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Fortinet FortiADC vs Fortinet FortiWeb comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 FortiADC
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (7th)
Fortinet FortiWeb
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
95
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Fortinet FortiADC and Fortinet FortiWeb aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Fortinet FortiADC is designed for Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and holds a mindshare of 10.1%, up 7.5% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiWeb, on the other hand, focuses on Web Application Firewall (WAF), holds 8.2% mindshare, up 7.3% since last year.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

Saeid Khanipour Ghobani - PeerSpot reviewer
High-level load balancing and routing protocols but scalability is limited to 200 gigabits
The initial setup and configuration are very easy because the solution includes a simple OS. Initial configuration takes about ten minutes for simple environments. It is important to assess the environment and decide what services, servers, and web applications are needed. The solution can be configured in router mode or one-arm mode which uses source NAT as destination NAT to send traffic to the firewall. One-arm mode is more complex and requires discussions with our engineers. For example, you have a website with Node.js for your programming language, Amazon S3 for your CDN, NGINX for your web server, and you use both React and reCAPTCHA. Our team meets with your developer to learn your website and OS through a multi-step process and then we configure the solution to protect everything.
Kacem CHAMMALI - PeerSpot reviewer
Even if an attacker detects the IP address, they can't connect directly to the server due to FortiWeb
The xFF, or X-Forwarded-For feature, IP reputation, and protected hostname. We can block access using the IP address, so no one can connect to our web server or website using the real IP. They need to use the FQDN instead. Even if an attacker detects the IP address, they can't connect directly to the server due to FortiWeb and the option to protect the hostname. All traffic passes through FortiWeb. Machine learning capabilities in FortiWeb: I don't use machine learning all the time. In the initial phase of FortiWeb deployment, we use the learning process to detect the traffic passing through FortiGate to our website.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It helps with defining server load balancing tasks and managing SSL certificates, ensuring the communication flow through the Fortinet gateway."
"FortiADC provides load-balancing capabilities needed for integration with other Fortinet platforms."
"The product has flexible and interesting licensing options."
"It's a good product because it supports all the features that ADC solutions in the market can support, like F5 solutions, for example, such as the LTM of F5."
"The most valuable feature is the SSL offloading capacity."
"The solution enhances performance by efficiently balancing the load across multiple backend servers."
"From a technical perspective, it is the most scalable device from Fortinet."
"The user interface is very easy and integrates with Sandbox easily."
"The most valuable features in Fortinet FortiWeb are sandboxing and threat prevention."
"Built-in security templates, AV integrated, strong threat intelligence."
"FortiWeb has antivirus, web filtering, and application control features."
"It is cost-effective compared to other solutions."
"One of the big advantages of using Fortinet FortiWeb is all the Fortinet family solutions use the same user interface and logic. This makes it easy to use, configure, manage, and understand if you have used one of their solutions before or are wanting to implement other Fortinet solutions in the future. Additionally, all Fortinet solutions can be managed with one application called FortiManager."
"The most valuable features are support and security."
"The most valuable feature is that this product represents a whole solution, including a WAF, and even anti-defacements."
"We find that it is quite stable and reliable."
 

Cons

"If I need design help, they do not assist; they say it is a design issue they cannot support, and I must approach the system integrator."
"The user interface could be more friendly and CLI could be more like that of Fortigate."
"Issues with SSL and encrypted traffic."
"When the FortiADC is part of a platform with components like FortiManager and FortiGate, automation and pushing configuration are very inconvenient."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The product’s price could be reduced. Also, some of its features need to be more advanced."
"The configuration is relatively complex."
"It would be good if they built in a fully functional web application firewall."
"I had some small problems when I was upgrading firmware. After the upgrade, some of my certificates were deleted.​"
"Fortinet FortiWeb could improve data integration."
"​Their support needs improvement."
"They could integrate some kind of machine learning and AI facilities to automate workflows."
"There is room for improvement in the portability on multi-cloud environments."
"Integration and learning about attacks. I would improve these areas by making FortiWeb integrate with other network technologies and feedback from multiple platforms."
"It costs too much."
"I would like to see more improvements with respect to threat intelligence."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They offer a perpetual license."
"The product has average pricing. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
"The price is competitive"
"I believe the price is good. It's fair. There are no extra costs."
"I rate Fortinet FortiADC's pricing one out of ten. It is fixed."
"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"The solution's pricing is an issue and should be improved."
"Compared to F5, FortiADC pricing is better."
"The solution is cheaper compared with other solutions. It has a yearly license."
"The maintenance fee for this product could be improved."
"It is fine now. We had to earlier negotiate the price."
"The license cost depends on the size of the box or the size of the solution. It can go from €200 Euros to a few hundred thousand Euros a year depending on your size."
"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the product price as three or four."
"FortiWeb is more expensive than some competing products."
"It should be somewhere about 36,000 Euros. That's the cost for three years. It's moderately priced."
"FortiWeb offers these services at a price that SME customers can afford, but it's also suitable for large enterprises. Still, they need to put in more work to gain a greater share of enterprise business because they face stiff competition in this segment from F5, Cloudflare, and some others."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
41%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Is Citrix ADC (formerly Netscaler) the best ADC to use and if not why?
For ADC, any ADC can do a good job. But in case if you want to add WAF functionality to the same ADC hardware you have to look for other ADC's like F5, Imperva, Radware, Fortinet, etc.
Do you recommend Fortinet FortiADC?
I recommend Fortinet FortiADC. My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. Our company has been using it for around five years. We mainly use FortiADC for the load balancing of application ...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiADC?
The user interface is very easy and integrates with Sandbox easily.
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiWeb?
The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiWeb?
I would rate the licensing cost as seven out of ten, considering it good value for money. The price is affordable and reasonable for the features offered.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiWeb?
There is room for improvement in the portability on multi-cloud environments. Enhanced DDoS integration to make FortiWeb more unified with other Fortinet products could be beneficial.
 

Also Known As

FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Lush, Barnabas Health, Options, Riverside Healthcare, Hillsbourough County Schools, Columbia Public Schools, Schiller AG
Find out what your peers are saying about NetScaler, F5, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC). Updated: March 2025.
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