Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco Security Cloud Control vs Fortinet FortiGate Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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

Cisco Security Cloud Control
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Security Cloud Control is 2.7%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is 4.4%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud4.4%
Cisco Security Cloud Control2.7%
Other92.9%
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

FS
Security Engineer at Metrobank
Automation reduces intervention and speeds up threat prevention
Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks. Since the system is automated,…
FS
Security Engineer at Exclusive Networks
Cloud logs have supported long-term auditing but security vulnerabilities still raise concerns
It depends on the user. When he needs maybe data retention for one year, for three months or more, I recommend Fortinet FortiGate Cloud. If he doesn't want to set the log on FortiAnalyzer, I will recommend him with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud. It depends. As I mentioned before, if they don't have a syslog server or any other SIEM, I will recommend it. If they need an audit for one year of data retention, I will recommend it because it's worth the money for one year of log retention. It's straightforward. If I enable Fortinet FortiGate Cloud feature on the FortiGate on-premise or VM, it will copy the configuration on the cloud. Depending on my license, I can configure it or have it as read-only with a limited license. That's one of the main purposes of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud for me. The report doesn't have many templates, but the log retention is so good with one-year retention. If you compare it with the FortiAnalyzer or maybe with any other product such as a FortiSIEM template, with the limited license, you only get the 360 template, it's called. I think the security function, I mainly use it for configuration purposes and log retention purposes. The security is the same as the VM or the hardware, I think. The sandbox. I think it has it, but not a lot if you only have the default capability with only 10 files per minute. I think the user needs to be selective with the files that they want to send to the sandbox on the cloud.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If we have a firewall go down, I can hop into CDO, pull the latest configuration off and apply it. That's really good. It helps save time."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users."
"With Cisco Defense Orchestrator, we can manage the complete Cisco Security solution. It provides a simple and centralized way to manage all products."
"The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We spun up the VM onsite. We generated the key that it needed to talk to the Cloud Orchestrator. After that, as I started adding devices, it was relatively quick and easy."
"The most valuable feature is the Intrusion prevention."
"This product provides excellent centralized device controls and reporting."
"The ability to see the uptimes on the different VPNs that we have configured for site-to-site."
"It is a solid solution for business environments. Investing in this technology can yield significant cost and security enhancements."
"The best features in the product offer several advantages; I mainly use it for managing and configuring the appliances, whether it is a switch, firewall, or access point, and all these devices can be managed very easily over one place or one point."
"The sandboxing feature is very important."
"The main advantage of FortiGate Cloud is its reliability, scalability, and pricing."
"I have found centralized administration, cloud UI, and visibility and security on all networks valuable features."
"FortiGate Cloud has many features that we like. For example, we're using it for security incident management, threat intelligence, and vulnerabilities check. It's integrated with several Fortinet tools like FortiAnalyzer and FortiSandbox controlled through FortiManager."
"Fortinet's documentation and support are commendable, providing valuable assistance whenever challenges arise, and ensuring seamless operations."
"The solution responds more quickly to attacks or issues in the field."
 

Cons

"There could be some slight improvements to navigation. In some of the navigation you've got to go back to be able to get into where you need to be once you've made a change. If I make a change, I've then got to go back to submit and send the change."
"We had some MX devices that were blocking Windows Update from happening. We found out it was a Meraki issue, but it would have been nice if it had been flagged for us: "Hey, these updates are failing because the MX is blocking it." It wasn't a huge problem, but there was a loss of our time as well as the fact that the updates didn't get pushed out... It would have been nice if CDO had let us know that that was an issue."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components."
"It would be a better product if it incorporated device control for third-party products easily."
"CDO doesn't have a report, an official report that I can check daily. It has another module called FTD, but it doesn't have that specifically for ASA. In the reporting, there are a lot of things that aren't there. There is also room for improvement in the daily monitoring."
"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities."
"If I make a change locally to the firewall, CDO gives an alarm or an error message and says there's a change in compliance: "The firewall has this configuration but the last time it was compiled it had that configuration." That view of new changes versus the old could be better... I had to log in manually, locally on the firewall, to check which version, which configuration was actually running. I couldn't see it in CDO."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud's customization is very limited."
"When we're upgrading, it's sometimes quite challenging, especially firmware. We usually don't upgrade unless we have a bug, and we still feel it's not safe to react instead of being proactive. We often have some delays when updating FortiGuard, too."
"Fortinet should simplify the licensing model. It's too complex for decision-makers to choose from the range of options. Handling the pricing model is a nightmare, so it's difficult to sell the solution."
"Some reports generated from Fortinet FortiGate Cloud are very organizational. It would be beneficial to allow the customers customization of reports."
"The initial setup is considered to be difficult."
"If more products convert their configuration to Fortinet configuration, it will be easy for migration."
"I would like to see a SIEM bundled together with this because customers are looking into better reporting and more proactive security solutions."
"Everything related to the graphical user interface should be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I work with a lot of clients, and the price or value of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator can vary from one client to another. If you have a lot of Cisco solutions, the price of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator is justified. Whereas if you have some security components from other vendors, such as Check Point or Palo Alto. This solution would be a pretty expensive proposition considering that they don't integrate with them well."
"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."
"It is about a $100 per year for an ASA 5506 firewall, and from there it keeps going up if you have a bigger box. For example, the 5516 is $200 to $300 per year."
"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."
"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."
"After our free trial was done we got a subscription for three years and it was under $3,000 or so. It's part of the EA we already paid for, so I don't know what it would be if it was a la carte."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is reasonable when compared to Juniper and others, we are happy. We have a three-year subscription."
"Fortinet has a good price, and I would give it a four out of five. There are no additional fees."
"The license for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is annual."
"The price is over $1,000 USD annually."
"As with us, our customers need not pay for a license. One brings one's own."
"The solution is neither cheap nor expensive."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is moderately priced. I rate Fortinet FortiGate Cloud a five out of ten for pricing."
"The pricing is competitive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewall Security Management solutions are best for your needs.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Performing Arts
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business50
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up. Additionally, I suggest impro...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes.
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Those who want to use Cisco Defense Orchestrator should build their own use case and see if it fits their environment. The most significant benefit for us is the response time because it automates ...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has valuable firewall, SSL VPN, and web filtering features.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
I am very satisfied with the price and licensing cost of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud, rating it an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
It needs to improve the vulnerability that I found recently regarding the single sign-on from Fortinet FortiGate Cloud account. That became a concern for my user. The CVE that was leaked recently a...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Defense Orchestrator, CDO
FortiCloud, FortiGate Cloud
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Security Cloud Control vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.