Fortinet FortiGate OverviewUNIXBusinessApplication

Fortinet FortiGate is the #1 ranked solution in best firewalls, SD-WAN tools, and top WAN Edge tools. PeerSpot users give Fortinet FortiGate an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. Fortinet FortiGate is most commonly compared to Cisco Secure Firewall: Fortinet FortiGate vs Cisco Secure Firewall. Fortinet FortiGate is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 50% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 19% of all views.
Fortinet FortiGate Buyer's Guide

Download the Fortinet FortiGate Buyer's Guide including reviews and more. Updated: March 2023

What is Fortinet FortiGate?

Fortinet FortiGate is an innovative line of firewalls that aim to protect organizations from all types of web-based network threats. They come in a wide variety of product types. Fortinet FortiGate’s solutions are available in a large range of sizes and form factors and are key components of the Fortinet Security Fabric, which enables immediate, intelligent defense against known and new threats throughout the entire network.

Fortinet FortiGate provides users with next-generation firewall solutions that provide proven protection with unmatched performance across the network, from internal segments to data centers to cloud environments. You can protect every part of your network without exception. Additionally, your protections can be managed from a single central location. This ensures that the task of protecting your network is infinitely easier to accomplish.

Benefits of Fortinet FortiGate

Some of the benefits of using Fortinet FortiGate include:

  • The ability to manage your firewalls from a centralized automated control console. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiManager enables administrators to exercise control of their firewalls in a streamlined manner. Administrators have full visibility and control over their system from a single location. It utilizes automation that collects information in real time, which greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of running various types of workflows. Administrators can free up resources by automating the most basic tasks.
  • The ability to produce uniform, appropriate, and coordinated responses to threats across networks. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiGuard feature generates system protections in near real time. This allows administrators to address threats to the system with custom-made solutions that can be uniformly enforced.
  • The ability to scale up your security to fit your changing security needs. Fortinet FortiGate’s design allows users to accelerate the transfer of data between users and escalate the number of users that are covered without compromising security of performance. This means that users can grow their networks and continue to collaborate without worrying about the system slowing down or coming under attack.

Reviews from Real Users

Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall solutions are cutting edge. They stand out from competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the robustness and power of their firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall provides users with many valuable features that allow them to maximize what they can do with the solution. These firewalls enable users to use a single piece of software to accomplish tasks that often require the use of multiple pieces of software.

PeerSpot user Eric S., a Solutions Engineer and Consultant at a tech-services company, notes the robustness of this solution when he writes, "One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface.”

PeerSpot user Jim M., a network admin at Penobscot Valley Hospital, notes the power of Fortinet FortiGate’s security software when he writes, "It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall.”

Fortinet FortiGate was previously known as FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate.

Fortinet FortiGate Customers

Pittsburgh Steelers, LUSH Cosmetics, NASDAQ, Verizon, Arizona State University, Levi Strauss & Co.

Whitepaper and case studies here

Fortinet FortiGate Video

Fortinet FortiGate Pricing Advice

What users are saying about Fortinet FortiGate pricing:
  • "Fortinet's pricing is more straightforward than other solutions. If Fortinet doesn't stick out when you're searching for a solution, you are a glutton for punishment. You only need to know two things when purchasing a Fortinet solution: your total bandwidth and bandwidth at the site. You need to estimate the future bandwidth with other solutions if your customer plans to upgrade."
  • "It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive."
  • "Fortinet FortiGate has different licensing models, depending on what you're going to do. Services included would depend on the license model. Licenses can be renewed annually."
  • "Fortinet FortiGate as a less expensive solution than Palo Alto."
  • "There is a subscription-based model to use Fortinet FortiGate. We pay annually for the solution along with the support. If you want to have all the updates, and security patches you will need to renew your support."
  • Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

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    Network Solutions Architect at Yazata Solutions
    Reseller
    Top 20
    SSL proxy makes URL filtering easier because the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves
    Pros and Cons
    • "FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
    • "My only complaint about FortiGate is a lack of QinQ VLAN tunneling. I haven't found this feature in any Fortinet product. You can do this on all Cisco routers, including the smaller models. However, QinQ isn't available on the biggest, most expensive Fortinet units. They still don't have that. I think now we're on software version 6.0, and they still haven't found a solution for QinQ. It isn't a dealbreaker, but that's my main complaint."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use FortiGate for security. Some clients use the whole Fortinet solution, including FortiSwitch, FortiAP, and FortiExtender, but FortiGate is my bread and butter.

