Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall that protects all network data. We use it as our primary firewall in the office.
Senior Supervisor at MEPEQ
Robust, easy to use, and has excellent technical support that is quite responsive
Pros and Cons
- "The performance is good."
- "I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The performance is good.
It is easy to use.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for six years.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable product.
In our company, it is the main gateway for the internet, and we have less than 100 users.
Deployment is faster per user. Each one has a laptop or a PC, as well as a mobile phone, so we have less than 100 devices per user, but with mobile phones and Internet access, that number can rise to more than 100.
How are customer service and support?
I have contacted technical support many times, they are very important and they are very good. They follow up on all of the cases that we have opened.
The response time is great.
They also always have an updated version of the firmware.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I now have UniFi Switches for our WiFi access point. We began using UniFi to replace Cisco Linksys Ethernet switches.
I am also working with QNAPS for network connections.
For virtual meetings, we use Google Meet. Some of our customers use Webex but we mainly work with Google Meet.
In our company, we have Kaspersky, as well as Fortinet.
How was the initial setup?
It's not straightforward. You must have at least the knowledge and the settings. It's not that simple.
The length of time it takes to install is determined by the configuration you have inside. It could take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours.
In our company, I am responsible for the solution's maintenance and deployment.
What about the implementation team?
We had the assistance of a consultant at first.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.
It would be better if it could be made a little less expensive.
It will be more expensive for the first year, then it will gradually decrease by a certain amount per year or something along those lines.
We have the full license that included all of the features and support.
Aside from the licensing fees, there are no other costs.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate 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.
Assistant Manager - Network & Security at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Simple initial setup, mature features, and responsive support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle."
- "Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor."
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate is used to secure internet gateways.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle.
What needs improvement?
Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solutions. Other solutions, such as Palo Alto, Cisco, and Forcepoint are less stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For scalability, you must define your needs before implementing Fortinet FortiGate. You must know specifications, such as throughput, the number of sessions, and the SSL. Overall it is not scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We had some simple questions for the support and they were able to respond within a few hours. I was satisfied.
I rate the support from Fortinet FortiGate a four out of five.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is extremely simple. Customers that have never used it can manage it with ease after a few days.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license.
The activation of the license and support could improve. When I order Fortinet products, I have one year to activate my license and support. If this year passed without activating this license and support, I will lose it. If I ordered three years, I will lose all of the years. I must reorder them again, which is not reasonable. For example, if I have to activate my license in six months but didn't activate it during the six months, they should activate automatically. They should not remove the license. They should activate automatically after the grace period.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.
CEO at SAYCOM
Intuitive, easy to install, with good reporting and support
Pros and Cons
- "It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall."
- "Sometimes you do need to know some CLI commands, so it's a bit harder for technicians or new people that don't know it."
What is our primary use case?
We are resellers. We provide products and services to our customers.
It's not just one product. We have been using and installing different kinds of solutions for more than ten years.
What is most valuable?
I do remember that, of course, the interface was good. It's intuitive, and when we installed it together with access points, we could manage them from one place or from the cloud or from FortiGate itself.
It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall. The fact that we received reports by email, also good. All in all, it's quite a good product, of course, a very good product.
What needs improvement?
If it would integrate everything in one place then it would be an improvement.
I wanted to buy some switches and integrate them into the system, but we couldn't find anyone here in Israel to provide them or to provide support. Also, we could not get a replacement if something needed to be replaced.
We wanted to use one vendor to do everything from one managed central management point. It may be something they offer now, but I am not sure.
It would be helpful if we can have one easy place to manage, or from the cloud to all the devices that are at the client's location. This is the backbone, the switches, the access points, FortiGate, everything.
Sometimes you do need to know some CLI commands, so it's a bit harder for technicians or new people that don't know it.
So, if you could do everything without that, it would be much easier when you do V-LANs.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for a few years.
We are working with several versions because we install them for our customers.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It fits for small and medium-sized companies. Regarding the very big ones, I don't know, I'm not in the enterprise market. But for our clients that are offices or companies that are sized between 20 users and 300 users, it's okay. It's good for them.
How are customer service and technical support?
When I contacted technical support a few times, they were good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we worked with Check Point.
They are both good products that are easy to use and have good support.
They're both good. I use them both, it depends on the customer, and what their requirements are. It also depends on which would give you the best value for the money at the time. I don't know how to say which one is better as a firewall.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's an expensive solution. The price should be lower.
What other advice do I have?
In the beginning, I would be the one who would install them, but later it will be our technicians.
