Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

Most of our clients are SMB. We have several support contracts, and as a way to standardize all the products and processes, we ask our clients to switch to Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall, and that's how we standardize our process. Most of our clients we support with a support contract have Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall on-premises.

It's easy to manage. The GUI is very simple, and what is very good is that every product, regardless of size, has the same interface. Most features are in every single product irrespective of the size. 

Their support's response time can be better. In the past six months, they took quite a long time to respond to the support tickets. I don't know if they are overwhelmed with too much activity, but for the last six months, the support has not been very good. Previously, it was very good.

I have dealt with Fortinet FortiGate for four or five years.

I would say that Fortinet FortiGate is stable. We have several appliances installed, but we encountered some trouble with the smaller models on three occasions, which somehow limited the inbound traffic. We had to send one in for a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA), and Fortinet sent us a new appliance, which resolved the issue. The only downside is that the replacement process takes about two to three weeks. That has been the only problem we've experienced with the smaller model.

The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is mostly with the bigger appliances. It's not quite flexible once you buy one appliance; to scale up, you have to buy a new appliance, and there's no way to upgrade the appliance. The challenge is that you don't want to oversize the appliance because that is tied to the subscription. The price of the subscription is tied with the size of the appliance, so you have to size it very precisely, considering the future growth of the company.

Their technical support is pretty good. Over the last six months, there has been a delay in response, but previously, it was very good.

Positive

The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate is pretty straightforward.

My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate is quite good. I don't have a public site, such as in Azure, where I can see the pricing. I always have to go through the distributor, and that could take some time to get the real price for each appliance. 

When our client has two internet connections, we do Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN configuration, and it works very well. I can't determine if there is better performance using SD-WAN, but it's much more stable. We did have some trouble with certain types of traffic that doesn't work well with SD-WAN, and we had to implement rules to stick to one of the connections, but those are exceptions. The traffic is much more fluent, but mostly it makes the connection much more stable.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

I'm using Fortinet FortiGate for consultancy, implementation, and troubleshooting after device implementation. We serve as both reseller and consultant, providing search support and consultancy support. I usually recommend Fortinet FortiGate for small and small-sized businesses.

I have experience with Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN, as it is a method for routing traffic. We can assign profiles with specific conditions to create best practices or optimal experiences for customers. These profiles can manage traffic balance or link balancing. We can detect users or specific links for particular services, including load balancing.

Fortinet FortiGate provides superior protection compared to other firewalls, with high processing capabilities. In comparison to Sophos devices, Fortinet FortiGate offers enhanced protection through network protection, IPS, and application protection.

They could simplify their deployment process, especially when customers have existing devices. The configuration approach depends on whether customers need to start from scratch or can utilize existing backups and rules. 

I would seek to improve Fortinet FortiGate by exploring additional features, such as SASE solutions that we are currently studying and implementing. The configuration could be made easier, particularly during initial setup. We need to ensure comprehensive utilization of all device features and learn best practices from other cases.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for approximately one year.

Fortinet FortiGate is overall stable. When compared with Sophos, particularly regarding remote access and SSL VPN, Fortinet FortiGate proves much easier to use. While Sophos presented port-related challenges in Egypt, Fortinet FortiGate operates more smoothly.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable, with capacity depending on firewall sizing. We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published. We consider parameters such as VPN requirements, remote access needs, side-to-side VPN configuration, and overall traffic volume to determine device capacity.

We tend to handle support.

I have experience with Fortinet products and limited experience with Cisco.

I provide other firewalls, such as Sophos, and I have worked with endpoint protection solutions. I have experience with backup solutions such as Veeam, and endpoint security solutions including Kaspersky and ESET.

I have created many profiles for SD-WAN capabilities while integrating with Fortinet FortiGate. We assess customer needs and make recommendations accordingly. If customers aren't using SD-WAN, I suggest implementing it due to its effective load balancing capabilities and additional firewall features.

