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Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

Hornetsecurity and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Anti-Malware Tools category. Hornetsecurity is ranked #38 with an average rating of 7.0, while WatchGuard is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.6. Additionally, 100% of Hornetsecurity users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 5, 2025

WatchGuard Firebox and Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection are competing solutions in network security and email protection, respectively. WatchGuard is praised for its adaptability and scalability in network environments, while Hornetsecurity stands out for its comprehensive email threat detection capabilities, making it a preferred choice for those prioritizing email security.

Features: WatchGuard Firebox offers robust network security including firewall defense, VPN support, and intrusion prevention. Hornetsecurity provides high detection rates for spam and malware, as well as tools for compliance and encryption. The main distinction is WatchGuard's focus on network infrastructure against Hornetsecurity's focus on email security.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WatchGuard Firebox is known for straightforward deployment and strong support structures that offer efficient setup and guidance. Hornetsecurity's cloud-based model enables rapid, hassle-free deployment in diverse environments, often leading to higher satisfaction levels compared to WatchGuard, which may require more initial configuration.

Pricing and ROI: WatchGuard Firebox is often viewed as more cost-effective initially with lower upfront costs. Hornetsecurity, while perceived as having a higher initial setup cost, delivers significant ROI through comprehensive email protection and long-term operational efficiency. The choice may depend on whether immediate budget constraints or long-term security benefits are prioritized.

To learn more, read our detailed Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection vs. WatchGuard Firebox Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection vs. WatchGuard Firebox

August 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

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

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.

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reviewer2678634

Coordonnateur Du Service at a government with 501-1,000 employees

Gains additional email security with affordability but needs deeper integration with Office 365

Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection provides a good service at an affordable price due to a special education pricing plan. This makes it an attractive option for us. It enhances our security by operating in front of the protection provided by Microsoft and effectively detecting and tagging spam and malware. Although it is difficult to make a direct comparison, its competitive pricing is a key benefit. While Microsoft detects some spam, Hornetsecurity adds another layer of detection.

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Rajesh Makwana

Regional Pre-Sales Engineer at Roundrobin Tech

Efficient bandwidth management and secure network access with a strong firewall

The primary use case of the Firebox mainly revolves around bandwidth management, unnecessary web blocking, application control, and protection against brute force attacks. It is also implemented for load balancing, SD-WAN, and branch-to-branch connectivity from one location to another. We also use…

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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

"Its stability is the most valuable."

"They are very affordable compared to Palo Alto and other vendors, offering a great solution for networking and SD-WAN with extremely good protection."

"Run Script is the best tool to use in Fortinet FortiGate with multiple environments."

"It's very similar to a Cisco firewall, yet less expensive."

"There are lots of features and most of them are deployed for internet security. Users are protected if they accidentally go to some malicious sites."

"The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are its simplicity, ease of installation, and ease of functionality."

"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."

"The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Makes my inbox cleaner and more secure. The infomail is now neatly out of my view and I dont see all the junk I use to see when using AppRiver or just Microsofts native spam filter. I see only the things I need to see, and spoofed messages have decreased 100% throughout the organization."

"Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection provides a good service at an affordable price due to a special education pricing plan."

"WatchGuard Firebox's two-factor authentication feature is particularly useful and provides an added layer of protection."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of use of the interface."

"It's pretty simple to use. It's pretty simple to understand, and there's plenty of documentation. It does a pretty good job of what it is meant to do."

"The most valuable features include the ability to raise alarms when there are issues, easier configuration compared to other vendors, centralized update management, and keeping the product updated efficiently."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is traffic management."

"I recommend Firebox since this device will not let anyone down."

"It is something that we need for compliance, and it has been useful. Their support staff is also amazing."

"If there is any conflict, the reporting feature will kick out all types of information, which is great."

More WatchGuard Firebox pros

Cons

"FortiGate can improve its token system, as it requires a purchase before use."

"They have recently acquired a CNAP solution which should be integrated into FortiGate boxes natively for protection at any application layer. Since Fortinet FortiGate has Layer 7 protection, they should integrate that as soon as they can for threat detection and network detection."

"The price of FortiGate should be reduced because there are some other leading products that are cheaper."

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding FortiAnalyzer to its solution, we should not have to use another solution. FortiAnalyzer can provide more detailed information."

"A couple of things I've seen that need improvement, especially in terms of a hard coding. The driver-level active moment really is out-of-the-box and we have to have contact the customer support and sometimes it is difficult to resolve."

"Fortinet FortiGate is not very easy to use. The navigation could be improved to make it easier to use."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a very good device overall, though it can be improved in certain areas regarding the licenses, particularly the big one called unified threat management, which has many capabilities."

"The search tool needs improvement. It's very difficult to search for policies right now."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"If I had to pick my least favorite thing, I would say some of the tabs to control settings can get a little overwhelming. It can also be a little hard to read the font at certain times so possibly enlarging the details and text of the site a little to make it not so "fit" to the screen."

"The pricing could be improved. It is definitely one of the more expensive products."

"Sometimes, the writing rules are a little confusing in how am I doing them."

"The time they take to classify an application once they find that it is unknown can be better."

"WatchGuard should offer more visibility into user activity. For example, we should have more details when WatchGuard denies a user access to a port."

"When working with WatchGuard, specifically in configuring Panda Security on the portal for the first time, it was challenging for me."

"If they could make the traffic monitoring easier that would be great. I don't use it that frequently, but I would like to see some improvements in the ease of use of that component, so it makes more sense. I know it's a technical component so there's going to be some difficulty trying to make that easier."

"The interface is not the best."

