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Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs Fortinet FortiGate IPS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 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

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
16th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiGate IPS
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is 3.5%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate IPS is 7.0%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

Jack Poon - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ease of setup and good documentation
When it comes to the product's deployment phase, we have a lot of vendor support. We have a lot of skills here in Hong Kong. Our company doesn't find any problem deploying Cisco solutions. The solution is deployed on an on-premises version. Speaking about the time required to deploy the solution, I would say that we have quite a lot of previous experience with deploying Cisco products. We have our company's standard design document, which we need to follow. We have a standard testing procedure for all those features. We just take out some appropriate parts and then compile them into one document for an individual project. It is actually quite easy for us to do the documentation, so it just takes one or two hours, and we can do the implementation because all the materials and testing procedures are already in our company standard documents, so it is not that difficult for us.
Bart Homblé - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time updates strengthen our network edge security with effective threat detection
We use Fortinet FortiGate IPS to enhance our network security. It is especially necessary to secure the edge of the company The whole IPS suite is valuable, especially with the updates from FortiGuard. It provides real-time updates, offering a good vision on any changes. For example, if the…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It simplifies the configuration process by offering pre-defined base configurations, including security and connectivity settings."
"It has a huge rate of protection. It's has a low level of positives and a huge rate of threat protection. It's easy to deploy and easy to implement. It has an incredible price rate compared to similar solutions."
"The tool's most valuable feature is threat detection, which is important because we have multiple layers not only in Cisco."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to automatically learn the traffic in our environment, and change the merit recommendations based on that."
"Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is easy to configure and the reporting is great. It's also very user-friendly."
"The solution is rather easy to use."
"It is quite an intelligent product."
"I like most of Cisco's features, like malware detection and URL filtering."
"The ease of use, concise reports, and threat identification are very user-friendly and valuable."
"The most significant aspect of IPS is self-explanatory as it primarily focuses on intrusion prevention, which is crucial for Fortinet's internal outbreak prevention efforts and ensuring compliance on endpoint devices."
"I like FortiGate's zero-trust capabilities and protection against zero-day threats. Zero-day threat protection is critical because we're seeing constant changes in the threat landscape. The sandboxing and web access controls are also robust."
"The product has an inbuilt IPS software. We can configure it to block specific anonymous attacks that are happening."
"Regionally, we are well covered. Technical support is good in this area."
"The most effective features for threat prevention are the IPS, content filter, and SD-WAN capabilities."
"We like FortiGate's website change feature."
"The solution is easy to use."
 

Cons

"If the price is brought down then everybody will be happy."
"The customization of the rules can be simplified."
"I would like to have analytics included in the suite."
"The implementation could be a bit easier."
"Performance needs improvement."
"There are problems setting up VPNs for some regions."
"Integration with other components — even Cisco's own products — can be enhanced to improve administrative experience."
"To be frank, the product is not really stable, although they're working on that. Whenever I go to the technical community with an issue, they will usually say that it is not there yet, but the technical team are working on it. The issues are not insolvable. I think they should just keep working on the product to make sure that the product can become very stable. The technical support is great. I appreciate that. We have a lot of communities supporting Firepower now, so you can find help for whatever issue you have."
"Like any hardware, it has finite scalability restrictions."
"Two-way inspections are not possible in FortiGate."
"We would like to see an improvement in the consistency of the product's performance levels."
"The solution has limited scalability."
"FortGate's IPS reporting could be made better by giving more details regarding the source and destination of network traffic when it comes to the overview section. This would allow me to more easily follow the flow of traffic based on IP addresses, without having to integrate the IPS with other products that perform more sophisticated traffic analysis."
"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."
"Right now, it's not really scalable, but it's okay for us. However, looking ahead to three years from now, we might have a problem with scalability. We foresee a little risk down the road. The stability is okay for now."
"Overall, the integration could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."
"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."
"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."
"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."
"We have a three-year license for this solution."
"The solution is very expensive so pricing is rated a one out of ten."
"The platform offers a reasonable price point compared to its competitors."
"If you compare the price of Fortinet FortiGate IPS to other firewalls, Check Point is priced very high followed by Palo Alto and Sophos. Fortinet FortiGate IPS price is more reasonable."
"It's a year based license."
"The solution is offered as an annual license."
"It cost us around $73,000 for three years."
"I give the pricing of the solution a six out of ten."
"The solution could be better priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...
What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
Cisco offers the Cisco DNA Center, which is a source that provides crucial information for us to monitor performance, and see whether there is any trouble. We are using Cisco DNA center, but again,...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate IPS?
The most significant aspect of IPS is self-explanatory as it primarily focuses on intrusion prevention, which is crucial for Fortinet's internal outbreak prevention efforts and ensuring compliance ...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate IPS?
The operational logic is not as straightforward as a Sophos XGS device. When creating rules in the Sophos firewall, they are more intuitive than in the Fortinet FortiGate IPS device. The Fortinet F...
 

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT
FortiGate IPS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia
Riverside Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Dell SecureWorks, Credit Bank Zagreb
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Fortinet FortiGate IPS and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.