Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

It is our security gateway that performs website checks and related security functions.

Fortinet FortiGate is stable. I am told that Fortinet FortiGate is one of the best solutions available, and I believe it. We rarely have any issues with it. My only concern is that they charge separately for every option that is available. It has not improved anything; it simply maintains and keeps operations going.

We are not utilizing Fortinet FortiGate to its full capacity because we have to pay for every small feature. It is also something I would replace once it starts to fail. Fortinet FortiGate appears very old, and everything we use requires additional payment.

Fortinet FortiGate has been with us as long as the switches we've had. It was already here when I came on board, and it was implemented when we started up the school facilities about 10 years ago.

I would rate it low because we rarely ever have to call support. When I call in, I do not have any issues to report.

We used to have a router, but we have since replaced them all.

It has not improved anything; it simply maintains and keeps operations going. Every year we pay close to $2,000 for this security, and we only use it for web filtering.

The unified security gateway would be my first option. I think it does not charge separately for every product we need to use.

We have Cisco products at our site, including Cisco switches deployed among our campus. We have Cisco WSC-3850 24-port switches, SG 300 28-port switches, and some old WSC-2960 48-port switches.

We use a Fortinet FortiGate 300e for our medium-sized organization. We have approximately 600 students, 200 staff, faculty, and office workers, totaling about 1,000 users going through it. It serves one location with three buildings.

We are planning to move away from Cisco switches as they have become quite expensive. Our strategy is to transition to Ubiquiti enterprise solutions.

This review has a rating of 5 out of 10.

On-premises

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.

On-premises

We use FortiGate as the edge firewall. We integrate it with our APIs over Microsoft Azure. We work in the VOIP industry, and our services are prone to latency. Security is a major concern for us as a U.S. research company, where we frequently test attacks. FortiGate handles these attacks well.

FortiGate has led to a reduction in our security budget. Our management decided to switch to FortiGate because it offers all the necessary features and even improved features within our budget.

I'm looking forward to FortiGate's dashboard features, insights, application oversight, and monitoring, which could help us significantly.

As of now, I haven't identified areas for improvement. However, once the firewall is in production and all traffic is shifted, I might be able to provide more feedback. The configuration part was challenging, especially converting configurations from another OEM to FortiGate.

I have been working on FortiGate devices for around four years. In my previous role, we used FortiGate based on the requirements and budget constraints. Currently, my organization is transitioning to FortiGate in the Azure environment as part of the migration phase.

I rate FortiGate's stability as a nine out of ten, reflecting that there have been no major issues with stability so far.

FortiGate's scalability is rated eight out of ten. We expect network expansion both over the cloud and on-premises, and we believe FortiGate will perform well in this scenario.

We had a single instance requiring FortiGate's technical support, which was effective in solving the problem. I rate their support as eight out of ten.

Positive

We used other vendors, like Cisco. FortiGate was chosen due to its cost-effectiveness and its ability to offer improved features within our budget.

The installation process does not take much time, but the migration phase from Cisco to FortiGate is expected to take about ten days.

We have a separate team responsible for deployments over the cloud, while our networks and security team manages migrations and operations of the devices.

There has been a cost reduction in our security budget after implementing FortiGate, attributed to its offering of essential features at a reduced cost compared to previous vendors.

We pay for additional services like perpetual licenses. Despite this, FortiGate is considered a cost-effective solution. I rate the pricing as a five out of ten, reflecting a balance between cost and benefit.

We also use other vendors like Cisco, Netgate, Ubiquiti, and others in our environment.

I recommend this product. In future updates, it would be beneficial to see automation features, such as real-time alerts via phone, which we currently get from other OEMs.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Private Cloud

Microsoft Azure

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.

On-premises

I'm using it for web filter and then using it for VPN connection user to site, and I'm using it to make a virtual ID to link a real ID from the server to provider to my servers to publish servers.

