Rapid7 InsightIDR vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

Rapid7 and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. Rapid7 is ranked #23 with an average rating of 7.8, while WatchGuard is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.0. Additionally, 96% of Rapid7 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 2025

Rapid7 InsightIDR and WatchGuard Firebox are two competing products in the cybersecurity market. Rapid7 InsightIDR stands out in threat detection and response, while WatchGuard Firebox excels in network security through robust firewall capabilities, suggesting InsightIDR might have an edge in internal threat hunting.

Features: Rapid7 InsightIDR provides user behavior analytics, real-time security monitoring, and threat detection with the ability to analyze millions of transactions daily. WatchGuard Firebox offers stateful packet inspection, VPN support, and application control to enhance perimeter security, focusing on network defense.

Room for Improvement: Rapid7 InsightIDR could see improvements in reducing alert fatigue and enhancing user-friendliness for smaller teams. WatchGuard Firebox may benefit from simplifying its hardware deployment and expanding its feature set to compete with more advanced network solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Rapid7 InsightIDR is cloud-based, leading to quick, hardware-free deployment and praised for responsive customer service. WatchGuard Firebox, requiring hardware deployment, supports enterprises with complex networks and offers reliable troubleshooting and direct support.

Pricing and ROI: Rapid7 InsightIDR is at the higher end cost-wise, with its pricing justified by robust threat analytics and quick deployment. WatchGuard Firebox presents a lower cost option, providing a strong ROI with reliable network security, thus appealing to budget-conscious enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox

December 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

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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SohailHyder

Head Of Cyber Security at Super Secure

Has supported compliance needs for mid-sized organizations but lacks customization and advanced integration

If we pitch Rapid7 InsightIDR against solutions such as SIEMs from Splunk or LogRhythm, it is not as customizable as a SIEM solution is. This is where it can improve if we keep in front the feature sets of a complete SIEM solution. Most common in the market is QRadar, but it is depleting now. It has been taken over by some other products such as Splunk and LogRhythm. If we compare these things with Rapid7 InsightIDR, then there are definitely some gaps that need to be filled. Data retention is also one concern because Rapid7 InsightIDR is cloud-based and operates on a subscription model. Whatever data you want to retain, it has to be paid for separately or it has a cost. Other solutions that are on-premises can have their own infrastructure or they provide some data retention for a month or in some capacity-wise, they provide that solution to them which makes them more attractive.

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Pedro Soteras

CEO at ajuntament del Prat

Network protection has improved with stronger VPN connectivity but administration remains complex

Deploying WatchGuard Firebox was quite easy, but we have had some problems regarding the VPN and the administration of the tool and the two firewalls that we have. When comparing WatchGuard Firebox with our previous solution, Palo Alto, we have had some problems in administration because of the tools. I think that they have some aspects in their system that are cloud-provided, but they also have an on-premise solution, which makes this combination good. Although I should say that when compared to Palo Alto, we have taken a step backwards. In general, I would rate WatchGuard Firebox around 6-7; it is a good firewall, but they lack good administration tools. We experience many problems with the performance and administration tools on the web, including several issues with VPNs.

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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

"The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."

"Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted our organization by providing stronger network security as it's a next-generation firewall, blocking known threats and vulnerabilities in real-time, detecting and controlling thousands of applications, scanning encrypted traffic, and improving VPN and remote access through automated failover and intelligent routing protocols like BGP over IPsec VPN."

"Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

"We use the filtering feature the most. It has filtering and inbuilt securities. We can create customized rules to define which users can access a particular type of site. We can create policies inside the firewall."

"The scalability is good in Fortinet FortiGate."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are remote access, web filtering, and IPS."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is inspection."

"It is a good source for firewall protection."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The log aggregation and storage provided by InsightIDR has shown no issues with scalability; aggregating over one hundred millions events daily."

"The product works well. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"I like that it's a cloud-based solution."

"InsightIDR’s ability to process millions of transactions per day, and to notify me of the most critical ones, is priceless. InsightIDR has the alerts tuned, and has the ability to quickly drill down to determine the threat level."

"We were able to identify criminals attempting to login from China and put a stop on their IP locations."

"Very intuitive and easy to set up."

"Intelligent alerting to avoid the common problem of alert fatigue associated with traditional SIEMs."

"It is a very stable solution."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pros

"WatchGuard Firebox is easy to configure and has a nice user interface."

"WatchGuard is very user-friendly. It provides us with all of the security services we need."

