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KerioControl vs Zyxel Unified Security Gateway comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Unified Threat Management (UTM)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
580
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st)
KerioControl
Ranking in Unified Threat Management (UTM)
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (26th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (16th)
Zyxel Unified Security Gateway
Ranking in Unified Threat Management (UTM)
13th
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 31.9%, down from 38.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of KerioControl is 3.2%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is 4.2%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Unified Threat Management (UTM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate31.9%
KerioControl3.2%
Zyxel Unified Security Gateway4.2%
Other60.699999999999996%
Unified Threat Management (UTM)
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MM
Senior Systems Tech/Admin at Samco Software Inc.
Comprehensive Security Features and High Ease of Setup Elevate User Experience
The best features for KerioControl are its proprietary VPN protocol, which does not connect easily with other firewalls unless you enable IPsec. It will only connect to KerioControl. KerioControl is very valuable for business. Key points where KerioControl is valuable include its own anti-spam, intrusion prevention, and antivirus, which is included in the yearly subscription renewals. The VPN capabilities are helpful in managing my remote or distributed workforce, as we create documents and set up a location for clients to download. Clients can download KerioControl's VPN client online, and they just have to log in from the VPN client, which connects easily. I assess the firewall function in filtering both incoming and outgoing network traffic with KerioControl as excellent. Everything is logged, and any intrusion, antivirus, virus, or anything foreign to the system trying to hack in gets logged, and we can easily block those IPs.
reviewer2399337 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales and technical consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
User has benefited from stable performance and effective completion of security tasks
I use it mostly for VPN and for some firewall solutions When considering my main use case with VPN, I can say that I got the Zyxel Unified Security Gateway, and it works fine. However, we are thinking about using a different solution based on open source because Zyxel Unified Security Gateway…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The biggest lesson would be that Fortinet FortiGate provides a high level of security at a good total cost of ownership."
"FortiGate SWG's most valuable feature is integration with vulnerability management."
"FortiGate is on the cheaper end, and it offers good value."
"The most useful features of Fortinet FortiGate IPS are you can create a virtual firewall within it, most other firewalls do not have this feature. You are able to manage your network and have network segmentation within your firewall. Additionally, you can create virtual switches within the firewall and have policy management, such as firewall and access policy."
"The most valuable features are security and vision, and all of the UTM functionality."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"The solution is very, very easy to use."
"It is quite easy to handle."
"I have found the most valuable features of Kerio Control to be the IPS and firewall."
"Kerio is a lot clearer to set up to do particular things, whereas when I do it on a Cisco or a FortiGate I have to go fight with it per week sometimes to do something I can do in 20 minutes on Kerio."
"Kerio has improved my organization's security."
"The solution provides feasibility regarding cyber privacy."
"What I like the most about Kerio is that I can use the software appliance as a solution, so if the hardware fails for any reason then I can quickly replace it with hardware that I have in stock."
"The traffic insight page or the administrative portal is really helpful because you can see all the internet usage down to the point where you can see if it's big files or streams. It gives us a good view of what the internet usage is of users who are coupled to an IP address. That way, if there are problems with, for example, a lot of data usage or problems with the connection, we can narrow it down to a single user or server and address the problem. It's really helpful for diagnostic data."
"Compared to other solutions, accounting and live monitoring of firewall status are very good features in KerioControl."
"One thing we use quite a lot, as well, is the DHCP Server, because we do a lot of work where all our devices need to have static IP addresses. Rather than going around and configuring every box, we do it all through DHCP reservations. It's easier. We've got a record of it. We can manipulate it if we need to change something or change some hardware. It's all easy. Even guys who are not used to using it can pick it up quite quickly."
"The Zyxel Unified Security Gateway solution is stable and does its job effectively."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from web filtering, malware protection, and antivirus."
"The solution can scale well."
"This is a capable appliance and the standard features work well for us."
 