Regarding the evaluation of changes in return on investment after implementing the Fortinet solution for SD-WAN hybrid workforce, we work on a case-by-case basis. ROI is monitored by management, and we do not directly track ROI in the systems.

Fortinet FortiGate is among the best options in the market, though alternatives exist, including Sophos. Fortinet FortiGate demonstrates stronger performance and protection compared to Sophos, though its device and license costs are higher.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Fortinet FortiGate is among the best firewall solutions, having a significant market share in Egypt. Fortinet FortiGate has a very simple configuration, is easy to set up, and includes SD-WAN features at no additional cost. I recommend Fortinet FortiGate to act as an internet or perimeter firewall.

Features such as URL filtering, intrusion detection, and threat prevention make it suitable as a perimeter firewall. It also includes free SD-WAN features. It is recommended when any customer has more than one site, as it can act as an SD-WAN solution without any extra licenses, with SD-WAN being a built-in feature. It is a very easy solution.

From my experience, I see that the datasheets of the Fortinet FortiGate portfolio need to be more accurate because correct sizing is essential. The datasheets should provide clear information when deploying features. 

When comparing Fortinet to all other vendors, I believe most features are available in Fortinet. I'm not sure if the DNS security license is available in Fortinet; if not, it is important to add Fortinet DNS security and sandboxing licenses. I know Fortinet has a separate sandbox solution, but I am unsure about sandbox features in the firewall. In contrast, Palo Alto has a DNS security license, email security, and WildFire license that serves as a sandbox solution.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for around eight years.

I find Fortinet FortiGate to be very stable.

The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate depends on the project. If the project meets accurate sizing, it can be scalable, but if the presales engineer does not accurately size it, Fortinet FortiGate can have limited resources to scale. It depends on the project.

I evaluate Fortinet's technical support as a seven out of ten. They aren't the best support, but when we need assistance with any features or field activities, we can utilize the internal support team of the vendor located in our country.

Neutral

I believe it is cost-effective. With Fortinet FortiGate, we can pay once for every renewal period, and there are no CAPEX expenses because Fortinet FortiGate is easy to configure, easy to manage, and familiar to most engineers. 

It is not the cheapest one, but its price is very competitive.

When comparing Fortinet FortiGate to Palo Alto or other firewalls I've worked with, Fortinet is more stable, easy to configure, easy to manage, and is competitive in price. 

Fortinet offers multiple product sizes suitable for various enterprises, including small, medium, and enterprise customers. Compared to Palo Alto, Fortinet offers a free SD-WAN feature while Palo Alto requires an SD-WAN license with more costs and several licenses. However, Palo Alto does offer more advanced features than Fortinet. A notable difference is that when the Fortinet FortiGate license expires, the box still works until the customer renews the license, while with Palo Alto, the box stops entirely and the customer must renew the license to continue functioning.

My experience in integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate in the network shows that the integration is very simple and has a straightforward configuration.

The Fortinet SD-WAN solution consists of multiple products. To create or set up a full SD-WAN solution, it needs two products from Fortinet: FortiGate and FortiManager, which is a centralized management solution, and FortiAnalyzer, which is a log management solution. SD-WAN connects more than one site. It centralizes management and logs. Fortinet FortiGate with SD-WAN does not require any extra license, but to have the full SD-WAN solution, it is required to have FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer for several reasons. Fortinet products can be VM or hardware.

I have worked with the hardware-assisted DDoS protection in the Fortinet FortiGate, and I think it's good.

I recommend the Fortinet FortiGate when acting as a perimeter firewall, and some customers use it in the data center. I recommend another vendor in the data center, but our customers are very satisfied with Fortinet FortiGate when acting as a data center firewall.

I have limited experience with the AI and machine learning enhanced FortiGuard services, but I know that Fortinet is leading this trend. 

Fortinet FortiGate provides SD-WAN and SASE solutions to secure any type of user and any type of traffic. It has many features, including a secure web gateway and secure service edge, helping users access the internet and applications, whether inside or outside.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

We don't have any issues regarding security, and our web server is running fine with protection from all threats.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are that it does the job effectively and protects our environment. It has a VPN and can create a virtual IP for a web server and functions as a standard firewall.

