ManageEngine DataSecurity vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

ManageEngine and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category. ManageEngine is ranked #30 with an average rating of 8.0, while WatchGuard is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.6. Additionally, 100% of ManageEngine users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 5, 2025

WatchGuard Firebox and ManageEngine DataSecurity are competing products in network security and data protection. Users prefer WatchGuard Firebox for its pricing and support, while ManageEngine DataSecurity is chosen for its features despite higher costs.

Features: WatchGuard Firebox provides robust threat management, VPN support, and network security capabilities. ManageEngine DataSecurity focuses on advanced data protection, auditing, and compliance monitoring.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WatchGuard Firebox offers easier deployment with intuitive setup and extensive customer service. ManageEngine DataSecurity requires more complex deployment but features responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: WatchGuard Firebox offers an attractive entry-level cost and positive ROI with accessible pricing models. ManageEngine DataSecurity has a higher initial investment, justified by its extensive features and long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

July 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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Ganapathy Manoharan

IT Systems Administrator at Prokhas Sdn Bhd

Affordable and provides visibility into what the users are doing with the data

The file integrity monitoring feature is difficult to manage because some files are confidential while others are not. We use a different tool to classify the files as confidential and non-confidential. The sensitive data discovery and classification features are not of much help. It is a difficult process. The controlling features must be improved. The interface must be improved.

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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

"I would advise others considering or evaluating the Fortinet FortiGate to buy it."

"It can expand easily."

"The impact of SD-WAN on the network performance has been significant."

"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."

"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."

"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was straightforward."

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

"LinkGreat firewall capabilities"

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The product’s strict policies are its best features."

"The detection and alert features are valuable."

"The VPN and the filtering features are the most valuable. Its VPN is very strong, and its services are very nice. The main problem in India is the service. There are not enough Check Point and Fortinet Firewall services, but for this product, the service is very good."

"The solution has many security features. We have an intrusion provision system and filtering and block filtering."

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

"It protects me against malicious websites, as well as malicious downloads, as a perimeter anti-virus. I've also seen it blocking a lot of pings and different probes."

"I find that their tech support is excellent. And as a reseller, my relationship with my point of contact is also strong. WatchGuard does a good job of maintaining that."

"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."

"Management and visibility are the most valuable features."

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

More WatchGuard Firebox pros

Cons

"The platform's compatibility with Wi-Fi equipment needs improvement."

"The solution could be improved by addressing limited local reporting. It requires obtaining the FortiAnalyzer for proper visibility because you can't do much from a reporting perspective with just the firewall alone."

"The firewall engine is not so strong as of now, in my opinion... My second concern is that, while they have Zero-day vulnerability and anti-malware features, the threat engine needs to be strengthened, its efficiency can be increased."

"The command line is complicated, and the interface could be better."

"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."

"Price, of course, can always be more competitive or better."

"I believe one area that could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate is posturing, specifically for remote VPN users, as there are OS-based limitations I encountered with only Windows; adding domain restrictions for VPN access would make it more competitive and useful."

"At the moment, the main concern is the pricing and the type of licensing."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The interface must be improved."

"The vendor must provide a cloud solution."

"The administrative UI/UX could be significantly improved."

"WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention needs to improve its support."

"The performance of the solution's processor needs to be faster."

"The reporting isn't so good. If they worked to improve this aspect of the solution, it would be much stronger."

"The drawbacks are just sometimes not having the technical information that we need in order to easily make connections with all of our Internet-based clients."

"Last year, I had an issue with one of the Fireboxes going down. It was overheated, because my server room became overheated and this fried it."

"They need to stop the VLAN limitation. They have a VLAN limitation on the size of their boxes. It is the worst thing ever. They basically sell their boxes by the size and the number of VLANs it can handle, which is a real issue. You spend a couple of thousand dollars for a firewall, and you can only do 30 VLANs, which is extremely silly, as a matter of fact. It would be really great to have something for easier mass rule changes. It also needs a drag-and-drop function so that you don't have to constantly duplicate firewall rules. It would be nice to have such a feature because you got one WatchGuard, and you want to mirror its config and change a couple of things in another one and move some things around. It is not as easy as you would necessarily think. It is kind of expensive, and its pricing can be a little better for sure."

"There are a couple of things I wished that it would do, but I can't think of those off the top of my head."

More WatchGuard Firebox cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."

"Fortinet has more device options that are affordable for small businesses than Palo Alto, and its enterprise-level models are also cheaper. Palo Alto also has a separate license for VPN connections and SD-WAN, but FortiGate offers these features standard."

"Our licensing costs are on a yearly basis."

"The initial setup is super straight forward and as far as the licensing goes for the small product that we have, the pricing was pretty competitive. It wasn't as simple and as cheap as a SonicWall but for the service we would get it was a good price."

"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."

"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."

"In the Asian economy in which we operate, FortiGate is expensive."

"Fortinet FortiGate allows you to purchase licenses for hardware and software."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The cheapest configuration, for maybe five people, is approximately $500."

"We only license our corporate one and the one we have at our DR site, we don't worry about the branches. It doesn't pay for us to license the ones at the branches. What they charge for what they call basic maintenance is extremely high for those little fireboxes."

"The price of WatchGuard is very good."

"The price is very good."

"It is not expensive. Other products like Fortinet and Check Point are of the same price."

"For what we use, the tool's price has been reasonable, but it is not the cheapest. The tool has been quite reasonable."

"WatchGuard had a very competitive price. It was only 10 to 20 percent more than a single instance device but with that extra cost it provided a second load balancing device... unlike other brands whose method of hardware and software licensing would have doubled our cost."

"Cheap."

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...

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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 do you like most about ManageEngine DataSecurity?

The detection and alert features are valuable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ManageEngine DataSecurity?

The file integrity monitoring feature is difficult to manage because some files are confidential while others are not...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ManageEngine DataSecurity?

We use the product for real-time data visibility and analysis.

See all answers

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...

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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

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention vs ManageEngine DataSecurity

Compared 70% of the time

Trellix DLP vs ManageEngine DataSecurity

Compared 30% 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

More WatchGuard Firebox Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

July 2025

Download ManageEngine DataSecurity 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

Information not available

ManageEngine

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

Information Not Available

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

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