Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense comparison

The compared Fortinet and Infoblox solutions aren't in the same category. Fortinet is ranked #4 in WSG , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 6.4% mindshare in the category. Infoblox is ranked #6 in DS , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Infoblox users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate SWG and Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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Ayman Said

Infrastructure System's Manager at ICAPP (Americana Group)

Enables seamless traffic handling and effective network protection

We are using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for web filtering, application control, and IDPS. Additionally, we utilize it for VPN and the main features of a firewall Web filtering is very good, as well as IDPS. SD-WAN is a perfect feature. Additionally, the VPN is stable and very good. These features…

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Igor Van Den Ouden

Engineer at Routz

A hybrid solution for DNS security with insights and security reports

The most valuable feature is policy redirecting and security reports. It detects threats and blocks them. Also, it offers DNS handling and data extraction. It provides a centralized view of connected users and incoming data sources. It is integrated via the API to different monitoring systems that send out alerts. We haven't had any false positives due to this solution.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."

"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

More iboss pros

"The solution is easy to implement and easy to configure. The most valuable feature is FortiGate’s content filtering."

"The response from the technical support team has always been excellent."

"The most useful features are application control, web filtering, and SD-WAN."

"The product is highly stable."

"The product is easy to install since we only need to follow the user manual, documents, and articles provided by Fortinet to install the product."

"It offers web filtering capabilities at a more affordable price compared to other solutions like PSMs or NETGEAR."

"The product is stable and strong."

"It has a valuable SD-WAN feature and provides good performance."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pros

"The stability of Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense is near perfect at a rating of ten."

"The product is stable."

"With the model we have, we are able to scale very easily if we need to."

"Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense furthers the existing security posture rather than replacing or trying to replace any existing products."

"The most important features for us are preventing DDOS DNS attacks."

"The reporting ability is helpful. It allows us to control what our users are able to resolve, and then be able to see reports on that."

"Using the reporting, we can tell that we have gained an extra layer of protection. Just by looking at it, we can see what is being blocked before it even makes it to the firewall. It is definitely working."

"The most valuable feature is blocklisting. It's good at what I like to describe as the "silly side cases." We have this annoying security architecture that says we must do this, that, and the other, so we try to make it easier on ourselves."

More Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense pros

Cons

"One thing I would like to see differently with their Zero Trust platform is that some of the AI aspects related to high-risk activities have more false positives."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"The reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

More iboss cons

"Fortinet needs to continue to improve network traceability. Other than that, we haven't run into anything that would give me any concern."

"The UI/UX experience can be a little better."

"It is complicated to manage different kinds of on-premise boxes."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG should be localised to specific regions to comply with local data privacy regulations because of the data privacy rules in the countries. In the Middle East, data organisation and KFA requirements are stringent."

"We are providing VoIP and the IP licensing could improve in Fortinet FortiGate SWG."

"We also have FortiAnalyzer deployed here, so we want to enable the soft functionality of FortiGate and built-in compression for a firewall VPN use case. We want the ability to deploy a gateway for HTTPS enabled on this firewall. It is currently only for use in our headquarters."

"Fortinet's support team consists of a huge networking team, because of which there is a delay in response at times."

"We have experienced a number of failures when trying to upgrade firmware and the process takes a long time. We only experienced this when doing major upgrades between versions."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG cons

"Endpoint solutions need to improved."

"I have faced quite a few problems in my eight months of experience with the product in GTS, despite it being a relatively short period."

"Within the past two years, we discovered certain bugs in their products. The resolution of these bugs took a little too much time, especially if our production environment is down for a certain amount of time, then we are losing money. That is hard to convey to Infoblox support, e.g., we actually need the system up and running again within two or three hours. The awareness of these so-called production down incidents is not really easy to convey."

"The integration of threat intelligence with other solutions is challenging. If I want to expose threat intelligence, I cannot do it via taxi services. I have to call the API, but the customers are not into creating the APIs. The integration of embedded threat intelligence with other platforms should be better. Infoblox should work on this, and it should be easier for the end user to integrate it. It is very easy to deploy this solution. We should be able to integrate it with other platforms, such as the Next-Generation Firewall, with the same ease."

"The documentation needs to be improved because there are a lot of different models that it can be deployed in, and it's somewhat confusing determining what you need and how to set it up to best cover your use cases."

"They could work on the UI of their website and make their website more user-friendly."

"The onboarding is a little rough at times, and you need to have some information at hand. It is pretty good, but it would be useful to have a few good examples to set up things like data exfiltration."

"This is not just Infoblox, this could be any portal provider, cloud provider, sometimes they change the look of the customer-facing options and it's not completely clear why they make the change."

More Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an affordable solution."

"It is a cost-effective solution that meets the user's needs."

"It is less expensive than a Cisco solution."

"The price is relatively expensive compared to other solutions which are providing similar features."

"When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. Its one-year license cost is competitive with three and five-year licenses offered by other products."

"I rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten."

"It is around $50,000 per month."

