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Fortinet FortiOS vs SonicWall NSv comparison

 

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
6.3
Fortinet FortiOS offers cost-effective, scalable security, with competitive pricing and partnerships, enhancing ROI compared to top brands.
Sentiment score
5.1
SonicWall NSv improved security and productivity, reduced costs, and enhanced network monitoring, strengthening infrastructure and resource management.
Once it is deployed, I do not have to revisit or replace the hardware.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The pricing of FortiOS is competitive and reasonable compared to other leading products such as Palo Alto and Check Point.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
Fortinet is strong in terms of cost and compatibility with other vendors.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
In terms of cost, using SonicWall NSv in the cloud has allowed me to avoid purchasing additional physical firewall appliances, while scaling via VM size has proven more cost-effective than hardware refresh cycles, leading to reduced overall infrastructure and firewall expansion costs.
Network Security Consultant at NTT DATA
Investment was challenging but strategic, given its advantages like 30% depreciation in the Indian ecosystem by the third year.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
Based on SonicWall NSv, it helped us to easily navigate through everything and get done what we needed in a very quick manner.
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiOS support is responsive and helpful but sometimes slow with complex issues, lacking top-tier vendor standards.
Sentiment score
8.2
SonicWall NSv customer service is praised for prompt, effective support, with high ratings despite occasional wait time concerns.
I would rate them nine or ten out of ten.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
Fortinet technical support is very responsive and helpful.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
Support engineers sometimes lack eagerness to assist with issues such as the memory problem.
Director, IT Infrastructure Department at Zemen Bank S.C.
Customer support for SonicWall NSv is top-notch.
IT systems and network engineer at Nelo Global Technologies Africa Limited
Whenever I create a case regarding any issue, their support is prompt and effective, adhering to the SLA, which leaves our customers very satisfied.
Project Manager in IT at IT Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
I would rate the customer support a 10 out of 10.
HPC engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiOS is highly scalable, adapting to different organizations, supporting growth and global deployments, yet may need hardware upgrades.
Sentiment score
7.5
SonicWall NSv provides scalable solutions with easy upgrades and cloud integration, enabling smooth performance improvements for growing environments.
When customers' networks grow and needs expand, we can easily switch between models to trade up devices.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
It allows for the expansion of users and devices without additional licensing costs.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
We have been using Fortinet for bandwidth shaping and many other bandwidth-related functions.
Associate Director IT Operations at Procento
It has met our organization's needs by allowing us to scale our security posture consistently with our cloud compute growth, increased traffic and user areas, new cloud regions, and policy complexity growth.
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud scalability with SonicWall NSv has worked well and is much easier compared to the physical firewall, though it still requires good planning to avoid performance bottlenecks during peak traffic.
Network Security Consultant at NTT DATA
Nonetheless, the product is robust, eliminating major scalability concerns.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Fortinet FortiOS is praised for stability, with minor issues usually tied to configurations or external factors, not the system.
Sentiment score
8.3
SonicWall NSv is praised for stability, reliable performance, effective management, and preference over Palo Alto and Sophos.
While the product is largely stable, it sometimes faces memory issues in specific versions like 11 OE, which can be disruptive.
Director, IT Infrastructure Department at Zemen Bank S.C.
There were no lags, there were no issues, and no hanging of the firewall.
Associate Director IT Operations at Procento
Stability is a seven out of ten because during version migrations, and sometimes with new versions, Fortinet is not as good.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
It handles traffic well, providing reliable perimeter security with minimal interruptions.
Network Security Consultant at Terafence Private Limited
Understanding and handling these devices onsite was limited, requiring external support.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
It rates around eight to nine in terms of stability, and it is quite good.
Owner at IT CARE
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiOS requires improvements in VPN, pricing, compatibility, UI, security features, support, updates, deployment, and pricing consistency.
SonicWall NSv struggles with pricing, slow GUI, and setup complexity while users seek improved features and support.
Fortinet FortiOS faces memory issues, which can lead to unexpected downtimes.
Director, IT Infrastructure Department at Zemen Bank S.C.
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.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
Compared to other market leaders like Palo Alto and Check Point, FortiOS has many bugs in its initial releases.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
I believe that application-based QoS policy is very important given the current environment. This feature should be available for application QoS as well in this firewall.
Project Manager in IT at IT Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