We faced difficulties with the configuration because there are many features we could optimize using Fortinet FortiGate, but our reseller didn't have a good understanding of it. So, we just use it on a basic level, not with the best practice for using FortiGate.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for around five years.

Overall, I find Fortinet FortiGate to be very stable. Fortinet FortiGate demonstrates consistent stability.

In my case, the 101F is not scalable. I faced problems with scalability related to memory. When we hit 100% memory usage, it stops the internet connection, so we need to control the traffic. We cannot increase the memory.

We have about 350 users and only one admin.

My experience with Fortinet's technical support is good and helpful. The response time and overall competence meet our expectations. I would rate their support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

We used Juniper before Fortinet FortiGate. We switched because it was an old one and reached the end of support. We had to change.

We were supported by a third party and the reseller. During deployment, it was not a good experience because of the reseller. We had challenges with the optimized configuration. 

The deployment took around three months.

The reseller helped us with the implementation. It has been a long time since the implementation, so I don't remember the name of the company that helped us.

Our IT has six people for deployment, and we used two staff members.

We have seen a return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate. The ROI calculation is based on potential loss prevention rather than traditional ROI metrics.

Its pricing is good. The advantages of Fortinet FortiGate over its competitors include good pricing and meeting our requirements at a lower cost. Palo Alto's features are superior, but too expensive.

I compared other brands, such as Palo Alto and Sophos, and chose Fortinet FortiGate. Palo Alto is the best, but it is significantly more expensive. Palo Alto has better capabilities than Fortinet FortiGate. Their protection is much more secure, and they excel in detecting intrusion and reading information. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

There is a tool called FSSO, which is a single sign-on user ID agent that works perfectly. You can configure anything on it, and it is better than Palo Alto's version.

The GUI is written in JavaScript, so when you move any object or policy to another one, it becomes easy to use. It is user-friendly and not complex for network configuration.

Run Script is the best tool to use in Fortinet FortiGate with multiple environments. You can perform multiple tasks at once with the script functionality. It is available through the GUI, whereas in Palo Alto, you need to run it in a separate tool, such as Python.

I prefer Palo Alto over Fortinet FortiGate. Its IPS engine is not better than the Palo Alto version. The monitoring tool needs improvement, and the syslog configuration needs enhancement.

The management plane and control plane are not separated as they are in the same hardware devices, whereas in Palo Alto, everything is separated. So, if the CPU and GPU usage gets higher in the data plane, the admin also becomes unreachable.

The web filter in Fortinet FortiGate is not very useful. While you can add web filters in security policies, it is difficult to understand and not flexible to use.

Fortinet FortiGate frequently experiences IPS engine problems. 

I have been working with it for four to five years.

In most cases, the IPS engine uses too many resources, which makes Fortinet FortiGate devices unstable. When clients encounter different issues, the IPS engine is usually the problem because it consumes excessive resources.

I have not worked directly with technical support, but I am familiar with the distributor, partner, and vendor. People who work with Fortinet provide adequate service.

Positive

I mostly migrate from Fortinet FortiGate, Check Point, and other solutions to Palo Alto. For migrations from various solutions to Fortinet FortiGate, it takes a few days, depending on the environment.

Fortinet FortiGate is cheaper than Palo Alto. It is about 20% cheaper. 

I prefer Palo Alto over Fortinet FortiGate. Fortinet FortiGate is not the best firewall, but it is acceptable. If you have a budget to buy a firewall and Palo Alto is too expensive, then Fortinet FortiGate can be usable. As an instructor in Palo Alto Networks who knows all the techniques, I naturally prefer Palo Alto.

For a small company or branch, I would choose Fortinet FortiGate because it is cheaper and the features are sufficient. However, for more critical environments, such as government institutions or banks, where privacy and security are paramount, I would opt for Palo Alto.