    We have a hybrid deployment. A lot of it is onsite, and we have data center collocations. Some customers do collocations with us, but others request connectivity to Azure or another cloud services provider. Fortinet has plugins for Azure, AWS, or Google that make it easy to configure VPNs out of the data center or off-site. 

    Typically, we stick with Azure because their support is better, but we do have a handful of customers that choose AWS. We have the solution deployed across Canada. One of our biggest customers is a retail company with many little stores under their umbrella. We cover everything from British Columbia to a couple of sites in Newfoundland. I estimate that we have around 1,200 users.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We need to allow a set of websites or block another set. FortiGate gives us the ability to do it based on URL domain. It's so much easier because you input the domain microsoft.com instead of adding the specific URL. Other firewalls can't do that the way FortiGate does. It helps us with compliance and security.

    What is most valuable?

    FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. 

    Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features.

    What needs improvement?

    My only complaint about FortiGate is a lack of QinQ VLAN tunneling. I haven't found this feature in any Fortinet product. You can do this on all Cisco routers, including the smaller models. However, QinQ isn't available on the biggest, most expensive Fortinet units. They still don't have that. I think now we're on software version 6.0, and they still haven't found a solution for QinQ. It isn't a dealbreaker, but that's my main complaint.

    Buyer's Guide
    Fortinet FortiGate
    March 2023
    Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2023.
    685,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using Fortinet solutions for about four or five years now.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I think FortiGate is going to be around forever. If I don't see their stock price double in the next two years, I'm going to be surprised. I think it's a very underrated solution. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Scaling up only requires adding a router. Once you have your network in place and a basic template, you buy another router and add it to the mix. It's incredibly easy to add and configure devices. 

    How are customer service and support?

    I rate Fortinet support 10 out of 10. The support gets better as you get more certifications. I'm trying to get my certification to see how much better it can be. With an NSE 7 certification, you can contact Tier 3 support directly. I'm already getting my cases resolved in 24 to 48 hours using Tier 1 and 2 support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We used Juniper firewalls in the past. The two solutions are similar in terms of features, but Fortinet blew it out of the water with regards to pricing and user-friendliness.

    The main difference is CLI versus GUI. You have to know what you're doing on a Juniper because it's all command-line based, but Fortinet is 99 percent GUI-based. You log in to Fortinet and check off what you want to allow or block. 

    How was the initial setup?

    Our biggest Fortinet solution was 500 plus retail sites. This customer chose the whole nine yards, including FortiGate, FortiSwitch, FortiAPs, and the FortiExtender, which is the LTE router. 

    I made the templates for the configuration for our bottom tiers because they were the ones rolling them out. I made a standard template config and wrote notes specifying necessary changes for each site. 

    The primary difficulty was trying to understand our customer's requirements and concerns because they were with an old provider. The provider had a lot of things on-site that weren't necessary. Deploying the Fortinet solution itself wasn't hard. 

    Getting there was hard because we had to sit down with the customer and their tech team to determine what was needed because they had old Cisco routers. That took about three weeks and required a lot of on-site visits, but it wasn't hard to deploy the solution once we got an understanding of the requirements was not hard.

    We trained the customers to manage and maintain the solution themselves. The only maintenance we do is emailing them monthly when we get notifications from Fortinet about router upgrades. You can configure it and then forget it. 

    What about the implementation team?

    We are the integrator/consultant for the solution. We are the one in between the client and the internet service provider.

    What was our ROI?

    FortiGate firewalls pay for themselves. We bought our first FortiGate when they came out with the 50Fs and thought we would never see the return on investment. However, they paid for themselves because we rent them out, and customers loved them so much that we just retired our Juniper and Cisco solutions.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Fortinet's pricing is more straightforward than other solutions. If Fortinet doesn't stick out when you're searching for a solution, you are a glutton for punishment. You only need to know two things when purchasing a Fortinet solution: your total bandwidth and bandwidth at the site. You need to estimate the future bandwidth with other solutions if your customer plans to upgrade.

    You have to consider whether you'll need to resell your licenses or wait until they expire and get new ones. You need to worry about out-of-pocket costs with other solutions, but you could pay for a higher-tier Fortinet license. You don't need to worry about it for 10 years and still be under budget.

