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Abdallah Rukab - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Helps secure the internal network and perform unified threat management, forward filtering, and application control
Pros and Cons
  • "Fortinet FortiGate's ease of management is the most valuable feature."
  • "The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure the internal network and perform unified threat management, forward filtering, and application control. This is crucial for the organizations and products I collaborate with on projects. The solution effectively addresses high availability through SD-WAN load balancing. Additionally, we rely on Fortinet FortiGate to resolve remote access issues for our clients.

How has it helped my organization?

Fortinet FortiGate has helped improve our reporting analysis, ease of management, and enhance the security of our environment.

What is most valuable?

Fortinet FortiGate's ease of management is the most valuable feature.

FortiGate offers numerous features that are designed to assist end users in gaining a clear understanding of the activities occurring within their network.

What needs improvement?

The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement.

Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of FortiGate an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the scalability of FortiGate a ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support has improved compared to the last few times I used it.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I had previously used a different solution but switched to Fortinet FortiGate due to its better price and ease of use.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. Depending on the customer's requirements and environment, the deployment can take anywhere from one day to a couple of weeks and can be completed by a single person.

What about the implementation team?

We implement the solution in-house.

What was our ROI?

I achieve approximately a 30 percent return on investment with FortiGate.

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

Fortinet FortiGate is reasonably priced. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Fortinet FortiGate is primarily utilized by medium to large organizations, although it can also be employed by small ones.

In terms of maintaining the solution, updates are typically performed to address bugs.

I highly recommend Fortinet FortiGate to others.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
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: Partner
PeerSpot user
Technical Specialist at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Good threat prevention capabilities, good price, and very easy to deploy and manage
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a user-friendly firewall. Most of the tasks are very simple. It's simple to configure and troubleshoot this firewall."
  • "The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI."

What is our primary use case?

We have deployed this firewall for many companies. Our clients are financial and medical companies.

How has it helped my organization?

It enabled our clients to reach locations and access their applications easily with no latency. It provided ease of access.

What is most valuable?

Its threat prevention capabilities are most valuable. 

It's a user-friendly firewall. Most of the tasks are very simple. It's simple to configure and troubleshoot this firewall. 

What needs improvement?

The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI.

I faced a lot of issues when I was trying to deploy the firewall through FortiManager. The firewall is stable, but FortiManager is too buggy, and it doesn't work properly. It gives too many errors.

There are some issues with Fortinet SD-WAN. It's quite complex.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for more than four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a very stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. We have plans to increase its usage.

How are customer service and support?

Most of the time, they are helpful, but there are times when they don't resolve an issue right away. They take the log, and then they take their time to give input on the issue. Most of the time, they take one or two days to get back after analyzing the logs. Instead of that, they can just schedule a session to resolve the issue right away because sometimes the issue impacts the production environment, so we need to resolve that issue as soon as possible. Overall, I'd rate them a six out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

I have worked with other firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate is better than Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls. It's more user-friendly.

How was the initial setup?

I have deployed it for a bank at a core level. On the perimeter, there was a Palo Alto firewall, and at the core level, we deployed the FortiGate firewall at DC and DR locations. After that, we deployed SD-WAN. We replaced the MPLS switch with the Fortinet SD-WAN device, so the whole branch traffic comes to the SD-WAN box, and from there, it comes to the FortiGate firewall, and then it goes to the Palo Alto firewall for the internet access and resource access. While migrating branches from MPLS to SD-WAN, we did require a maintenance window.

There was no difficulty. It was very user-friendly. I have had many difficulties with the Check Point firewall. I have deployed major projects on the FortiGate firewall. I migrated more than a thousand branches on Fortinet SD-WAN and implemented FortiGate super massive firewalls at DC and DR locations. There were no complexities. Only at one location, I had an issue related to SD-WAN, but my query was resolved by Fortinet's local team.

It's an on-premises firewall for the DC and DR locations. I have never worked on cloud projects, but if there is any opportunity to deploy it on the cloud, I will do it. I have only done on-premises deployment.

What about the implementation team?

I am an implementation engineer. I deployed and configured the whole firewall. I also troubleshot any issues. When I had any queries, they were clarified by Fortinet's engineers.

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

Its pricing is good. It's average or normal as compared to Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I didn't evaluate other options.

What other advice do I have?

I'd recommend this firewall to others. Most of the time, when I do PoCs, I recommend Fortinet FortiGate. It's quite easy to manage and deploy.

