Rapid7 InsightIDR vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

Rapid7 and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. Rapid7 is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.8, while WatchGuard is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.0. Additionally, 96% of Rapid7 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 2025

Rapid7 InsightIDR and WatchGuard Firebox are two competing products in the cybersecurity market. Rapid7 InsightIDR stands out in threat detection and response, while WatchGuard Firebox excels in network security through robust firewall capabilities, suggesting InsightIDR might have an edge in internal threat hunting.

Features: Rapid7 InsightIDR provides user behavior analytics, real-time security monitoring, and threat detection with the ability to analyze millions of transactions daily. WatchGuard Firebox offers stateful packet inspection, VPN support, and application control to enhance perimeter security, focusing on network defense.

Room for Improvement: Rapid7 InsightIDR could see improvements in reducing alert fatigue and enhancing user-friendliness for smaller teams. WatchGuard Firebox may benefit from simplifying its hardware deployment and expanding its feature set to compete with more advanced network solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Rapid7 InsightIDR is cloud-based, leading to quick, hardware-free deployment and praised for responsive customer service. WatchGuard Firebox, requiring hardware deployment, supports enterprises with complex networks and offers reliable troubleshooting and direct support.

Pricing and ROI: Rapid7 InsightIDR is at the higher end cost-wise, with its pricing justified by robust threat analytics and quick deployment. WatchGuard Firebox presents a lower cost option, providing a strong ROI with reliable network security, thus appealing to budget-conscious enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox

December 2025

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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

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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SohailHyder

Head of Cyber Security at Super Secure

Has supported compliance needs for mid-sized organizations but lacks customization and advanced integration

If we pitch Rapid7 InsightIDR against solutions such as SIEMs from Splunk or LogRhythm, it is not as customizable as a SIEM solution is. This is where it can improve if we keep in front the feature sets of a complete SIEM solution. Most common in the market is QRadar, but it is depleting now. It has been taken over by some other products such as Splunk and LogRhythm. If we compare these things with Rapid7 InsightIDR, then there are definitely some gaps that need to be filled. Data retention is also one concern because Rapid7 InsightIDR is cloud-based and operates on a subscription model. Whatever data you want to retain, it has to be paid for separately or it has a cost. Other solutions that are on-premises can have their own infrastructure or they provide some data retention for a month or in some capacity-wise, they provide that solution to them which makes them more attractive.

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Syed Pasha

Senior Network Consultant at NETOPS

Makes defining policies simpler but lacks performance and modern features

WatchGuard Firebox is only deployed in one location within my customer's organization, and at the other locations, we are using Meraki and FortiGate. We plan to replace WatchGuard Firebox soon. My impression of the spam blocking capabilities of WatchGuard is not very favorable, as I don't think it is very capable. I haven't noticed effective web ratings or IPS signatures, which may be due to managing an older OS; I'm not certain about the performance of the newer versions. I am not aware of whether the transition to faster ports on WatchGuard Firebox supports maintaining productivity levels during peak usage times. Based on my experience, I would rate WatchGuard Firebox as five out of ten overall.

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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 main benefit is the grouping of our security monitoring."

"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."

"It's a firewall that secures our internal network. I have been using it since 2013, and I find that most of the features are advanced, and very user friendly."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the rules and quality of service."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has a very high ROI"

"The most valuable feature of the solution revolves around SSL VPN."

"Fortinet FortiGate serves as the first line of defense, it is robust and easy to configure, and I haven't seen any breaches happening when configured properly based on best practices."

"Fortinet FortiGate positively provides my clients' organizations with a high return on investment."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"InsightIDR’s ability to process millions of transactions per day, and to notify me of the most critical ones, is priceless. InsightIDR has the alerts tuned, and has the ability to quickly drill down to determine the threat level."

"InsightIDR has allowed us to find potential security issues that we did not know existed, and get remediation quickly."

"If you were on other solutions, you would notice that they use agents from third-party, from open-source, from a native OS, or from other tools. Here, however, it is an agent from Rapid7 itself. This adds to the solution's overall capabilities."

"InsightIDR helps us investigate an environment to discover information about incidents."

"The alerting to drive investigations and remediation has been its most valuable feature."

