FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) Reviews

As for us, the IPS and the application control feature are the most valuable.

Maybe the room for improvement is to have more flexibility on the virtual machines of their next-generation platforms. 

So far, FortiGate is really pricey and comes with some restrictions. FortiGate NGFW can enhances that to make it easier to be deployed.

I have been using the latest version of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) for eight to ten years.

As for the stability of the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), I would rate it a nine out of ten.

The scalability of the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is good. In our organization, we have our data centers having FortiGate, and our customers are selling FortiGate. So the number of users, you can say 100 in my organization.

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

I don't have premium support or something from their side, but I would like basic support.

Neutral

The deployment depends on the architecture, but simple deployment can take up to five to ten minutes, and you are done. It's an easy deployment when you know what you need, actually. It requires one person to deploy it.

I would rate the initial setup an eight out of ten.

I would rate the pricing of appliances. So, outside appliances are maybe four, but the virtual machine is, like, eight. It is too expensive for virtual licenses.

We evaluated Sophos and WatchGuard in the past. Fortunately, definitely and technically, for the supposed deployments using the platform is much easier and much more efficient.

My advice would be just go for it. It is a really nice solution, scalable and stable, most importantly. It is easy to use, and all the security features are available. Also, it is very flexible for all sorts of deployments. I would recommend it certainly compared to any other firewall providers.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

We are a distributor of Fortinet products. My role primarily involves importing these products and delivering them to our partners and resellers, who in turn sell them to the end customers.

FortiGate is a rapidly growing vendor with a wide range of ready-to-use products. Their delivery time is remarkably quick, usually between two to four weeks. They provide excellent support, especially when it comes to helping resellers who may encounter implementation issues with Fortinet. The technical presales and support teams are readily available to assist them. So, there are definitely several benefits to working with Fortinet.

The interface, pricing, and support are good. FortiGate release new patches and offers regularly. In the integration file, they don't have anything to add because they have a very wide portfolio and models in the next-generation firewalls. FortiGate has a variety of add-on license tools that can be applied to the firewall.

FortiGate should continue to push them to continue to grow up as they've been growing for the last eight years.

FortiGate NGFW can improve technical support. The engineer who answers the technical support call, email, or phone call, whatever the medium may be. The response time is very bad.

I have been working with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for eight years. 

We don't have broken devices to be repaired or replaced with new ones, so they are very stable while working.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

We have all types of business models and customers in our portfolio, such as the midsized business, enterprise, entry-level, and small businesses. We are working with all of that with all of the Fortinet solutions.

The customer support is very slow. The engineer who answers the technical support call, email, or phone call, whatever the medium may be. The response time is very bad. 

On the other hand, Cisco takes one or two hours to respond, while Fortinet takes a few days. This is an area that they could improve on a global scale.

Neutral

The initial setup of the solution is easy, which is the most important feature for in-domain-wide resellers, partners, and customers. In the end, if you want to use Fortinet as a firewall administrator in your network, it is highly recommended because it is extremely easy to set up, especially for first-time users.  

Even if you have previous experience with Cisco or Check Point, setting up Fortinet is easy. It is a very user-friendly configuration.

I rate the solution setup a ten out of ten. It is very user-friendly.

FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is cheaper than Cisco or CheckPoint or Palo Alto and more expensive than Barracuda or Sophos or any smaller brands. The prices fit right where they are on the global market.

I advise you to buy it ASAP because it's a very good product.

From my experience as a distributor, some customers don't buy technical support on the devices. They buy only devices. I will advise them to buy the technical support of FortiCare service. In that case, they will have technical support by phone call, or by mail. They will have a replacement if anything is broken 24/7.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

There are numerous features and benefits depending on the specific use case. Fortinet offers comprehensive security solutions for various purposes. I can deploy different solutions and more. 

There is room for improvement in pricing. 

I have almost five years of experience with FortiGate NGFW. I work with the firewall for small businesses and enterprises. Currently, I'm using the enterprise version.

As for the models, I mainly use FortiGate 6800, T, 100C, 200S, and 200P.

I haven't experienced any stability issues with this product so far. It handles everything it needs to, including server requirements, client services, and computing, without any problems. I have deployed numerous firewalls, and until now, they have been incredibly stable. There haven't been any issues related to version compatibility either. So, I would say it's stable for me.

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. 

Customer service and support are good. Every time I have reached out to them, they have been responsive and helpful. In fact, I have even shared news and deployment information on my LinkedIn to showcase their excellent support.

The initial setup was easy. There were no issues during the setup.

The time taken for deployment depends on various factors. For example, if I deploy it today, I might install it the following day. However, if there are any issues with the network architecture provided by the IT vendor, it may take more time to resolve those issues before completing the deployment. But in terms of deployment alone, without considering logistics, it can be done in a day or a few hours.

In our market, the pricing is a little expensive. While we can acquire a smaller package of Fortinet, it still comes at a high cost. So, I would say the pricing is on the higher side. However, when comparing it with other vendors, it's still more reasonable.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. A rating of ten would require even more efficient reporting and swift resolution of any breakout or resilience attack. If they can provide faster fixes and proactive responses, it would be perfect.

FortiGate is a popular firewall in Turkey due to its widespread use and strong performance. Technical experts can easily be found for FortiGate, which is very important. Almost every company uses FortiGate internally. FortiGate is user-friendly and reliable, offering good performance at a reasonable cost.

You can integrate certain other services with FortiGate and use additional threat intelligence services because they allow you to combine various solutions, enhancing your overall security.

FortiGate may include AI capabilities and integrate external threat intelligence. However, version management and backup/restore operations could be improved.