I would rate this 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: reseller
Security Solutions Architect at Verizon Communications
Good VPN and DDoS capabilities with a low total cost of ownership
Pros and Cons
- "Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."
- "To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
What is our primary use case?
We are currently using manual router failover that can be configured on the Fortinet security appliance’s second network interface to provide network edge redundancy if the primary managed router fails. If the edge router fails, traffic can be moved to the security appliance with a simple cable swap.
We are looking for a fully redundant solution with automatic failover between both Fortinet Security appliances. I am currently looking at battle card information between Fortinet and Zscaler. I have to do a competitive analysis.
How has it helped my organization?
The low cost of ownership was a benefit with all of the features we wanted.
Preconfigured images have been developed for quick deployment. However, if we need a custom policy or have to include an existing policy then that can be accommodated as well.
What is most valuable?
Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable.
We found the Firewall, VPN, Application Control, IPS, Fortiguard Web filtering, anti-botnet, FortiGuard, Anti Spam Wireless LAN controller, WAN optimization, vulnerability assessment, and endpoint control all to be valuable.
Fortinet certifications include NSS Labs for NGFW, firewall, IPS, SSL, antivirus, and antispam.
Fortinet provides a consolidated security platform for the market place and certifications with NSS labs prove their security assurance.
What needs improvement?
To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution. Fortinet claims to do everything Zscaler is capable of and I'm looking for a comparison between the supported features.
Fortinet VPN and DDoS capabilities are great, yet we need to provide a solution that enables CASB and integration to the cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using FortiGate for three years.
How was the initial setup?
Fortinet is very easy to service and set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Fortinet is the least expensive solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are comparing the features of Zscaler vs. Fortinet. We are trying to determine what features Zscaler has over Fortinet and vice versa.
What other advice do I have?
Fortinet was initially scoped as 25 rules for small, 50 for medium, and 100 for large. We need to incorporate more rules but there would be additional professional services or staging services. We are looking to incorporate the cloud access with the Fortinet UTM solution.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Verizon is a reseller of both Zscaler and Fortinet.
Director, CFO at IT Green Public Company Ltd.
Securely Protects Databases in Business Operations
Pros and Cons
- "Fortigate is very scalable to serve our customers' needs. We have scaled already from fifty to more than a hundred instances of Fortinet FortiGate. Around 20 staff are required for deployment and maintenance, mostly engineers."
- "Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate has many use cases: firewall, security, and wifi controller. We use the solution for our project's internet gateway.
How has it helped my organization?
My company operates a large data center with many useful applications, sections, and databases. We have to put the security function into FortiGate to protect the databases in the organization.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate has many excellent functions and good security. The firewall is the most common function that we have used for a long time.
What needs improvement?
The Fortinet FortiGate firewall has been improved with many new functions. Fortinet is working to develop a new generation of firewalls with better security.
Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards.
Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our experience with Fortinet FortiGate depends more on the sizing of the customer. Fortigate is very scalable to serve our customers' needs.
We have scaled from fifty to more than a hundred instances of Fortinet FortiGate. Around 20 staff are required for deployment and maintenance, mostly engineers.
We are not a distributor for Fortinet, so we will not actively promote it as a solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support with Fortinet is good. We have our engineers required to have certification in Fortinet products. We provide training classes for our engineers.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also implement solutions with Palo Alto Networks and WatchGuard.
How was the initial setup?
Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly to set up. The UI is fine. We still have concerns about security with Fortinet.
The security could be improved compared with Palo Alto Networks equipment. Palo Alto Networks products have more technical issues than Fortinet.
Overall, Fortinet FortiGate is not complicated to set up.
What about the implementation team?
We had a team for implementing Fortinet FortiGate on these projects. We also have many business partners for service work as integrators.
Our partner for the Fortinet FortiGate installation was one of the few consultancies that have exceptionally good service in the market currently.
We have begun Fortinet FortiGate training through the consultant company and now have many partners for service contracts.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing and licensing of Fortinet FortiGate are good if they stay the same. The price is not too high now, but license pricing still changes too much.
Fortinet FortiGate is comparable with the other products in the current market.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are not sole-distributors of Fortinet products currently. It is part of a portfolio of solutions that we offer our business clients.
What other advice do I have?
The policy for integration and for configuring Fortinet FortiGate should be friendlier than in the version we are using now. Because Fortinet has been in the market for a really long time, and we are very experienced with Fortinet products, I would rate FortiGate with an eight or nine out of 10. I would rate it this score because of the experience that Fortinet has as a market leader for such a long time.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CTO at NS (IL) Systems Ltd.
