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Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms vs Fortinet FortiGate comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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

Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiGate
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
594
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 8.2%, down from 17.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate8.2%
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms0.5%
Other91.3%
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

IgnitiusMolepo - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IP Network Defense at MTN
Network operations have become intelligent, secure, and efficient for large-scale growth
The only improvement I can suggest for Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is that in the AI era, it will be important to embed machine learning capabilities. It will be important to embed some agencies within that technology and ensure that the technology is able to manage the traffic coming from the agent and also from the robots. Nowadays, companies are starting to adopt new technology with robot agents. I believe that there will be a lot of traffic coming from those agencies. We need to understand the capabilities on how we can onboard them on our technology, on our network on Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms.
VR
Practice Head at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Unified security has protected diverse environments and supports consistent policies everywhere
I would say 8 out of 10 regarding the stability of Fortinet FortiGate. It requires a lot of bug fixing and what I understand, Fortinet is fast enough to provide bug fixes and patches, but usually I suggest Fortinet should do thorough testing of their releases and software releases and once probably they can reduce the frequency of new releases but make it stable. That's what my recommendation is. As far as the core objective of Fortinet FortiGate is concerned, I think they are meeting the targets but I guess for rolling out new features and new updates, they are doing a bit of hurry just to cope with the market dynamics. But possibly, I understand that they are compromising on the quality of the software and stability. So over there they have to improve. Rest of the aspects, I guess they are doing pretty good. We are happy. Regarding my experience with Fortinet FortiGate in comparison to maybe some other vendors such as CyberArk, Fortinet is in the top three and they give a lot of competition to their nearest peers in the market. But I guess Fortinet is really struggling in software-defined LAN, Wi-Fi, and FortiSwitches space. So they have to make their products more affordable in Forti-switching and Forti-WiFi space. They are not able to compete effectively with the nearest competitor HP Enterprise and HP Aruba.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As a customer, the biggest advantage of Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms that I think of is its reliability, which makes me really confident to use it."
"Everything is good, and I very much enjoy this product."
"Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms positively impacts my organization because, although we were using Meraki MX for a long time with no new model from them, we were concerned about supporting the increasing bandwidth requirement for our sites, and Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms helps with this, as we understand it is a newer platform with many optimizations under the hood that can be done to make it more powerful and able to support larger bandwidth requirements."
"Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is a very good product, and with this, we can do so many things, including integrating with the firewall, URL filtering, VPN, IPsec segmentation, and other capabilities."
"Compared to other vendors, such as Huawei and others, Cisco switches are more powerful and very intelligent."
"Overall, it is a solid platform that ensures reliability and scalability for network edge connectivity."
"The great thing about Cisco Catalyst is the performance and how it can handle so much traffic and information at the same time, forwarding using CEF technology compared with other brands."
"The security features are about the best that I've seen anywhere."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"I found the upgrades valuable."
"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."
"It has upscaled our security posture, especially regarding external connectivity, because any access or connection from the company has to go through the Fortinet FortiGate firewall."
"FortiGate NGF is simple compared to other firewalls. It is easy to use and you don't need any training. Any person with basic firewall knowledge can use it."
"The customers have seen an ROI from using Fortinet FortiGate and they are satisfied with the solution."
"Using this product makes the VPN seamless and almost invisible to me in the sense that I don't have to think about it."
 

Cons

"Additionally, the firewall management requires significant improvement, as the current behavior resembles firewalls from 25 years ago; it lacks central management policies and objects that modern firewalls possess."
"Sometimes it takes a little bit, and sometimes they do not give a lot of information, so it is better to make calls and have meetings with the support team."
"The only improvement I can suggest for Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is that in the AI era, it will be important to embed machine learning capabilities."
"I believe Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms could improve the overall management and troubleshooting experience."
"The price for Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is somewhat higher compared to Chinese brands, though the difference is not huge."
"The level of customer service is bad because support is very pathetic."
"Its price could be better."
"Its filtering is sometimes too precise or strict. We sometimes have to bypass and authorize some of the sites, but they get blocked. We know that they are trusted sites, but they are blocked, and we don't know why."
"The scalability could be better."
"The advanced models are expensive."
"It would be better if they had a dashboard where we could see what attacks were happening. It would be good to see who's trying to get into our network."
"However, throughout this year, their support has been very poor."
"Fortinet FortiGate could be improved in terms of user friendliness at the policy level and assigning URL based and keyword based features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten"
"I give the pricing of the solution a six out of ten."
"Fortinet has more device options that are affordable for small businesses than Palo Alto, and its enterprise-level models are also cheaper. Palo Alto also has a separate license for VPN connections and SD-WAN, but FortiGate offers these features standard."
"Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license."
"The product is expensive."
"Our licensing costs are on a yearly basis."
"Licensing is usually on a three-year period."
"It is around $50,000 per month."
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business372
Midsize Enterprise138
Large Enterprise195
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms?
The only improvement I can suggest for Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is that in the AI era, it will be important to embed machine learning capabilities. It will be important to embed some agencies w...
What is your primary use case for Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms?
Currently, we are using the Cisco 5585 and the Firepowers, and the Firepower IPS, which comes as part of the firewall module, and the switching and the routing. For switching, we have the Catalyst ...
What advice do you have for others considering Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms?
I still work with the product, specifically with this solution, but I have low hands-on experience myself. However, I am managing the team which is hands-on. 90% of the time, even now, if you call ...
Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage at large. In my opinion, Fortinet would be the best option and l use Fortinet too...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know the firewalls change every 5 to 7 years as stated but you really do need to upg...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Find out what your peers are saying about Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms vs. Fortinet FortiGate and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.