Menlo Secure vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series comparison

Menlo Security and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Menlo Security is ranked #51, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.9. Menlo Security holds a 0.3% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Menlo Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Menlo Secure and Palo Alto Networks PA-Series compete in network security. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series has the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and perceived value.

Features: Menlo Secure users value its robust web isolation technology and ease of integration. They also highlight its ability to prevent phishing attacks. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is praised for its advanced threat protection, seamless network integration, and customizable security policies.

Room for Improvement: Menlo Secure needs to improve its reporting capabilities, expand API support, and enhance user interface design. Palo Alto Networks could improve its setup process, provide better documentation resources, and optimize system performance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Menlo Secure users find the deployment straightforward and appreciate responsive customer service. Palo Alto Networks users note a more complex deployment process but commend the strong customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Menlo Secure offers competitive pricing and positive ROI. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, although more expensive, delivers strong ROI through enhanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Menlo Secure vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Menlo Secure vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

June 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 902,495 peers since 2012

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

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 15.1%, down from 21.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Menlo Secure is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	15.1%
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series	1.2%
Menlo Secure	0.3%
Other	83.4%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Joseph Koomson

IP Network Security Specialist at MTN Ghana

Process-Level CPU Visibility: Introduce detailed CPU-usage metrics per subsystem (e.g., IPS engine, logging) so administrators can quickly identify and address performance spikes.

Analytics with FortiAnalyzer. Being able to pull in logs not just from our FortiGates but from all our other firewalls and then get them in one view has been a game changer. Whether I’m building an executive dashboard or doing a deep dive forensics session, I get everything I need without navigating consoles.Straightforward Application Control. FortiGate spots and blocks unwanted apps (eq. like BitTorrent or streaming services) with accuracy. Segmentation with VDOMs. We’ve carved our data center into four logical ‘mini-firewalls’ enterprise, core, billing, and WAF—all on one box. Each has its own rules and logs, and any traffic between them still gets inspected. It’s like having multiple appliances without the extra hardware. Always-Up-to-Date Threat Feeds. Daily signature updates and AI-driven threat sensing mean we’re blocking the latest vulnerabilities almost as soon as they’re announced.

Read full review

reviewer2701794

Head Of Bluechip Enterprise at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Provides strong protection and multiple use cases but struggles with market recognition

There aren't specific areas for improvement; however, they're not as well known as the big vendors such as Palo Alto. Menlo Secure is a smaller company with limited resources and funding, which makes it challenging to compete with larger companies such as Palo and Cisco. What can be improved is market awareness and adoption of the technology. When selling it in the channel, regardless of how good the technology might be, success depends more on market adoption and awareness.

Read full review

Rohit Ghorpade

Cloud Network Engineer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Identity-based perimeter control has improved security and supports reliable remote access

Currently, we are working with vendors such as Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Cisco, Check Point, and Citrix. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is a better firewall. Deep packet inspection and threat prevention basically comply with whatever traffic is incoming and outgoing through the firewall. I do not think anything improvement is required. The thing is that Palo Alto Networks PA-Series works mostly on a license-based model. If you want to utilize any feature, you have to purchase the license. For example, URL filtering requires a license purchase. It simplifies the implementation because LDAP server profile can be integrated. Basically, that simplifies the implementation of access rule or security policy.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."

"Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization with its cost-effectiveness because it provides features that are very similar to others, but at a much lower cost, and everything my organization needs is available with Fortinet FortiGate."

"Overall, the pricing of the solution is very good. The product offers good value."

"By utilizing features such as dynamic path selection and application-aware routing, we've been able to reduce latency for critical applications such as VoIP and video by 20-30% during peak times."

"Palo Alto did a good job on the IPv6 interfaces and security policies."

"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection, and it is also simple to use."

"This is a quality product with ok support, and it is better than the competition we've tried."

"The firewall is stable and that's important."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"This security technology addresses risk and enables people to conduct business without that risk, which is where the ROI is realized."

"The solution is invisible to our end users, so it doesn't have any impact on their work or performance."

"We have definitely seen ROI, as we save a ton of money and time because the numerous hits that we were receiving from our security tools prior to implementing them had to all be chased down, dispositioned, and endpoints had to be reimaged."

"The fact that it is a cloud proxy solution is another feature we like. For example, if you acquire a new company, you can use it to protect that new company without the need to install anything physically on their networks."

"For us, the primary goal is protection on the web, and that's extremely important. We're not using any of the other services at this time. The web part is key to the success of the organization. It gives us the ability to protect. It can isolate. It opens the session in an isolated format so that the code isn't running locally. It is running over in the Menlo environment, not in ours. It is not running on the local computer, whereas if you were to go to a normal website, it would run Java or something else on the local machine and potentially execute the malicious code locally. So, it does give us that level of protection."

"We are not aware of a single compromise from the web since implementing the solution."

"It has reduced security events to follow up on. While it is not 100%, there has been probably a 90% or more reduction. We were getting hit left, right, and center constantly from people browsing the Internet and hitting bad websites. It was not just bad websites that were stood up to be malicious, but good sites that were compromised."

