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Fortinet FortiOS vs IPFire 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 FortiOS
Ranking in Firewalls
18th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IPFire
Ranking in Firewalls
29th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiOS is 1.1%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IPFire is 0.9%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiOS1.1%
IPFire0.9%
Other98.0%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Associate Director IT Operations at Procento
Single-pane management has simplified firewall control and has improved risk mitigation
I would not say that Fortinet FortiOS is not very scalable. Generally, what happens is that for enterprises, we hire consultants who do the capacity planning and sizing to determine what kind of firewalls to put in place. At the same time, it is not only the number of users; it also depends on the number of WAN links coming in and everything, because we have been using Fortinet for bandwidth shaping and many other bandwidth-related functions. They should improve their machine learning AI capabilities of Fortinet FortiOS because there is too much competition. Other players are also improving and making a lot of changes in their UI and overall operating system.
AE
Chief Technology Officer at Agileware Limited
Firewall deployment has secured mission-critical public apps and simplifies Linux-based management
The best features IPFire offers include its very intuitive nature because, even though it has a Linux back-end, in terms of configuration, it has a very rich GUI interface. The GUI and configuration features of IPFire have made my work easier and more efficient because their positioning and the sequence with which I follow is easy. In terms of all the processes, what you need to do at first and the next thing that you need to do is clear. The GUI is well arranged in sequential order, so you can follow that from whatever you want to do until you get the target objective. IPFire includes features with a very robust and rich community that is very much valid in terms of content. IPFire has positively impacted my organization by giving us some mileage. At least, a lot of organizations now know that we have a solution that can deliver the same value.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet is very easy to use; I like its configuration and the various functions it offers."
"It is easy to show a return on investment with this solution because it is easy to scale."
"FortiOS allows us to set up alarms for blocked websites and SSL verifications. When someone tries to access a blocked site, the solution sends a notification to the IT manager's mailbox."
"Fortinet is a feature-rich firewall."
"I work with many products but this is the most stable OS I have seen."
"It has a lot of scalability abilities which makes it easy to scale."
"Overall, I would rate FortiOS at least a nine out of ten."
"This is a user friendly solution and offers comprehensive integrations."
"IPFire has prevented any kind of hacking and enables us to comply with customer requirements."
"Regarding IPFire's AI capabilities, I think they are quite focused; in all the deployments I have done, I have not had any incidents or breaches."
"What I appreciate the most about IPFire is that it is simple, and I learned it when I was in school, so that is really something simple and I know it, so I continue to use it."
"I would rate the stability as ten out of ten for IPFire."
 

Cons

"The threat time interval lags a little, especially if there's a heavy load on the firewall."
"The support is not very good, but the product is stable so it is not so much of a problem."
"For monitoring purposes, we don't have any option to monitor the ISP link."
"FortiOS doesn't work well with all browsers. I think they need to do a better job of making it compatible with the various browsers that are out there."
"Real-time threat monitoring is not there."
"The solution could improve the log retention and reports."
"Some features I have found to be hidden and cannot be accessed through the graphical user interface, you can only access them through the command-line interface (CLI). All the features should be accessible through the graphical user interface."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve the GUI and remove the command line interface. All the functionality should be available from the GUI. Day-to-day management can be tough for IT administrators. Additionally, the reporting is not very good."
"The graphical interface could be much better."
"If anything, a graphical interface would be what I want."
"Accessing the internet was a bit complicated."
"I would rate IPFire 8 out of 10 because I do not think there is any solution anywhere in the world that is 100 percent efficient."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay an annual license fee. It is rather expensive so I would like to perhaps see a drop in price in the future."
"FortiOS is affordable, but its price could be lower."
"We pay $100,000. That covers the cost of the hardware that we run the VN's on. That also includes any SGNA costs for the internal support tech."
"A medium 100 or 200 Series box costs around $3000, and the software cost is around 55% of the hardware cost."
"The pricing is competitive for the medium and high markets but for the small markets it can be expensive."
"The best solution in the category including the price in Thailand is Fortinet FortiOS."
"The program is expensive."
"The solution is cost effective. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
18%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise23
No data available
 

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiOS?
I rate the pricing for FortiOS as eight or nine out of ten. It is an affordable solution for us.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiOS?
I would not say that Fortinet FortiOS is not very scalable. Generally, what happens is that for enterprises, we hire consultants who do the capacity planning and sizing to determine what kind of fi...
What needs improvement with IPFire?
To be honest, I have not made the updates of IPFire since a long time, so I continue to use the 2017 asset. I do not know if today there is something I can add on it. I am just comfortable with it ...
What is your primary use case for IPFire?
I am still using IPFire, but at home, not at work. I have my own servers at home, and I have my test infrastructure here. I have my VPN, my DMZ, and my LAN actually on IPFire. I connect to my home ...
What advice do you have for others considering IPFire?
I would give IPFire a good eight on a scale from one to ten. This review reflects my overall rating of eight.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
1. Siemens 2. IBM 3. Cisco 4. Dell 5. HP 6. Intel 7. Oracle 8. Google 9. Microsoft 10. Amazon 11. Apple 12. Facebook 13. Twitter 14. Netflix 15. Adobe 16. SAP 17. VMware 18. Juniper Networks 19. Ericsson 20. Nokia 21. AT&T 22. Verizon 23. T-Mobile 24. Vodafone 25. Orange 26. Deutsche Telekom 27. British Telecom 28. Comcast 29. Time Warner 30. Sony 31. Samsung 32. LG
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiOS vs. IPFire and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.