Fortinet FortiOS vs SonicWall NSv comparison

Fortinet and SonicWall are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Fortinet is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.4, while SonicWall is ranked #28 with an average rating of 8.2. Fortinet holds a 1.1% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to SonicWall’s 0.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Fortinet FortiOS and SonicWall NSv compete in the firewall solutions category. FortiOS seems to have the upper hand due to its robust features and excellent customer service.

Features: Fortinet FortiOS users benefit from comprehensive security features, frequent software updates, and robust customer support. SonicWall NSv excels with advanced threat intelligence, integration capabilities, and user-friendly deployment.

Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiOS needs better documentation, faster support response times, and enhanced scalability. SonicWall NSv requires a more intuitive management experience, improvements in scalability, and easier setup processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiOS deployment is straightforward with excellent customer support aiding the process. SonicWall NSv deployment is user-friendly, though occasionally complex, with responsive but less robust customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiOS offers competitive pricing with satisfactory ROI. SonicWall NSv has a reasonable setup cost and provides good value due to its specialized security capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiOS vs. SonicWall NSv Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiOS vs. SonicWall NSv

April 2025

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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 FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.4%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiOS is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSv is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable

In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

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Harshama Silva

Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd

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.

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Sumesh Panikkar

Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer at Khansaheb

Provides effective threat prevention and helps improve security

We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution. If I use NSv 400, I can't upgrade to the next generation. We cannot upgrade the VM to the next generation. We have to rebuild a new VM and copy the configurations. We cannot upgrade straightaway. The solution must allow us to upgrade the same machine to a newer version without many changes.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."

"SSL-VPN is very useful for us and has been very reliable."

"The flexibility and ease of configuration are the most valuable features."

"The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, and also IPS, and even SD-WAN."

"My clients appreciate it for its features. It is easy to install and manage, and it offers all-around protection, including web filtering, content filtering, IPS, and IDS."

"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."

"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."

"FortiGate has a very strong unified threat management system."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I find filtering traffic, filtering web traffic, session traffic, and managing the network as valuable features."

"FortiGate as a product is very easy to configure."

"The solution constantly adds features that are useful and user-friendly such as the ability to tweak firewalls through the CLI."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the granular control and their interoperability is good."

"It has a lot of scalability abilities which makes it easy to scale."

"A good network security system for medium-sized businesses with an excellent GUI interface that gives a graphic view of network status."

"Fortinet FortiOS's valuable features include intuitive policy creation and deployment, precise parameter settings to determine thresholds, and security profiles such as web filtering and remote application filtering, among others."

"Has a very simple OS and a good price point."

More Fortinet FortiOS pros

"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."

"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."

"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."

"The customization of firewall rules provides great value to our customers as it allows them to lock things up in the way that they desire. When it is used for internal access, with a VPN in place for remote workers, the firewalling services provided by Azure, such as the default services that can be turned on, are applied. However, the use of a software-based virtual firewall gives us greater flexibility in introducing security controls for customers who are publishing applications that are publicly accessible from the public cloud. This virtual firewall provides an additional layer of security and more extensive security control options to ensure the protection of our customers' valuable information and assets."

"Out of ten, I would rate the solution at an eight."

"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."

"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."

"SonicWall excelled in threat management, evident in how users handled it effectively."

More SonicWall NSv pros

Cons

"The platform's compatibility with Wi-Fi equipment needs improvement."

"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."

"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."

"The performance could be a bit better. Right now, I find it to be lacking. Having good performance is very important for our work."

"Technical support needs to be improved."

"It does not have key authentication for admin access."

"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."

"The documentation available for Fortinet FortiGate should be improved"

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Their first-level support is often poorly trained."

"While it is a solid solution, there are some product limitations which exclude it from deployment in some situations."

"They're using a lot of application-specific IC, so that may be causing some performance issues. And whenever a Fortinet adds new features, it can affect performance."

"Right now, all the features meet my requirements."

"Fortinet FortiOS can improve the monitoring function, it could be more accurate, easy to use, and understandable."

"The signature discs, compared to Palo Alto, aren't as good. It takes more time to get the signature updates."

"The product needs a feature that allows users to create another site on a VPN."

"The additional features I would like to see included in the next release is better troubleshooting and reporting."

More Fortinet FortiOS cons

"The price is a significant factor."

"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."

