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Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
574
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (2nd), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Juniper SRX Series Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
22nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (8th)
Palo Alto Networks K2-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
36th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.4%, up from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper SRX Series Firewall is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate20.4%
Juniper SRX Series Firewall1.7%
Palo Alto Networks K2-Series0.1%
Other77.8%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Chinedu Onwurah - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust security measures and cost-effectiveness meet diverse industry needs
The biggest benefit of Juniper SRX Series Firewall overall is that it is rugged and cost-effective, offering basic firewall features and additional licensed features as needed. The main challenge I see as a distributor is Juniper's rating in the Gartner report, where Juniper is not a leader in enterprise security, which often influences customer conversations. Most customers want to check the Gartner report before they engage, making it challenging to sell Juniper security. With my extensive experience with the Juniper SRX Series Firewall, the robustness of the SD-Cloud or Security Director interface and overall functionality needs to be improved to compete with leading firewall solutions.
Krishnakumar M - PeerSpot reviewer
One of the best tools for the prevention of evasive threats
There is a feature called granular application controls, which I liked. Instead of relying on ports and IP addresses, they use AMP ID. This kind of solution is very good. Another valuable feature is the prevention of evasive threats, which is one of the best tools I've encountered. SSL decryption and app ID-based SSL decryption are also impressive, along with the integration with user ID. Identity-based policies ensuring only authorized users can access specific resources are excellent features. Normally, there is something called SIM or SCIM in IDA IDM, but this feature is provided on the box, which is exemplary.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Application control and the web filter are the best features of Fortinet FortiGate."
"Good anti-malware and web filtering features."
"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
"It is a scalable solution."
"I like the solution's stability."
"The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely."
"The next-gen features, the unified threat management capabilities are something that just about everybody is interested in at this point."
"FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features."
"Juniper is a highly flexible platform, and you get more bang for your buck compared to a Cisco product."
"Using a Juniper CLI, you configure a "candidate configuration", then "commit" it to bring it live. If you do not like it or messed up something, you just "rollback" to the previous configuration. It can all be done in a matter of minutes. This is super handy once you get use to it."
"The security features and the model collection are the most valuable."
"Technical support has been quite helpful."
"When compared to Palo Alto, Juniper is a better choice when it comes to the enterprise network and connectivity."
"If we need to define our user system from an anti-spam perspective, we can constantly update the antivirus."
"On a scale from one to ten, one being the worst and ten being the best I'd give Juniper SRX an overall rating of eight because of its' competitive price."
"There are a lot of security features."
"Overall product rating: Nine out of ten."
"I like the tool's WildFire feature."
"Mainly, it is very easy to understand, and the logs are very good."
"It's easy to configure."
"The most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is the performance which is above their competitors. The throughput they have delivered is good. When we used other solutions they failed the deployment when we were using different rules. They have a theory perform performance light and performance degradation. However, Palo Alto Networks K2-Series never fails in that scenario."
"Prevention of evasive threats is one of the best tools I've encountered."
"The most valuable feature is availability."
"Palo Alto has an approach that makes the configuration easier not only for the customers but also for the IT help for the customers."
 