    Fortinet encourages people to buy their base product and then add what they need. That mentality goes a lot farther in the game because it affords people security. That's how they got into the market and became so competitive.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We evaluated Meraki, Dell's old SD-WAN, and Cisco's Viptela. Price and flexibility were the main factors. Viptela, Juniper, and others make it so hard to pick a solution. You have to be highly specific about what you want, including the amount of bandwidth and encryption level at every site. You have to pick a different router per site, depending on your functionality and requirements.

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate FortiGate 10 out of 10. It's a tremendous little firewall. It takes care of all your security concerns.  When people say, "I need to make my organization more secure," the first thing that comes to mind is Fortinet. Everyone is talking about Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, and Check Point but overlooking Fortinet, which is a relatively new player in the game. 

    Fortinet's next-generation firewall is more affordable and user-friendly. They also have an extensive knowledge base online. Good luck finding that community support on a Palo Alto, Cisco, or Juniper website without paying.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
    PeerSpot user
    Network admin at Penobscot Valley Hospital
    Real User
    Top 10
    An easy-to-use product that does a lot for you and allows you to be independent
    Pros and Cons
    • "It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall. You don't need to pay some other company for another product to do that for you. The firewall can do that for you. So, it's an easy-to-use product for people to be independent. They don't need to rely on other vendors to do what the firewall can do. They can do everything."
    • "I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself."

    What is most valuable?

    It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall. You don't need to pay some other company for another product to do that for you. The firewall can do that for you. So, it's an easy-to-use product for people to be independent. They don't need to rely on other vendors to do what the firewall can do. They can do everything.

    The GUI is good. I'm really happy with the ease of use of the firewall. Fortinet's support is also great.  

    What needs improvement?

    I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've had different models of Fortinet since 2009. They all are physical appliances. I had 300As, and now I'm on 300Ds. I've got a remote site with a different model, which probably is 60F. They are great little firewalls, and for bigger size places, they have 300 models.

    I don't have virtual appliances. I don't have a virtual infrastructure. I have an older virtual environment with Hyper-V, and the servers are not up-to-date. It was a money thing. So, it was better to go with the appliance itself.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I'm happy with what they got. It is a great product. Sometimes, you're going to get a lemon—the way it initially happened with FortiAuthenticator 300F—but that doesn't happen very often.

    If there is a problem, the next business day, they send it and get the replacement, and they help me configure it.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    In terms of its users, everybody uses the firewall because they're going out. That's our egress point. So, there are about 20 users for that. We have a dozen IPsec tunnels with which we connect to different companies. So, security is a big part of it. I also have a remote location with about 10 users who use a different firewall.

    We probably won't be increasing its usage. Now that I got Authenticator, it nicely compliments the Fortinet firewall. The size of the company isn't going to grow any more than what it is. So, we're good.

    How are customer service and support?

    Their support is great, but it also depends on who you get for support. From the support perspective, they can help you do it yourself, which is always more beneficial to both parties. They can stop being so time-sensitive about the call duration and let a user help himself a little bit more.

    It takes time to study this stuff, and I don't always have time to do it. So, I'm looking for a quick answer because I get interrupted all the time during work. I don't always have the time to study something and figure it out. So, I have to call them, but I don't always get somebody who really knows what they are doing. They don't know deep enough to help you. They're troubleshooting with you, and that's the difference between Level 1 and Level 2 support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    When I first got here in this job in 2007, they had Cisco ASA Firewall, but it was too cryptic. You had to enter all these CLI commands for a configuration. It also didn't do everything that Fortinet could do. It was very limited, and it wasn't easy to use. I know what I want to do, and I don't have to learn a special language in order to do it. I just want to be able to use some basic programming code that they have put into the firewall and use the GUI interface with it to actually visualize what I am looking at. Some of the Cisco products are not visual enough. That was one of the reasons I stayed away from it. Cisco is also very high-priced. They price themselves out of business a lot of times for equipment, but Fortinet is just great.

    I've also used SonicWall before. It was okay, but it is better for bigger places. I was looking for a midrange-size firewall for a couple of hundred users, and I felt Fortinet was the right fit.

    How was the initial setup?

    Its deployment and maintenance are easy. 