"Accessing the internet with a proxy from anywhere is the most valuable feature. It ensures that users are only able to browse legitimate websites. If they happen to go to a legitimate website with a malicious payload, the isolation feature will take care of that."

More Menlo Secure pros

"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is basically integrated with LDAP to fetch the identity of the users and we provide access based on the identity."

"App-ID is a really good feature."

"The solution is easy to manage."

"It offers a seamless transition from one option to another, making it exceptionally versatile and user-friendly in an enterprise setting."

"I like the tool's security and web filtering features."

"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is definitely worth the investment a company is paying to use it."

"Palo Alto Networks firewalls offer single-mode panel processing with live scanning."

"The solution provides good customer support."

More Palo Alto Networks PA-Series pros

Cons

"The customization could be improved. Cisco, for example, is much better at this. They need to work to be at least as good as they are."

"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."

"Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."

"We would like to see an upgrade to the VPN feature, we are using the VPN from outside of our office and there is a limitation to 10 connections, more connections would be suitable."

"I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."

"Sometimes the dashboard does not open properly. When we add more options, SD-WAN features, and user control features, the opening is very slow."

"The product needs to drastically improve its reporting capability."

"Its load balancing feature could be easy to configure."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Currently, I don't have a good way to see which of my rules are being used in the access control lists. I have numerous entries, but are they all still needed? A report that would show me my list of who is allowed and whether we're actually using it would be useful because I can then go clean up my list. It would be easier to manage. We would eliminate the vulnerability of unused services."

"The user monitoring could still be improved."

"Currently, I don't have a good way to see which of my rules are being used in the access control lists."

"Menlo Secure is a smaller company with limited resources and funding, which makes it challenging to compete with larger companies such as Palo and Cisco."

"We are now transitioning to another solution. The main reason for that is that managing all of the exceptions and troubleshooting all of the issues our users have had connecting to the internet has become too significant in terms of workload, compared to what we hope we will have with another solution."

"In the best of all worlds, we wouldn't have to make any exceptions. However, that is a big ask because a lot of that depends on how websites are constructed. For example, there are some very complex, application-oriented sites that we end up making exceptions for. It is really not that big an issue for us to make the exceptions. We feel like we are doing that without a huge impact on our security posture, but we do have to make some exceptions for complex sites, e.g., mostly SaaS-type sites and applications."

"I encountered a slight issue with the application portal, which was not functioning correctly."

"I have found that the tool works well for me, but there are areas where security testing and protection could be improved, especially in virtual or cloud environments. However, in this project, once we deployed it, we haven't encountered any issues. The cost is currently manageable, but as we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older generation switches and routers. So, I'm looking for additional capabilities in these areas."

"The product's high prices are an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The support has been shaky. Initially, it took one or two hours to get a Palo Alto engineer, which is quite slow. I expect faster response times."

"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is expensive. We would like to see additional threat hunting features."

"The pricing of the solution needs improvement."

"With Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, I find that the support team takes a long time to resolve the issues that a user may face during the use of the product."

"There is room for improvement in streamlining this process for smoother transitions."

More Palo Alto Networks PA-Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"FortiGate SWG is a cost-effective solution well-suited for organisations of all sizes."

"If you compare Fortinet FortiGate with Sophos and other firewall products available in the market, this solution is affordable."

"It's an expensive solution."

"We pay $500 per year for the license."

"The Indian market is different than the European and American markets. When you compare they need to be a bit more aggressive on pricing."

"FortiGate's pricing falls within the mid-range when compared to other leading firewall solutions."

"The solution is more expensive than Sophos. It could be cheaper. The licensing is on a yearly basis. We have had it for about three years. We must only pay extra for the license, additional requirements, and the hardware box."

"The solution is offered as an annual license."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"We save a ton of money and time. Previously, the numerous hits that we were receiving from our security tools, prior to implementing them, had to all be chased down, dispositioned, and endpoints had to be reimaged. It was just a ton of effort to do all that. That is where the savings from time and money come in."

"It is appropriately priced for what they're doing for us. Considering the protection provided, I feel their pricing is spot-on."

"The solution is expensive. It's more expensive than the solution I previously used. Compared with the other cloud-based solutions, it's very competitive."

"While other firewalls may come with a higher cost, when you consider the cost in relation to the services and features that Palo Alto offers, it is clear that Palo Alto is delivering excellent value."

"Palo Alto is more expensive than FortiGate."

"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series's price is much higher than other firewall brands."

"Compared to other vendors, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is expensive."

"Palo Alto’s pricing is way higher than any other solution provider."

"The solution's pricing is high compared to that of Cisco and Fortinet."

"With Palo Alto, even when you enable all the modules, it still provides the exact throughput they advertise."

"The prices are pretty high, definitely on the upper end."

More Palo Alto Networks PA-Series pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewalls solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

902,495 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

14%

Construction Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	369
Midsize Enterprise	139
Large Enterprise	195

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	17

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Menlo Security Secure Web Gateway?

There aren't specific areas for improvement; however, they're not as well known as the big vendors such as Palo Alto....

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Menlo Security Secure Web Gateway?

People are mainly using it for zero trust web access. Menlo Secure is built from the ground up to provide zero basic ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Menlo Security Secure Web Gateway?