Cons

"What could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate SWG is its pricing because it's a bit higher. If it's cheaper, my company could pitch it to customers and engage with customers better about it. What I'd like to see in the next release of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an improvement in its dashboard or GUI. I'd like it to be more user-friendly."
"There are some cloud-based features that could be much more flexible than they currently are."
"One of the most important areas for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is the limited resources for tests. I was limited to a few interfaces for one month, and it would be great if Fortinet could improve these features in their test versions."
"The product's data guard feature should support a USB port when the internet connection is unavailable."
"At the moment, the main concern is the pricing and the type of licensing. Fortinet offers different types of licensing, and my idea is that the best approach is to have only one, two, or a maximum of three types of licensing."
"The prevention mechanisms and implementation are not easy."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"Difficult to add or define, and not that easy to configure and manage."
"The Juniper product has to improve in terms of innovation."
"I would like to see endpoint control and endpoint testing security."
"This solution needs to update for "Next Generation" needs."
"The web interface on Juniper SRX is just a short conversion from Junos OS CLI; this is not very suitable for users with little expertise/"
"Juniper SRX is stable, but it could improve. FortiGate has better stability than Juniper SRX."
"While the GUI is pretty good on the Juniper side, there can still be tweaks made to it that will make it even better."
"I think improvement can be done to the security part, particularly the UDM, and the product should have a user-friendly interface similar to FortiGate. It should have the Azure RBAC in the next release."
"Juniper needs to focus more on their perimeter firewalls."
"It would be really helpful to have dashboards that provide information on IOC blockings such as where and how many. It will also be good to know how many hashing files have been reported. It would also be nice to have easy access to this information. Otherwise, it's a painful, manual task."
"Palo Alto has many other products. It would be nice for these products to be centralized under one tool"
"Palo Alto doesn't have extended visibility to the end point in their firewalls."
"If we have issues, they take anywhere from two days to a week to respond. I even wrote to their CEO because there was no response. When it comes to support, this is the worst company."
"I would like to see the threat intelligence capability integrated with other vendors such as Cisco and Forcepoint."
"It is recommended that the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series be implemented step by step for the Panorama. Sometimes we can't overwrite the configurations because it fails."
"When it comes to renewing the solution, they tend to try to jack up the pricing."
"The tool needs to improve integration with more products from other vendors. I would like the product to add threat intelligence features as well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is less expensive than a Cisco solution."
"We just pay a flat monthly fee to the vendor for the support."
"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten."
"Their licensing costs are annual. The UTM feature license along with their support is called FortiCare. We include that as a part of the annual maintenance cost. Palo Alto or Juniper also have an annual subscription charge for UTM. Price, of course, can always be more competitive, but it is not the most expensive product. The price-performance ratio is quite high for FortiGate."
"It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price."
"The price of the license and warranty can be better because it is very expensive."
"The prices are very good as compared to other vendors."
"It is not that expensive."
"For a medium-sized organization, the cost for the licensing and implementation of Juniper SRX for 10 users would be about $300-400."
"The pricing is very inexpensive which is the main reason I bought the solution. One device costs around 50 EUR through the University's vendor who is modernizing our network."
"Pricing is good. Most of the costs are in the UTM (IDS/IPS, virus scanning, etc) subscription."
"In my opinion, the Juniper SRX Series Firewall is cheaper than other products."
"When we are in the deployment phase, we contact Juniper and they provide a budget-free code for our budgetary work."
"When you consider performance, price, and features, maybe Juniper is not so cost-effective compared to other solutions like MikroTik."
"This product is designed for large companies. The price would not be suitable for a small or medium size company."
"Pricing is a sensitive issue because the cost is high in this market."
"The overall price of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series could be reduced."
"It is an expensive solution."
"It would be nice if they lowered their prices for small businesses."
"Palo Alto firewalls are very expensive."
"We are on an annual license to use Palo Alto Networks K2-Series."
"This solution is expensive compared to other, similar products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
7%
Performing Arts
23%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business350
Midsize Enterprise130
Large Enterprise187
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise13
 

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 ...
What do you like most about Juniper SRX?
Juniper SRX Series Firewall is a stable solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper SRX?
The Juniper SRX Series Firewall is affordable and cost-effective. The cost depends on the use case; for firewalls, it...
What advice do you have for others considering Juniper SRX?
I advise those considering the Juniper SRX Series Firewall to try and test it out, as it is a robust security solutio...
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 Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?
The pricing for the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series solution is affordable and there are no complaints about the licensing.
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?
The graphical user interface is a little complex and difficult to manage. L1 engineers cannot work on the Palo Alto N...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Juniper SRX
No data available
 

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
7-Eleven, AARNet Pty Ltd, Allegro Networks, alltours GmbH, Apollo Hotel Papendrecht, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Atlantech Online, Availity, Bajaj Capital, Baloise Insurance, BancABC, BAS Group, Black Lotus, Blue Box, Borealis, Carilion Clinic, Catholic Health System, CATV, Champlain College, Chinas Ministry of Railways, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), Cloud Dynamics, CloudSeeds, Cloudwatt, CODONiS, Colt Technology Services, Cork Internet Exchange, CSS Versicherung AG, CyrusOne, Danish Crown, Deloitte Belgium, Department of Energy, Divona Telecom, DQE Communications, DreamHost, European Government Agency, Expedient, Financial Market Information Services Provider, Fluidata, Fonality, Fox Sports, Global Financial Institution, Global Investment Bank, Global Investment Company, Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Goethe University, HEAnet, High Performance Networks Inc., Hillenbrand
State of North Dakota, SEGA, Alameda County Office of Education, Temple University, VERGE, CAME
Find out what your peers are saying about Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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