"They've done a lot of work with their SD-WAN, which we do use, to have our old internet service with our new internet service. If anything goes down on a particular interface, I can have different rules applied. Most of my users don't even know when our primary internet goes down anymore... I don't have to be here to do anything to switch it to our backup internet or to switch it back."

"As a whole, it has a very low requirement for ongoing interaction. It's very self-sufficient. If properly patched, it has very high reliability. The total cost of ownership once deployed is very low."

"The pricing of the solution is okay. It's not the most expensive option."

"The policy monitoring and allowing different traffic flows are the most useful features for us; regulating which traffic comes in and out."

"It's hard to pick one feature over another. But if I had to pick one, the UTM would be the most valuable because of the notification. I get notified via email if there is any type of threat detection or alert, telling me something is wrong."

"The ports that I have assigned appear to be unattainable to outside 'mal-actors,' unless they have an address registered on the internet that this thing is expecting. That's a layer of security."

More WatchGuard Firebox pros

Cons

"The solution needs to improve its support."

"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."

"The web process often has a memory leak."

"Tunnel flapping was one of the major things I had seen wherein your internet link remains but your VPN tunnel is down. However, since I got a fix from the TAC team, I have not noticed it, but the customer complained a few times that they couldn't access the internet because of this problem."

"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."

"Fortinet FortiGate is not very easy to use. The navigation could be improved to make it easier to use."

"Performance on the box and technical support are areas where Fortinet FortiGate can be improved."

"One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The integration capabilities of the solution have certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"If we pitch Rapid7 InsightIDR against solutions such as SIEMs from Splunk or LogRhythm, it is not as customizable as a SIEM solution is."

"The reporting is the weakest aspect. There needs to be multi-level grouping for events (for example, group by user and destination). Right now, we can do a group by user and a separate table or group by destination. But I'd be more interested in where a person was logging into instead of who was logging in or where he was logging in."

"The searching feature in Rapid7 InsightIDR needs to evolve"

"I feel it would greatly benefit from more supported log sources."

"Currently, it lacks the functionalities provided by Rapid7's User Behavior Analytics (UBA)."

"They should add more configuration and security features to it."

"InsightIDR's integration with other solutions could be improved. Also, I'd like more control from the portal over what's happening on the endpoint side. For example, when I see an attack on an endpoint, I want to be able to stop it from the portal."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR cons

"One other shortcoming is that there is no backup for it. We really haven't figured out how we might solve that problem. We may want to put a duplicate in... With WatchGuard, we just have the one box. If that were to fail, we'd probably be really hurting."

"The solution is lacking a professional website, they should be updated more often."

"I'm not really impressed with the reporting side of it. It may be something I just haven't figured out very well, but it's hard to filter down on reporting of the actual valuable information that you would want. There is a lot of information out there so you have to have some kind of tool capture it and then filter through. So far, I haven't found the reporting side of the WatchGuard to be that user-friendly."

"There should be better integration and a way to configure multiple vendors into the same data center in order to offer more flexibility."

"It doesn't offer the best protection and it's incompatible with a lot of China's websites. It makes a lot of mistakes when it is detecting items as it's not recognizing items correctly."

"The drawbacks are just sometimes not having the technical information that we need in order to easily make connections with all of our Internet-based clients."

"WatchGuard technical support requires a license."

"Websense is an application that monitors and filters internet traffic. Websense was derived from WatchGuard. But when you go to WatchGuard to actually implement that particular feature, you have to use some type of additional feature and you have to pay for it, unfortunately. I think it should be free or free in the WatchGuard box itself, as an option. It would be nice if they didn't charge us for that."

More WatchGuard Firebox cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It scales well if you know what to buy from a physical box standpoint. They seem to offer something for every level."

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

"Other firewalls are more expensive than Fortinet FortiGate, such as the Azure firewall."

"It's a year based license."

"Its pricing is good. The advantages of Fortinet FortiGate over its competitors include good pricing and meeting our requirements at a lower cost."

"The product is expensive."

"The pricing is comprehensive and clear. You can easily understand what you are purchasing, including which features correspond to each license and maintenance contract. Overall, the information is straightforward. Additionally, compared to other vendors, their prices are competitive."

"I would say that all things considered, the pricing is pretty good."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is by endpoint and amount of retention time (at least ours is). Default retention was one year, but we are able to push the retention further if needed. There's also a provide-your-own-S3 option for longer retention if you don't want to pay for the additional retention years in your Rapid7 agreement."