I have been using FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall as a reseller for 15 years.

With high availability, this FortiGate allows one device to take over for another seamlessly in case of failure.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

FortiGate is scalable because it supports various models that can accommodate different dimensions. It is suitable for all types of businesses.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The initial setup is easy. The firewall setup involves more than just physical installation and basic configurations. It includes customizing specific policies and configurations tailored to the customer's needs, which can take up to two or three days for a single firewall. This process is resource-intensive both in terms of cost and time.

I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The product is cheap.

FortiGate Firewall offers advanced threat intelligence capabilities. It allows integration with various threat services, such as Cisco Talos. If you are a customer of both FortiGate and Cisco for threat intelligence, you can integrate Cisco Talos with FortiGate, which enhances security effectiveness through Intelligence.

I recommend FortiGate for every company. It's a highly effective solution that can significantly enhance firewall security. You can easily find technical guides to help you understand its capabilities. FortiGate is known for its reliability and robust features.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case is for protection. We have general use cases.

It is a very user-friendly solution. Moreover, Foritgate offers good performance, where it outperforms Cisco Firepower in various ways.

The solution doesn't cover all aspects of protection. There should be better customization in the IPS. The Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and FortiGuard could benefit from enhancement. 

So, in future releases, I want to see improvements in IPS, particularly in terms of customization.

I have been using this solution for ten years. 

The firewall is very stable and reliable.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. There's always room for improvement.

We have around three to four customers using this solution.

I can't use the technical support because of some sanctions in Iran. 

The setup process is easy and very fast. The setup process is very fast, typically taking only one to two days.

The purchasing process is straightforward, and then the normal deployment process. 

Moreover, a single person can handle the deployment and maintenance tasks.

There is a licensing fee; it is on a yearly basis. The pricing iss actually quite normally priced. 

I have used Cisco. I find impressive about Cisco is its powerful enterprise-grade solution, comparable to Fortinet firewall. FortiGate is not superior to Cisco, but it stands out for its user-friendly interface.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It is a suitable solution for medium-range companies due to its well-designed user interface.

The usability of the solution is its best feature. The product has a great UI. The UI is seamless and easier to navigate compared to other firewalls. The reporting and logging are good too. Additionally, Fortinet Security Fabric is another great feature.

Being a great product, some changes in the pricing would make it a great choice for even more organizations.

I have been using the solution for two to three years.

I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.

Currently, we have around ten customers. Our customers are mostly medium-sized businesses. We also have small and enterprise-level customers.

I rate the tool’s scalability a nine out of ten. FortiGate's VDOM is a great feature for scalability.

Support is good. A local organization provides us with first-level support. I have raised a few cases with them.

Positive

I rate the ease of setup a nine out of ten. Most organizations like to have everything deployed within the premises. The initial setup can be done within a few hours if the planning is done beforehand. The policies and other requirements are added gradually.

In our country, pricing is very important. The product is not cheap. Although companies do invest in one-time setup, retaining license renewal is not the same for every organization. I rate the pricing a five out of ten. Support should be purchased as per various levels and other licenses for security features, like Application Control and Web Filtering, should also be purchased.

Overall, it is a great technology to use. It is imperative to train employees to get the best out of the product and robust implementation. FortiGate has a great learning platform and commendable documentation for that which should be utilized. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

In order to make it even better in the future, improved integration with other vendors' solutions could be beneficial.

FortiGate is compatible enough with other infrastructures, but I encountered difficulties when attempting integration with other infrastructures. So, better compatibility could be an area for improvement.

Another area of improvement could be in terms of changing passwords. For instance, when using FortiGate firewall, you can have the option to set up SSL VPN, allowing users to connect to the network externally. It's like using FortiClient software. But here's the thing, when you have a local account on FortiGate, and you use it to access the network, there is no option to change your password, and that becomes a problem. Especially when you are not using Active Directory and instead relying on the local FortiGate database to create accounts. 

The admin creates the account for you with credentials and a password. But when you try to access using the VPN client software, you have the ability to change your password, and that's not ideal. It's quite challenging. So, if you need to change your password, you have to contact the administrator to change it on the equipment, and that's not convenient, especially in large environments. So, that could be the only solution.

In terms of personal experience, I've been using the product for about seven years. In my current company, it has been three years.

I'm using version 7 for the majority of my equipment, and for some products, it's version 6.6 or something similar.

The product is stable. It offers good stability.

It is a scalable solution. 

The customer service and support have been satisfactory so far.

Positive

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is easy to deploy. The deployment process is smooth and straightforward.

In my experience, the ROI has been positive.

The price of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is affordable. I believe it offers reasonable value for the features it provides.

If you're using the IPS version, particularly for ATP, the price is higher due to the IP functionality. However, for other features like web filtering, the price is reasonable. For a year, the license cost for ATP is around $8000. 

So far, I haven't had to pay separately for maintenance or support. It's usually included in the support package, including software support.

Overall, I am satisfied with the product. I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

If you are using it in a small environment, you can go for the FortiGate product. However, if you are implementing it in a very large environment or have specific needs, it's recommended to couple FortiGate with another vendor's solution, like Cisco or Palo Alto. 

We use the solution in our network.

IPsec is valuable. Internet filters are valuable features. The solution is secure. The VPN is good.

The performance can be improved.

The tool is stable.

We have around 90 users.

We contacted support while we worked with IPsec. The support team helped us.

Positive

The deployment of IPsec took around 5 hours for 90 users.

The security provided by the product is our return on investment.

The tool is moderately priced. We pay $500 per year for the license.

Overall, I rate the product a ten out of ten.