Fortinet FortiOS Reviews

Fortinet FortiOS is the operating system(OS) for the appliance to work.

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the granular control and their interoperability is good.

Fortinet FortiOS can improve the GUI and remove the command line interface. All the functionality should be available from the GUI. Day-to-day management can be tough for IT administrators. Additionally, the reporting is not very good.

I have been using Fortinet FortiOS for approximately 10 years.

I have not used support very often. I have been able to figure out the problems myself.

I have used other solutions, such as SonicWall. I have found SonicWall's GUI to be less complicated than Fortinet FortiOS.

If I have to implement through the Fortinet FortiOS I have to go through multiple screens. For example, if I need to configure a simple VPN, and a site-to-site Sec VPN channel, in Fortinet FortiOS, I may have to go through multiple GUI pages or screens. Whereas, in SonicWall, everything can be done on one page.

When comparing the ease of configuration and management, with SonicWall, I find Fortigate needs some improvement. If it was improved it would make it a lot easier for implementers.

I recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiOS an eight out of ten because the reporting, configuration, and management for the IT administrators could improve.

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 using Fortinet FortiOS for our multi-level security. For example, we use the SD-WAN feature to protect our data center infrastructure.

There are many useful features, such as web security and advanced threat detection.

The solution could improve by making the dashboard easier to use.

I have been using Fortinet FortiOS for approximately 10 years.

The solution is reliable and stable.

The solution is scalable.

The technical support has been very helpful and they have local language support for Taiwan.

The installation was straightforward.

There is a license required for the solution and the price is fair.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiOS an eight out of ten.

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. 

We use Fortinet FortiOS to control all the security and networking capabilities in all our FortiGates devices across our entire network.

Firewall and overall management are valuable features. They are a leader in the market.

The reporting and monitoring could improve, they have a lot of limitations. The monitoring is not easy compared to the other firewall.

I have been using this solution within the past 12 months.

The solution is stable.

I have used Palo Alto solutions.

I rate Fortinet FortiOS a nine out of ten.

We're using it for web filtering, intrusion prevention system (IPS), intrusion detection system (IDS), and VPN. We are also using it as DSCP.

The information security features are the most valuable. 

It would be great if they can push the Microsoft updates through Fortinet OS and provide a centralized patch management system.

They should also include the data loss prevention (DLP) and data leakage prevention features. They could also add network monitoring more effectively.

We have been using Fortinet FortiOS for nearly seven years.

It is very much stable.

It is very scalable. We have a global presence in more than 23 countries. 

We are satisfied with the support. They provide fantastic support. They provide online support, and on priority, they also provide a remote session.

It is extremely easy to set up.

We deployed it ourselves.

This particular solution will be in a firewall. It's not a firewall, but it is a unified threat management (UTM) box. It acts as a firewall, plus it has many features like web filtering, VPN, DSCP, IPS, and IDS. It also has the high availability (HA) feature. You are getting a very good solution with all these features combined into one box.

I would rate Fortinet FortiOS a nine out of ten. We will surely keep using Fortinet FortiOS because it is a great and very secure product. We intend to only go with this product.

FortiGate as a product is very easy to configure. There is a lot of data now with switching IDS and IPS. It's a truly complete solution for our customers.

It's a good idea to have the firewall connected to the switches. That way, the firewall is the controller of the switches. We like how the solution is designed with that in mind.

The solution's switches are lacking. They need more features added to them to build them out a bit. The switches are very simple if you compare them with other companies like Cisco or Aruba. Those organizations offer their clients much more.

Technical support could be better. Some competitors have much more responsive support teams.

I know the last version had NAC, network access control, added inside the firewall. It's a process, however. There's still work to do. The next version will be better. Right now, you can't authenticate other devices. You only can authenticate Forti devices and not devices from other companies. This could be the next addition to the solution that will make its performance even better. 

I've been dealing with the solution for ten years now. It's been a decade.

The solution is stable. We have no issues in that regard. There aren't bugs and glitches. It doesn't crash. It's reliable.

The solution is very scalable. We have a solution from the most basic office setup to a very complex data center. It works well in either scenario. If a company requires scale, this solution can provide it.

I have used technical support in the past. It's good for the most part. However, other companies, from my experience, have better technical support. They might be able to improve this aspect of the solution a little bit.

While it's easy to access them, finding a solution to whatever problems you are dealing with takes a long time. They need to get better at turning around queries faster so clients aren't kept waiting for so long.

The initial setup is very straightforward. I wouldn't describe the process as complex.

Deployment takes one to two hours. Everything happens pretty fast.

The pricing is good. They are especially fair when compared with other companies, like Palo Alto, for example, which can get quite expensive.

We work with a lot of manufacturers of firewalls. It's normally Fortinet, however, we also work with Cisco, Palo Alto, and Sophos. My company works with Barracuda as well. To be honest, I am not a specialist with Barracuda. I normally don't work with that.

That said, typically, when we work with clients, one of the first solutions we will suggest will be Fortinet. We do normally also recommend Cisco first, as well, due to the fact we are Cisco partners. We're also partners with Fortinet.

We have a deal with Palo Alto and our security center recommends Barracuda because of their other security solutions like WAF or solutions in the cloud (not their firewall). 

Normally, we use the on-premise deployment model. At this moment, we are working with a public cloud deployment model as well.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall.

We use the on-prem deployment model of this solution. We use the standard model for our clients. 

In terms of what needs improvements, the troubleshooting could use improvement. When we work with other products like Cisco ASA, Palo Alto, and Check Point, we see a big difference in the troubleshooting. It's not easy to find a report. In order to overcome the problem, you have to install FortiAnalyzer to help you find the troubleshooting problem. FortiOS has its limitations.

I work with many products but this is the most stable OS I have seen. With Cisco, for example, if you do an upgrade, it's not guaranteed that the production will be stable. The upgraded release will release many bugs. FortiOS isn't like this. 

There is something called Fortinet Fabric that helps you to enforce your security by connecting all of your products with FortiGate. For example, if you install FortiClient on your PC it will help you use the VPN and the antivirus. When there is an issue, if you have 1,000 users with FortiClient will send a message to FortiGate. I have many projects and I use FortiManager to manage them. It helps my team minimize implementation time.

We have thousands of user using this solution. Only one person is required for the deployment. 

Their technical support has its positives and negatives. If you contact them, they are responsive and interactive and they have good solutions to the problem. The issue is with the support documents. When you need to do something advanced, there isn't good documentation for it. For basic tasks, there are plenty of videos and information but for advanced tasks or solutions, there is not.  

The initial setup is easy. It's the easiest firewall installation process on the market. I work with three or four other products and this one is the easiest. 

The time it takes to deploy will depend on the needs of the company and how complex they are. A basic installation will take one hour. 

It's important to have 24/7 support because the documentation is poor and you will need the support. It's important to have a support team and a support contract. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten. Not a ten because of the troubleshooting. Other solutions have a mechanism to find your IP network. Cisco has something called Packet Tracer which is very advanced that helps you test your configuration. It really helps the engineers to test without affecting the product environment.