    What about the implementation team?

    I pretty much used the support from Fortinet to do it. They're good about their support. I did it myself by being a nuisance to Fortinet. I kept calling them to ask questions. They had to remote on to it and see you do something you don't know how to do.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive.

    What other advice do I have?

    Fortinet has got great firewalls. They do everything. They do FortiTokens for two-factor. They do the IPsec VPNs, SSL VPNs. They have a great GUI for you to know, but you still got to know the CLI commands. 

    I would rate it a 10 out of 10. It does its job, and it is easy to use. The support is great.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Fortinet FortiGate
    March 2023
    Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2023.
    685,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Network Administrator at Automated Outsourcing services
    Real User
    Top 20
    Secure, multifeatured, and user-friendly solution for protecting networks
    Pros and Cons
    • "Secure, user-friendly, stable, and scalable network security solution. Installation is straightforward."
    • "Fortinet FortiGate can be integrated with different platforms. They have integrations in place, but I can't say they're 100%."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Fortinet FortiGate for web filtering, IPS reporting, and firewall policy routing.

    What is most valuable?

    What we like about Fortinet FortiGate is that it's fast. You can also use it immediately, e.g. you don't have to wait and apply the policy before you can use it. It's robust and offers immediate usage, unlike Check Point, which we noticed was a slow product.

    Fortinet FortiGate is also more secure, depending on how you set up the SD-WAN technology.

    We also like the zero trust access, arrays, and the EDR features on this product. It's also 100% more user-friendly, e.g. even when I worked with them configuration-wise. The availability of the support hotline and their knowledgebase articles, e.g. the Cookbook, help a lot. Those articles are accessible to everyone, and they're free.

    Whenever you implement a solution, you can run through Cookbook, then you can install the Fortinet certificate if you aren't able to, if you're stuck, but most of the time you are likely to get it right. The Cookbook explain everything straight to the point, and this makes it much easier.

    What needs improvement?

    Fortinet FortiGate can be integrated with different platforms. They have integrations in place, but I can't say they're 100%.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've used Fortinet FortiGate for three years, and the last time I used it was last year.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The product is very stable. It's a powerful product.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable product.

    How was the initial setup?

    Installing Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward. The Cookbook tells you where the issue is, then the packs that come with the software, they are quick to advise on what bugs you can expect, and how those bugs can be fixed. I enjoyed installing the product.

    The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate took less than a week. We spent another week migrating the policy, or recreating the policies on the new object, because of the incompatibility with Check Point. We had to recreate the policies, otherwise, the change was quick, and we just had to mount them and connect the HA link and the other internet link. The setup was quick.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The product has different licensing models, depending on what you're going to do. For the IoT service, initially the program was for free, then the IoT service and the mix firmware that we had, we had to pay.

    Services are separate in terms of Fortinet FortiGate license models, e.g. you could have IPS, AV scanning on high availability, etc. The license could be on annual renewal.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I evaluated Check Point, but my problem was that it was too slow to install, and you have to wait long while your environment is down. With Fortinet FortiGate, it was instant. Fortinet FortiGate is very easy to install, unlike Check Point. Fortinet FortiGate is a better product.

    What other advice do I have?

    I have experience with Fortinet FortiGate. I used to manage the product in the past, but in a different company. I transferred to another company into a new position, and Fortinet FortiGate is being used in my current company.

    This product can be deployed both on-premises and on cloud. We use version 300E for on-premises, and VM04 on cloud.

    They are doing a lot of things to improve Fortinet FortiGate, that I can't think of anything else I'd like added to it. There's zero trust access, the EDR, and the arrays. I can't really say that there's anything that they have not started. They're able to provide what I want.

    We started with 100 users of Fortinet FortiGate in the company, then it went up to 270 users, because we also had a child company with end users of this product.

    We didn't have to contact technical support for Fortinet FortiGate, because we had a third-party guy who was helping us, and we seldom contact him. If we find an issue, we just email, and he'll write back to us. We also get advise on the old firmware, for example, that there's a higher chance it's static and could be affected by vulnerabilities. Any help was done quickly, and it was nice. Nowadays, we are doing all the work, e.g. not having to contact our third-party guy.

    We don't really need a team for deployment and maintenance. There's another engineer we're sharing ideas with, otherwise, deployment and maintenance are both very straightforward. You just need to know what you're doing, e.g. a good path, IPsec channels, etc., and it'll be much easier.