I work with Fortinet FortiGate SD WAN. I configure the SD WAN to use two Internet service providers from two different service provider links. When one of them is down, the SD WAN goes down. I have to go to the SD WAN and remove this link from the SD WAN member. I confirmed that with the local provider and it's working. Sometimes, when a member of the SD WAN link is down, the SD WAN is down, and this is not the solution. I made the SD WAN for redundancy, however, when a member of the SD WAN link is down or I finish the quote of the Internet, all the SD WAN stops working and users experience problems.

With the web filter, when I go to post some websites under certain categories and open these categories, I experience some problems. 

Additionally, I face difficulties integrating Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory. When I set preferences to use Active Directory users, it sometimes works and sometimes does not work. When I integrate Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory and use this integration to make a web filter policy, the functionality is inconsistent. I have tried restarting the Active Directory domain controller and the firewall, but the problem persists. As a workaround, I use the MAC address of the user to define the settings.

I have been using the solution for about five years.

I haven't configured or experienced any stability issues.

It's safe and secures my network and applications in some sites. However, I have significant problems when implementing web filters, which is a very problematic issue for me.

I often ask for help from the local provider. I haven't found the required efficient help. Currently, I have problems connecting to some banking systems and departmental Texas portals. I have asked for help but haven't found assistance through the site or through the local provider. When trying to open a ticket, they reply with solutions that are not applicable to my situation.

Positive

I didn't have a firewall previously. That said, I did have a VPN gateway.

I haven't configured or used the initial setup.

I didn't choose or have knowledge about the implementation team.

The return on investment was good.

The setup cost was good. The Egyptian pound is declining, and upgrading Fortinet FortiGate yearly costs about $2000 USD, which equals one hundred Egyptian pounds. I maintain a business relationship with the vendor and receive support from them.

I considered switching to Sophos. Due to my previous experience with Fortinet FortiGate, I preferred to stay with Fortinet FortiGate.

The solution requires careful attention, and when problems occur, they typically don't repeat once resolved. 

I miss having local provider support here in Egypt. International support is difficult to obtain. Local support is preferable yet has become very expensive due to currency devaluation in Egypt. 

On-premises

Other

The typical use case for the Fortinet FortiGate firewall for my clients is its ease of use. My clients are using Fortinet FortiGate as SD-WAN.

The effectiveness of Fortinet's unified SASE in providing consistent security policies is notable because there is one security profile from either the head office or the branch office, allowing your profile to move seamlessly with you wherever you go. You have end-to-end visibility, and you can look at the analytics. To me, that moves towards SASE.

My clients appreciate it for its features. It is easy to install and manage, and it offers all-around protection, including web filtering, content filtering, IPS, and IDS.

My clients find the next-generation firewall feature of Fortinet FortiGate to be particularly valuable. It provides internet security, network security, cloud security, ZTNA, and SD-WAN security. There is a unified agent for FortiClient. There is centralized management.

Areas of improvement for Fortinet FortiGate include the need for more training and certification, especially when dealing with distributors globally, which presents challenges in product availability and delivery timelines.

There should also be more training and certification.

I have about 10 years of experience with Fortinet FortiGate.

I find Fortinet FortiGate to be a stable solution.

Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable solution, as you can start small, maybe with FortiGate 40F, and then move to FortiGate 60F or FortiGate 80F, depending on your needs.

It depends on who your distributor is. 

Neutral

It is not straightforward, but the implementation is pretty good overall. Every site is different for me. There is no standard site. We have a few different issues here and there, but overall, it's pretty good and straightforward to install. Its integration is not difficult.

It is a matter of learning and understanding the reasons why people need Fortinet FortiGate.

Fortinet FortiGate positively provides my clients' organizations with a high return on investment. There is visibility into network operations, allowing us to identify network issues. It has advanced security features. You can achieve about 200% ROI over three years, while enhancing IT teams' productivity by about 50%. It simplifies security across branches and enhances hybrid and cloud security. There is even a feature where you can predict the application performance.

It's very competitive.

Many users nowadays prefer agentless installations over installing agents on their devices, which presents challenges for endpoint security, especially concerning ZTNA, VPN, and endpoint protection.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

On-premises

In our organization, FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) serves as the main security system for our firewall needs. I have utilized it to manage the firewalls and some other security appliances, such as VPNs. Currently, my usage focuses primarily on firewall management. I set up rules, search for logs, and consult logs when issues arise. This approach covers most of our security management tasks.

