SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform comparison

Riverbed and Versa Networks are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Riverbed is ranked #26, while Versa Networks is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0. Riverbed holds a 0.9% mindshare in SDW, compared to Versa Networks’s 5.3% mindshare. Additionally, 50% of Riverbed users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Versa Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN and Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

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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 March 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 12.3%, down from 20.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is 5.3%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	12.3%
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform	5.3%
SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN	0.9%
Other	81.5%

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

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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Jason Best

Data center network architect at Cloudwire

Analytics feature is very granular and comprehensive, although complicated to use

It's like an SD-WAN project basically. You really need to make sure that the product matches the needs of what the customer's trying to achieve and their overall strategy to meet their core business requirements. I think a certain customer made a mistake in choosing this solution because a large part of their network was Cisco and they had firewalls that were from Fortinet. I think they would have been better off and it would have been better from a CAPEX, OPEX point of view. It would've been more advantageous for them to have maybe chosen a Cisco or Fortinet solution based on their existing environment. Make sure you understand your network correctly before you try to implement any SD-WAN solution. That was one of the good lessons I learned about SD-WANs with this specific product. I wouldn't say it was a fault of the product. I would say it's more a fault of the CTO who tries to do things quickly without taking into account the existing environment or give the internal faculties the time to provide real low-level design implementation. It was more of a management mistake than from their technical team. In the next release, I would like to see things like integrated security but with local internet breakout instead of using third party solutions like NetScaler or Palo Alto. I would also like to see the integration of things like a VPN so that if you have remote sites where you might have remote workers that need to access the site from home or something, there's a VPN solution. Those are two key features and hotspots in the sort of global crisis. I would rate Riverbed a seven out of ten. I could never give any solution a 10 cause they all have good and bad points. To get any solution to a ten is pretty much impossible. If I was to rate it against others like Fortinet, I would probably give Fortinet an eight or nine. Again, I think you have to be careful because it's very subjective. I think it really depends on the type of environment, the type of customer you're deploying the SD-WAN solution for, and from which perspective you're looking at like if you an operator, if you're a large enterprise, if you're looking for a plug and play type solution. If you're looking for more of a security solution, I would go for Fortinet. It's kind of tough to say. I'd probably put the clouds a little bit ahead of the game because it does what it's supposed to do and easily. It's a little more of a plug and play type solution. Fortinet, for example, is more complex. I put it in a close second place, it's better from a security perspective. It has integration with FortiGuard. After that, I would put Riverbed in third place.

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Aashiesh Sharrma

Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA

Has improved network performance and strengthened data protection with flexible multi-tenancy support

The most valuable feature I find in Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is multi-tenancy. This is part of the feature list when discussing its Zero Trust Network Access. It has benefited my customer's network performance. The underlay network has become very independent in the sense that we no longer need to position MPLS services. On the internet itself, we are able to give the best features as far as SD-WAN is concerned. Even in MPLS, it was end-to-end encryption itself, but SD-WAN has further enhanced the aspect of security on the open internet link, which has helped my customers in protecting sensitive data. The flexibility and application optimization is one feature which my customers have benefited from the most.

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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

"It has improved our organization with control data."

"By using Fortinet FortiGate, I significantly reduced major attacks that could exploit my network."

"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are the UTM package which provides internet blocking restrictions and load balancing. Additionally, the solution is easy to use and the security reporting is good. The security fabric which they have launched Fortinet FortiGate IPS, it's very good in terms of giving details."

"The payment function for applications is good."

"Technical support is acceptable, and they're good in terms of local support and global support."

"The ECC management and the GUI that offers single interface management are the most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate."

"Fortinet FortiGate has been a Perimeter Security which defends our network from Internet attackers, armed with zero-day exploits of common Internet services like HTTP and SMTP."

"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use. If you're really interested in knowing what's happening on your network, it's a very good solution. That was the .NET Profiler part of the solution."

"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use."

"The product has a dynamic VPN feature for SD-WAN."

"It is very easy to deploy, the GUI interface is really good, the security features are also very good, it is also stable and scalable, and their support is also good."

"But, this rating also reflects the flexibility of choice afforded by the solution, as well as its futuristic approach that allows one to upgrade it to the next level of technology."

"The solution is stable and suitable."

"I like all the features. We utilize different LAN, bandwidth transferring, bandwidth balancing, and mappings. We use it as a centralized solution, and use the same product at all our locations."

"The granularity when it comes to configuration and security features are valuable."