    I can recommend Fortinet FortiGate to others, especially because I understand it the most now. We do know everybody won't choose it, because Check Point, Cisco, and other competitors are coming up with robust devices. Everyone wants to win against their competitors, but I'm happy with FortiGate. It's a product I can recommend to others.

    I'm rating Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten, because it doesn't give me any issues. It's very easy for me to rate it a ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Security Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
    Real User
    Top 20
    Secure, performs well and easy to manage
    Pros and Cons
    • "The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution."
    • "Currently, FortiGate is providing SSL VPN. But they're missing some features that are available in Palo Alto's SSL VPN."

    What is our primary use case?

    Most organizations use the Fortinet firewall as perimeter security at the gateway level.

    How has it helped my organization?

    FortiGate has threat protection, antivirus, and even SSL encryption and decryption. So FortiGate is primarily used for security purposes. And a few customers also use this firewall for web filtering and application control. So these are the two features for which people use FortiGate.

    What is most valuable?

    FortiGate is primarily a gateway,  but customers also use web filter threat protection and application control. And some people use it as a special VPN for remote access. I recently deployed one virtual firewall where they're only using the FortiGate firewall for VPN. I can't say one feature is the most valuable because it's a bundle solution. So no one uses FortiGate for just one single feature. 

    What needs improvement?

    Currently, FortiGate is providing SSL VPN. But they're missing some features that are available in Palo Alto's SSL VPN. Palo Alto provides a compliance check along with the VPN, and they have a very broad checklist. So Palo Alto's global protection can scan and check multiple things, and we can choose what access users can have based on compliance with policies. So I think this is one area where FortiGate can improve. Also, multi-factor authentication isn't native to FortiGate. If you want to incorporate multi-factor authentication, you have to add a secondary or third-party solution. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using FortiGate for around five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Before version 6.0, FortiGate's firewall performed well enough, but lately, they've introduced so many features. After that, its stability has been somewhat lacking. This is because they're constantly updating their firmware. So it was pretty stable, but nowadays, it's not that stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I haven't worked on the scalability side because most of the time, the pre-sales tools are relatively bigger devices. So right now, I haven't faced any issues with scalability. They have some larger devices for the data center. So if we talk about their hardware, I think they're capable of handling around 10,000 to 15,000 people on a single device. But if you go with the virtual environment, I don't think there is a problem. Fortinet has a single OS that we can deploy on whatever hardware capacity we want to configure over there or through virtualization.

    How are customer service and support?

    Fortinet support is good. They resolve tickets relatively fast. So we've had no issues with that. And I don't know about other regions, but in my region, the salespeople working with Fortinet are strong. They're aggressively working on the sales part. So in the Pune region and the rest of Maharashtra, they're winning more contracts, and people are using FortiGate Firewall.

    How was the initial setup?

    The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution. But you need some good hands-on experience for advanced configuration. The amount of time required to deploy depends upon the project and also the organization. So it takes around four to five days to deploy a smaller device. And for the largest device, it takes around a maximum of two months. We do the deployment on our own. So we have a sales team, a pre-sales team, and a deployment team. Our sales team gets this and handles the sales end. After that, we come into the picture. So we do the whole migration, as well as the new implementation and everything. It should take no more than two people to deploy. If we want to migrate from one Fortinet device to another, then we use the command line. They have some script in their firmware, and we can migrate the script directly from the older firewall to the new one. So it isn't too complex.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I'm somewhat aware of the pricing, but most of the time, the pre-sales staff only defines their requirements. And we get the licenses at the time of implementation, then register and activate them. But I think Fortinet has multiple packages. They sell licenses for a period of one, three, or five years. They also have special add-on licenses for various things. So, for example, if you want to get a security rating for the firmware configuration and everything, you need to purchase an additional security license. And if you want to do some IoT-related security, you also need to purchase separate licenses. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate FortiGate eight out of 10 based on the performance, stability, performance, management, rights, and features. So most people lack SSL encryption and the certificate part. Those servers are running behind the FortiGate firewall. And most of the people I've seen are not using SSL encryption over there. And even for internet purposes, they're not using deep scanning.  So my suggestion to people thinking about using FortiGate is to prepare a plan before implementation and implement those things in inbound inspection and outbound inspection. This is recommended. And also, if you have multiple band links, then you must use SD-WAN. They have SD-WAN options in the FortiGate firewall. It's a pretty good feature. So you can use that to improve your stability and performance.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Network Engineer at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
    Real User
    Top 5
    Reasonably priced with many great features and excellent reliability
    Pros and Cons
    • "The pricing is great and very reasonable."
    • "It would be good if they had fewer updates."

