high despite competitive initial bundling offers.
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is costly but valued for robust performance and features, appealing to enterprise customers despite higher prices.
The most expensive part is the renewal of the license subscription.
FortiGate is priced lower than Palo Alto.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
It is an affordable solution for us.
Fortinet products are somewhat pricey, similar to Cisco equivalents, however, they have justified their price point.
I am satisfied with the pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiOS, rating it nine out of ten compared to other familiar leading firewalls.
The firewall is expensive for every company, but the cost is worth it to ensure maximum security.
The price of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is expensive.
Regarding value for money, we brought this Palo Alto Networks PA-Series firewall last month, and we have taken up to 3 year renewals.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate excels in robust security, user-friendly management, scalability, and cost-effectiveness with superior VPN, firewall, and UTM features.
Fortinet FortiOS offers ease of use, robust security features, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, ideal for large-scale deployments.
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series offers robust security with advanced threat detection, user-friendly interface, and seamless integration enhancing functionality.
The firewall, IPS, and VPN functions are the most valuable features.
In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable.
FortiGate has helped reduce the risk of cyberattacks that might disrupt our client's production.
It is user-friendly when it comes to turning on features, and it has been reliable and effective.
The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs.
The solution offers good threat intelligence, which is crucial for our customers' security purposes.
The most effective features of the solution are its Magic Quadrant positioning, making it a leading firewall on perimeter areas and internet edges.
The most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is that it is highly customizable.
The best features of the Palo Alto Networks PA-Series firewall include Global protector VPN workings.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
364
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Fortinet FortiOS
Ranking in Firewalls
22nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.4%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiOS is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.
Harshama Silva - PeerSpot reviewer
We have improved network security with user-friendly controls and high threat intelligence
FortiOS is very user-friendly and easy to configure for L1, L2, and L3 personnel. Its web filtering, application control, and IPS features are very user-friendly, easy to manage, and deploy. The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs. FortiOS allows us to expand the number of users and devices as our network needs grow.
Deminda Dilan - PeerSpot reviewer
Good for enterprise-level businesses and offers many features like URL filtering and antivirus capabilities
Palo Alto can improve the web application firewall (WAF) feature at layer 7. Currently, I don't think it's available. If they can improve that, it would be better. We wouldn't need to purchase a separate WAF solution because they already have advanced URL filtering. But I don't think that advanced URL filtering has the same features as a dedicated WAF, like F5 or other solutions. That is an area for improvement. If they can improve the WAF feature, customers won't have to buy a separate WAF solution. They could do it with the same Palo Alto firewall, perhaps through a subscription-based model. So the web application firewall feature has to be improved.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
14%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
University
7%
 

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 a...
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...
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 ...
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...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiOS?
The SSL VPN is fee for use is most attractive.
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 do you like most about Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to...
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
The interface of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series should be made much more user-friendly.
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
No data available
No data available
 

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
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
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Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiOS vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
858,469 professionals have used our research since 2012.