"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."

"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."

"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."

"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."

"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."

"SonicWall NSV's SSL VPN could increase its number of users to 100-plus users."

More SonicWall NSv cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortigate's pricing is competitive."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is affordable. Most of our customers are on a three-year license to use the solution. All the features and support are included in the price."

"Its licenses cost the same for different subscription plans."

"Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license."

"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."

"The price depends on the size of the company. From the beginning, you just want to know the internet bandwidths, speed, and the number of users to be able to offer the right product and model. They have a lot of products in FortiGate according to the size of the company, like 200D and 300D."

"Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate could improve, it is expensive."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The licensing for FortiOS is good, with a security license included when we update the main license."

"The price of Fortinet FortiOS has been reasonable."

"The software costs roughly half what the hardware costs. Overall, the product is expensive."

"Pricing depends on implementation and licensing choices and is usually not a practical budget choice for small businesses."

"The program is expensive."

"We pay an annual license fee. It is rather expensive so I would like to perhaps see a drop in price in the future."

"There is a license required for the solution and the price is fair."

"We had a three-year license to use Fortinet FortiOS and we are going to renew it this year."

More Fortinet FortiOS pricing and cost advice

"We are currently using the trial version."

"The solution’s pricing is less compared to other products."

"The tool is moderately priced."

"SonicWall NSV is not very costly."

"Our initial purchase, which included a three-year term of support, was about $25,000 USD."

"The solution's pricing is good for the technology it offers."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

24%

Government

Real Estate/Law Firm

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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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...

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What do you like most about Fortinet FortiOS?

The SSL VPN is fee for use is most attractive.

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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.

See all answers

What do you like most about SonicWall NSV?

The product helps improve our security.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSV?

The tool is moderately priced. We need to purchase an additional license for NSM. We can manage all the firewalls thr...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall NSV?

The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support. If I w...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 22% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

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Fortinet FortiManager vs Fortinet FortiOS

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiOS

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Fortinet FortiOS

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Fortinet FortiOS

Compared 4% of the time

Darktrace vs Fortinet FortiOS

Compared 4% of the time

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Azure Firewall vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 32% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 26% of the time

Stormshield Network Security vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 19% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 13% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 10% of the time

More SonicWall NSv Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

May 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiOS

May 2025

Download Fortinet FortiOS product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

April 2025

Download SonicWall NSv product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

No data available

SonicWall Network Security Virtual

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Fortinet FortiOS is a comprehensive security operating system that powers Fortinet's network security solutions. It provides advanced threat protection, network visibility, and centralized management for organizations of all sizes. With its robust features and intuitive interface, FortiOS enables businesses to secure their networks, applications, and data from cyber threats.

One of the key features of FortiOS is its advanced threat protection capabilities. It incorporates multiple security technologies, including firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention system (IPS), and web filtering, to detect and block a wide range of threats. This ensures that organizations are protected against malware, ransomware, and other malicious activities. FortiOS also offers extensive network visibility, allowing organizations to monitor and analyze network traffic in real-time. This visibility enables businesses to identify potential security risks, detect anomalies, and take proactive measures to mitigate threats.

Additionally, FortiOS provides detailed reports and analytics, helping organizations gain insights into their network security posture. Centralized management is another crucial aspect of FortiOS. It allows businesses to manage and configure their security policies, devices, and users from a single console. This simplifies the management process and ensures consistent security across the entire network infrastructure.

Moreover, FortiOS supports integration with other Fortinet products, enabling seamless security orchestration and automation. FortiOS is designed to be scalable and flexible, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes. It offers a range of deployment options, including physical appliances, virtual machines, and cloud-based solutions. This flexibility allows businesses to choose the deployment model that best fits their requirements and easily scale their security infrastructure as their needs evolve.

Fortinet

SonicWall NSV is a software-based virtual firewall that provides additional security for customers with public-facing servers or services on Microsoft Azure. The AGSS Bundle is considered the most valuable feature, providing security services such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI.

Additionally, customization of firewall rules provides great value to customers, allowing them to lock things up in the way they desire. SonicWall NSV offers extensive security control options to protect customers' valuable information and assets.

SonicWall

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

Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiOS vs. SonicWall NSv

April 2025

Free Report: Fortinet FortiOS vs. SonicWall NSv

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiOS vs. SonicWall NSv and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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