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Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs syslog-ng comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 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

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer
Ranking in Log Management
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
syslog-ng
Ranking in Log Management
16th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.2
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is 1.5%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 1.5%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiAnalyzer1.5%
syslog-ng1.5%
Other97.0%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

AP
Engineer at Kahramaa
Management becomes centralized with effective logging
The features that are most effective for me in Fortinet FortiAnalyzer are easy to manage. Fortinet FortiManager is also a great product to manage multi-site management options and other tools. The capability of logging in Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is great because there is no need to go to each individual box to check the traffic details. We can collect everything in Analyzer and check from a single console.
OC
IT Infrastructure & Cloud Security Manager at Thux
Has ensured compliance by centralizing log data and supporting secure connections
We currently do not use that feature. We currently have just an open-source release, not a premium release. My boss has indicated that he wants to buy a premium syslog-ng version next month. I think we can use other features of this tool in the future. In syslog-ng, I think a GUI would be beneficial. I am unsure if the premium module has a GUI to administer it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The log analysis and reporting are both quite good."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the reports and the playbooks."
"Report generation is very easy"
"The analyzer is the most valuable feature."
"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is useful for seeing the problems of the network and analyzing what is happening in your network."
"The initial setup is easy, and the deployment is fast."
"FortiAnalyzer's best feature is centralized log analysis. It's based on SQL database, so I can fully customize my report, chart-wise and log-wise, and can create as many reports as I want without any limit."
"Initial setup is ok."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior."
"What I appreciate most about syslog-ng is its configuration; its C-style config is much easier to understand, read, and write than other popular solutions such as syslog or rsyslog."
"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."
"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of syslog-ng."
"We chose syslog-ng because it is easy to install, easy to maintain, easy to update, and due to the fact that all data arrive in raw format, we can manipulate it as we want."
"Syslog-ng provides easy access to all my logs. It helps me show managers and other clients precisely where an incident occurred. I also like it because you can integrate syslog-ng with multiple solutions to allow real-time monitoring."
 

Cons

"The solution could embed monitoring."
"The solution costs too much."
"One thing we struggled with FortiAnalyzer was integration with SIEM."
"We should be able to do the patch upgrades in a centralized manner. It would be good to be able to do the firmware updates from one place and at the same time."
"It is a little complex in terms of scalability and mostly because we're using a kind of high-end systems."
"One area for improvement could be better support for third-party products, as it doesn't have as much visibility with these compared to Fortinet's own products."
"Sometimes, there is a problem with CPU consumption, where one process consumes 100%, and I need to restart FortiAnalyzer to fix this."
"The technical support takes at least two days to reply on any ticket post raised on their website."
"The filtering has room for improvement."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"It's hard to find people who know how to use syslog-ng. I often find problems with configurations, and solutions aren't integrated correctly with syslog-ng. For example, there might be data with extra decimals, or the collector agents are incorrectly named. It isn't a problem with the solution; it's a lack of professionals."
"In syslog-ng, I think a GUI would be beneficial. I am unsure if the premium module has a GUI to administer it."
"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."
"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is quite an expensive tool."
"​It depends upon the company.​"
"Its worth spending on FortiAnalyzer if you have multiple firewalls in your network."
"The cost of the license is high."
"When you compare with other firewall vendors, FortiAnalyzer is quite competitive in pricing."
"We have around 12 devices and yearly we spend approximately $14,000."
"The price is not expensive when compared to other solutions like Palo Alto."
"I believe that Fortinet is a cost-effective brand, making it a competitive option in terms of pricing."
"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."
"Syslog-ng is open-source."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiAnalyzer?
I think technical support should be better. Sometimes support from Fortinet does not help with creating policies or configuration issues and directly routes to the service integrator. A little more...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiAnalyzer?
I am using Fortinet FortiAnalyzer along with the analyzer for traffic monitoring and event checking. It is effective for analyzing traffic purposes.I use Fortinet FortiAnalyzer for event monitoring...
What needs improvement with syslog-ng?
We currently do not use that feature. We currently have just an open-source release, not a premium release. My boss has indicated that he wants to buy a premium syslog-ng version next month. I thin...
What is your primary use case for syslog-ng?
In Italy, we have to be compliant with the Garante for privacy. We have to log every login, logout, or login failure made by a system administrator. We store all syslog data of the infrastructure. ...
What advice do you have for others considering syslog-ng?
When it comes to parsing, I can parse both structured and unstructured data, though our data are only structured. Currently, we collect all data we receive as raw data. Each file is stored for each...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

General Directorate of Information Technology
Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs. syslog-ng and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.