Fortinet FortiOS Reviews

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the ease of use and user-friendly interface.

Some features I have found to be hidden and cannot be accessed through the graphical user interface, you can only access them through the command-line interface(CLI). All the features should be accessible through the graphical user interface.

I have been using Fortinet FortiOS for approximately four years.

Fortinet FortiOS is a stable solution and it has high performance.

The scalability depends on the cloud provider of Fortinet FortiOS, such as Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure. They need to work according to their SLA.

The deployment of Fortinet FortiOS is simple. The speed of the deployment depends on a lot of factors, such as a number of policies, features we need to enable, and security specifications.

I do the deployment of Fortinet FortiOS and since it is on the cloud there is no maintenance. 

The price of Fortinet FortiOS is reasonable and it is paid annually. You are able to select the features that you want.

I rate Fortinet FortiOS a nine out of ten.

I am a consultant, and I have worked with solutions from many different vendors. Depending on what the customer wants, we help to select the solution. This is one of the solutions that I have serviced in a client environment.

All of the features in this solution are effective and efficient. They are dependent on the environment in the organization.

The policies and the way that they are applied can be improved. It could be more direct, as it is an issue for some people. Generally, policy management could be made better and simpler to deploy.

The GUI could be improved to make it more usable, easier to administer, and easier to configure. 

I think it's a stable solution.

We have been deploying this solution in small and medium-sized environments, with no more than fifty users, and it has always been effective.

I don't think that we have had any issues with technical support for this solution.

The difficulty of the initial setup depends on who is handling it. Definitely, there are challenges, but if you have a proper understanding of what you're supposed to do, then it is straightforward to work with.

For me, I think that the physical box is more straightforward to work with, but it depends on who is doing it. If you get your architecture right then it is a pretty straightforward deployment. If you don't, then you run into issues that you will need to troubleshoot.

For my requirements and expectations, I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution as a co-firewall.

For my organization, it has become much easier to scan the firewalls because the solution is more user-friendly than its competitors. 

We've found the threat detection very valuable. The entire platform is user-friendly. It's easier compared to Check Point or Juniper firewalls.

The signature discs, compared to Palo Alto, aren't as good. It takes more time to get the signature updates.

The solution should be on the cloud a bit more. 

There should be a cookie eater. 

The stability of the solution is very good.

The solution is scalable.

Technical support for the solution is very good.

We ended up choosing the solution because of its ease of use and it troubleshooting steps were easy to control.

The initial setup is straightforward. You need about two to three people for deployment and maintenance.

Licensing is renewed on a yearly basis.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I would recommend the solution. As a co-firewall, it does a good job.

I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

We typically use the Fortinet hardware firewall, and the FortiOS runs inside of that. We're usually working in a small or medium-sized business environment. So we use it for remote access, access from the LAN to the WAN, and site-to-site VPN. 

I personally think the site-to-site VPN is the most useful feature. A lot of firewalls have that, but to me, that's one of the features that's essential. Either you want to just do some basic routing or use one of these kinds of practices.

FortiOS doesn't work well with all browsers. I think they need to do a better job of making it compatible with the various browsers that are out there. I see weird stuff happen sometimes.

It doesn't crash the router bin itself, but it typically takes some time. Sometimes I'll have to reboot the router to get it working with a browser again. This is maybe just a problem with older versions. I can't say anything about the recent versions of the FortiOS, but over the years, I've seen weird stuff.  This is mainly just a problem with the browser interface. I've never had a problem with the command line.

I think FortiOS is scalable. It's not a Cisco product, but it's a solution that's easy to deploy and manage at scale. You can build as your business would grow. You could go to a higher unit without much effort. Migration is clean in terms of going from small to big units. You typically have to just configure again, but it's not difficult to do. There isn't a whole different set of OS commands between different models.

I find Fortinet to be on the higher end of the scale in terms of technical support. I don't know if I'll give them an A-plus, but I'd probably give them an A. Relative to other companies out there, like Microsoft, Intuit, and some of the other support agencies or ISPs that we deal with, their support is better than most.

I would rate FortiOS a seven or an eight.

We are system integrators and we deploy firewalls for our customers. I'm the CTO and we are partners with Fortinet. 

