Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall comparison

Fortinet and Zscaler are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Fortinet is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5, while Zscaler is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.3. Fortinet holds a 1.9% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Zscaler’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Zscaler Cloud Firewall compete in the cybersecurity market. Zscaler Cloud Firewall tends to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features, albeit at a higher cost.

Features: Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers advanced threat protection, VPN capabilities, and versatile deployment options. Zscaler Cloud Firewall is known for its cloud-native architecture, seamless integration, and comprehensive threat coverage.

Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiGate-VM could improve its setup process, introduce better reporting tools, and simplify its initial deployment. Zscaler Cloud Firewall needs better documentation, improved performance during peak times, and addressing its occasional inconsistency in customer support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiGate-VM has a complex setup but offers responsive customer service. Zscaler Cloud Firewall provides a smoother deployment experience due to its cloud-native design but has varied support quality.

Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is valued for competitive pricing and positive ROI. Zscaler Cloud Firewall, while more expensive, delivers substantial ROI through its advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

July 2025

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Cloud Firewall is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

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.

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Sitti Ridzma Salahuddin

System Engineer at Trends and Technologies, Inc

Integrates seamlessly and helps with real-time threat response

Since the solution we offered was a complete suite with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, it was easier for them to manage because they have FortiManager as well. The main reason they wanted to position FortiGate in the cloud was so that they could easily deploy through FortiManager. That was the selling point we had for them. Especially for their multiple branches, where they had approximately 60 sites, and some assets were in AWS, it was really a good deployment opportunity. FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer were also part of that solution.

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Bhaskar Rao

Network manager admin at Yamaha

Though it helps deal with web traffic or any malicious traffic, it needs to work on its DC performance issues

The product's initial setup phase is moderate in level, so it is neither very complex nor very easy. For the deployment, my company first needs to gather all the requirements of the users and the domain names and consider how many users there are in the company. In the implementation and planning part, my company needs to consider what kind of policies we will create while ensuring that the policies are created based on the requirements of the users. There is a need to segregate the users' requirements since there are separate departments in the company, like the HR department, sales department, IT department, and manufacturing department, so that our company can create policies depending on their requirements. On-site, if you want a GRE tunnel, our company can handle GRE tunnel traffic routing and Zscaler Cloud Firewall, after which Zscaler will take action based on the policies created by our organization. For the deployments and maintenance, a team of five members consisting of two managers and three engineers is required.

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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

"This solution has helped our organization by having strong functions and a reliable firewall."

"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."

"Their reliability and their policy of pre-shipping replacements when a unit has failed."

"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."

"Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."

"Fortinet FortiGate is one of the most solid and secure firewalls as long as you keep it up to date. The price is right; it's not very expensive."

"The VPN is the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature is the bundled subscription, which is IPS, TV and web filtering."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The most valuable features are the SD-WAN and the web filtering applications control."

"We work in the archiving domain where a secure environment is very important. We have some special requirements regarding the security of infrastructure."

"I like the visibility and monitoring features because they're easy to use to monitor traffic. Features like geo-blocking and more have AI, and we're currently using all of it. But for now, we're only using geo-blocking, and we're able to block traffic from different countries. I also like that it's highly responsive. VM04 is also very powerful."

"The reporting is good."

"The solution is very easy to set up. It doesn't take a lot of time and offers a quick deployment, so you can start using it almost right away."

"The initial setup is very user-friendly."

"Regarding specific features, I appreciate the option for external selection, where you can choose either to use a default or create a self-description. This simplifies the process compared to other vendors that require creating a test extension profile and then applying it to the installation. With FortiGate, there is a streamlined approach. From the benefits perspective, clients mainly see cost reduction, especially with FortiGate VM Firewall, as it eliminates the need for additional hardware."

"High network throughput while providing leading edge network security technology for a competitive price."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pros

"Most of the features that Zscaler has to offer, we will deploy."

"It helps a lot of companies to reduce their downtime. Also, It helps businesses in terms of being secured and protected from any threats."

"It is a stable solution."

"The product’s firewall and VPN package are fantastic compared to any other solution."

"The solution offers good sandboxing."

"I like the ease of deployment and its flexibility. We don't need to deal with license, quotes, procurement, delivery, and installation. Everything is software-based, and it's very easy to operate."

"Since it is really customizable, I can use it and avoid enabling access to the full network."

"The solution is scalable."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall pros

Cons

"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."

"Areas of improvement for Fortinet FortiGate include the need for more training and certification, especially when dealing with distributors globally, which presents challenges in product availability and delivery timelines."

"FortiGate can improve its token system, as it requires a purchase before use."

"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."

"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."

"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."

"The firmware needs improvement because there are bugs when a new release comes through. Sometimes, the configuration changes, and it's a bit harder to see where the fail is. The first time that you have the firmware, it tends to have some issues, and it's better to wait a bit to update the equipment."

"I would like to see improvements in Fortinet FortiGate regarding the active-active scenario. The active-active scenario is supported but not recommended, whereas other vendors are implementing active-active without issues."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Fortinet support needs improvement. The response times are lackluster. Fortunately, the product is stable and we seldom have issues. Also, it takes months for them to deliver hardware when we order it."

"The price is problematic."

"Pricing is complex."

"SD-WAN could be enhanced to provide a clear division between control and data planes, utilizing controllers to manage tasks within the network."

"The solution's web-filtering configuration could be better."