"Versa's virtualization features are very good."

"Versa FlexVNF supports multi-tenancy, which is very important for ISP's TCO in running a SD-WAN network."

More Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform pros

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate can improve performance. There was a huge challenge in terms of CPU and memory where the IPS engine would keep triggering."

"In our environment, we need multiple virtual firewalls to facilitate end users and customers. Fortinet doesn't provide that but they really should include that feature."

"It's one of the more expensive brands."

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having better visibility. Palo Alto has better visibility."

"I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity."

"The solution has limited scalability."

"Monitoring and reporting could be better."

"The solution is quite expensive and I'd like to see the cost reduced."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routine perspective, things like RSPs line support. It was supportive but not really supportive."

"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routing perspective, things like RSPs line support."

"The solution isn't great for scalability if you have an enterprise-level organization."

"We are thinking about how to make customers consolidate the loads to an SD-WAN network so that the customers can have bigger chunk from the SD-WAN side so that customers can have critical data be transferred with NPS VPN and non-critical data or some labeled traffic can be transferred by the SD-WAN network. I think it's a very important direction for digital transformation."

"The smaller units lack a lot of functionality."

"With the pandemic and changing work models, it would be ideal if the product more accessibility options or more diversity within the solution itself."

"The interface could be simpler."

"The security should be improved."

"The support needs to be improved."

"The interface could be simpler."

More Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is very expensive so pricing is rated a one out of ten."

"Fortinet Secure SD-WAN delivered the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) per Mbps among all other vendors."

"I pay €1,200 per year for the license along with Fortinet's 81E firewall appliance. I would rate this pricing as 3/5 stars, and I believe the price is reasonably similar to its competitors in the market, being somewhere in the middle."

"Its licenses cost the same for different subscription plans."

"The solution's price is average."

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

"The cost is too high... They have to focus on more features with less cost for the customer. If you see the market, where it's going, there are a lot of players offering more features for less cost."

"There is only a standard license cost to use the solution."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"I find Versa a little more expensive than VMware in terms of remote access and secure web gateway elements."

"It is not very expensive because of the white box support. Its hardware is much cheaper than other products. With the support for x86 and white box, it is one of the most cost-effective platforms that are currently available."

"We provide subscriptions for our customers on a yearly, not monthly, basis."

"While I cannot provide too much commentary on the price, I feel it to be fair for the moment."

"It is neither cheap nor expensive. I rate the pricing a five out of ten on a scale where one is cheap and ten is expensive."

"Price wise, it's more expensive than is the competition. I would give pricing a rating of three out of five."

"The price is expensive but it makes sense for the market."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	361
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

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When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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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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Earn 20 points

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Versa Titan?

As a reseller, I see their pricing as competitive.

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What needs improvement with Versa Titan?

So far, none of my customers have delved into much detail about Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platf...

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What is your primary use case for Versa Titan?

I'm in sales, so I'm a seller for Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform. I usually recommend Versa...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 26% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 25% of the time

Steelhead vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 15% of the time

Teldat SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 15% of the time

More SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN Competitors

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform

Compared 17% of the time

Juniper Secure Edge (SASE) vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Barracuda SecureEdge vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform

Compared 7% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN report

Download SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform

March 2026

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform report

Download Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

SteelConnect, Riverbed SteelConnect

Versa FlexVNF, FlexVNF, Versa Titan

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

Accelerate business velocity with enterprise-class SD-WAN. As enterprises and organizations adopt more cloud and SaaS applications to support an increasingly distributed workforce, the hybrid networks connecting it all have been more complex, less predictable and less secure.

Riverbed SteelConnect EX is a powerful enterprise SD-WAN solution that integrates best-in-class routing, application acceleration, network visibility, and security services – a flexible and complete WAN Edge platform that gives you what you need to modernize your network and propel your business in the digital age.

Riverbed

The Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is a comprehensive solution that provides secure access to cloud applications and services. It combines networking and security functions into a single platform, making it easier for organizations to manage their network infrastructure. The platform includes features such as SD-WAN, VPN, firewall, web filtering, and more. It also offers advanced security capabilities such as intrusion prevention, malware protection, and threat intelligence. With the Versa SASE Platform, organizations can ensure secure access to their cloud applications and services from any location, while also reducing costs and simplifying network management.

Versa Networks

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

Roxtec, Software Solutions Company, Rignet

CenturyLink, RCN Business, Colt Technology Services

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

March 2026

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