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Fortinet FortiGate vs Tailscale comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 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

Fortinet FortiGate
Ranking in ZTNA
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
581
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Tailscale
Ranking in ZTNA
5th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the ZTNA category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 9.3%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tailscale is 9.6%, down from 24.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ZTNA Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate9.3%
Tailscale9.6%
Other81.1%
ZTNA
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.
reviewer2797194 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer
Securing private cloud workflows has protected sensitive AWS resources with fine-grained access
The best features Tailscale offers are highlighted by the fact that setting up Tailscale was straightforward, at least once you are following the documentation and the guides. The security is valuable, as there are many providers available, but Tailscale fulfills the requirements that we had, allowing us to access and expose internal apps without exposing them to the general internet. The complex site-to-site connections are replaced using VPNs, and we can SSH into our remote desktops or SSH into our EC2 machines in our AWS regions in a secure way. About the features that make Tailscale stand out for me, with access control lists, we can fine-grain what can be accessed and by whom. It solved our base use case, which is keeping our secured infrastructure behind a private VPN, and that is why we started using it in the first place. Tailscale has had more positive impacts on my organization regarding security.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The firewall and VPN features are the most valuable in protecting our customers' networks."
"The combined license for the network, the next-generation firewall, and the integration with SD-WAN for all branches are what I consider to be the best features. It's effective for multi-branch customers."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall's design is good...I am very impressed with the product's stability."
"The solution’s interface is pretty user-friendly."
"The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is always updating. For example, if there is a big attack, they fix it in their firmware. They release new firmware with the necessary patches to address the vulnerabilities."
"The solution is extremely reliable."
"The impact of SD-WAN on the network performance has been significant."
"Previously, we were using another firewall device, Sophos. Compared to that, Fortinet FortiGate provides more features and better security."
"The security is valuable, as there are many providers available, but Tailscale fulfills the requirements that we had, allowing us to access and expose internal apps without exposing them to the general internet."
 

Cons

"The AI part needs improvement to enhance its functionality."
"​It needs to improve its ISP load balancing.​"
"I would like to see improvements in the IPS/IDS feature to enhance protection against attacks from attackers, including ransomware protection."
"There aren't really any negative aspects to discuss."
"The sniffing packets or packet captures, can be simplified and improved because it's a little confusing."
"Its customer service could be better."
"However, one feature that I cannot rely on is the application filter, which requires tedious steps compared to other solutions like Check Point and Palo Alto, where creating the application filter rule is simpler."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing costs are very competitive."
"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."
"I rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten."
"The price is okay, so far so good."
"Each feature costs money, so it is important to study your needs."
"The price is high compared to some of the other solutions."
"I rate the pricing an eight and a half on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high."
"Its price is affordable and lesser than Cisco. Cisco is expensive. In terms of licensing, there is only one issue. If a customer's license has expired a month ago and they do the renewal after one month, Fortinet renews the license from the start of the previous month. The activation of the product is done from the previous month, not from the date of renewal. The customers usually shout and complain that because they are paying today, the renewal should start from today. The support contract renewals or licensing should be renewed from the date of renewal, but Fortinet starts from the day it had expired. It is a loss for customers. They might have had some problems because of which they did not take the license one month before. Fortinet should work on this. Cisco doesn't do this. Cisco always starts from the day they apply for the license."
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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
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise133
Large Enterprise189
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Bamboo Health, Duolingo, Shiguredo, Instacart, Corelight, Machinify, Bolt, Mercari, Cobalt, Yugabyte, Jasper, VersaBank, Zego, Gini and Finter
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cloudflare, Check Point Software Technologies and others in ZTNA. Updated: January 2026.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.