"Great coverage of all systems within our network from endpoint to firewall."

"Rapid7 InsightIDR is budget-friendly and has a good market position because not everybody can afford to go for LogRhythm or Splunk or QRadar."

"The UI is very good."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pros

"[A] valuable feature would be the branch office. We have five offices throughout the United States, and it coordinates the connections of those offices."

"Intrusion Prevention is my primary focus so that's what I find most useful. The why is straightforward: It's to prevent intrusion."

"WatchGuard Firebox is easy to configure and has a nice user interface."

"WebBlocker has the best URL category database ever."

"WatchGuard is easy to implement and inexpensive. When we get a bulk-off license, we get a very discounted price that is competitive with alternative or competitor solutions."

"I find that their tech support is excellent. And as a reseller, my relationship with my point of contact is also strong. WatchGuard does a good job of maintaining that."

"WatchGuard has a very easy VPN and branch office VPN setup, so we use those pretty extensively."

"The solution is very easy to use."

More WatchGuard Firebox pros

Cons

"One area for improvement is the licensing policy. If support licenses are not renewed, the product's functionality ceases, which can be disruptive."

"The licensing could be improved as it is a little confusing and too granular for Fortinet FortiGate."

"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."

"The solution could maybe use more integration with artificial intelligence to be more proactive."

"When considering the policy of the vendors, they do not offer much of a discount policy, making the licensing model an area that needs improvement."

"FortiGate can improve its token system, as it requires a purchase before use."

"Maybe they can offer a smaller scope for a cheaper price for smaller organizations."

"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The reporting is the weakest aspect. There needs to be multi-level grouping for events (for example, group by user and destination). Right now, we can do a group by user and a separate table or group by destination. But I'd be more interested in where a person was logging into instead of who was logging in or where he was logging in."

"Cloud risk assessment is one area where I think they need a lot of improvement."

"The main problem lies in the processes within the client's operating systems."

"It takes time for the product's support team to resolve issues, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."

"InsightIDR is only available in a cloud version. Some of our customers prefer an on-prem solution because they want to manage the security within their environment."

"Rapid7 doesn't integrate well with all our security tools from various vendors, so we plan to switch. Many of our solutions work with Rapid7, but some do not. We are already searching for a replacement already."

"The interface for doing investigation needs to be enhanced with minor improvements that would make it more useful."

"There are certain limitations with Rapid7 that I am working on."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR cons

"The software base, the management piece that goes onto a server, is not as user-friendly as I would like. There are three different pieces that you have to manage, so it's a little bit convoluted, in my opinion."

"There is a problem with the RAM - it's eating up resources. The RAM utilization sometimes reaches up to 80% - 95%, and what we do is just restart the firewall."

"We bought Firebox four or five years ago, and with the first version I had to reboot it every two or three months for no apparent reason. We upgraded last year to the M370 and it's been running, but it is rebooting from time to time. I don't know why."

"The main trouble is the price of the product."

"Regarding technical support, they could use more engineers."

"There is no message displayed for the user on the desktop informing them that access to a web page has been blocked by Application Control."

"This solution needs the option to add an external hard drive."

"It doesn't offer the best protection and it's incompatible with a lot of China's websites. It makes a lot of mistakes when it is detecting items as it's not recognizing items correctly."

More WatchGuard Firebox cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you compare the price of Fortinet FortiGate IPS to other firewalls, Check Point is priced very high followed by Palo Alto and Sophos. Fortinet FortiGate IPS price is more reasonable."

"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."

"FortiGate SWG is reasonably priced."

"Fortigate's pricing is competitive."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall costs our company around $12000 per year."

"Fortinet FortiGate IPS' licensing is quite simple to understand."

"The product is a little bit expensive."

"It's a year based license."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Rapid7 InsightIDR is priced very well and is cost-effective."

"I am sure that there are cheaper products out there, but none that meet so many of our needs whilst maintaining stability and usability."

"The pricing and licensing are competitive."

"Rapid7 InsightIDR charges us based on the endpoints we connect to."

