Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall that protects your assets and data. We have 15 people using this solution. I am an infrastructure engineer. We require 3 people to maintain the solution.
Infrastructure Engineer at a hospitality company with 51-200 employees
Simple to use, has less complications and is very straightforward
Pros and Cons
- "Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."
- "Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
What I like about this solution is that it is simple to use, has less complications and is very straightforward. Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs.
What needs improvement?
Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes. For example, if you are using Cisco, and you want to find a source and a destination, you type the IP of the source and then the IP of the destination. Cisco will find any denied packet by highlighting it in yellow. To access it with Cisco, all you need to do is right click. FortiGate is not that simple.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately 4 months. I am taking a course regarding this solution.
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Fortinet FortiGate
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Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had been using Cisco and Firepower prior to FortiGate. FortiGate is easier to use. We encountered a lot of problems when we integrated Firepower on Cisco devices.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is very straightforward. I would give it a 5 out 5 on ease of setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Currently, we have not added licenses for all the features we want. For example, we do not have intrusion prevention and detection.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate, it is a good firewall, especially for beginners because of its ease of use.
I would rate the solution an 8 out 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Professional Services Manager at Insight Technology
Unique and very efficient product for a security firewall
Pros and Cons
- "From the firewall perspective, the rules and policies are very sufficient and easy to use."
- "The solution is very expensive."
What is our primary use case?
The major function of this solution is traffic shaping for end-users. You can use a specific appendix for the specific manager.
We are using the latest version of the solution: 100D.
The solution is deployed on-premises.
What is most valuable?
From the firewall perspective, the rules and policies are very sufficient and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
The solution is very expensive.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The support is very good. They respond on time and are professional. From a technical perspective, they're good.
How was the initial setup?
It's easy to set up.
For maintenance, if you want to add a mesh configuration, you can restore your configuration from the backup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Most people prefer the functions and capabilities in FortiGate, but compared to other solutions, it's expensive.
The price depends on the size of the company. From the beginning, you just want to know the internet bandwidths, speed, and the number of users to be able to offer the right product and model. They have a lot of products in FortiGate according to the size of the company, like 200D and 300D.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 10 out of 10.
It's a very unique and efficient product for a security firewall. The only comment I have is that the price is expensive for small companies or startup companies.
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
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
August 2025

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,576 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Systems & Network Administrator at Giampaolo Group Inc.
Straightforward policies, flexible, and high availability
Pros and Cons
- "Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."
- "When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."
What is our primary use case?
In my company, I'm using SSL VPN to connect external users who connect to our firewall to do some maintenance work. We have approximately 50 sites in our company and most of them are using Fortinet FortiGate.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate has worked very well for what we are using it for. The stability is very good. It has very high availability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues.
When one of the boxes is active, we can't see the HA box in the same console.
How are customer service and support?
We have not used the support from Fortinet FortiGate. We do all the support of the solution internally.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was very simple and straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation ourselves.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.
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.
IT Manager at Mada Insurance
Easy to use UI, excellent support, and simple implementation
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos."
- "Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
What is our primary use case?
I am using Fortinet FortiGate for security on all devices, VPN, and IPsec.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos.
What needs improvement?
Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens.
The upgrades should be reviewed more frequently, such as daily, to avoid any corruption or issues that can happen, without losing my VPN client. We should not need to downgrade the solution to fix the problems until the Fortinet FortiGate support solves it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately nine years.
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.
Fortinet FortiGate is good for medium to large-sized enterprises.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Fortinet FortiGate is amazing.
How was the initial setup?
The setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I am able to do the implementation myself. There is no need for assistance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license of Fortinet FortiGate should be reduced.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
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.
Secure, simple implementation, and responsive support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the rules and quality of service."
- "Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate can be deployed on the cloud, on-premise, or hybrid setups.
Our clients use Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall for their business.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the rules and quality of service.
What needs improvement?
Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message.
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?
The stability of Fortinet FortiGate is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable.
We have approximately 25 people that are using this solution. We do not plan to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
If we have an issue we can contact support. We have had good experiences with the support from Fortinet FortiGate.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Azure firewalls.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is simple. It is not complex. The whole process took us one day.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation of the solutions ourselves.
