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Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Waterfall Security comparison

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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
581
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 (12th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (11th)
Waterfall Security
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Operational Technology (OT) Security (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Firewalls Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series1.5%
Fortinet FortiGate18.7%
OPNsense10.5%
Other69.3%
Firewalls
Operational Technology (OT) Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Waterfall Security1.4%
Nozomi Networks20.6%
Claroty Platform18.2%
Other59.8%
Operational Technology (OT) Security
 

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.
Iulian PAVALOAIA - PeerSpot reviewer
SCADA & ICT SME/CConsultant at DNS
Cyber security solution used for data transmission that requires training to make use of all of its powerful features
We use this solution to manage auto operations, technology networks and information technology within our infrastructure. The SCADA controls the power network and does not interfere with accounting system. This solution is used predominantly for data transmission.  This is a professional solution…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The biggest lesson would be that Fortinet FortiGate provides a high level of security at a good total cost of ownership."
"Customers keep on improving their licenses. The solution remains scalable and flexible. On-premises deployments may have some limitations. However, cloud deployments offer a high degree of flexibility."
"I love the interface."
"We are a visual effects company, and there have been a number of high profile security issues in our industry. This has brought us to a higher standard of security, which our clients are very keen on these days."
"Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted our organization by providing stronger network security as it's a next-generation firewall, blocking known threats and vulnerabilities in real-time, detecting and controlling thousands of applications, scanning encrypted traffic, and improving VPN and remote access through automated failover and intelligent routing protocols like BGP over IPsec VPN."
"I am "headache free" that I don't have to categorize all the websites and that security has been pre categorized by the people, and that the services are getting updated. At least one part of my problem is over."
"The most useful features are application control, web filtering, and SD-WAN."
"Fortinet FortiGate has reasonable pricing and is easy to operate; it is efficient and represents the future for security, including cloud security and branch-to-cloud security."
"It offers a single pane of glass for all the different types of installations."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the zero-trust security architecture."
"In terms of security breaches, the product aids in categorizing and monitoring traffic, allowing for the identification of potentially malicisous or incorrectly formatted applications."
"It has a good performance which helps you with the stability of your virtual environment."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its stability, ease of implementation, ease of operation, and security."
"It is reliable and the support is very good."
"The product provides more visibility into our traffic."
"Using Palo Alto Networks Panorama, we were able to deploy a single point of management and visualization of the firewall infrastructure in cloud, on-premise and integrated with Azure to automate scale up. Its security features, i.e. anti-malware, threat prevention, URL Filtering, VPN, and antivirus are the most valuable. The ID-User integrated with AD and 2FA features are also very useful to provide secure access to servers and some users in the company. "
"This is a professional solution which has been the most valuable aspect of its use."
 

Cons

"Security level could be increased."
"Improvement is needed in the Web Filter quotas to restrict users with allocated quotas."
"The solution has limited scalability."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"One area for improvement is the licensing policy. If support licenses are not renewed, the product's functionality ceases, which can be disruptive."
"There are too many updates coming for VPN, and the VPN keeps disconnecting frequently, which I find problematic."
"In the scenarios coming from Sophos, it has not."
"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 current licensing model can be a sore point as we're paying for features we're not fully utilizing."
"We have run into some issues with scaling and limitations associated with some of the configurations."
"There could be dynamic DNS features similar to Fortinet in the product."
"The performance of VM instances has some limitations in terms of threshold and throughput compared to appliances."
"There's room for improvement in terms of integration with the load balancer. It isn't like Fortinet, which has a load balancer built into its firewall. It is effortless to integrate within the load balancer-plus-firewall solution."
"In the next release, I would like to see better integration between the endpoints and the firewalls."
"The solution must improve Zero Trust integration and use cases."
"Palo Alto is that it is really bad when it comes to technical support."
"The interface of this solution could be more user friendly. The initial set up could also be made more simple."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is fair."
"I think the price of Fortinet FortiGate is very reasonable."
"The solution's price is average."
"The price is fair compared to the other competitors."
"As far as I'm aware, in our case, it's just a yearly pricing arrangement with no additional licensing costs."
"Fortinet FortiGate is reasonably priced."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is an expensive solution with a yearly subscription."
"It was pretty affordable. We did go a little bit above MSRP, but the service pack that was included was quite worth the additional costs. It is competitively priced compared to other major players in the market. It is significantly cheaper than Check Point, which is a primary competitor. Additionally, its pricing is comparable to that of Cisco's ASA and a few other vendors."
"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."
"When you have a client compare box against box, a lot of times Palo Alto is a bit more expensive, but its network firewalls have a very rich ratio."
"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."
"The pricing was expensive but it was comparable to the competition."
"We found purchasing process the product on the AWS Marketplace to be very good."
"Sometimes, it's cheaper to buy a new firewall with licensing instead of renewing the licenses of an old firewall."
"The product is costly but provides all essential security features. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS should be from $1.28/hr or $4,500.00/yr. Then, it would be a good price for the performance that it delivers."
"This is an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
6%
Energy/Utilities Company
23%
Educational Organization
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Retailer
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise133
Large Enterprise189
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise24
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...
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...
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Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
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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
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