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG pricing and cost advice

"It is a very expensive system. You need to go over the licensing before purchase to make sure you're getting what is needed, not anything extra."

"If you only wanted the DNS filtering and none of the other products built into Threat Defense, it would be nicer if they could do that a la carte since we are not really using a lot of the solution."

"It's a pricey solution because it's for the advanced kind of customer."

"There is a significant charge for this product but I think that it's worth it when we look at what it's able to prevent."

"The licensing is set up such that you pay for the number of active users that you're defending at the moment."

"When you buy the subscription, there are no additional costs to add any additional buttons."

"Infoblox BloxOne offers pretty good documentation. Check its documentation, then do a PoC. Infoblox is very good at providing PoCs."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

See all answers

What needs improvement with iboss?

I have a couple of thoughts for improvement, but usually when I address them with my rep, they put it into the featur...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iboss?

We use it primarily for simpler filtering because we're a K12 entity.

See all answers

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

The interface and other reports are all user-friendly.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate the pricing for FortiGate AWG as nine, which is perfect.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate SWG?

I would rate the technical support of Fortinet a six or seven out of ten. It is not very helpful. I would like to see...

See all answers

What do you like most about Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense?

The most valuable feature is policy redirecting and security reports.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense?

Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense is quite expensive, especially due to the significant increase in the subscription fe...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense?

The UI performance could be better in the future, as sometimes there are delays. Additionally, DNS resolution speed c...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 19% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 15% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs iboss

Compared 5% of the time

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Fortinet FortiProxy vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 48% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 20% of the time

Sangfor Internet Access Gateway (IAG) vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 6% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 4% of the time

Forcepoint ONE vs Fortinet FortiGate SWG

Compared 1% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate SWG Competitors

Cisco Umbrella vs Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense

Compared 36% of the time

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security vs Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense

Compared 18% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense

Compared 17% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense

Compared 9% of the time

More Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

May 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate SWG

May 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate SWG product report

Buyer's Guide

Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense

May 2025

Download Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

FortiGate SWG, FortiGate Secure Web Gateway

BloxOne Threat Defense, Infoblox ActiveTrust, Infoblox ActiveTrust Cloud

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is a comprehensive web security solution provided by Fortinet. FortiGate SWG combines web filtering, malware protection, data loss prevention (DLP), and application control capabilities into a single integrated platform. It is designed to protect organizations from web-based threats, enforce compliance policies, and provide secure access to web resources.

FortiGate SWG Benefits:

Comprehensive web filtering and security features
Ease of use and management
Integration with other Fortinet products
Strong threat detection capabilities
Scalability and flexibility
Granular control over user access and activity

FortiGate SWG Features:

Web Filtering: FortiGate SWG employs URL filtering and content categorization to control and enforce web access policies.
Malware Protection: The solution provides real-time protection against web-borne threats, such as malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP): FortiGate SWG helps prevent sensitive data from being leaked or exfiltrated through web channels.
SSL Inspection: The solution supports SSL/TLS decryption and inspection, allowing organizations to examine encrypted web traffic for threats and enforce security policies.
Application Control: FortiGate SWG enables granular control over web applications and protocols.
Advanced Threat Intelligence: FortiGate SWG leverages Fortinet's threat intelligence services to provide up-to-date information about emerging threats and zero-day vulnerabilities.
User Authentication and Access Control: The solution supports various authentication methods, including single sign-on (SSO) and integration with identity providers, to ensure secure user authentication and access control for web resources.
Reporting and Analytics: FortiGate SWG provides comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities.

FortiGate SWG is typically deployed as a hardware appliance or as a virtual appliance in on-premises environments, but it may also be available as a cloud-based service. It is part of Fortinet's broader security fabric ecosystem, allowing integration with other Fortinet products to provide a unified and coordinated security infrastructure.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by FortiGate SWG users.

David Carlson, CIO at Camco Mfg., says that "Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help".

Suresh Vijayen, Product Manager at IX Telecom, writes that FortiGate SWG "Provides helpful technical support, but its dashboard needs to be more user-friendly".

Chandan Munshi, Chief Technical Officer at Provision Technologies LLP, states that "The user interface is intuitive. Anyone can configure the firewall with little knowledge of the product. The back-end is robust with good security."

Fortinet

Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense strengthens and optimizes your security posture from the foundation up, giving you the visibility, control and automation to secure the hybrid workplace. Operating at the DNS level, BloxOne Threat Defense uncovers threats that other solutions do not and stops attacks earlier in the threat lifecycle. Through pervasive automation and ecosystem integration, it drives efficiencies in SecOps, increases the effectiveness of the existing security stack, secures digital and work-from-anywhere efforts and lowers the total cost for cybersecurity.

Infoblox

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Salt Lake County, Catholic College Bendigo, Azienda Unita Sanitaria

Council Rock School District, EagleView, Schneider Electric, Baptist Memorial Health Care, American University

Buyer's Guide

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

May 2025

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