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Fortinet FortiOS vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

 

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 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
5.4
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (14th)
 

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.
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

"This solution has helped our organization prevent multiple attacks."
"It has a lot of scalability abilities which makes it easy to scale."
"For my organization, it has become much easier to scan the firewalls because the solution is more user-friendly than competitors."
"The solution has proven to be stable and reliable."
"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."
"The solution is very easy to use, has a powerful CLI and a very powerful graphical user interface, scales well, is reliable in terms of stability, is not too hard to implement, and technical support is helpful and responsive."
"What I like about this solution, is that it is the only solution that currently offers VPN for clients."
"Fortinet FortiOS is very easy to use, and when comparing it to other products, its easiness is remarkable."
"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."
"Stormshield is pretty robust, compared to other products like Fortinet, as you get more security with Stormshield and spend less money."
"Ease of use is the best feature of the product."
"Our organization's main concern is stability, and this is a stable solution."
"Stormshield is a very strong firewall and very easy to configure and maintain."
"A very robust product."
"Filters and URL filtering helped us to optimize our bandwidth."
"Fortinet, Dell SonicWall and Check Point because these products offer a wide range of features that are not available with Netasq."
 

Cons

"There is some room for improvement in the support."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve by limiting the need for the CLI and GUI combination. The more functions they can have on the GUI and less on CLI would be helpful."
"I can only compare it with SonicWall, and it is missing many advanced features that SonicWall has."
"The implementation could be simplified."
"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."
"Right now, it's very trendy to integrate everything into the cloud. This solution would be more effective if they did more integration in that regard."
"For me, it is important to be able to block VPN applications, like Facebook, so I would like to see that included in the next release. With this version, if you want to block or allow a site, you now have to drag all the domains related to this site."
"The signature discs, compared to Palo Alto, aren't as good. It takes more time to get the signature updates."
"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."
"The stability is not that good based on my experience. We have a lot of disruptions when it comes to Stormshield."
"The pricing of this solution needs to be decreased."
"The product must improve its pricing."
"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension."
"I don’t recommend this product at all."
"Improvement is also needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer, they're not very responsive when it comes to technical support."
"The main area of this product that has room for improvement is pricing. Stormshield Network Security is quite expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am on a two-year contract and I pay annually for Fortinet FortiOS."
"FortiOS is affordable, but its price could be lower."
"The program is expensive."
"The Fortinet solutions can be a bit expensive."
"We had a three-year license to use Fortinet FortiOS and we are going to renew it this year."
"The solution is cost effective. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"The solution could have a better licensing model. It's a bit more expensive than other solutions. The annual subscription is very pricy in Fortinet. The cost could be reduced."
"The best solution in the category including the price in Thailand is Fortinet FortiOS."
"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."
"I think the price is good."
"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."
"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."
"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."
"The pricing could be better."
"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Computer Software 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 Business11
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

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 needs improvement with Stormshield Network Security?
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 so...
What is your primary use case for Stormshield Network Security?
I already use Stormshield Network Security, and I am now looking for a new solution. I am already working with Stormshield Network Security, and the official reseller of Stormshield.
What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?
The pricing is increasing, and I would say it is a bit expensive. Palo Alto and others are much more expensive, but Stormshield Network Security is also not inexpensive. My overall review rating fo...
 

Also Known As

No data available
NETASQ Firewalls
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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, Netgate, Cisco and others in Firewalls. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.