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Fortinet FortiOS vs Stormshield Network Security 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 FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
587
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Fortinet FortiOS
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (20th)
Stormshield Network Security
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
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.
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.
Zsolt Jónás - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at NaxoNet
Advanced GUI and layered security have supported compliance and simplified intrusion prevention
I haven't had a task that I couldn't solve with Stormshield Network Security. The active-active high availability solution would be beneficial because currently, if you build a high availability solution with Stormshield Network Security, you have a main device and another one is a backup device. The HA can switch between them, but it would be good to have a master-master solution, not just a master-slave one. I could set a URL that I can call to update the DNS record. Currently, Stormshield Network Security devices support DynDNS, which is not a usual feature request from a server environment. I have my own solution instead of DynDNS because I don't prefer it, so I have my own service for that. However, the GUI does not support using a custom service instead of DynDNS. I had to solve it in the console on Stormshield Network Security device, but it would be much better if it was reachable on the GUI. I had to figure out a trick for the IPsec configuration. In the IPsec config, we have to provide the remote side's IP address, but it's always changing. This means that an office, for example a company that has an office but without a fixed IP address, cannot be used with IPsec VPN.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The UTM feature is quite good. FortiAP is easy to deploy because both Fortigate and FortiAP are under the same brand. Otherwise, you need to do more work on the configuration."
"Anti-Spam web content filterinG."
"Fortinet FortiGate has several valuable features; the configuration and policy setup are easy to implement, and there are embedded features including DLP, WAF, and proxy capabilities with security profiles for various functions."
"The scalability is very good."
"The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."
"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."
"We have a redundant setup for failover, however, it has not had to fail over ever and we have not had a capacity issue."
"With Fortigate, I find fewer attacks and the console easily alerts me about possible attacks so I can prevent the malware attacks."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the ease of use and user-friendly interface."
"This is an easy means of setting up high-availabilty firewall protection."
"Fortinet delivers a good balance of price and performance."
"The customer service and support team are excellent."
"The stability of Fortinet meets our requirements and I'm satisfied with it."
"As an end user, I was pretty much satisfied with Fortinet FortiOS 40F; there were no lags, no issues, and no hanging of the firewall, and once configured, unless any policy change is required, it works in such a way that you can just forget about it after configuring it because it is that smooth, robust, and sturdy."
"I find filtering traffic, filtering web traffic, session traffic, and managing the network as valuable features."
"I personally think the site-to-site VPN is the most useful feature. A lot of firewalls have that, but to me, that's one of the features that's essential."
"The scalability of the solution is good."
"I like how you can configure the rules. There is the task for the rules and a task for the network configuration. It also provides SMD filtering, and it can be integrated with the active directory for the users, their mission, and the VPN configuration. We are here in Sudan, and Stormshield didn't work in Sudan for more than a decade. Stormshield is a very strong firewall and very easy to configure and maintain. I am just working with the firewall solution, and we don't have any other solutions like endpoint solutions or something like that."
"Filters and URL filtering helped us to optimize our bandwidth."
"Easily manageable in a variety of environments."
"I like that it works fine. Stormshield is a very good solution."
"Ease of use is the best feature of the product."
"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."
"A very robust product."
 

Cons

"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"The learning curve is a bit higher."
"Previously it had a hiccup around a bug within the authentication VPN due to the firmware, but after updating, it's easier to control."
"The product’s price is high."
"The anti-malware engine could use an upgrade."
"We faced some technical issues on the Fortinet side."
"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."
"We would like to see an improvement in the consistency of the product's performance levels."
"The GUI could be improved to make it more usable, easier to administer, and easier to configure."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve the GUI and remove the command line interface. All the functionality should be available from the GUI. Day-to-day management can be tough for IT administrators. Additionally, the reporting is not very good."
"The implementation could be simplified."
"Compared to other market leaders like Palo Alto and Check Point, FortiOS has many bugs in its initial releases."
"However, since I have spent the major part of my career in enterprises, it would not be a fit for me."
"The signature discs, compared to Palo Alto, aren't as good. It takes more time to get the signature updates."
"SD-WAN configuration could be easier."
"I can only compare it with SonicWall, and it is missing many advanced features that SonicWall has."
"The SD card could be more secure."
"I don’t recommend this product at all."
"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension. It's not that easy. It's not that straightforward. In the next release, I would like to see a reporting system. Stormshield doesn't have any tutorials on how to do the configuration and things like that. They just have documentation on the website. If you want to configure, for example, Cisco or Fortinet, you can find tutorials on YouTube. They show you how to configure the features, and so on. In Stormshield, there is nothing on social media or the internet on how to configure different things. The lack of documentation or the lack of material makes it difficult for others to adopt this solution."
"An application firewall like other next generation firewalls have."
"Being more cost effective. I went with a pair of Watchguard M300 recently when buying a new firewall cluster for our own use because it was way cheaper than NetASQ/Stormshield N700 while being faster, and it offers true multi-master firewall clustering if needed."
"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."
"Stormshield Network Security is quite expensive."
"The stability is not that good based on my experience. We have a lot of disruptions when it comes to Stormshield."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The setup cost was good. The Egyptian pound is declining, and upgrading Fortinet FortiGate yearly costs about $2000 USD, which equals one hundred Egyptian pounds. I maintain a business relationship with the vendor and receive support from them."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate when compared to other solutions is high. However, my knowledge of the price is from third parties and I am not sure how accurate it is. I typically work in the technical area of my organization."
"The price is fine."
"FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is cheaper than Cisco or CheckPoint."
"Fortinet FortiGate's price can be reduced."
"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."
"There is no challenge in Fortinet FortiGate pricing."
"It is not expensive as compared to Cisco."
"The pricing is competitive for the medium and high markets but for the small markets it can be 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."
"The price of Fortinet FortiOS has been reasonable."
"The best solution in the category including the price in Thailand is Fortinet FortiOS."
"The pricing could always be lower."
"We had a three-year license to use Fortinet FortiOS and we are going to renew it this year."
"The support contracts are usually about $100 - $200 a device."
"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."
"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."
"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."
"I think the price is good."
"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."
"The pricing could be better."
"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business360
Midsize Enterprise135
Large Enterprise190
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise23
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

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 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 ...
What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?
The tool is like a firewall and works well. I don't have any issue with it. I rate it an eight out of ten.
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
NETASQ Firewalls
 

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
ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiOS vs. Stormshield Network Security and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.