Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series comparison

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.2%, up from 17.7% 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. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is 0.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

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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Krishnakumar M

enterprise architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

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.

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Deminda Dilan

Senior Network Engineer at Just In Time Group (Sri Lanka)

Good for enterprise-level businesses and offers many features like URL filtering and antivirus capabilities

Palo Alto can improve the web application firewall (WAF) feature at layer 7. Currently, I don't think it's available. If they can improve that, it would be better. We wouldn't need to purchase a separate WAF solution because they already have advanced URL filtering. But I don't think that advanced URL filtering has the same features as a dedicated WAF, like F5 or other solutions. That is an area for improvement. If they can improve the WAF feature, customers won't have to buy a separate WAF solution. They could do it with the same Palo Alto firewall, perhaps through a subscription-based model. So the web application firewall feature has to be improved.

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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

"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."

"A strong point of FortiGate is that the graphical interface is complete and easy to use, especially if we think there is a list of operations that we are able to perform inside."

"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."

"Some of the best features of Fortinet FortiGate include the next-generation firewall features."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."

"One of the valuable features is a standardized OS."

"The base firewall features are quite valuable to us."

"It's a good product that significantly enhances security and protects organizational data."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"We've found the solution offers us good stability."

"Palo Alto has better and finer controls than, say, Cisco or Check Point."

"The solution offers effective security features such as HIDS (Host-based Intrusion Detection System) in global products."

"The application ID on the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is able to understand the application traffic, and WildFire is also good."

"The most valuable features are the intuitive user interface, ease of use, and reporting."

"This is a very reliable firewall and we have never had problems with it."

"One of the most valuable features is Palo Alto's firewall management. We find it easier to manage the firewall centrally."

"The customer service and support are really good."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pros

"Comprehensive logging is essential for monitoring and analysis purposes. For remote users, the firewall can be configured as a VPN concentrator, with VPN policies defined within the firewall settings."

"A valuable feature that we can consider is the deployment time, which is significantly reduced. It is almost 90% faster compared to other solutions."

"It has its own logging system. You can go to monitoring and check the logs to see if a connection is getting blocked. You can use multiple types of logs to check if a file or a port is getting blocked or if there are any TCP resets from the source or destination. It's easy to troubleshoot with the monitoring and logging it provides."

"The documentation is great."

"It offers application-based policy enforcement. Palo Alto Networks firewalls help us recognize protocol anomalies, contrasting with other vendors that may require policies based on port numbers. With Palo Alto Networks, the port number isn't a constraint because their devices handle protocol traffic at Layer 7, allowing for accurate identification of protocol usage and port numbers. They can identify which protocol actually uses which port."

"The cloud-based aspect helps significantly. It integrates seamlessly with other Palo products like Prisma Cloud, offers robust VPN protection, and it's all in one convenient package."

"The best features of the Palo Alto Networks PA-Series firewall include Global protector VPN workings, and content filtering is easy to manage and operate."

"It is stable when you set up something and put it into production. Once it works, you don't have other tasks or actions to perform."

More Palo Alto Networks PA-Series pros

Cons

"I often ask for help from the local provider. I haven't found the required efficient help."

"At this moment, we believe that Fortinet FortiGate should be improved by injecting more AI because the kind of threats we are seeing are more ransomware threats."

"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 stability could be a bit better."

"FortiGate can only retain logs for 24 hours or 7 days. I'm not sure if it holds them for a longer period, such as for a month."

"Web security solutions can be improved."

"Fortinet FortiGate can improve the integration with Active Directory. Additionally, I would like to have a Cloud Controller, such as they do in the Cisco Meraki solution."

"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"There are a lot of bugs in this solution."

"I'd like to see more data protection on the system."

"The reporting functionality in GlobalProtect needs to be improved."

"The product should get frequent updates allowing us to add new signatures."

"The scalability for on-premises version is limited as it depends on the model."

"The licensing cost is a typical complaint with many clients. The solution is expensive."

"I would like to see the threat intelligence capability integrated with other vendors such as Cisco and Forcepoint."

"Its networking features could be better."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series cons

"The support provided by the solution is not that good."

"The product's gateway services can be improved."

"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."

"The product must provide multiple threat detection features."

"The UI definitely needs work. In my opinion, the UI could be simpler and more user-friendly for the average user."

"There are constant updates for the operating system. It is a nice thing also, but it has its own disadvantages. Continuous updates are there. The users face issues like, how often do I need to update that? Within a period of five months, I'm updating it two or three times. It gives them a feeling that they are not confident about their product and have to update it so frequently."

"Currently, they are not protected with any data security when they work from home or outside the network. They surf the Internet directly and should implement a proxy or firewall to monitor the data between the endpoint and the internet."

"Compared to other vendors, the solution's community should be strong enough to solve the problems engineers face."

More Palo Alto Networks PA-Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."

"It's very affordable."

"It's very competitive."

"It is not the cheapest one, but its price is very competitive."

"Fortinet FortiGate as a less expensive solution than Palo Alto."

"It is cheaper and more competitive compared to other options. For example, when comparing Palo Alto products to others, Palo Alto tends to be more expensive. If you compare Cisco's platform, including Cisco Meraki, with Fortinet products, you'll notice that Cisco's offerings are generally higher priced than Fortinet's firewall solutions."

"The setup cost was good. The Egyptian pound is declining, and upgrading Fortinet FortiGate yearly costs about $2000 USD, which equals one hundred Egyptian pounds. I maintain a business relationship with the vendor and receive support from them."

"Its pricing is competitive with other solutions."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is expensive."

"Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is an expensive solution, the price could be reduced. They are more expensive than some of their competitors."

"Products by the leader in the field are justifiably a bit more expensive compared to other vendors."

"Palo Alto firewalls are very expensive."

"When comparing Palo Alto Networks K2-Series with other solutions it is on the higher end of the price scale."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"If you compare K2-Series' quality with its price, I think it is reasonable."

"This product is designed for large companies. The price would not be suitable for a small or medium size company."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, Palo Alto offers high-price products."

"This product has an affordable and reasonable price point."

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

"From my perspective, managing the price is important, especially because we're a small business. For larger organizations like Barclays, we provide our requirements to the client, and they place the order on BigFix. It's their responsibility to consider their budget and make decisions accordingly. We appreciate the features we get, but the cost-sharing still depends on the client."

"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."

"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 pricing is a bit on the higher side."

More Palo Alto Networks PA-Series pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

19%

Performing Arts

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 ...

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 do you like most about Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

It is a stable solution.

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 do you like most about Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?

The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to...

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

The price of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is expensive.

What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?

The interface of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series should be made much more user-friendly.

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Comparisons

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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

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WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Compared 100% of the time

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OPNsense vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 24% of the time

Sophos XG vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 15% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 13% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 7% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Download Palo Alto Networks K2-Series product report

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Download Palo Alto Networks PA-Series product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

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

Designed to handle growing throughput needs due to increasing amounts of application-, user-, and device-generated data, the K2-Series offers amazing performance and threat prevention capabilities to stop advanced cyberattacks and secure mobile network infrastructure, subscribers, and services.

Palo Alto Networks

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

State of North Dakota, SEGA, Alameda County Office of Education, Temple University, VERGE, CAME

Information Not Available

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series