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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
6.9
Number of Reviews
589
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (13th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th)
Stormshield Network Security
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
AV
Cyber security consultant at L&T Technology Services
Enhance cybersecurity for large enterprises using advanced threat management
An improvement could be the integration of security intelligence with Palo Alto cloud via APIs. This would allow IOCs, domains, and hash values to be automatically entered, reducing manual entry. Integration with CSIRT across all use levels would make it easier for administrators to stay updated on the blocked entities without manual intervention.
Zsolt Jónás - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at NaxoNet
Advanced GUI and layered security have supported compliance and simplified intrusion prevention
I haven't had a task that I couldn't solve with Stormshield Network Security. The active-active high availability solution would be beneficial because currently, if you build a high availability solution with Stormshield Network Security, you have a main device and another one is a backup device. The HA can switch between them, but it would be good to have a master-master solution, not just a master-slave one. I could set a URL that I can call to update the DNS record. Currently, Stormshield Network Security devices support DynDNS, which is not a usual feature request from a server environment. I have my own solution instead of DynDNS because I don't prefer it, so I have my own service for that. However, the GUI does not support using a custom service instead of DynDNS. I had to solve it in the console on Stormshield Network Security device, but it would be much better if it was reachable on the GUI. I had to figure out a trick for the IPsec configuration. In the IPsec config, we have to provide the remote side's IP address, but it's always changing. This means that an office, for example a company that has an office but without a fixed IP address, cannot be used with IPsec VPN.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The SD-WAN is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus."
"The response from the technical support team has always been excellent."
"I'm happy with FortiGate; it's a product I can recommend to others because it doesn't give me any issues."
"The main benefit I have seen from using Fortinet FortiGate is the protection it offers because I can see threats that come through in real-time, and if they are blocked, I can see that."
"I have found most of the features to be good with excellent functionality."
"The most important feature, normally for small business customers, is link load balancing."
"It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."
"The most valuable features are the User ID, URL filtering, and application filtering."
"It scales linearly with load and no issues."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is very easy to use."
"I have not actually called their support line, because we have a direct contact to a senior engineer in the company for any issues that we handle with them. I will say they are very responsive, and they do give you the information you need when you need it.​"
"It has excellent scalability."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its stability, ease of implementation, ease of operation, and security."
"A valuable feature of the solution is that it is not dependent on the hypervisor so we can install it on Hyper-V Microsoft software and deploy it."
"It is an easy-to-scale product."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the URL filtering database, which is great and contains all internet categories, the highly scalable interface that I can turn into what I want including hybrid, bridge, or router mode, the security with no back doors that is more secure than other solutions, and the hardware performance that is also better than others."
"The solution has improved my organization because I can see what traffic is happening and I can use it to block and prevent attacks."
"Easily manageable in a variety of environments."
"Stormshield is a very strong firewall and very easy to configure and maintain."
"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."
"The features I find most valuable is the backup inspection, the filtering, and the load balancing, and I am also impressed by the antivirus feature that gives us two controls over the viruses - one is from the parameter and one on the endpoint."
"Filters and URL filtering helped us to optimize our bandwidth."
"I like that it works fine. Stormshield is a very good solution."
 

Cons

"There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated."
"The solution can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything."
"I believe there is room for improvement in machine learning and AI in Fortinet FortiGate."
"Security level could be increased."
"The only issue that I have is with FortiNAC. The firewall is fine, but the FortiNAC interface is a little bit too jumbled or too complicated, not as straightforward as it is on the Fortinet FortiGate firewall and FortiAnalyzer."
"The interface and product support could use improvement."
"The customization is a little bit difficult because we have to customize everything."
"We had a minor problem where there was a major system upgrade on the hardware platfrom and the Mac client was not available as soon as it might have been. The PC client was available immediately, but we had to wait a month or so, before there was a mac client. I was slightly irritated that it was not ready on time, but it was eventually resolved."
"Palo Alto definitely needs to be more competitive compared to other products. The problem that I have faced is that the price of licensing is very high and not very competitive."
"We have ran into issues with Palo Alto’s limitations for resolving large IP lists from DNS lookups, as well as the antivirus interfering with App-ID."
"I find it difficult to reach technical support at Palo Alto Networks. Most customers go for partner-enabled support, which involves multiple layers, leading to delays."
"The interface is all Java-based. I would prefer an HTML5 interface."
"I find it difficult to reach technical support at Palo Alto Networks."
"The solution needs to have more easily searchable details or documentation about it online, so it's easier to Google if you have queries."
"I would like to have automatic daily reporting, such as how many users have connected via SSL VPN."
"Palo Alto is really bad when it comes to technical support."
"Improvement is also needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer, they're not very responsive when it comes to technical support."
"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."
"This is not a next-generation firewall."
"The main area of this product that has room for improvement is pricing. Stormshield Network Security is quite expensive."
"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension."
"The stability is not that good based on my experience. We have a lot of disruptions when it comes to Stormshield."
"A more user-friendly interface would be helpful."
"Being more cost effective. I went with a pair of Watchguard M300 recently when buying a new firewall cluster for our own use because it was way cheaper than NetASQ/Stormshield N700 while being faster, and it offers true multi-master firewall clustering if needed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a very cheap solution."
"The price could be lower."
"It is expensive. You need to pay for the subscription every year, which is very expensive. The subscription includes technical support and hardware exchange in case of failure."
"Fortinet FortiGate IPS is cheaper than other solutions like Cisco or Check Point."
"They need to be competitive with other solutions."
"The price for the Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable. Secure SD-WAN is free of charge. If you have their firewall, it's free of charge. It's very tempting."
"Its licenses cost the same for different subscription plans."
"The licensing cost is at the intermediate level."
"We used BYOL, because of the cost to own."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is notably cheaper than other firewall vendors, except Fortigate."
"Sometimes, it's cheaper to buy a new firewall with licensing instead of renewing the licenses of an old firewall."
"The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS for a three-year commitment is a great deal, if you can plan that far ahead."
"It is a little bit of crazy if you compare it to Vanguard, Sophos, or even Cisco. The newest version of Cisco, the Next-Generation Firewall of Cisco, is less expensive than Palo Alto. It is more comparable to Check Point."
"The solution is a little bit expensive compared to other vendors."
"Palo Alto definitely needs to be more competitive compared to other products. The problem that I have faced is that the price of licensing is very high and not very competitive."
"For licensing, It depends how they want to use the firewall. The firewall can be used only for IPS purposes. If you only want that firewall IPSs, you will only need a license that is called threat prevention. That license, threat prevention, includes vulnerabilities, antivirus signatures and one additional measure (that I can't remember), but it includes three measures and security updates."
"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."
"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."
"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."
"I think the price is good."
"The pricing could be better."
"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."
"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business364
Midsize Enterprise135
Large Enterprise190
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

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...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the...
What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?
The tool is like a firewall and works well. I don't have any issue with it. I rate it an eight out of ten.
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation 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: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.