One of the most valuable features of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is the ease of usability it offers. It is quite easy for me to learn to use. Additionally, FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) has improved our efficiency in setting up security and provided us with more visibility over some issues and incidents we previously faced.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) could be improved by including more templates for setting rules or regular jobs. I do not recall if the software includes any AI features.

I have had experience with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) for about five or six years.

When deploying FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), it required one week for the initial setup and just two hours for effective deployment. There were no significant issues during this process.

In my experience, there are usually no significant stability issues with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW). However, updating the software during issues can be quite convoluted, especially if there is an unexpected attack, such as on a Saturday.

Customer service with Fortinet for FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) has been quite good. We experienced a major issue during one of the upgrades, and it took about an hour to reach support and rectify the problem.

Positive

Before using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), we used Cisco for our firewall needs. Cisco presented a lot of usability challenges. Setting up firewalls and rules with Cisco was difficult and required extensive knowledge of their system, which led us to switch to FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW).

The initial setup of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) was relatively smooth. It took about one week for the complete setup and two hours for the actual deployment.

The deployment involved two people from my side, and we also had assistance from a vendor during the setup.

In terms of return on investment, FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) has been straightforward. It has notably improved our efficiency and visibility.

The pricing of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is reasonably affordable. It is suitable for mid-level and high-level companies, though it might not be cheap for small companies.

I would recommend FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) to others. Despite some issues with upgrades and vulnerabilities, Fortinet quickly addresses concerns. Overall, on a scale of one to ten, I would rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) as an eight.

I primarily use FortiGate IPS to protect my company from advanced threats like zero-day attacks and other cybersecurity threats.

The most valuable feature is the deep inspection for traffic, which is capable of identifying zero-day attacks. This solution works well on a daily basis, detecting various types of malicious traffic. Integration with FortiFabric enables easy management and scalability across different locations.

There could be improvements in the mathematical algorithms used for behavior analytics of traffic. More advanced AI capabilities would be beneficial in future updates.

I have been using FortiGate IPS for about two years.

The stability of the solution is excellent. I rate it as nine out of ten. There are no issues with stability, and it integrates seamlessly with the main product, which is a firewall.

FortiGate IPS is highly scalable. I can easily integrate it with FortiFabric and manage multiple firewalls and other Fortinet solutions from a single dashboard.

Fortinet support is very responsive. I would rate their support as eight out of ten.

Positive

I also use Cisco for email security. Fortinet was chosen since it is a popular solution for middle-sized companies in my region.

The initial setup took about two to three hours and included setup and configuration.

The implementation involved two engineers. It was handled internally.

I have not calculated ROI specifically, however, the primary goal was to enhance cybersecurity.

There are no extra expenses involved after purchasing the solution. Pricing could be better, however, overall, it is considered a middle-level price for a middle-level company.

I am currently working mostly with Fortinet as well as with Cisco for email security.

I recommend FortiGate IPS for those looking to add an additional layer of security on top of a firewall to combat cyberattacks. I would rate the overall solution as seven out of ten.

Our use case for Fortinet FortiGate is network administration and network security; this is the use for Fortinet FortiGate.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are security, configuration facility, and easy configuration. Additionally, we get very good support from the manufacturer. The major impact of Fortinet FortiGate for clients is providing a redundant path from the service locations or servers location to the users that are in another location; this is the best impact.

One area for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate could be the price, as my clients here are small companies, and they might not have the resources or money to always buy a Fortinet FortiGate solution or FortiGate products.

I have been with that platform for about two to three years.

In general, Fortinet FortiGate's stability is very good, but in some cases, there are unusual situations. For example, we have one client with high availability with two Fortinet FortiGates, where one of them has high processor and memory usage while the other one is low, and they work in a passive-active scheme for availability. The strange part is that one Fortinet FortiGate works perfectly, and the other one has high processor and memory consumption.

Most clients are in one location, but two or three clients have SD-WAN characteristics in their implementations.