We have approximately five engineers that do the implementation and maintenance of the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Other firewalls are more expensive than Fortinet FortiGate, such as the Azure firewall.
We are on an annual license and it is approximately 6,000 Egyptian Pound(EGP).
What other advice do I have?
I advise others Fortinet FortiGate has an easy configuration and it does not take much time to learn about the rules that you will need to apply for your company. When you connect to the main server you have high security.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Fraud Risk Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Easy to use, stable, and scalable product that provides protection against internal and external threats
Pros and Cons
- "Fortinet FortiGate protects against internet-based threats, both internal and external. It is scalable, stable, easy to use, and easy to install."
- "This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
What is our primary use case?
We use Fortinet FortiGate for the internet, particularly to provide protection against internal and external threats.
What is most valuable?
What I found most valuable from Fortinet FortiGate is that it gave us better protection against internet-based threats. Aside from giving us good protection, it is also easy to use, and it's fully automated.
What needs improvement?
An additional feature I'm expecting from Fortinet FortiGate is for it to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done via integration with a different product.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I found Fortinet FortiGate to be a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable product.
How are customer service and support?
I had issues with Fortinet FortiGate more than three years ago, and I opened a support ticket, and we were able to solve the issues. The support for this product was fast.
How was the initial setup?
The installation process for Fortinet FortiGate was very easy. Installation was done by one technician, e.g. one technician was enough.
What about the implementation team?
This product was implemented by a Fortinet partner.
What other advice do I have?
We've been using this version of Fortinet FortiGate: 300E. I also have experience with Fortinet FortiAnalyzer.
We have one technician in charge of the installation, and one manager in charge of managing this product. We have 500 users of Fortinet FortiGate, and we currently have no plans of increasing the number of users.
My recommendation to people looking into implementing this product is that they should use Fortinet FortiAnalyzer with Fortinet FortiGate to analyze the traffic.
My rating for Fortinet FortiGate is nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Product Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Affordable, reliable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
- "They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."
What is our primary use case?
In my previous company, which was a silver partner, we installed 300 and 301 for a few use cases. The most selling product at that time was FortiGate 100E.
What is most valuable?
I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable.
What needs improvement?
They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down.
For how long have I used the solution?
I worked with this solution for four years in my previous company.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. When you compare it with Palo Alto, it is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable.
How are customer service and support?
They are very knowledgeable and helpful.
How was the initial setup?
Based on what my engineers told me, it is easy to install. It is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it a nine out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Founder / Principal at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The hardware is reliable, and it provides best performance per dollar spent and ease of licensing and management
Pros and Cons
- "It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."
- "The cloud management and automation capability could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We're a Fortinet partner and reseller. We work with FortiGate models 40 through 600, and our customers have hybrid and on-prem deployments. The cloud providers are Microsoft Azure and Wasabi.
Its use cases are related to increasing the security posture, SD-WAN implementation, simplified management and licensing, and cost savings.
What is most valuable?
It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation.
The hardware is reliable. There are no surprises in terms of performance or add-on pricing.
What needs improvement?
The cloud management and automation capability could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is excellent.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is very good. There are 100 to 3,000 users, and they are knowledge workers with different roles, such as engineers, lawyers, accountants, etc.
How are customer service and support?
Their technical support is very good. I would rate them a four out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Most of the customers replaced Cisco.
How was the initial setup?
It is straightforward for someone with Fortinet experience. If you don't know anything about Fortinet, you can take it out of the box and plug it in.
Its deployment is usually on a location-by-location basis. Each location often takes one day for the implementation of a new data service. One person is usually enough for its deployment and maintenance.
What was our ROI?
I don't know the numbers, but it typically results in a 20% to 30% reduction in data communications costs.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Fortinet costs are 25% lower than the high-cost provider. There is an equipment cost and a recurring monthly cost for licenses and technical support.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Most of the customers look at Cisco, Cisco Meraki, Palo Alto, and Fortinet. They go with Fortinet because of the best performance per dollar spent and ease of licensing and management.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise sizing the equipment appropriately to support future growth. You should look for a four to six-year life of a server. You should compare vendors for price versus performance, ease of management, ease of use, and completeness of features.
I would rate it a nine out of 10. We've had a good experience with it. There were no surprises.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner.

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Updated: August 2025
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