I like how Fortinet products work together to provide a total equipment solution. And, I don't see any issues with that solution. In terms of specific features, I like FortiGate's load balancing, interface, and priority on the network.
Director General CEO at SC Telecom
I like its interface and load-balancing features
Pros and Cons
- "In terms of specific features, I like FortiGate's load balancing, interface, and priority on the network."
- "Fortinet could improve the availability and delivery of its products. It takes four to six weeks for every purchase to arrive."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
Fortinet could improve the availability and delivery of its products. It takes four to six weeks for every purchase to arrive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using FortiGate-VM for six years.
How are customer service and support?
Fortinet's local support in Mexico could be better.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
October 2025

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
871,408 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What other advice do I have?
I rate FortiGate 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Director Of Technology at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Flexible pricing, versatile, scalable, stable, and the support is good
Pros and Cons
- "It is very versatile."
- "It has a monitoring tool, but it could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM may be installed on Azure or AWS.
You can either install it in your data center alongside your virtual applications or put it in the public cloud to secure it.
What is most valuable?
It is very versatile.
What needs improvement?
More monitoring should be included with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, in my opinion.
It has a monitoring tool, but it could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been selling Fortinet FortiGate VM for at least 12 years. It could be 15 years because it has been exclusive since the beginning.
It's available both on-premises and in the cloud.
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?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is very scalable because you can use Fortinet FortiManager.
We have a big team of many people.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
With Fortinet FortiGate-VM you can bring your own licensing, or it can be paid on a yearly basis.
Pricing is very flexible.
What other advice do I have?
Definitely, I would recommend this solution to others.
FortiGate Cloud and FortiGate-VM are the same product.
FortiOS is the operating system on FortiGate.
Fortinet has a very large product portfolio. You have the VM, and you have physical appliances for Firewalls.
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate-VM
October 2025

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
871,408 professionals have used our research since 2012.
A stable solution with good technical support, easy installation and ease of use, but the GUI features could be better
Pros and Cons
- "The technical support is very good."
- "The solution should provide more useful GUI features."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for creating IPsec tunnels and web and application filters. We use it for monitoring virtual traffic on platforms including VMware solutions.
What is most valuable?
I only know a little bit about the solution's firmware.
This said, the solution is stable and user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
The solution should provide more useful GUI features. This would prevent us from having to resort to CLI or certain basic commands.
There should be an IPsec failover.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for around four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is very good. It does not need to be improved.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is very easy and user-friendly.
What about the implementation team?
We have two teams, involving PLM managers, whose sole job is to support the customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay for a yearly license.
What other advice do I have?
We deployed the solution in a vCenter, using VMware. We do so solely on cloud.
We have around 10 clients who are making use of on-premises deployment.
We usually recommend SonicWall and Sophos in place of the solution since, with this IPsec solution, if one configures to an HPE with the IPsec failover, it fails to work.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM as a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementer
Tech Security & Networking Support Lead at a venture capital & private equity firm with 51-200 employees
Feature-rich, reliable, easy to scale, and has good support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are the IPS and Antivirus."
- "It needs an Application Inspection."
What is our primary use case?
FortiGate is an Exhibition Firewall that comes with the Antivirus, IPS, and Web Applications
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the IPS and Antivirus.
The firewall functionalities are fine.
It has a lot of features.
What needs improvement?
It needs an Application Inspection. The threat landscape is very high. Anyone can exploit the flow-based policies. It is always better to have intern-based policies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for more than two years.
We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is a reliable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easy to scale this solution, but there are some challenges with Azure and high availability.
How are customer service and technical support?
My experience with technical support was good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are also using Palo Alto.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was simple.
We don't require a lot of maintenance. Most of the maintenance is carried out by Microsoft.
It is a custom operating system that is available on FortiGate Firewall, and Palo Alto Firewall.
Microsoft doesn't do anything in terms of upgrades of the patches. They only do basic maintenance at the host level and the VM level.
We only have one person managing the device.
What about the implementation team?
We were able to complete the installation on our own.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is somewhere in the middle. It's a mid-ranged product.
There are additional fees with this solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. It is a stable firmware, with many releases. It has a lot of features. Apart from the firewall, it comes with antivirus, IPS, and Web Application Firewall.
It has a lot of integration with external connectors, such as Teams, that are protected from threats that come from external sources.
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Project manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Good performance, feature-rich, and stable
Pros and Cons
- "Its interface is good. It comes with a lot of features, and its performance is also very good."
- "It is a very good product, and it is good at standing by itself. It can maybe have a little bit of integration with other products, but it is not that important for most use cases."
What is our primary use case?
I work for a telecommunication company. We are a service provider, and we use it for our internal network and for providing services to our customers.
What is most valuable?
The firewalling feature is used the most, but we also have a particular use case for the SD-WAN service.
Its interface is good. It comes with a lot of features, and its performance is also very good.
What needs improvement?
It is a very good product, and it is good at standing by itself. It can maybe have a little bit of integration with other products, but it is not that important for most use cases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I am quite new to this product.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For the SD-WAN use case that I am researching, it seems more suitable for medium-sized customers. It is a little bit difficult to use for a big customer.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is good.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a 10 out of 10. It tops others in terms of performance.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller.
SOC Analyst at Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd
Good dashboards and simple deployment
Pros and Cons
- "The dashboards are a good feature."