    What is our primary use case?

    It is our primary router here in the office with all the firewall policies.

    What is most valuable?

    The solution has many valuable features. I like all of them.

    Its stability is great. On a previous job, we set probably up to 100 FortiGates, and during the three years they were set up none of them failed.

    It's a very scalable solution.

    The pricing is great and very reasonable. 

    The initial setup is simple. 

    We use a yearly subscription for a unified protection model. I like the features that it gives me. It is actually a built-in proxy server and it allows me to use great protection and so on. In terms of application control, the built-in anti-virus is okay. One of the things that I like the most is it has a built-in SD-WAN solution - its price is included in the hardware. I don't need to buy anything else to use SD-WAN. This is the feature that I like, in Fortinet, probably the most. All other vendors sell SD-WAN as a separate solution and you must buy a separate controller which has to be installed somewhere, on-premise or on the cloud, and it costs money. Fortigate does not.

    What needs improvement?

    I can't think of an area of the product that needs improvement. Even the cost is okay. I have no real complaints. 

    It would be good if they had fewer updates. Almost every update has bots that are either critical or something small yet valuable. Whenever I try to do an update, I always fear that something will break.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've used the solution for a few years. I used it on a previous project and I use it now as well.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability has been excellent. It's very reliable and the performance is great. They have not failed in three years. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability of the product is great. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so.

    Up to 100 people use it right now, and likely we will increase usage so that it covers 150 to 200 users. 

    If our other branch offices open in other cities or other countries, I will buy another firewall for them as well.

    How are customer service and support?

    I've contacted technical support in the past.

    For example, I tried to update my firewall to 7.0.4 and there was a block with the DHCP server. Some devices did not acquire an IP address. Really, it was something about FortiGate. I asked Fortinet for technical support and I created a ticket, and the next day they replied to me they agree that this was a bug that they would work on. As far as I can see now, there is already an option of 7.0.5. While I didn't test it myself, in the changelog I can see that this bug is fixed.

    So far, we have been satisfied as they have answered us by the next day typically.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I did not previously use a different solution.

    How was the initial setup?

    It's an easy setup. Everything is very straightforward and simple to understand. It's not complex, not difficult. A company won't have any issues with the process.

    The deployment might take up to one week. I don't remember exactly. I continued to add some features, however, in the instant deployment, when it came here I had another router here, it wasn't too long of a process. Later, I asked my bosses to buy a firewall and when it arrived, on a Friday in the evening, I installed it and everything was fine. It was very fast.

    I handle the deployment and maintenance myself. We do not need a big team to manage everything. It's pretty low-maintenance. 

    What about the implementation team?

    I handled the implementation myself. I did not need a consultant or an integrator.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The pricing is very fair for a firewall. There's nothing to complain about in terms of licensing.

    The price model is fair. I have to pay only for the features that only Fortinet gives me. Things like routing are free. Other vendors like Cisco, make me pay for things that should be free.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend the solution to others.

    Fortinet has an education platform that is named trainingfortinet.com and many courses are on there. All the video lessons are free. Users can view them to learn about the features that Fortinet has. It's an excellent resource.

    I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Senior Network Engineer at a government with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    Top 10
    Great routing, layer three throughput, and firewall management capabilities
    Pros and Cons
    • "It can expand easily."
    • "With the reports, you can see it, and you can get good feelings so upper management can go, "Oh, wow. That looks pretty." However, it's very basic."

    What is our primary use case?

    I use it for a VPN. I use it as a gateway between locations. That's what I use it for.

    They're Point-to-Point Networks, Metro Ethernet Networks, and over across the internet. We set it up with an AD VPN tunnel in between the various connections.

    We use it for interconnectivity between the various sites to provide VPN tunnels. In contrast, service providers, even on Metro Ethernet and Point-to-Point Networks, cannot provide a secure connection between two points.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We've actually replaced 30 or more Cisco routers that were doing these VPN connections, and we replaced them with the FortiGates in order to provide Point-to-Point connectivity. It increased throughput on the various links, and it increased security.