"Rapid7 InsightIDR's pricing is reasonable but we have challenges with the Minimum Order Quantity. It is not reasonable for customers who have less than one hundred devices. If they can reduce Minimum Order Quantity, it is good. You have to pay around 5000-6000 dollars per year for the product. The pricing includes maintenance and support costs."

"The pricing of the solution depends on the user. But there is a yearly licensing cost."

"It is on a yearly basis. For our own company, for about 250 users, it was 16,000 euros a year."

"It is more reasonably priced than other vendors."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pricing and cost advice

"The solution is not expensive and customers pay for a yearly license."

"The price of the WatchGuard Firebox is reasonable."

"We don't have any other costs other than the licensing stuff."

"Each one, for the primary unit, was $8,600 and the High Availability unit was $2,000. That's with three years of subscription and support and the Total Security Suite."

"The licensing model for WatchGuard Application Control is based on the number of users. WatchGuard Application Control also has licensing models with several features."

"The price is so small that I don't pay attention to it anymore. I think we pay a few thousand dollars for two to three years, so about $100 per month. That's for all of our users. There is an additional cost if we want to go with a deeper licensing model, but we just pay for antivirus, IPS, and main product support."

"It's an affordable tool"

"It's fair pricing, but it could always be reduced."

More WatchGuard Firebox pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	188

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	92
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	15

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...

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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 ...

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What SOC product do you recommend?

For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is a...

See all answers

What do you like most about Rapid7 InsightIDR?

During simulations or demonstrations, the tool generates alerts, providing details such as the specific application, ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 InsightIDR?

The product pricing is very cheap.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We are providing our services to all WatchGuard customers in the region.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We just use it as a secondary WiFi device. We're a small office and we needed to set up a WiFi device for a few of ou...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We're a hospital and we use it for developing our incoming and outgoing policies, and we also use it for VPN.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 6% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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Rapid7 InsightVM vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 6% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 5% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 4% of the time

Darktrace vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 4% of the time

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OPNsense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 7% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

Sophos UTM vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

Sophos XGS vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

More WatchGuard Firebox Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

January 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR

December 2025

Download Rapid7 InsightIDR product report

Buyer's Guide

WatchGuard Firebox

December 2025

Download WatchGuard Firebox product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

InsightIDR

WatchGuard Threat Detection and Response, WatchGuard Application Control, WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention, WatchGuard Gateway AntiVirus, WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service

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

Parsing hundreds of trivial alerts. Managing a mountain of data. Manually forwarding info from your endpoints. Forget that. InsightIDR instantly arms you with the insight you need to make better decisions across the incident detection and response lifecycle, faster.

Rapid7

WatchGuard Firebox is a high-performance firewall known for its ease of setup, offering robust security with layered protection and centralized management capabilities.

WatchGuard Firebox stands out for its intuitive management and high throughput, addressing security needs with features like VPN, web filtering, and threat detection. Its centralized control and reporting abilities, along with Active Directory integration, make it popular among varied organizations. Its user-friendly interface and ongoing updates enhance usability and reliability. However, there's a call for better cloud-based administration, scalability, and improved integration with third-party vendors.

What are the key features of WatchGuard Firebox?

Ease of Setup: Quick and straightforward installation process.
GUI: User-friendly graphical interface for simplified navigation.
VPN Features: Secure and efficient virtual private network management.
Web Filtering: Advanced filtering for safer browsing experiences.
Threat Detection: Proactive monitoring and detection of cyber threats.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated?

Centralized Control: Streamlined management from a single point.
High Throughput: Efficient data handling and processing capacity.
Stable Performance: Consistent and reliable operational functionality.
Active Directory Integration: Seamless connection with user directories.
Customer Service: Strong support service for customer inquiries.

WatchGuard Firebox is implemented across industries to secure internet gateways and protect data in multi-site businesses. Its applications span from Unified Threat Management (UTM) and intrusion prevention to compliance support in business environments requiring secure connectivity through VPNs.

WatchGuard

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

Liberty Wines, Pioneer Telephone, Visier

Ellips, Diecutstickers.com, Clarke Energy, NCR, Wrest Park, Homeslice Pizza, Fortessa Tableware Solutions, The Phoenix Residence

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox

December 2025

Free Report: Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox

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