Cons

"It is very expensive, and their support is not very good. I hope that their technical support will be better in the future."
"The captive portal could be improved."
"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."
"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."
"Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
"I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation."
"The solution should allow more user-friendly integrations or deployment"
"The solution's real-time connection with the cloud could be improved."
"Kerio Control could improve content filtering."
"The solution can be improved to create the capability for larger bandwidths that support our business needs."
"It has a VPN back to our data center but I don't think it has increased the number of VPN clients extended to those outside our environment"
"When it comes to dealing with updates, there are often bugs on the solution. They should do a lot more testing before they release new versions."
"They don't provide content filtering when it comes to search engine results. We had an incident on the network where a blocked site was showing up in search results. We are in a school environment, so we have blocked a site with some of the explicit content so that kids wouldn't see it. When one of them did a search, the results came on the search engine part. When you try to drill down to the website, it blocks, but when you search by image, it brings up all the images. That's one of the reasons why we are looking at Juniper."
"There were certain things I didn't know about it, but I've always been able to just contact our IT company. They've been able to walk me through certain things. It was quite a monumental task to set up a public site. Support really had to help me with setting up the VLANs and walk me through it. It was not possible for me to figure that out on my own, but that's what they're here for. That could have been a little bit easier laid out."
"I would like for there to be a difference between international and national links."
"If you have to dive deeper into the firewall or any other features, then you really have to read up a bit about how to set it up properly. Some of my colleagues, in the beginning, jumped in and made a bunch of rules but then it got really messy. If Kerio had a template or guidelines for best practices, at the beginning, that would really help. With Kerio Control it's basically 'find out for yourself.'"
"The product has some scalability and data management issues where improvements are required."
"Although manageable, the user interface is a little bit slow and could be improved."
"Sometimes it reboots when you least expect it, and that's the main issue."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"You need to pay a license for this solution. Our licensing is now done in our subsidiary."
"If you compare the price of Fortinet FortiGate IPS to other firewalls, Check Point is priced very high followed by Palo Alto and Sophos. Fortinet FortiGate IPS price is more reasonable."
"There is a license required to use Fortinet FortiGate with all the features. It has to be updated with the threats on an ongoing basis for the signatures to prevent threats and a license is needed to receive those security updates."
"Our licensing costs are on a yearly basis."
"Fortinet costs are 25% lower than the high-cost provider. There is an equipment cost and a recurring monthly cost for licenses and technical support."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is an expensive solution."
"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."
"Its price is fair. There are no additional costs."
"My advice is to use your own hardware, and do not use theirs."
"It is priced low enough for entry-level, but it has the power to grow with a company without them having to replace it."
"KerioControl's pricing is reasonable. The license for KerioControl is annual. It's difficult to specify an exact cost since it varies depending on the number of users and additional software combined with it. For example, a basic box might cover 25 users, but licenses can be purchased starting from 10 users."
"Our clients see ROI with Kerio Control, as they are saving bandwidth costs."
"Licensing is easier with Kerio Control. With FortiGate, we realized the licensing is really hectic, because if you skip one year, you have to back pay that year. If you skip two years, you have to back pay two years. With Kerio Control, if a license expires, one year later you can just reactivate and go on."
"The price of Kerio Control could be better, it is a bit overpriced compared to other solutions."
"KerioControl's pricing is good."
"The price of Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is good compared to other similar products in the market."
"This gateway is pretty cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
23%
Computer Software Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Wholesaler/Distributor
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise133
Large Enterprise188
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise3
No data available
 

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...
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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KerioControl?
KerioControl offers good pricing as one license covers all features needed without extra payment. The price for the p...
What needs improvement with KerioControl?
Regarding KerioControl's application awareness and control feature, I have not used it much.
What is your primary use case for KerioControl?
With KerioControl, we usually use them for site-to-site VPNs for most of our clients. With multiple offices, we use K...
What do you like most about Zyxel Unified Security Gateway?
The most valuable features of the solution stem from web filtering, malware protection, and antivirus.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zyxel Unified Security Gateway?
I cannot definitively comment on whether Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is an affordable product as I haven't done co...
What needs improvement with Zyxel Unified Security Gateway?
The integration capability is quite challenging. The system is very complicated, and many features are hidden. I'm lo...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Triton Technical, McDonald's
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about KerioControl vs. Zyxel Unified Security Gateway and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.