    What is most valuable?

    Their VPN connection, their routing capabilities, their layer three throughput, and their firewall management capabilities that limit access from one VLAN to another are all the most valuable aspects for us. 

    The solution is stable.

    It can expand easily.

    Support is helpful.

    The product is significantly cheaper than, for example, Cisco. 

    The user productivity has been good as they can, for example, transfer files easier. There is no slowdown. 

    What needs improvement?

    In their IPS Web Security Gateway, the reporting functions need to be a little bit more user-friendly for how to get the reports from it. That's one of the reasons why we don't use that function.

    With the reports, you can see it, and you can get good feelings so upper management can go, "Oh, wow. That looks pretty." However, it's very basic.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using the solution for two years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is very good. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We've been able to scale pretty well. It's not a problem of you need to expand. 

    End users will be passing through it. Most of the accounting passes through it to various other locations. We have about 1,500 people on the product, technically.

    We do have plans to increase usage. We have not completed the entire County yet. We've done 80% and still need to action the last 20%.

    How are customer service and support?

    Technical support is very helpful. 

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We used to use Cisco. We switched to FortiGate due to its throughput, ease of use, and cost.

    How was the initial setup?

    Our needs are a little bit more complex than others. That said, overall, I would say it's about average in terms of the ease of setup. We got to do a VPN tunnel across, and it was AD VPN, it was something brand new. 

    When I set things up now, it's pretty straightforward. When I first started, it was different as I'd never seen the technology before. When I first started, I'd never seen this technology, I didn't have a clue. Others may be in the same boat. 

    Now that we're familiar with technology, this is very easy to set up. We've deployed 30 of them. I've got junior engineers that can follow my instructions and set up the FortiGate, and we're up and running. It gets easier over time. We've been doing this over the last two years.

    We have up to two people needed for deployment and maintenance tasks. 

    What about the implementation team?

    The deployment is completely done in-house. We didn't have any outside assistance. 

    We did use Fortinet's tech support when we came into some problems. However, we didn't use any extra vendor.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Licensing is renewed every three to five years. They are less expensive e than Cisco. It has reduced the overall cost of maintaining a Cisco environment.

    It's a package deal. There are no extra costs. 

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We did not look into other solutions. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I'd advise potential users to just implement the right size for you and what your needs are.

    I'd rate the product nine out of ten. 

    We are just a customer and end-user.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    Flag as inappropriate
    PeerSpot user
    Security Presales Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
    Real User
    Top 5
    Straightforward implementation, priced well, and effective proxy mode
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."
    • "Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having better visibility. Palo Alto has better visibility."

    What is our primary use case?

    Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall used for network security.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Fortinet FortiGate has helped our organization because it provides us with all features that are existing in all the other firewalls, they have a great firewall. Fortinet firewall gives you all the controls you need to control and inspect your traffic from malicious attacks.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto.

    Fortinet FortiGate can be deployed in the cloud, they have a full portfolio for security. You are able to integrate other Fortinet solutions together to take full advantage of their security portfolio.

    The Fortinet FortiGate documentation library and full resources can be reached easily. You can search and find a solution to a problem you might have. Additionally, the overall solution is highly user-friendly.

    What needs improvement?

    Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having better visibility. Palo Alto has better visibility.

    When using Fortinet FortiGate you sometimes have to use the CLI to do some configurations which can be sometimes more difficult than using a GUI that other solutions can use, such as Palo Alto.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately 40 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is very good in Fortinet FortiGate. If there are bugs or problems the issues are fixed quite quickly with updates. Palo Alto has a similar level of stability, they support their appliance from updates to the OS.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Fortinet FortiGate has good scalability. You can deploy it in multiple areas and in multiple deployment modes such as firewall, inter-firewall, or core firewall. Fortinet FortiGate has appliances on multiple series that have different performances. You can choose multiple areas or multiple sites.

    How are customer service and support?

    I have not used the support from Fortinet FortiGate. I have solved the issues I have had from using my own experience.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I have used Palo Alto previously.

    When comparing Fortinet FortiGate and Palo Alto, they are equivalent to each other. However, Palo Alto is the Gartner Magic Quadrant leader and is easy to deploy. It would be difficult to describe the advantages or disadvantages because they are very similar.