When the software was downloaded, optimal hardware utilization was lacking, making hardware upgrades inevitable.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details.
Owner at IT CARE
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiOS is often pricey but justified by features, with agreements influencing costs, suitable for mid-size businesses.
SonicWall NSv's reasonable pricing varies by region, with competitive licensing but higher costs in places like Brazil.
It is an affordable solution for us.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
Fortinet products are somewhat pricey, similar to Cisco equivalents, however, they have justified their price point.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
I am satisfied with the pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiOS, rating it nine out of ten compared to other familiar leading firewalls.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
The Global VPN will be chargeable in our product, unlike Fortinet or Sophos, where it is free—this is a major difference.
Owner at IT CARE
SonicWall NSv was a bit expensive for the subscription.
Network Architect at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Since we have been using it for years, it makes it a bit more affordable.
DevOps Support Engineer at Bluegrass
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiOS is praised for UTM, user-friendly interface, robust security, excellent performance, cost-effectiveness, and seamless management.
SonicWall NSv offers robust security with advanced features and customization, enhancing productivity and protection in cloud environments.
It is user-friendly when it comes to turning on features, and it has been reliable and effective.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The threat intelligence in FortiOS is very high, and the system is scalable without additional licensing costs.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
The solution offers good threat intelligence, which is crucial for our customers' security purposes.
Technology Consultant at NetWiser
The cloud delivery threat intelligence spots suspicious behavior in just a few seconds, stopping it before execution, automatically blocking and quarantining files.
IT systems and network engineer at Nelo Global Technologies Africa Limited
SonicWall NSv has positively impacted my organization by helping us access our whitelisted web apps since we manage web apps while ensuring proper standards to prevent any information leaks.
DevOps Support Engineer at Bluegrass
When I had to establish multiple new branches and add multiple firewalls at a time for the new openings, the auto-creation of firewall rules saved me so much time on the configuration of firewalls.
network security engineer
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiOS
Ranking in Firewalls
20th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall NSv
Ranking in Firewalls
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 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 SonicWall NSv is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SonicWall NSv0.5%
Fortinet FortiOS1.1%
Other98.4%
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.
SG
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Secures east-west cloud traffic and improves threat visibility through deep inspection
SonicWall NSv offers great features. I cannot pinpoint a single best feature, but the best feature is the ability to deliver the full, high-efficiency inspection power of a physical SonicWall, including zero-day defense using Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection to the cloud, efficiently removing the performance versus cloud trade-off typically associated with virtual firewalls. Regarding deep memory inspection and real-time zero-day defense in SonicWall NSv, deep memory inspection is distinct from traditional sandboxing methods because it is focused on what is happening in the memory during file execution time, rather than just observing file system behavior. The deep memory inspection process addresses all challenges by employing a proprietary technique within the secure analysis environment, focusing on CPU-level analysis and real-time verdict. Those are the key points. SonicWall NSv's user interface is quite clear and easy to navigate. If someone has not worked with SonicWall and this is their first experience with the platform, I would highly recommend it. It is very easy to navigate and very user-friendly. SonicWall NSv has positively impacted our organization because we gained clear visibility into our network, and it helps to identify potential security issues that we had. We were able to remediate those issues, and so far, we have had a great experience with SonicWall NSv. We were able to manage approximately 99% of network-based attacks through this platform.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Security Firm
10%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise23
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise9
 

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSV?
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of SonicWall NSv has been mostly positive, though there are a few areas that can be improved in licensing. Pricing for SonicWall NSv is com...
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSV?
Overall, SonicWall NSv is a strong and reliable virtual firewall, but based on my hands-on experience, there are a few areas where it can definitely be improved. The first area is the management in...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall NSV?
The main use case for SonicWall NSv is to secure virtual and cloud-based infrastructure by providing centralized firewall security, including VPN access and traffic inspections. In one of our envir...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SonicWall Network Security Virtual
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiOS vs. SonicWall NSv and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.