"It would be better if it could provide you with options before completely blocking anything through the web filter. If you are doing a deep SSL inspection on the site if it says it's expired, it doesn't give you the option to continue at your own risk. I can't say that it's bad, but SSL internally isn't really a requirement. However, its security features can help. Right now, we have people going out and spending on purchasing the SSL certificates for internal sites."

"The product needs to focus on cloud-nativeness and pricing."

"Compatibility and integration with other products or vendors such as Cisco SD-WAN products need improvement."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM cons

"Certain criteria need to be met if you want to scale this solution."

"We are having some issues with internet access being denied when organizational ID-based policies change. For example, a lower level employee ends up getting the same level of access as that of a higher level employee."

"It would be better if they improved their policy, package visibility, and flexibility while we're creating rules for inspection. It could also be cheaper or more things could be included in the basic package. In the next release, I would like better coverage in the Asia Pacific region and better quality of service."

"It would be nice to have some sort of a form factor, a physical form factor perhaps, or virtual machine that you could install on devices or on a cloud, and have some cloud computing."

"Its technical support services could be better."

"Data Leak Prevention is only for web filtering and there is no protection for email."

"If I can get rid of Jetscaler, I will use Twingate for sure."

"There are some areas it could improve when it comes to blocking, we have to block some things manually. For example, if we block a top-level domain we have seen that the new IPs come through, the IPs are not blocked. There should be some more granular way of doing it. My only request is if you're blocking something at a top level, the sub-level sub-domains and all those other IPs should be blocked too automatically."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality."

"It is not the cheapest one, but its price is very competitive."

"The price range is quite acceptable and normal."

"The pricing depends on the FortiGate model we are using, ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 US dollars."

"Fortinet FortiGate is cost-efficient. Palo Alto is expensive, but Fortinet FortiGate is not."

"As far as I'm aware, in our case, it's just a yearly pricing arrangement with no additional licensing costs."

"The license for Fortinet FortiGate is affordable in my country."

"The main reason we chose Fortinet FortiGate was that the price was better than the competition."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The basic pricing in Austria is OK, but asking for special offers, e.g., NPOs, NGOs, trade up, and/or trade in, is always useful."

"The price is expensive compared with other vendors, like Cisco and Huawei."

"For large enterprises, price is not a problem because they need that solution. However, in the Philippine market, many of our clients are still small to medium businesses, so the price can be challenging. The license for Fortinet FortiGate-VM costs 100K to 150K Philippine pesos per year for VM1 or VM2."

"The price: It is a bit higher than the other competitors. This is why I started to look at other brands."

"If you are in a licensed solution, like Cisco or Palo Alto, it is cheaper. I do recommend using it with a license, because it is a security solution and it needs updates."

"The price falls somewhere in the middle; it's neither cheap nor expensive."

"VMs can be affordable, but for high-demand scenarios, I'd still recommend the hardware. For the cost, it's a ten out of ten."

"There are no additional costs beyond the standard fee."

More Fortinet FortiGate-VM pricing and cost advice

"It is not the most budget-friendly solution, but it's important to consider its overall value."

"It is expensive for small businesses."

"The product is a bit expensive compared to the solutions offered by its competitors, like Palo Alto. There is a need to make yearly payments towards the license in charges associated with the product."

"There are licensing costs, and I would not say that it's a cheap vendor."

"Zscaler is priced too high compared to the cost of Fortinet."

"There is an annual license required for the use of the Zscaler Cloud Firewall."

"There are different subscription models available."

"It comes at a significantly reduced cost while ensuring control and effectiveness."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 a...

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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...

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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 ...

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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...

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Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?

Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...

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What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate-VM?

An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured.

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Which lesser known firewall product has the best chance at unseating the market leaders?

Netscope, Zscaler if they continue route they are on now. FIrewalls needs great deal of automation on each end, datac...

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What do you like most about Zscaler Cloud Firewall?

The product’s firewall and VPN package are fantastic compared to any other solution.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Cloud Firewall?

Zscaler Cloud Firewall is quite expensive compared to competitors. However, it offered moderate value for money.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

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Azure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 23% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 4% of the time

Zyxel Unified Security Gateway vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 4% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Fortinet FortiGate-VM

Compared 3% of the time

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Azure Firewall vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 15% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

OPNsense vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate-VM

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate-VM product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Cloud Firewall

July 2025

Download Zscaler Cloud Firewall product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

FortiGate Virtual Appliance, FortiGate-VM

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

FortiGate Virtual Appliances allow you to mitigate blind spots by implementing critical security controls within your virtual infrastructure. They also allow you to rapidly provision security infrastructure whenever and wherever it is needed. FortiGate virtual appliances feature all of the security and networking services common to traditional hardware-based FortiGate appliances. With the addition of virtual appliances from Fortinet, you can deploy a mix of hardware and virtual appliances, operating together and managed from a common centralized management platform.

Fortinet

Zscaler enables the world’s leading organizations to securely transform their networks and applications for a mobile and cloud first world. Its flagship services, Zscaler Internet Access and Zscaler Private Access, create fast, secure connections between users and applications, regardless of device, location, or network. Zscaler services are 100% cloud-delivered and offer the simplicity, enhanced security, and improved user experience that traditional appliances or hybrid solutions are unable to match. Used in more than 185 countries, Zscaler operates the world’s largest cloud security platform, protecting thousands of enterprises and government agencies from cyberattacks and data loss.

Check more details: https://www.zscaler.com/produc...

Zscaler

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

Security7 Networks, COOPENAE

Zenith Live, Azure, Carlsberg Group

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

July 2025

Free Report: Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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