I would rate their support a nine out of ten. The support is very good, but it's not always easy to find a Spanish speaker, as some clients don't know how to speak English and need support in Spanish.

I integrate SD-WAN features for some clients; specifically, I have three or four clients with SD-WAN integrations, while most of my clients are with one location. I find it easy integrating these capabilities.

Security is very good with Fortinet for my clients; this is one of the best reasons to make a decision to buy a Fortinet solution.

Fortinet FortiGate saves a lot of time in expert hours from an expert engineer because the administration of the Fortinet FortiGate solution is easy, which may lead to fewer hours of an engineer spent on Fortinet FortiGate. It could save approximately 40 hours a month.

I would recommend this solution to others; it's the best solution in the market. The main advice I give to people who consider using Fortinet FortiGate is for security and administration, as we can get complete visibility of the network.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution a 10.

On-premises

Other

For now, I have one running on a corporate network. We make use of the modules that are there such as application filtering, web filtering, IPsec VPN, Network segmentation, advanced threat protection and others.

We extensively use FortiGate's security features to proactively detect and mitigate threat.

Use Web Filtering to control websites accessible to users and block inappropriate or unproductive sites.

Use Application Control feature to limit the use of risky or bandwidth-intensive applications.

We use the network segmentation feature for isolating and limiting potential threats.

Use SD-WAN to optimize the use of our internet links.

IPS functionality detects and blocks malicious network activity.

The core benefit is that a lot is packed into it. There are many features packed and significant flexibility from Fortinet FortiGate in being able to do numerous things. Even features such as SD-WAN provide granularity that I'm happy about. Generally, every aspect of it being a next-generation firewall provides good value.

In terms of pricing, Fortinet needs to do more to compete effectively. We gained a lot of traction from Fortinet in Nigeria, however, the battle is currently intensifying. Companies such as Palo Alto are making a strong impact. Fortinet was able to gain more attraction than Cisco in Nigeria for the past ten years, however, going forward, I'm not sure that trajectory will be maintained if Fortinet doesn't strategize regarding pricing and partnerships.

Regarding maintaining skilled personnel for Fortinet solutions, if they can address the pricing for certification exams, that would help. Sometimes it's a barrier for people here, especially for companies to train people to get certified. We train people in many other solutions we deploy, however, for Fortinet, though we intend to do that, it would be beneficial if there were more incentives for people pursuing certifications.

I have been using my current solution for almost two and a half years. However, I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for up to seven years now, working with Fortinet.

I am satisfied with the performance.

It is sufficiently scalable for my needs.

Their technical support is very good. I'm happy with the technical support. When tickets are logged, the tracking system is excellent, and the response is fast. During the few times I raised tickets, I was satisfied with the support.

Positive

I have experience with Cisco and a little bit of Sophos. I found Fortinet FortiGate better than Cisco in terms of functionality being packed in one device. 

The scalability for Fortinet FortiGate was unparalleled at that time. I saw Fortinet as a company that had strong strategic plans in terms of maintaining market dominance and having long-term plans to survive in the industry. This industry is very dynamic and Fortinet has been doing the right things to compete effectively.

The initial setup is simple. It's far better than my experience with Cisco.

In-house

The return on investment is satisfactory.

The license doesn't currently cover Secure Access Service Edge. Even though our currency in this part of the world is becoming increasingly weak, the pricing is now expensive for us. I have tried pushing Fortinet FortiGate to some customers, however, sometimes the transactions don't conclude due to pricing issues. Fortinet FortiGate may need to give special consideration for countries where currency has depreciated significantly, such as Nigeria. This will help in the competition.

I have previously worked with Cisco and Sophos and might have considered those before choosing Fortinet.

I'm always an advocate of Fortinet FortiGate. It's natural that it's the first OEM I recommend when it comes to networking and network security infrastructure solutions. 

Fortinet is my number one, especially regarding the Fortinet FortiGate. For virtual appliances and cloud security, Fortinet is still performing well. For endpoint security, other solutions appear more popular, so perhaps Fortinet should focus more on the endpoint security aspect. 

I rate Fortinet FortiGate nine out of ten.

On-premises

Microsoft Azure