"It is on a yearly basis. For our own company, for about 250 users, it was 16,000 euros a year."

"The pricing is good, and it is not very expensive."

"I rate Rapid7 InsightIDR's price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"It is more reasonably priced than other vendors."

"Accurately predict your licensing counts as this is a subscription based product."

"The team is very willing to work with companies. My suggestion is to call the Rapid7 sales department and see how they can help."

"Licensing is straightforward. If, for some reason, you don’t meet the minimum licensing requirements, there is a third-party managed service that can help."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pricing and cost advice

"We had a trade-in offer at the end of our first three-year term. As a result, we pretty much got a free device by buying the three-year subscription. It was around $3,000 for the three-years."

"As per my knowledge, the product is more affordable than alternatives."

"WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention's pricing is expensive. I rate it a seven out of ten."

"The price of WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service is pretty reasonable compared to similar solutions."

"I haven't seen the pricing since 2017, but it was competitive. SonicWall, Barracuda, and WatchGuard were all about the same price when we did our last pricing."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its pricing."

"The two larger devices are about $1,000 each and the smaller ones are about $500 or $600 each... It's cheaper and you have more control because it's self-managed."

"I think the tool is quite competitive compared to the other brands."

More WatchGuard Firebox pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	189

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	93
Midsize Enterprise	28
Large Enterprise	15

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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What SOC product do you recommend?

For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is a...

See all answers

What do you like most about Rapid7 InsightIDR?

During simulations or demonstrations, the tool generates alerts, providing details such as the specific application, ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 InsightIDR?

The product pricing is very cheap.

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What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We are providing our services to all WatchGuard customers in the region.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We just use it as a secondary WiFi device. We're a small office and we needed to set up a WiFi device for a few of ou...

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What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We're a hospital and we use it for developing our incoming and outgoing policies, and we also use it for VPN.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 14% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

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Rapid7 InsightVM vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 5% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 5% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 4% of the time

Darktrace vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 3% of the time

More Rapid7 InsightIDR Competitors

Sophos Firewall vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 7% of the time

OPNsense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 6% of the time

Sophos UTM vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 3% of the time

More WatchGuard Firebox Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

February 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR

January 2026

Download Rapid7 InsightIDR product report

Buyer's Guide

WatchGuard Firebox

January 2026

Download WatchGuard Firebox product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

InsightIDR

WatchGuard Threat Detection and Response, WatchGuard Application Control, WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention, WatchGuard Gateway AntiVirus, WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Parsing hundreds of trivial alerts. Managing a mountain of data. Manually forwarding info from your endpoints. Forget that. InsightIDR instantly arms you with the insight you need to make better decisions across the incident detection and response lifecycle, faster.

Rapid7

WatchGuard Firebox is a high-performance firewall known for its ease of setup, offering robust security with layered protection and centralized management capabilities.

WatchGuard Firebox stands out for its intuitive management and high throughput, addressing security needs with features like VPN, web filtering, and threat detection. Its centralized control and reporting abilities, along with Active Directory integration, make it popular among varied organizations. Its user-friendly interface and ongoing updates enhance usability and reliability. However, there's a call for better cloud-based administration, scalability, and improved integration with third-party vendors.

What are the key features of WatchGuard Firebox?

Ease of Setup: Quick and straightforward installation process.
GUI: User-friendly graphical interface for simplified navigation.
VPN Features: Secure and efficient virtual private network management.
Web Filtering: Advanced filtering for safer browsing experiences.
Threat Detection: Proactive monitoring and detection of cyber threats.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated?

Centralized Control: Streamlined management from a single point.
High Throughput: Efficient data handling and processing capacity.
Stable Performance: Consistent and reliable operational functionality.
Active Directory Integration: Seamless connection with user directories.
Customer Service: Strong support service for customer inquiries.

WatchGuard Firebox is implemented across industries to secure internet gateways and protect data in multi-site businesses. Its applications span from Unified Threat Management (UTM) and intrusion prevention to compliance support in business environments requiring secure connectivity through VPNs.

WatchGuard

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

Liberty Wines, Pioneer Telephone, Visier

Ellips, Diecutstickers.com, Clarke Energy, NCR, Wrest Park, Homeslice Pizza, Fortessa Tableware Solutions, The Phoenix Residence

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox

December 2025

Free Report: Rapid7 InsightIDR vs. WatchGuard Firebox

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