"What could use some significant improvement in WatchGuard Firebox would be its interface and policy management. An additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of WatchGuard Firebox is the ability to modify an existing policy instead of having to recreate a policy when changes are necessary. At the moment, there's no possibility to modify the policy. You have to delete the policy and recreate it."

More WatchGuard Firebox cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license of Fortinet FortiGate should be reduced."

"Fortinet FortiGate is cheaper than Palo Alto. It is about 20% cheaper."

"Fortinet's pricing is more straightforward than other solutions. If Fortinet doesn't stick out when you're searching for a solution, you are a glutton for punishment. You only need to know two things when purchasing a Fortinet solution: your total bandwidth and bandwidth at the site. You need to estimate the future bandwidth with other solutions if your customer plans to upgrade."

"Fortinet FortiGate has different licensing models, depending on what you're going to do. Services included would depend on the license model. Licenses can be renewed annually."

"Setup cost may be not so low, as you expect, because it depends on different factors, but TCO for 5 years may pleasantly surprise you."

"We have the full version of Fortinet FortiGate and we are on a three-year contract with a commitment of five years."

"As far as I'm aware, in our case, it's just a yearly pricing arrangement with no additional licensing costs."

"Fortinet FortiGate is cost-efficient. Palo Alto is expensive, but Fortinet FortiGate is not."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"I find the solution to be very affordable."

"WatchGuard offers competitive pricing with attractive margins, benefiting both the company and its partners."

"It is an entry-level product, so the price is cheap."

"They have an annual subscription license. Initially, we had opted for three years. After that, we went for another three years, and after that, we have been doing it yearly. They also have a license for five years."

"They license it. When we buy it, we buy it with a three-year license. That's the most cost-effective way to do it. So, if you're going to buy it, then buy it with the three-year licensing."

"The solution is cheap."

"I think the tool is quite competitive compared to the other brands."

"The price is comparable."

More WatchGuard Firebox pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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...

See all answers

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...

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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 ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection?

The pricing is advantageous because of a special education price. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most e...

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What needs improvement with Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection?

There could be an improvement with their new product that integrates with Office 365, known as Total 365. They have o...

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What is your primary use case for Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection?

We use Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection ( /products/hornetsecurity-email-spam-filter-and-malwa...

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What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We are providing our services to all WatchGuard customers in the region.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We just use it as a secondary WiFi device. We're a small office and we needed to set up a WiFi device for a few of ou...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We're a hospital and we use it for developing our incoming and outgoing policies, and we also use it for VPN.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

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OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 29% of the time

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Compared 27% of the time

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Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection

Compared 21% of the time

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OPNsense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 6% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos XG vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos UTM vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Anti-Malware Tools

January 2025

Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection report

Download Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection product report

Buyer's Guide

WatchGuard Firebox

July 2025

Download WatchGuard Firebox product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

WatchGuard Threat Detection and Response, WatchGuard Application Control, WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention, WatchGuard Gateway AntiVirus, WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service

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

Hornetsecurity’s Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection Service offers the highest detection rates on the market, with 99.9% guaranteed spam detection and 99.99% virus detection. Our Spam Filtering Service effectively protects mail servers against DDoS attacks and phishing emails. Our multi-layered spam filtering service blocks the majority of spam emails as they arrive—keeping the quarantine clear and easy to manage. With proven features and thorough spam filtering mechanisms, your inbox remains free of annoying spam emails.

DoS attacks are intercepted by Hornetsecurity’s Hosted Spam Filtering and Malware Protection long before they reach the customer’s network. Parallel infrastructure distributed across multiple data centers and intelligent protection mechanisms ensure that authorized mail traffic continues to flow even in the face of massive waves of spam emails and DDoS attacks.

With the help of link tracking and other techniques, the spam filter service effectively protects users from phishing emails. Among other things, reloadable malicious script commands are detected. This enables detection of dangerous drive-by downloads, for example.

Hornetsecurity

WatchGuard Firebox is a high-performance firewall known for its ease of setup, offering robust security with layered protection and centralized management capabilities.

WatchGuard Firebox stands out for its intuitive management and high throughput, addressing security needs with features like VPN, web filtering, and threat detection. Its centralized control and reporting abilities, along with Active Directory integration, make it popular among varied organizations. Its user-friendly interface and ongoing updates enhance usability and reliability. However, there's a call for better cloud-based administration, scalability, and improved integration with third-party vendors.

What are the key features of WatchGuard Firebox?

Ease of Setup: Quick and straightforward installation process.
GUI: User-friendly graphical interface for simplified navigation.
VPN Features: Secure and efficient virtual private network management.
Web Filtering: Advanced filtering for safer browsing experiences.
Threat Detection: Proactive monitoring and detection of cyber threats.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated?

Centralized Control: Streamlined management from a single point.
High Throughput: Efficient data handling and processing capacity.
Stable Performance: Consistent and reliable operational functionality.
Active Directory Integration: Seamless connection with user directories.
Customer Service: Strong support service for customer inquiries.

WatchGuard Firebox is implemented across industries to secure internet gateways and protect data in multi-site businesses. Its applications span from Unified Threat Management (UTM) and intrusion prevention to compliance support in business environments requiring secure connectivity through VPNs.

WatchGuard

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

concordia, mazars, festo, claas, muller, avira

Ellips, Diecutstickers.com, Clarke Energy, NCR, Wrest Park, Homeslice Pizza, Fortessa Tableware Solutions, The Phoenix Residence

Buyer's Guide

Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection vs. WatchGuard Firebox

August 2025

Free Report: Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection vs. WatchGuard Firebox

Find out what your peers are saying about Hornetsecurity Email Spam Filter and Malware Protection vs. WatchGuard Firebox and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.

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