In a hamburger topology setup with the internet side and internal side, I prefer using Palo Alto Networks on the internet side and Fortinet FortiGate on the internal side. This creates a multi-vendor environment, avoiding dependency on a single vendor. The internet side requires more security, hence I would go for Palo Alto, whereas the internal side would benefit from Fortinet FortiGate's flexibility and ease of use.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

We use Fortinet FortiGate 100F, which is one of two firewalls that we have, one at the entrance of the DMZ and one just outside. One is facing the internet, and the other is at the entrance of the DMZ. We use the one outside to essentially work as a VPN.

As compared to our previous firewall, WatchGuard, which is a good firewall, the successful hacking attempts were far fewer and further with the Fortinet FortiGate, but at the same time, I don't know if the credit goes to only FortiGate, as we have two firewalls versus one in the second implementation. Overall, it is more secure. The VPN is also more stable than the offering from WatchGuard at that time.

Fortinet FortiGate is one of the most solid and secure firewalls as long as you keep it up to date. The price is right; it's not very expensive. 

It's quite feature-rich. While we've mostly used the VPN, we've also utilized it to create high availability. 

We are pretty happy with it. If anything, I believe the web interface could be simpler, especially for someone who has limited networking experience. I mostly do administration, and I found Cisco to be the hardest major firewall manufacturer to deal with, with Fortinet FortiGate being the second hardest for me. In comparison, there's a bit of an easier and more user-friendly interface with WatchGuard.

I have about three years of experience with the Fortinet FortiGate firewall. We also use FortiClient VPN.

The VPN was more stable than the offering from WatchGuard at that time.

I would evaluate the service and technical support of Fortinet FortiGate as pretty good. Whenever we needed them, they would be there for us. I would rate them a nine out of ten. We had no complaints, although they were sometimes extremely busy.

Positive

Before using Fortinet FortiGate, we were using WatchGuard, which is another good firewall.

The initial setup process was efficient, as it took us less than an hour to set up both firewalls.

I was involved in the deployment of the Fortinet FortiGate, handling the physical deployment myself while our vendor managed the initial setup.

We got the Fortinet FortiGate from Telus, which is a Canadian phone company. Our experience was excellent. They're a major phone company, so the services are never less than stellar.

The maintenance for Fortinet FortiGate involves just the occasional patch update. We have software that informs us whenever there's a new patch, and if it's critical, we run the patch update immediately; if not, we usually run it at the end of the month after it's released.

We had uninterrupted service. If one firewall failed, we still had a secure infrastructure. I believe we essentially had a great VPN compared to the alternative offerings, so that's a good return on investment.

It's good. I would rate the price of the Fortinet FortiGate as an eight out of ten. It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price.

I would advise others considering or evaluating the Fortinet FortiGate to buy it. It's one of the best products for the price. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Our main use cases for Fortinet FortiGate include using it as a perimeter firewall. Fortinet FortiGate manages all our policies and other things.

Fortinet FortiGate has impacted our cost savings and security efficiency positively.

Fortinet FortiGate's VPN capabilities are very effective for us. We utilize the VPN facilities of Fortinet FortiGate all the time, so anybody who accesses our SAP systems utilizes the VPN of Fortinet FortiGate.

It has been quite seamless in terms of integration. We find it very useful for us.

The features I find most useful in Fortinet FortiGate are its simplicity of utilization, which is very important, and its provision of interfaces to see the alerts and other things. It is very useful. We use it to understand who our top users of the internet are, what they are using, and when they are using it. It gives us many glimpses into the inner workings of the organization.

At this moment, we believe that Fortinet FortiGate should be improved by injecting more AI because the kind of threats we are seeing are more ransomware threats. Fortinet FortiGate is able to ensure these threats do not enter, but we would prefer to see more proactive alerting mechanisms come out.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate in this company for about a year or over a year now, and in my previous company, I used it for almost four years, totaling five years of experience.