    How was the initial setup?

    Fortinet FortiGate has simple ways some of the features can be configured, such as VPN and routing protocols. You need additional effort to do it using Palo Alto. Palo Alto has a more detailed required configuration and this is why extra effort is needed.

    I would rate the implementation of Fortinet FortiGate a five out of five.

    The process of implementation is easy.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The price of Fortinet FortiGate can be better than others solutions because Fortinet sometimes helps you with the prices. They help the customers buy the solution by providing them a discounted price for good technology to protect their environment from multiple exploitations and network attacks.

    Fortinet FortiGate as a less expensive solution than Palo Alto.

    I would rate the price of Fortinet FortiGate a four out of five.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I have evaluated other firewall solutions.

    What other advice do I have?

    Fortinet firewalls are a great new generation firewall. Since we are in these pandemic times with the increasing number of remote workers, you need one solution to protect against the additional breaches on a day-to-day basis. This means you need a great SD-WAN solution. Fortinet FortiGate helps by preventing these attacks because it is a secure solution and you have full visibility of the scalability of the traffic. The solution takes the appropriate actions paths based on the FLAs

    Fortinet FortiGate is an excellent choice for you to implement as an SD-WAN solution.

    I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Sunil Kumar Nair - PeerSpot reviewer
    Director Of Information Technology at Al Falah University
    Real User
    Top 5
    Useful intrusion detection, high availability, and robust
    Pros and Cons
    • "Fortinet FortiGate has many valuable features, such as IDS, and intrusion detection. It has security features that are in part with the technologies that are available in the market."
    • "One of the features that I would like to have is to do with endpoint production, it should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not."

    What is our primary use case?

    Fortinet FortiGate is used as a network firewall.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Fortinet has been a Perimeter Security which defends our network from Internet attackers, armed with zero-day exploits of common Internet services like HTTP and SMTP. We applied access-control lists to limit classes of VPN users' access to only what they need as a support team or solution deployers. We Shut off unused network services and defended critical resources first. We Build Internet-style perimeters for partner extranets. We also built secured wireless access.

    What is most valuable?

    Fortinet FortiGate UTM has many valuable features, such as application control, advanced persistent threat protection, Web and content filtering, IP reputation, integrated WLAN controller, intrusion prevention system, data loss prevention, and antimalware, antivirus, and antispam. It has security features that are in level with the Firewall technologies that are available in the market.

    What needs improvement?

    One of the features that I would like to have is endpoint protection, this should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately 6 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Fortinet FortiGate has high availability, which means that we have deployed two firewalls. In case of any failure of a device, the other one will continue to work. Our university stays online 100% of the time.

    Fortinet FortiGate is quite robust. I haven't had any kind of hardware issue. The system has been running very smoothly with all the upgrades as far as I have continued my support with Fortinet. We keep renewing the support every year, which gives us the eligibility for all the updates.

    How are customer service and support?

    I used the Fortinet FortiGate support a long time ago. There was a small feature that was not functioning as per the documentation. When they released the latest firmware and the issue was resolved. They provide prompt support.

    I would rate the support from Fortinet FortiGate a five out of five.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward we had an right person in-house for deploying it. Moreover, If required, Fortinet has its support extended to us. We can approach them anytime and they can assist us with any kind of complicated configuration.

    What about the implementation team?

    We implemented the Fortinet using an in-house Technical support team.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    There is a subscription-based model to use Fortinet FortiGate. We pay annually for the solution along with the support. If you want to have all the updates, and security patches you will need to renew your support.

    The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable compared to other solutions.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I have evaluated many other solutions, such as Sophos. If you look at Sophos, it has its own endpoint protection. It keeps a record of each client, what are the threats that have happened on each client level, and if there is a ransomware attack. It blocks it and notifies the firewall. I would be able to see a single dashboard view of what kind of threat has happened and how to mitigate them all.

    What other advice do I have?

    Fortinet FortiGate is a good solution overall. It is very user-friendly and all the policies are very easy to deploy. I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate to any new users who want to have a secure infrastructure.

    I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

    There are some better industry-standard solutions out there in the market, and compared to them, Fortinet FortiGate has to be more flexible enough with their solution to be more competitive.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: March 2023
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.