Juniper NetScreen [EOL] vs KerioControl comparison

Juniper and GFI are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 100% of Juniper users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of GFI users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Juniper NetScreen [EOL] and KerioControl based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls.

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Firewalls

March 2026

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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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it_user701430

Network and Security Engineer

It is easy to use with access via CLI and GUI. It also has good stability.

It is easy to use with access via CLI and GUI. It also has good stability I am not able to answer this question. Features which could be improved include the search functions and the database size. From what I remember it wasn't very easy to search for specific objects or rules. One issue I…

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Constantnos Achilleos

Product manger at Asbis Mediteranean

Leveraging geo-tagging and web filtering for enhanced network security

The solution is used for site-to-site VPN connections and it is valued for its cost efficiency and easy connectivity. It is especially beneficial for multi-site VPNs and is used in about fifteen different components KerioControl has provided a financial benefit as it allows purchasing one license…

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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

"We are using this solution to filter communication to and from the website or our site, and we also use it to create a VPN connection for all of our sites in the world."

"The GUI configuration is its most valuable feature"

"The solution is stable."

"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."

"I think when you look at this product, you must realize that the box hardware and software are very stable, and the pricing is perfect."

"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."

"It is a good product. It does what we want it to do so. I didn't find many false-positives or things like that. We mainly use the IPS and URL filtering features, and they are pretty good."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a very light product. It's easy to understand."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"It is easy to use with access via CLI and GUI."

"Retrospectively, I would definitely recommend this product because of its functionalities, its reliability, and the good support."

"Juniper NetsScreen is a pretty straightforward firewall appliance which is certainly a good fit from mid-size organizations to big enterprises."

"I like intrusion detection and prevention and bandwidth management. The routing part is also awesome. It is a good firewall. We never had a major breach from outside. We've never been impacted by ransomware, and our systems have never been infiltrated."

"Out-of-the-box, the overall comprehensiveness of the security features is pretty good; it's not just a firewall, it's kind of a firewall proxy, reverse proxy, everything out-of-the-box sort of solution, and it's pretty comprehensive."

"I haven't found another product that is able to do the things that Kerio Control can do for the money."

"Instead of using a cloud-based product for accessing information, and putting my data at risk in the cloud and in someone else's hands, it has allowed me to use a VPN and access my data directly from a laptop when I am out in the field."

"The anti-virus and perimeter security functionality minimizes vulnerabilities in our network and better secures our data, and this also decreases downtime of devices due to viruses and malware attacks."

"In terms of the comprehensiveness of the security features, it does a great job of laying out what it does. It's fairly easy to edit and research. Some of the features were turned on by our IT company and I was able to easily find other features on my own by searching for videos on the internet. I've been able to block certain websites, and content filter, as well as manage some of our bandwidth because we live stream on Sunday. I'm able to dedicate bandwidth for the encoder that goes to the internet. It always has enough bandwidth, no matter how many people are on the network. That's really helpful."

"Kerio Control fulfills my needs completely and allows me to get on with my main work without spending any time on security or worrying about threats to the data I have."

"Kerio has improved my organization's security."

More KerioControl pros

Cons

"The user interface could be improved."

"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."

"More advanced AI capabilities would be beneficial in future updates."

"Areas of improvement for Fortinet FortiGate include the need for more training and certification, especially when dealing with distributors globally, which presents challenges in product availability and delivery timelines."

"It could always be more secure."

"The only problem that we have here in China is that the whole subscription process on Fortinet is a little bit difficult if you are doing it from China."

"In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly."

"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Features which could be improved include the search functions and the database size."

"There has been some remote accessibility issues at times with older models."

"The initial setup was quite complex."

"Kerio Control could improve by having higher availability and adding a mobile VPN channel. These additions are needed. The VPN is working fine on the Kerio Control but there needs to be a VPN client on the mobile phones, both for iOS and Android. This would be very good for us."

"The security part of the software, like virus scanning, website, traffic monitoring, things like that, can take a beating on the appliance. And when there's a lot of things going on, the system can get bogged down. The actual security functionality of it needs a little bit more work, which I believe they are remedying or attempting to remedy at this time, but that's the downfall at this time."

"Because of all the security features within Kerio Control, e.g., it can do a deep packet inspection, this can slow down the traffic."

"Technical support is not the best. As an example, this past weekend I had an issue; it took me four days to get a hold of their support team, and I'm a premium client."

"If you put the appliance in Fail-Over mode it will simply FAIL, and will bypass your routing rules."

"The trial duration of the product should be extended."

"I find it a bit costly to pay for the products that I am not using. They need to change their model in such a way that you don't have to pay for the products that you are not using. Its local support and scalability are also not good. I am looking forward to a more scalable product that will be able to grow with time and technology."

"Improvements are needed to the Next Generation Firewall Protection, specifically with user-level protection."

More KerioControl cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"There is only a standard license cost to use the solution."

"FortiGate SWG is reasonably priced."

"Its price could be better."

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."

