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Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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-VM
Ranking in Firewalls
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
151
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sangfor NGAF
Ranking in Firewalls
31st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 2.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate-VM2.2%
Sangfor NGAF1.4%
Other96.4%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Ehab Ali - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Presales Consultant at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Unified security fabric has simplified multi-country deployments and strengthened threat response
FortiGate VM delivers exceptional performance and security with no degradation of service or protection (same features as the HW option). As part of the Fortinet Security Fabric, it extends across clouds and distributed locations, mitigating blind spots in virtual infrastructures. FortiGate VM can be rapidly deployed, managed through a centralized platform, and offers a range of purchasing options to suit every need. Also, FortiGate VM offers versatile deployment options across both public and private clouds, supporting all major public clouds including AWS, Azure, and Google as well as most hypervisors such as VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM. These deployments enable organizations to create scalable, high-performance firewalls that can be tailored to different virtualized environments and hyper-scale public cloud infrastructures. FortiGate VM integrates seamlessly with various infrastructure as code (IaC) tools such as Jenkins and GitLab, supporting security as code practices.
AK
Network Administrator at GC University Lahore
Leverage detailed reporting for effective attack management
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications hosted there, websites, FTP portals, making it quite comprehensive. Essentially, it performs all the…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"FortiGate-VM has many valuable features: it's easy to use, it's intuitive, it's got very good traffic inspection features, it's got comprehensive filtering categories, and it has an extensive threat database, using FortiGuard."
"One top feature is the ability to use the appliance as a WLAN controller for up to 10 access points with the new 5.6 firmware."
"Fortinet Security Fabric and real-time threat response capabilities are the main selling points."
"An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured."
"I appreciate FortiGate's flexibility, which allows for centralized management through FortiManager."
"Its performance is adequate. We are quite satisfied with its performance. The fact that it is a complete ecosystem with all kinds of integrations is valuable. It did take us a couple of months to get a grip on the new software, but all in all, it replaced our on-premise and single-point solution environment."
"The platform has a good user interface."
"The solution works well for large companies."
"The most valuable features are the WAN optimization, the internet access gateway (IAG), and the central console, which allows us to implement on their firewall."
"In four steps one can configure the entire firewall."
"Sangfor's tech features and technologies are more powerful than those of the other solution providers in terms of security. They also have big solutions in terms of cybersecurity."
"The most valuable feature of Sangfor NGAF is its integration."
"The capabilities are mostly within the box."
"Sangfor serves most of the basic purposes of a firewall, is particularly good in the DPI where we can inspect the inbound and outbound traffic on a very granular level, gives a very good predictive measure as well as the current measure of things going on in our network, and gives us value for money overall."
"The product is very fast and reliable."
"Sangfor NGAF specializes in ransomware detection and helps to protect our network from ransomware threats and malware."
 

Cons

"The users must buy FortiSIEM to get advanced analytics."
"The user interface could be improved."
"The solution is fairly complex."
"The solution's web-filtering configuration could be better."
"The user interface (UI) and the performance of interface both need improvement."
"Data backup functionality could be included in the product."
"We have had some issues with connecting to the VPN from home after firmware updates, which could be an area for improvement."
"Integrating multi-factor authentication with FortiGate-VM can be challenging. While multi-factor authentication is important, not all customers have it enabled. Integration with third-party solutions like ManageEngine or Duo can be complex and sometimes problematic during testing."
"Our experience with its customer support was quite challenging."
"They need to improve their research team and they need to study their data to analyze it and build the product."
"The solution should be able to work in a hybrid setup."
"Sangfor NGAF could improve the policies and default criteria. They could be much better."
"Scalability for any network device is not very easy in terms of vertical scalability."
"The interface and user experience are horrible."
"Sangfor NGAF could improve by refining its application control policies, especially in addressing challenges with certain types of applications."
"The solution has too many bugs and these slow down the implementation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Installation does not require another license making it an inexpensive solution."
"The solution could be better priced."
"I rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM's pricing a six out of ten."
"At present, the SD-WAN licenses are on an annual basis."
"I rate the product's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The price is expensive compared with other vendors, like Cisco and Huawei."
"The price of the solution could be less expensive. There are some features that have to be purchased separately that have their own license."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"For four to five physical appliances for a licensed firewall, it costs approximately $4,000."
"The product is very cost-effective compared to other brands or vendors."
"It is one of the cheapest tools in the market."
"It costs about 8 to 10 thousand dollars per year for 500 users, standard licensing fees included."
"When it comes to the price of firewall solutions, Sangfor NGAF takes the cake."
"The price is unmatcheable."
"The price falls in the mid-range, neither exceptionally low nor high."
"For over 2000 users, the cost is around 5000 to 6000 USD. If you want a web application firewall, you have to purchase an additional license for it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business74
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigate VM integrates well and has excellent centralized reporting. It is very easy to...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate-VM?
I am not involved in the pricing and costs associated with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, as those are handled by the CFO. We are in operations, and we just access the product as it is and take care of the...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor NGAF?
The licensing cost is quite high compared to other available firewalls in the market.
What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?
The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardware scalability, allowing for more storage and memory capacity. Making the soluti...
What is your primary use case for Sangfor NGAF?
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications h...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM
Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Security7 Networks, COOPENAE
The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.