I'd rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
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: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Heson Ko - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Development Specialist at Unicomp Information Co. Ltd.
Reseller
Top 10
Simple and efficient security solution for end-users
Pros and Cons
  • "Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features."
  • "The solution can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything."

What is our primary use case?

We use SD-WAN to connect the checking role between our branch offices, like Yap installation or fire shooting. We use Fortinet FortiGate to control the different segmentation.

How has it helped my organization?

The IT manager could monitor every security device and increase SD-WAN. Still, the SD-WAN function had to be integrated into our older device. So now our IT manager can see all the end user information about the network information and security event in the single panel base. SD-WAN has helped the organization to remediate threats.

We provided great information to our end users, and our guys could quickly interact with the tool for information.

What is most valuable?

Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features. It is a straightforward solution for our partners. The solution is more efficient for user applications.

What needs improvement?

In the next release, the tool can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for twenty-thirty years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service and support team is good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We used CheckPoint previously. We switched because it was high-priced.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy.

What about the implementation team?

It was deployed through a vendor team of one-two person.

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

We think the price is lower, and suitable for most end users.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
HEST manager at ALTT CONTROL PLUS
Real User
An easy to handle product that has good user interface
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution."
  • "I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."

What is most valuable?

The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution. 

What needs improvement?

I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the tool since 2015. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

I did not contact the tool's technical support team because it is very strong and stable. 

How was the initial setup?

The tool is easy to deploy. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the product an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
PeerSpot user
Kirubel Markos - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
User-friendly setup, beneficial APIs, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known."
  • "The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."

What is our primary use case?

Fortinet FortiGate is used as a firewall.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a five out of five.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the scalability of Fortinet FortiGate a five out of five.

All sizes of organizations can use this solution. All levels of a company are using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time.

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

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is very simple and user-friendly. The configuration for the solution is easy. The time it takes for the deployment depends on the environment of the company. It can take a week, but typically it takes three to four days.

What about the implementation team?

We have more than six certified engineers in our company that can do the deployment of the solution.

What was our ROI?

The customers have seen an ROI from using Fortinet FortiGate. They are satisfied with the solution.

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

The price of Fortinet FortiGate is affordable. Most of our customers are on a three-year license to use the solution. All the features and support are included in the price.

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

What other advice do I have?

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Costa Mitsios - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy Technical Director at Space Hellas S.A.
Real User
Useful URL filtering, scalable, and quick installation
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
  • "Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall appliance.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering.

What needs improvement?

Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used Fortinet FortiGate within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable. We have not had any problems.

We have approximately 150 people using Fortinet FortiGate in my organization. Everyone is using it.

How are customer service and support?

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

There is room for improvement.

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

We have used many other solutions, such as Check Point and Cisco Firepower. I have found Fortinet FortiGate is much easier to configure. However, some others solutions have more functionality, such as Check Point and Cisco Firepower.

How was the initial setup?

I rate the initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate a four out of five.

If we properly designed the installation beforehand, the installation would take us 10 to 15 minutes.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation in-house.

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

We are on an annual license to use Fortinet FortiGate.

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

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Network Administrator at Automated Outsourcing services
Real User
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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1127952 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A simple-to-configure and stable product with VPN concentrator and competitive pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "The simplicity of the configuration and the stability of the product are most valuable. The VPN concentrator is very useful."
  • "It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it in our data center. It is being used at the perimeter of our data center to protect the applications that we have inside the data center. We are at the beginning of its installation in our data center. We have recently installed a new cluster for IPS functionality, and we have to check if this cluster does the job.

We are using its latest version.

What is most valuable?

The simplicity of the configuration and the stability of the product are most valuable. The VPN concentrator is very useful. 

What needs improvement?

It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features.

For how long have I used the solution?

It is quite a new product for us. We started using it only about six months ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is okay for us. Since we have put this new cluster, we haven't had any problems or crashes. It's okay for us from this point of view.

We got this firewall just less than a year ago, and we hope to see good performance in three or four years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are around 10,000 people in our company, and they are all using FortiGate because they all need to go through this cluster of firewalls.

How are customer service and support?

I have not yet interacted with them. That's because we didn't encounter any important issues. When we have any technical questions, our partner has been able to answer our questions. So, I don't have any experience with Fortinet support.

How was the initial setup?

It is straightforward at the beginning.

What about the implementation team?

We worked with a partner. Usually, when we have a project, we do the initial setup with this partner. After that, we are able to manage the firewall without any outside help. 

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

Its pricing is competitive with other solutions.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We chose it after comparing different solutions on the market.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this product. It is very easy to use. We are happy to use this product.

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.