Easily integrates with existing infrastructure and has a helpful technical support team
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is easy."
- "The platform's compatibility with Wi-Fi equipment needs improvement."
What is most valuable?
The product's basic firewall feature is one of the best in the market for network security.
What needs improvement?
The platform's compatibility with Wi-Fi equipment needs improvement. Sometimes, the Wi-Fi units don't work, or one of the networks stops working, and we have to reboot the FortiGate client's endpoint.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for more than ten years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a reliable solution. I rate the stability a ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Small-scale companies sometimes use the whole UTM solution, which includes antivirus and URL protection. However, enterprise clients usually use additional solutions for those kinds of things.
I rate the scalability a ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team is responsive and helpful.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. Depending on the project, the deployment process can take several days.
What was our ROI?
The platform generates a good return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product pricing is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
It is easy to integrate FortiGate into existing infrastructure. As a firewall, it's one of the best products available today. For other features, we sometimes prefer other vendors, but for firewalls, especially for SMBs, it is a great product.
I rate it a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Information Technology Solutions Manager at UBG
Beneficial user interface, provides multiple engines, and high availability
Pros and Cons
- "The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."
- "Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate can be deployed on the cloud, hybrid, and on-premise. We use a combination of private and hybrid for the deployment.
We are using Fortinet FortiGate for parameter security, network isolation, and web filtering.
What is most valuable?
The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good.
What needs improvement?
Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is highly stable. It has high availability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is very good.
We have customers with 1,000 users using this solution and others with 100.
Engineers use this solution and all the end-users are connected to it. The whole organization is using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very helpful. We had a very good experience with them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial installation is straightforward, and the full process takes one to two days.
What about the implementation team?
We have our own team that does the implementation of the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The support subscription for the solution is annual. You are paying for support and there are two levels of support, professional and advanced.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Security Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The UTM (application control) features have solved many issues that other firewall providers cannot, such as Google suite blocking and allowing.
What is most valuable?
The UTM (application control) features have been very important, because they have solved many issues that other firewall providers have not developed as Fortinet has.
A clear example of this feature advantages is blocking and allowing the Google suite. For example, without UTM, we would not have been able to execute some customer requirements like this one:
A customer asked us that some host on their LAN is going to be assigned to be a POS workstation. They needed that workstation to have permissions to some applications and some URLs, and they needed to block users from opening sites like YouTube, Google+, and Google Drive, but they needed to get in to some POS URLs hosted in the Google cloud. We were working with rules allowing some specified URLs, but it didn’t work because the subnetting IP address the customer needed to be allowed, sometimes matched the YouTube service. Google support engineers told us they rotate their IP addressing subnets to be more secure and they do not always attach an IP address to a domain name. So, sometimes the customer’s workstations were able to open YouTube sites too.
The way we could block YouTube and allow the customer POS URLs sites, was by configuring an application control sensor, where we were able to block some categories like this:
Another requirement was to allow some specified applications, so we configured the next sensor structure:
Another customer reported to us they had issues working with Gmail attachment files; they could not do it. Executing some packet captures and with the Fortinet TAC help, we found they were using the latest Chrome versions that use the QUIC Google protocol, which is not supported by Fortinet because it is not a valid protocol. We proceeded to block the QUIC protocol using an application control sensor.
After this blocking action, the customer was able to work without any issue.
How has it helped my organization?
It can block applications in level 7.
Even though other companies have latest-generation firewalls, FortiGate’s database is bigger.
What needs improvement?
They could improve performance with all the UTM features working.
Sometimes, we have seen that when you enable the antivirus sensor, customers report slow web browsing. We know this is normal, but we would like to know if it is possible to make feel the customer their web browsing is fast with not as much delay. The antivirus sensor analyzes all the protocols and packets we specified, and this is an important performance affectation. In my personal point of view, I don’t think it is a serious issue, but we receive many reports from users who browse the web with antivirus sensors applied to their firewall policies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for seven years.
It is working in route mode, with all UTM licences active; it has FSSO configured to give permission to the users. It is configured to provide VPN SSL service.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have encountered stability issues only when we enable all the UTM features.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not encountered any scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is 9/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have been using FortiGate solutions for eight years. We have been upgrading when solutions in the family become unsupported.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy; no issues with doing it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My company did not evaluate other options. They decided to purchase FortiGate directly.
What other advice do I have?
Work a lot with all of the UTM features because they can be very helpful right now with configuring firewall policies. The policies became very whole.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is a Fortinet provider for Mexico.

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Updated: April 2025
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Hamza, I think you may find our product comparison between Checkpoint and Fortigate interesting:
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