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Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
373
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (13th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (9th)
Stormshield Network Security
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (13th)
 

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.
RonnieYazdani - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly CLI and efficient dashboard streamline operations with robust security features
I find Palo Alto Networks VM-Series easy to deploy, and none of my customers have had significant complaints. My customers have high certifications provided by Palo Alto Networks. The friendly dashboard and the ability to easily command and use the CLI make Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a better product. It offers robust solutions, making it valuable to my customers.
Benjamin - PeerSpot reviewer
The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats
The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's very easy to set up, it's very easy to make policies and, for an organization, that means you don't need IT expert in firewalls. You just need to have somebody who knows a little bit of IT, and that's it. With other products, you need someone with a "Masters" degree in firewalls."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
"The pipe filter application is an outstanding feature."
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"The feature I like most is the SD-WAN. It allows you to manage more than one ISP at the same time. And there is a high-availability mode, so if one of your ISPs is down, you still have a backup."
"The SD-WAN is the most valuable feature."
"Secure, user-friendly, stable, and scalable network security solution. Installation is straightforward."
"In Palo Alto the most important feature is the App-ID."
"It scales linearly with load and no issues."
"App-ID and User-ID have repeatedly shown value in securing business critical systems."
"AWS has improved our agility to apply firewall rules. It has reduced the amount of time that it takes to apply firewall rules because everything is based in the cloud."
"We use the product on our Azure network firewalls."
"The most valuable feature is that you can control your traffic flowing out and coming it, allowing you to apply malware and threat protection, as well as vulnerability checks."
"The additional visibility, which was lacking with cloud-native tools, has improved the organization's cloud security posture. Advanced enforcement and granular security controls help manage potential threats."
"The most valuable features are web control and IPS/IDS."
"A very robust product."
"It's an easy, straightforward management platform to use."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page."
"The solution has improved my organization because I can see what traffic is happening and I can use it to block and prevent attacks."
"I like how you can configure the rules. There is the task for the rules and a task for the network configuration. It also provides SMD filtering, and it can be integrated with the active directory for the users, their mission, and the VPN configuration. We are here in Sudan, and Stormshield didn't work in Sudan for more than a decade. Stormshield is a very strong firewall and very easy to configure and maintain. I am just working with the firewall solution, and we don't have any other solutions like endpoint solutions or something like that."
"I like that it works fine. Stormshield is a very good solution."
"The most valuable features are the IPS, the firewall function, and the price."
"This solution is quick and easy to configure."
 

Cons

"Their support's response time can be better. In the past six months, they took quite a long time to respond to the support tickets."
"I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation."
"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."
"Maybe they could make some features more accessible, such as a way to translate directions between two networks that share the same subnets."
"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."
"For Fortinet FortiGate, their code development would definitely be something they need to improve on to reduce vulnerabilities that need to be patched."
"Fortinet should improve its software, as we are seeing lots of firmware versions generated for each vulnerability issue. It becomes difficult for us to keep updating the firmware frequently due to bugs."
"The sniffing packets or packet captures, can be simplified and improved because it's a little confusing."
"The scalability could be improved further."
"We have run into some issues with scaling and limitations associated with some of the configurations."
"There are various reports that come with the box or with the VMware, but you can only run them daily."
"When managing the firewall, it involves a Strata Cloud web browser that requires improvement to enhance deployment ease and call center efficiency."
"There could be dynamic DNS features similar to Fortinet in the product."
"It would be helpful if we had a direct number for the support manager or the supporting engineer. That would be better than having to email every time because there would be less wait."
"The user interface could use some improvement."
"The solution's licensing could be improved, and training should be included before installation."
"With Stormshield, there are difficulties joining things, and it can be complex depending on the architecture."
"The product must improve its pricing."
"It could be better if it were more user-friendly. It's too complicated for us to use it. The price could be better as well."
"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension. It's not that easy. It's not that straightforward. In the next release, I would like to see a reporting system. Stormshield doesn't have any tutorials on how to do the configuration and things like that. They just have documentation on the website. If you want to configure, for example, Cisco or Fortinet, you can find tutorials on YouTube. They show you how to configure the features, and so on. In Stormshield, there is nothing on social media or the internet on how to configure different things. The lack of documentation or the lack of material makes it difficult for others to adopt this solution."
"Not all the fields are activated yet and we were informed that it will take at least one month."
"A more user-friendly interface would be helpful."
"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."
"This is not a next-generation firewall."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The price depends on the size of the company. From the beginning, you just want to know the internet bandwidths, speed, and the number of users to be able to offer the right product and model. They have a lot of products in FortiGate according to the size of the company, like 200D and 300D."
"It is somewhat expensive compared to other solutions such as Sophos."
"The pricing is perfect."
"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."
"Fortinet FortiGate is reasonably priced."
"The beauty is the price performance ratio is great with FortiGate. It provides all the features we needed and the price is comparable with others' firewalls. The price is quite competitive with the firewalls with similar features."
"Fortinet Secure SD-WAN delivered the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) per Mbps among all other vendors."
"The solution is expensive. I rate its pricing a three out of ten."
"I know Palo Alto is not cheap. They have been telling me, the members of the finance team, it is not a cheap solution. It is a solution whose target is that no matter how big your organization is, small, medium, or large, it is about the maturity of your security team or infrastructure team whom you want to work with."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is the most expensive tool among competitors"
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is notably cheaper than other firewall vendors, except Fortigate."
"The cost of this product varies from customer to customer and the relationship with IBM, including how many offerings from IBM are already being used."
"Palo Alto is more expensive than other products."
"Because I work for a university and the URL is for the institution, it's a free license for us."
"The pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."
"The pricing could be better."
"I think the price is good."
"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."
"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."
"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."
"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
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Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
No data available
NETASQ Firewalls
 

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
Warren Rogers Associates
ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs. Stormshield Network Security and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.