For stability, I have no complaints; we are satisfied customers.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable enough for our environment. We are using Fortinet FortiGate in the consumer durables industry for electrical products. We currently have a little over 2,000 users working with Fortinet FortiGate in our environment.

We plan to increase the usage of Fortinet FortiGate in the future, shortly upgrading and increasing the number of users.

For technical support of Fortinet FortiGate, we utilize a channel partner and we are very happy with them. They support us almost instantly. They have backend support from Fortinet FortiGate, which they utilize. I would rate the support an eight out of ten.

Positive

The setup of Fortinet FortiGate is very simple, worthy of a nine out of ten rating.

The deployment part of Fortinet FortiGate takes a couple of hours. We decided to go for Fortinet FortiGate because it was simple to implement, it was simple to get the policies implemented, and the interfaces were quite simple. Simplicity was the main reason. The product is very good.

I find it quite reasonable.

Before working with Fortinet FortiGate, we evaluated Check Point, Palo Alto, and Blue Coat solutions. The reason we chose Fortinet FortiGate was basically because of security and simplicity of use.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate to those who are looking into using it because if they look at the manner in which it protects their enterprise, it does a wonderful job of that. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

The typical use case for Fortinet FortiGate is perimeter security, which is why our clients use this solution.

We are an implementer of Fortinet solutions.

It works well to protect the edge. For protecting the edge, Fortinet FortiGate secures any data traversing the network back to the cloud or data center through encryption. I have found it easy to configure, which results in no problems.

The security services provided by Fortinet FortiGate firewall are among the best. They have been in Gartner's quadrant for a very long time, which always helps.

Fortinet FortiGate has been able to secure mission-critical data effectively. It secures our customer's network properly, so that's always beneficial.

The ability of Fortinet FortiGate to provide network and security convergence is impressive, as they have stable features including application control. They also have advanced routing policies that set themselves apart in network security. Their solutions gel effectively with a single console for management, which is a significant advantage.

FortiOS is quite good in my experience with Fortinet FortiGate, and it works very effectively and is stable for companies. The customers have given feedback that FortiOS has been very stable for a long time. 

From a feature standpoint, it's easy to set up if people want to try and set up VPNs and other configurations. Policy control is quite nice, and we have a lot of experience with this solution, which helps us a lot.

Their support can be better, and there should be better policies for immediate replacement in critical situations. Their replacement policy varies depending on the type of support subscription. With the standard support subscription, if the device goes down, the customer has to first ship the box, and then Fortinet sends the replacement. With the higher support, the customer has to ship the device after they have the replacement. It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription.

I have more than 10 years of experience working with Fortinet FortiGate.

It is very stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.

If you size the solution correctly based on the customer's network, number of users, and throughput required, there is no problem regarding scalability, so I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.

We have small, medium, and large customers who have opted for Fortinet FortiGate.

I would rate technical support from Fortinet an eight out of ten. Their technical support can be improved slightly as we sometimes experience delays in support for urgent customer needs.

Positive

The typical deployment model for Fortinet FortiGate is mostly on-premises. However, there is a virtual appliance available for cloud setups, but in India, most of the sales are for on-premises appliances.

Fortinet FortiGate definitely reduces the total cost of ownership because it offers better management capabilities through a single platform. Its widespread use makes skill sets more available, making it much more cost-effective for customers than other products which may require higher resource costs.

It is more affordable than Check Point and Palo Alto. Another thing is that all the features and the OS remain the same irrespective of the size of the device.

Pricing-wise, Fortinet typically provides one-year support with the firewall appliance. There is also an option for three years which is how their licensing works. They also offer add-ons for features to keep more logs or data, which is standard across their competitors as well.

The price-to-performance ratio for using Fortinet FortiGate is always better compared to any other competitor, so they are rated better than the likes of Check Point or Palo Alto.

The network availability improves when implementing a Fortinet solution; it's definitely much better for a customer compared to having no solutions in place. They are affordable overall.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.