Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Fortinet FortiGate pros and cons

Vendor: Fortinet

4.2 out of 5

334 reviews
90% willing to recommend

14K followers

Pros & Cons summary

Fortinet FortiGate delivers robust firewall capabilities with Virtual Domains for distinct instances, offering excellent reporting features that support compliance. Known for Unified Threat Management functions, it enhances security with IPS and user activity control. The appliance excels in scalability and threat prevention, including malware detection and SSL VPN. However, technical support is cumbersome, and high CPU usage and limited sFlow configuration are drawbacks, requiring FortiAnalyzer for advanced reporting enhancements.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Fortinet FortiGate provides robust firewall capabilities, easily managing multiple Virtual Domains (VDOMs) for enhanced network security.

Unified Threat Management (UTM) features and support for advanced routing protocols like BGP, RIP, and OSPF offer seamless large network integration.

Fortinet FortiGate efficiently controls user activities, maximizes bandwidth utilization, and offers centralized management to secure both public and private infrastructure.

Key features include Web Application Firewall, Data Leak Prevention, and intrusion prevention for comprehensive network protection.

Fortinet FortiGate's scalability and reliability make it a preferred choice for businesses seeking efficient network security arrangements.

CONS

Fortinet FortiGate faces challenges with stability and occasional bugs in firmware updates, leading to potential system instability and failed configurations.

The complexity of the initial setup and lack of intuitive configuration can hinder deployment, requiring significant training and IT knowledge to manage efficiently.

The reporting capabilities of Fortinet FortiGate are considered basic, with additional costs required for more comprehensive reporting via FortiAnalyzer.

High CPU and memory usage during peak performance are noted, suggesting a need for better resource management to prevent system slowdowns.

Lack of certain advanced features, such as adequate integration with other security products and ransomware threat detection, limits the competitiveness of Fortinet FortiGate in the market.

Fortinet FortiGate Pros review quotes

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Apr 20, 2023

Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable.

Read full review

Presales Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Jun 5, 2023

The security features that they have are quite good. On top of that, their licensing model is quite nice where they don't charge you anything for the SD-WAN functionality for the firewall.

Read full review

JJ

IT Security Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 51-200 employees

Nov 16, 2023

I appreciate FortiGate's flexibility, which allows for centralized management through FortiManager.

Read full review

Fortinet FortiGate

Free Report: Fortinet FortiGate Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.

852,098 professionals have used our research since 2012.

JH

Chief Technology Officer at Future Point Technologies

May 24, 2023

Fortinet has a very good solution for Secure SD-WAN. One very good feature is that they have robust and simple FortiOS through which they provide all solutions. That's their strength. There's not much complexity involved with the Secure SD-WAN solution of Fortinet as compared to Cisco's solution, which has a lot of flexibility but complexity also comes with that flexibility.

Read full review

reviewer1294776

Owner at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Dec 2, 2020

The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us.

Read full review

AR

Reviewer:734513

Network Security & DataCenter Architect at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 20, 2023

The technical support in our region is excellent.

Read full review

ES

Solutions Engineer/Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Dec 23, 2020

One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them.

Read full review

JC

Network Security Engineer at Social Security Commission

Nov 10, 2020

There are great templates, so you don't have to customize them if you don't want to. You do have the option to custom create some folders and some reports, however, with what is there, you don't really need to go through extra effort, as they already give you a lot of predefined views of reports and so forth.

Read full review

DO

Network Solutions Architect at Yazata Solutions

May 2, 2022

FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features.

Read full review

Manager Network (IT/OT) at a consumer goods company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 17, 2023

The flexibility and ease of configuration are the most valuable features.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 301)

Fortinet FortiGate Cons review quotes

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Apr 20, 2023

For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial.

Read full review

Presales Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Jun 5, 2023

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.

Read full review

JJ

IT Security Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 51-200 employees

Nov 16, 2023

Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation.

Read full review

Fortinet FortiGate

Free Report: Fortinet FortiGate Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.

852,098 professionals have used our research since 2012.

JH

Chief Technology Officer at Future Point Technologies

May 24, 2023

From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement.

Read full review

reviewer1294776

Owner at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Dec 2, 2020

The biggest "gotcha" is that if the client purchases what they call the UTM shared bundle, which has unified threat management on both, it's not as easy to manage if you have more than one firewall.

Read full review

AR

Reviewer:734513

Network Security & DataCenter Architect at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 20, 2023

I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution.

Read full review

ES

Solutions Engineer/Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Dec 23, 2020

FortiLink is the interface on the firewall that allows you to extend switch management across all of your switches in the network. The problem with it is that you can't use multiple interfaces unless you set them up in a lag. Only then you can run them. So, it forces you to use a core type of switch to propagate that management out to the rest of the switches, and then it is running the case at 200. It leaves you with 18 ports on the firewall because it is also a layer-three router that could also be used as a switch, but as soon as you do that, you can't really use them. They could do a little bit more clean up in the way the stacking interface works. Some use cases and the documentation on the FortiLink checking interface are a little outdated. I can find stuff on version 5 or more, but it is hard to find information on some of the newer firmware. The biggest thing I would like to see is some improvement in the switch management feature. I would like to be able to relegate some of the ports, which are on the firewall itself, to act as a switch to take advantage of those ports. Some of these firewalls have clarity ports on them. If I can use those, it would mean that I need to buy two less switches, which saves time. I get why they don't, but I would still like to see it because it would save a little bit of space in the server rack.

Read full review

JC

Network Security Engineer at Social Security Commission

Nov 10, 2020

There are SD-WAN network monitoring, SD-WAN features, Industrial Databases, Internet of Things, Detection, etc., however, we do have not licenses for those features. We thought that if you bought a product, you should have all of the features it offers. Why should you need to make so many extra purchases to enable features? They should have one price for the entire offering.

Read full review

DO

Network Solutions Architect at Yazata Solutions

May 2, 2022

My only complaint about FortiGate is a lack of QinQ VLAN tunneling. I haven't found this feature in any Fortinet product. You can do this on all Cisco routers, including the smaller models. However, QinQ isn't available on the biggest, most expensive Fortinet units. They still don't have that. I think now we're on software version 6.0, and they still haven't found a solution for QinQ. It isn't a dealbreaker, but that's my main complaint.

Read full review

Manager Network (IT/OT) at a consumer goods company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 17, 2023

The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 292)

Related questions

87

Comparison of Barracuda F800, SonicWall 5600 and Fortinet

477

Sophos XG 210 vs Fortigate FG 100E

42

Looking Into Implementing a Web Security Solution.

41

Cyberoam or Fortinet?

708

Fortinet, Palo Alto or Check Point?

3

Which would you recommend to your boss, Fortinet FortiGate or Sophos UTM?

1,104

What Is The Biggest Difference Between Cisco ASA And Fortinet FortiGate?

52

Cisco Firepower vs. FortiGate

74

We're trying to choose between Fortinet or Checkpoint UTM firewalls. Can you help?

210

What Is The Biggest Difference Between Fortinet FortiGate and Meraki MX Firewalls?