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Fortinet FortiGuard vs VirusTotal comparison

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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 FortiGuard
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VirusTotal
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGuard is 1.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VirusTotal is 3.8%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VirusTotal3.8%
Fortinet FortiGuard1.6%
Other94.6%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Kamran Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief information security officer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Improves email filtering and network protection but has limited accessible support and feature discovery
When going for support and asking for support for features, the support team asks to go for professional services, which are not covered in the support agreement. This is the reason exploration of the product features has been limited. To learn or explore something about the product, professional services need to be taken. When creating a ticket for support with configuration features, the support is reluctant to provide that support. This is the reason every feature of Fortinet FortiGuard cannot be explored. Currently Fortinet FortiGuard is working fine with no issues, but newsletters or communications about new features in the product are not being received from Fortinet. This limits knowledge of what new features are available in the product. There is no knowledge about the behavior analytics feature in Fortinet FortiGuard.
reviewer2588199 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Improves security alerts and analysis with comprehensive insights
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the category of websites. The addition of a file selection option to analyze files would also enhance the service.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main benefits Fortinet FortiGuard provides are that it secures the network from external threats, it provides security, and it has a very perfect graphical user interface that is very easy to use."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its ease of use and efficiency."
"The benefits I gain from using Fortinet FortiGuard include peace of mind; it has contributed to ensuring that we are always available and can meet our availability targets, which means that productivity is maintained and revenues will rake in as planned."
"The best features in Fortinet FortiGuard that I appreciate are the nice interface, ease of use, and straightforward administration and setup."
"The content filtering feature helps protect data by filtering potentially dangerous websites and brings significant benefit to the organization."
"With VirusTotal, I can check for any hash, malware, file, domain, IP URL, or malicious URL, and Kaspersky stays clean."
"The most valuable feature is the worldwide malware information database."
"I have never had any problems with stability or bugs while using VirusTotal."
"It provides detailed insights into possible malicious behavior, dropped files, and TCP connections."
"The product is easy to use with coding, such as Python or Java, via its API."
"The feature I like the most is the ability to see the MD5 or SHA-256 signature of the file, and also the composition of the file according to its segments."
"It gives detailed information about suspicious IPs, which is one of its most valuable features."
"It can scan the dark web and find if an email ID has been compromised. This is another area that we have not explored yet."
 

Cons

"The dashboard is an important and integral part of the product that could be improved."
"If the tool can be cheaper or less expensive, it can be good for users."
"I think that automated response could be improved if they can add automated response features into Fortinet FortiGuard."
"Currently, for our usage, the areas that have room for improvement are pricing and customization."
"When creating a ticket for support with configuration features, the support is reluctant to provide that support."
"I would like to see an improved user interface and some automation."
"VirusTotal needs better advertisement and promotion, especially in the Middle East, since it is not yet widely recognized or popular in that region."
"There is room for improvement, particularly in making some of the most useful features more accessible in the non-paid version."
"VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved."
"There should be room for improvement, particularly in the API side of things."
"I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy."
"The platform could improve in the areas of endpoints and networks."
"They can improve the telemetry. Whenever we handle a sample, they cannot provide any information about a victim."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as a six to seven."
"VirusTotal is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is very economical."
"We are using VirusTotal with free licenses, managing the license limits across three or four accounts, thus incurring no costs."
"The pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
12%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGuard?
Regarding pricing, I must say it is quite pricey, but if you look at the value it gives you, I think the value justifies the cost.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGuard?
When going for support and asking for support for features, the support team asks to go for professional services, which are not covered in the support agreement. This is the reason exploration of ...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiGuard?
Fortinet FortiGuard is used to filter emails coming to the email server. Fortinet FortiGuard threat intelligence is utilized, but not dedicatedly or specifically for threat intelligence purposes. F...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VirusTotal?
I do not know about the pricing or licensing as our organization services VirusTotal for our clients.
What needs improvement with VirusTotal?
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the categ...
What is your primary use case for VirusTotal?
As I work in an incident response role, my daily task is to mitigate the security alert and perform the analysis part. When any alerts come, I check the IPs from where they originate and the locati...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGuard vs. VirusTotal and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.