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AWS Direct Connect vs Fortinet FortiClient comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS Direct Connect
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
12th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiClient
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (12th), Endpoint Compliance (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of AWS Direct Connect is 1.9%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiClient is 7.8%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiClient7.8%
AWS Direct Connect1.9%
Other90.3%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

HS
Business Analyst & Agile Strategist at Charles Schwab
enables seamless hybrid cloud connectivity and ensures secure, low-latency data transfers with robust security features
AWS Direct Connect is very useful for transferring data between on-premise and cloud servers quickly, with minimal latency issues. It is cost-effective for large data transfers and offers excellent network performance, even with low internet quality. Its security features are critical, especially for industries like healthcare and finance, providing secure data transfer without breaches. It supports multi-account and multi-tenant environments, allowing centralized management with a single connectivity.
KL
Senior Technical Manager at Flexaccel
Remote access has become seamless and secure while deployment remains simple for our users
Performance could be improved today. People are now moving toward SASE, which stands for Secure Access, Secure Edge Solution. Fortinet also has that offering, which would be easier since it operates through the cloud, acting as a first line of defense. When the user connects to the internet, they connect to the cloud first for posture assessment and monitoring before connecting to the outside world. The impact is significant because nowadays people are adopting SASE. During COVID time, many users were trying to connect back to their office, causing the performance or CPU utilization of the firewall to increase tremendously, which slowed down performance. I have not worked with endpoint telemetry in Fortinet FortiClient that could have been helpful for threat mitigation.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The platform's most valuable feature for us is its robust network performance."
"It is a stable solution."
"The most valuable feature of Direct Connect is its low latency to the users."
"AWS Direct Connect allows me to connect our on-premise infrastructure directly with AWS infrastructure."
"AWS Direct Connect is highly secure and much faster compared to normal network infrastructure."
"AWS Direct Connect provides a secure and encrypted connection over the internet."
"The most valuable feature of Direct Connect is its low latency to the users."
"Direct Connect provides an improved connection quality and a diversified link, which contributes to high availability and failover capabilities."
"The solution is very scalable. It just depends on the number of licenses an organization has. The enterprise management console is related to the number of clients, and the client interface itself is free to download."
"Fortinet FortiClient is not disruptive, and its interface is great. It has an in-built VPN, which is very useful."
"We find the VPN features valuable."
"It is a feature-rich product that is easy to use and install without sacrificing security."
"I use the tool to connect server to an ISP Data Center."
"The solution is stable, we have not had any issues in the time we have been using it."
"The initial setup is very good."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiClient is dual authentication and the VPN is secure."
 

Cons

"The platform's stability needs improvement."
"There is no room for improvement in Direct Connect right now."
"It would be good if we could connect AWS Direct Connect from different networks."
"I would like to see better traffic visibility and higher throughput security, especially for organizations that require more than what the current limit allows."
"It is complicated to do additional BGP configuration for the product."
"Having more locations could improve the convenience of using the service."
"AWS Direct Connect is straightforward and performs well for me."
"AWS Direct Connect should support cross-cloud connections, such as migrations between Azure and AWS, for disaster recovery purposes on different cloud platforms."
"I would like to see improvements in the dashboard for better reporting."
"The setup process could be more simplified."
"We've had some problems with having to remove the current version and either reinstalling an old version or updating to the new one."
"It would be interesting if the solution offered a way to try to investigate and create a use case to trace vectors."
"The solution requires skillful users."
"When we change our endpoint, we have to connect again, which means having to enter our credentials and permissions."
"The only thing that is lacking in this product is the support. Their support can be improved."
"The deployment status is not good in Mac devices and sometimes in Windows-based devices using GPO, like Active Directory, that are not on the local network."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution."
"It has reasonable pricing in terms of the features offered."
"The price is okay and competitive."
"The pricing is good because you get and end-to-end security solution in one package price."
"FortiClient is costly."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Licensing was free up to ten users and after that, it was pretty reasonable."
"The price is reasonable compared to competitors, it is very good."
"An annual license costs about 1.5 to 3,000 US dollars. There are no additional costs."
"The solution is more cost efficient than Cisco, as FortiGate tends not to charge for the client license, which allows one to make free use of whatever is supported on the device."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Direct Connect?
AWS Direct Connect provides a secure and encrypted connection over the internet.
What needs improvement with AWS Direct Connect?
We encountered issues with the connection. The VPN was not connecting on multiple occasions.
What is your primary use case for AWS Direct Connect?
I'm not an end user of any of those SAP products. I wanted to have a comparison between different solutions for process mining and process modeling, but I'm not an end user of any. I have Microsoft...
How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?
Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and security. It has a very fast connection rate and has a built-in VPN. With this solution...
What's the difference between Fortinet's FortiEDR and FortiClient?
I suggest Fortinet’s FortiEDR over FortiClient for several reasons. For starters, FortiEDR guarantees solid protection because it continually scans servers for emerging vulnerabilities, which gives...
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiClient
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Direct Connect vs. Fortinet FortiClient and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.