"It scales well if you know what to buy from a physical box standpoint. They seem to offer something for every level."

"FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is cheaper than Cisco or CheckPoint."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"The price of the solution is reasonable. For additional costs, you can add on more features such as antivirus."

"Its licensing is yearly. You renew every year. Its price is all-inclusive."

"KerioControl's pricing is good."

"It gives us a lot. It does prove to be a very robust product for the cost."

"The yearly maintenance fee is a bit high for the Kerio Control Boxes. The end of life for the devices is kind of short. It seems like they're making you upgrade within a short period of time. They should at least allow five years, but it seems like they are changing their end of life to be shorter to generate revenue."

"The pricing is in-line with our expectations in terms of the quality that we get for it."

"Our clients see ROI with Kerio Control, as they are saving bandwidth costs."

"There's a one-time fee. For KerioConnect, it's just a server. With KerioControl, you have an option. You can virtualize it on a VMware system or have the hardware. I think mid-range or desktop KerioControl hardware could cost around 2000 dollars for a 25 user client. You need annual renewal for additional features like antivirus."

More KerioControl pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Computer Software Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Media Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	360
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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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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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KerioControl?

KerioControl offers good pricing as one license covers all features needed without extra payment. The price for the p...

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What needs improvement with KerioControl?

Regarding KerioControl's application awareness and control feature, I have not used it much.

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What is your primary use case for KerioControl?

With KerioControl, we usually use them for site-to-site VPNs for most of our clients. With multiple offices, we use K...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

No data available

Netgate pfSense vs KerioControl

Compared 14% of the time

OPNsense vs KerioControl

Compared 13% of the time

Sophos UTM vs KerioControl

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs KerioControl

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs KerioControl

Compared 4% of the time

More KerioControl Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

March 2026

Download Juniper NetScreen [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

KerioControl

March 2026

Download KerioControl product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

The Juniper Networks NetScreen Series is a line of purpose-built, high-performance security systems designed for large enterprise, carrier, and data center networks. Architected with both existing and future network design in mind, the NetScreen Series consists of two platforms: the 2-slot NetScreen-5200 and the 4-slot NetScreen-5400. Integrating firewall, VPN, traffic management functionality, Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection in a low profile modular chassis, the NetScreen Series delivers scalable performance for the most demanding network environments.

Juniper

Kerio Control is a popular security product for small and medium-sized businesses. It is a next-generation firewall that provides unified threat management without complexity. Kerio Control provides advanced anti-virus protection and industry-leading web and content application filtering, and has a secure VPN.

With Kerio Control you can:

Preserve the integrity of your network.
Manage bandwidth to streamline traffic flows.
Improve productivity with filtering capabilities.

Kerio Control Features

Some of Kerio Control’s most valuable features include:

High availability, deployment flexibility, deep packet inspection, advanced routing, usage reporting, quick administering, intrusion detection and prevention (IPS), gateway anti-virus, VPN, web and content application filtering, and centralized administration with MyKerio.

Kerio Control Benefits

Eliminate downtime risks: Because Kerio Control offers high availability and failover protection, you can eliminate the risk and cost of connectivity or threat protection downtime.
Detailed reports: Kerio Control makes it easy to view individual users’ internet activity through detailed reports.
Traffic monitoring: Traffic monitoring allows you to manage bandwidth and makes it possible for you to control access to streaming video and peer-to-peer networks.
Server protection: Using Kerio Control’s advanced networking routing and deep packet inspection, you can protect servers.
Easily create policies: With Kerio Control, you can create both inbound and outbound traffic policies, and can also restrict communication by specific URLs, applications, traffic type, content category, or even time of day.
Snort-based analysis: Kerio Control gives you the ability to add a transparent layer of intrusion prevention with snort-based analysis along with a database of rule and blacklisted IP addresses that is regularly refreshed.
Optionally integrated anti-virus: WIth this feature, you can prevent viruses, Trojans, or spyware from entering your networks.

Reviews from Real Users

Here is some feedback from some of our users who are currently using the solution:

PeerSpot user Brian C., Senior Technology Specialist, VP at Unified Technology Solutions, writes "It is very comprehensive and simple. It has all the active protections. It's updated. We love that you can set how often it is updated so you can work on what is right for you. A large company with a lot of bandwidth can update the virus definitions and security definitions hourly, if they want. A smaller site that's remote, where maybe updating the definitions will eat into the bandwidth, we can schedule those more to go later at night. It's very flexible and works for us in all types of situations. This is great because then we don't have to learn seven different products to be able to work with seven different scenarios."

Andy D., IT Manager at Flare Technologies, praises how easy it is to use and says, "One thing we use quite a lot, as well, is the DHCP Server, because we do a lot of work where all our devices need to have static IP addresses. Rather than going around and configuring every box, we do it all through DHCP reservations. It's easier. We've got a record of it. We can manipulate it if we need to change something or change some hardware. It's all easy. Even guys who are not used to using it can pick it up quite quickly."

GFI

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

LIME, Telecom Italia

Triton Technical, McDonald's

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