Fortinet is a feature-rich firewall. The ease of use is one of the primary advantages of this product. It has a very simple OS and things are pretty easy to do. Fortinet has a good price point which is one of the reasons it's so popular. It's also a good security product. With Fortinet, the link balancing features are easier to use compared to other firewalls. 

We have had some performance issues, but that seems to be improving. I'd like to see better integrations and more flexibility for different scenario configurations. In comparison to Cisco, the CLI is quite difficult to use. Finally, I believe that the reporting could be enhanced to provide better visibility into the traffic. 

As an additional feature, Fortinet could have XDR embedded into it which would mean more visibility from the reporting side because right now we have to separately install FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer for driver analysis.

We've been using this solution for over five years. 

Fortinet is a pretty stable product. 

Fortinet still has to prove themselves when it comes to higher throughput cases, because there are many places where other brands are placed with higher throughput than Fortinet. When we enable all the features, sometimes the performance migration is more significant compared to Fortinet's claims of what it should be, so that needs to be better matched. 

I think Fortinet needs to improve their support. They are not one of the gold star rating support companies. There are a few big vendors like Cisco, EMC, VMware with gold star support rating. The support is sometimes not up to the mark. 

The initial setup is quite straightforward. 

We generally deploy Fortinet, Cisco and occasionally Palo Alto which is an expensive firewall so less companies use it. We deploy Cisco and Fortinet frequently. When it comes to performance and price, Palo Alto is at the top on both counts. 

I rate the solution seven out of 10. 

FortiOS' most valuable features are management, security, and easy updates with no downtime.

FortiOS's bandwidth and interface could be improved. In the next release, Fortinet should include an option to disable users.

I've been working with Fortinet FortiOS for five years.

We've been using FortiOS for five years and have had no problems with stability during that time.

FortiOS is scalable.

Fortinet's technical support is good and provides good solutions for us.

Positive

Previously, I used Cisco ASA Firewall.

The initial setup was very simple and was completed within a week.

The implementation was done by a reseller and a technical team from our side. 

On the technical side, we have received a good ROI from FortiOS as its scalability and management are good.

The licensing for FortiOS is good, with a security license included when we update the main license.

I would rate FortiOS eight out of ten.

The fact that is it has a UTM, a Unified Threat Management feature is the most valuable aspect for us. It's an all in one product. It's like our one-stop-shop to the internet.

The complexity of the VPNs should be improved. Certain versions of the operating system don't function with our current Fortinet unit. For instance, we've got a 60D FortiGate at our branch offices and the 60D FortiGate doesn't support the latest version of the 40 OS. Because of this, certain Wi-Fi access points that depend on those operating systems don't function so well. So that has room for improvement. I'd like to see that happen.

My impression is the solution is very stable.

I find the solution scalable. With my current employer, we have a high available cluster. You can extend it and also extend it with Wi-fi access points because the controller of the Wi-Fi access points is also in the 40GB range. We've got about 300 personnel in the offices and we've got about 1,000 or more employees in the trucks and they all use it, at different times.

Technical support has been pretty good. At one point, because we've got a lot of drivers - we're a transportation organization - those drivers have mobile phones and at one point we implemented a new mobile phone which uses the Wi-Fi network. The new phones couldn't connect with the Wi-Fi access point and Fortinet pretty much came in quickly with a patch for the Wi-Fi access points.

The initial setup was straightforward. It comes with a quick book, a manual, and without any experience from day one, I implemented successfully without any help. It was pretty straightforward.

I implemented the solution myself.

Seven years ago I was looking into Palo Alto Firewalls.

It's a good reliable product. I'd rate it as a solid eight out of 10. It has room left for improvement.

We'd chosen the solution because of the price and the support contract, but just a few years later the support contact pricing was all of a sudden pretty steep. They increased it by 20% to 30% from one year to another year, and it's hard to explain why.

We use it as Fortinet as a edge firewall Fortinet protection and SSL VPN FortiOS Vivo SS.

The SSL VPN is fee for use is most attractive.

A switch should be introduced. 

I have been working with Fortinet FortiOS for 2023. 

The solution is moderately stable. I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. 

The clients are primarily small businesses. 

The initial setup was straightforward. I would date the setup a six out of ten. The deployment takes few minutes time. 

The solution is cost effective. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten. 

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.