- "Technical support could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this product is as a firewall. We are partners of Fortinet and I'm a security engineer.
How has it helped my organization?
In our organization, Fortinet is one of the trusted partners. We have offered the solution for a medium-size entrepreneur
What is most valuable?
The dashboards are a good feature and the deployment is simple.
What needs improvement?
The technical support could be improved. I'd like to see the security platform upgraded.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have Started learning and deploying FortiGate for 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is looking stable as per knowledge
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is flexible and scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
They need to improve the technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with checkpoint. And that solution is also good.
How was the initial setup?
It is straightforward for deployment
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Fortinet is competitively priced, it's cheaper than Palo Alto and Check Point.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are the technologies partner so we have recommended the solution by customer dependence upon their use cases
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution and would rate it a seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
IT Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Stable, with great technical support and excellent firewall capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "Overall, it's an excellent solution."
- "The key activation is very complicated at times."
What is our primary use case?
You can use the balance of FortiGate for an HTTP server, for example. It's not a total solution like a firewall, however, you have a lot of structure within it for normal firewalls or next-generation firewalls. FortiGate is the firewall for Fortinet.
What is most valuable?
Overall, it's an excellent solution.
The solution is largely very stable.
Technical support has been good.
The firewall capabilities are very good.
What needs improvement?
The key activation is very complicated at times. For example, when you use it for different customers, due to the fact that they are linked with one customer or another, you need an account. Sometimes the customer doesn't have the account, or they confuse the key. It derails the process a bit. It would be ideal if they could simplify or streamline the process.
The internal logs could be easier to manage. When you handle debugging sometimes you have some trouble seeing the whole of a packet that crossed the firewall. Luckily, I have a lot of expertise and therefore can work within these shortcomings. However, it would be easier if there was more visibility.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for five years at this point. I've used it for a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. I remember only one case in which we had issues with a routing protocol. This was the big problem that I had with FortiGate, as they had some issues and they reduced the equipment. However, in the last five years, it was the one lone situation that I opened a case for and they took a lot of time to get to the solution, which was an SBS and BGP routing protocol into the FortiGate. That said, that issue was on an appliance, not a VM solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
One of the primary clients we have that uses the solution is a bank. They utilize it for internal services.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is good. For me, it's a simple process in that you open a case, and, depending on your contract, normally they respond quickly and their help normally is good. I would say I am satisfied with the level of support they offer to clients.
What other advice do I have?
I work with a service provider and he sells service in cloud and FortiGate products, including FortiGate VMs. With this, he sells services, and I work with him on support and initial configurations or deactivations for customers.
I work with various versions of the solution, the latest being 7.7.
We use a variety of deployments, including on-premise and in public clouds. Not an American public cloud, however. Rather, it's a public cloud here in South America.
I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. the product is excellent and I am very happy with it overall.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Consultant at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
A solid product that could benefit from more traffic shaping
Pros and Cons
- "I really like that it's internationally deployable."
- "There should be more options to use lower-end models in a high availability configuration."
What is our primary use case?
It's an edge firewall that provides failover and redundancy management with the SD-WAN. We also use it for its traffic shaping capabilities and visibility through a central orchestrator.
How has it helped my organization?
It improves an organization because it's a single vendor solution for edge management.
It allows us to handle multiple types of connections at the edge and provide the proper routing and firewall services.
What is most valuable?
I really like that it's internationally deployable.
What needs improvement?
There should be more options to use lower-end models in a high availability configuration.
They should continue to improve the traffic shaping; they should add some AI to the traffic shaping. They should also consider learning from other organizations as opposed to just internally. They should follow patterns instead of everyone having to recognize patterns and make adjustments on their own. Instead, they should add some form of intelligence to guide administrators in best practices with traffic shaping. I think this will become very important as we move more toward a SaaS-type world.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for the past three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is also high to very high.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'd say scalability is somewhere between high to very high.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup depends on the types of connections that you're bringing into it and the complexity of the business requirements for individual networks. It depends on how you want to route across the company. Overall, I'd say it's less complex than Cisco but it really depends on who's doing it.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be to look to the anticipated growth of the network before starting the implementation so that you are appropriately sizing the scope and size of the equipment.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven — it's a solid product. Depending on the solution you need, some of the appliances can be a little cost-prohibitive at the high end, but at the low end, they're very cost-effective. Plus, the interface is simple to use. For the right customer, I think it's a solid play.
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
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate-VM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2025
Product Categories
FirewallsPopular Comparisons
Fortinet FortiGate
Netgate pfSense
Sophos XG
Cisco Secure Firewall
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls
WatchGuard Firebox
Cisco Meraki MX
Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)
Azure Firewall
Sophos XGS
Juniper SRX Series Firewall
SonicWall NSa
KerioControl
Fortinet FortiOS
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate-VM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
- How is FortiGate-VM different from the physical FortiGate firewall?
- Looking for a piece of advice and tips on the deployment of VPN concentrators for SD-WAN tunnels?
- What happens if FortiGate VM next-generation firewall in VMware NSX license becomes expired?
- Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
- What do you recommend for a corporate firewall implementation?
- Comparison of Barracuda F800, SonicWall 5600 and Fortinet
- Sophos XG 210 vs Fortigate FG 100E
- Which is the best network firewall for a small retailer?
- When evaluating Firewalls, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?