Secure file sharing and data protection is not exactly what Menlo Secure is designed to do. While it can handle some ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?

If we look at the features, then the price is good, but they do charge for the GlobalProtect VPNs. Overall, the prici...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?

There is room for improvement in Palo Alto Networks PA-Series in the areas where they can minimize applications and i...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?

I am using Palo Alto Networks PA-Series to ensure protection and cybersecurity by preventing and implementing network...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Prisma Access Browser vs Menlo Secure

Compared 18% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Menlo Secure

Compared 13% of the time

Netskope Next Gen Secure Web Gateway vs Menlo Secure

Compared 10% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Menlo Secure

Compared 9% of the time

Silo by Authentic8 vs Menlo Secure

Compared 7% of the time

More Menlo Secure Competitors

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 10% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 9% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 8% of the time

OPNsense vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 8% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 5% of the time

More Palo Alto Networks PA-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

June 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Menlo Secure

June 2026

Download Menlo Secure product report

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

June 2026

Download Palo Alto Networks PA-Series product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Menlo Security Web Security, Menlo Web Security

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

Menlo Security Secure Application Access

Menlo Security Secure Application Access makes zero trust access easy, giving users secure connectivity to private applications, including web and legacy applications. At the core of Secure Application Access is the Menlo Secure Cloud Browser, which fetches, secures and delivers the content for users.

In addition to providing simple-to-deploy, clientless ZTA, Secure Application Access and the Menlo Secure Cloud Browser protect applications from attacks such as session hijacking, cookie manipulation, and other tactics that employ protocol manipulation.

Secure Application Access protects applications from Internet threats and provides granular controls for added protection of the application and associated data. These security controls include Read-only/Read-write, Upload/download, Copy/paste, AV scanning, Sandboxing, and Data Loss Prevention.

Last Mile Data Protection

Menlo Last-Mile Data Protection identifies and prevents sensitive data from leaving your company by meticulously inspecting all file uploads and user input across browsing sessions. Leveraging the Secure Cloud Browser, users are protected from the internet and you can protect your organization from data loss with comprehensive traffic monitoring and controls. This approach addresses the growing concerns surrounding data leakage in the age of AI tools like ChatGPT.

By identifying sensitive data through file types, regular expressions, or predefined libraries, Menlo Last-Mile Data Protection empowers security teams to regulate data input into AI platforms and prevent unauthorized uploads. This capability provides crucial protection for intellectual property, PII, and other confidential information.

The solution leverages the Menlo Cloud Security Platform's visibility and control over traffic to reliably detect and prevent data leaks originating from both browser submission forms and non-browser traffic. With the ability to inspect encrypted web traffic, Menlo Last-Mile Data Protection enforces DLP policies consistently across all users and devices, ensuring comprehensive data protection.

Menlo Security

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is essential for firewall implementation, perimeter defense, securing infrastructure boundaries, web filtering, VPN, and threat prevention. Organizations deploy it for secure cloud connections, internet security, and managing network devices.

Companies trust Palo Alto Networks PA-Series to protect corporate networks from external threats, control traffic between networks, and meet regulatory compliance. Integrating well with applications, it offers centralized management and advanced security features such as IDS, IPS, and GlobalProtect. It ensures stable performance, application-based policy enforcement, and decryption of SSL traffic while providing efficient resource usage and comprehensive logging.

What are the key features?

Stability: Reliable performance for continuous protection.
App-ID: Application-based policy enforcement.
URL Filtering: Prevents access to malicious websites.
Security Controls: Comprehensive threat prevention mechanisms.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies management and operations.
Efficient Resource Usage: Optimized for minimal resource consumption.
Reporting: Detailed logs and analytics for better insights.
Antivirus: Protects against malware and viruses.
WildFire: Advanced threat prevention with machine learning AI.
Protocol Anomaly Detection: Identifies unusual network behavior.
SSL Decryption: Ensures secure traffic inspection.
Encryption: Safeguards sensitive data.
VPN Capabilities: Secure remote access for users.
Active Directory Integration: Streamlines user authentication.
Quality of Service (QoS): Manages network traffic efficiently.

What benefits should be evaluated?

Enhanced Security: Superior threat prevention and detection.
Centralized Management: Streamlined control of network devices.
Regulatory Compliance: Assists in meeting legal requirements.
Operational Efficiency: Reduced resource usage and downtime.
Comprehensive Reporting: Complete visibility into network activities.
Scalability: Adapts to growing network demands.
User Accessibility: Simplifies secure access for remote employees.

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is implemented across industries like healthcare, finance, retail, and manufacturing. In healthcare, it ensures patient data protection and compliance with HIPAA. Financial institutions utilize it to secure transactions and meet regulatory standards. Retailers benefit from protecting customer information and securing online payments. Manufacturing companies deploy it to safeguard intellectual property and control plant floor operations.

Palo Alto Networks

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

Buyer's Guide

Menlo Secure vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

June 2026

Free Report: Menlo Secure vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Menlo Secure vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

902,495 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Menlo Secure vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series report.

See our list of best Firewalls vendors.

We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.