Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

We are using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for web filtering, application control, and IDPS. Additionally, we utilize it for VPN and the main features of a firewall.

Web filtering is very good, as well as IDPS. SD-WAN is a perfect feature. Additionally, the VPN is stable and very good. These features have proven effective in protecting our network, handling large volumes of traffic smoothly without any issues.

More improvement in AI would be a good edge. We would like the VPN to act as a web filtering solution because users outside the company don't have web filtering. It supports web filtering with an additional license.

We have been working with Fortinet FortiGate SWG for more than nine years.

We did not face any challenges during the installation. The process was very smooth.

Fortinet FortiGate SWG works well, handling the whole traffic smoothly with no problems. We have not faced any issues with stability.

The solution is very scalable.

We haven't needed to work directly with Fortinet support recently. Seven years ago, the experience was not good, warranting a rating of five based on that past experience.

The initial setup took just a few hours, as it was completed on the same day.

The implementation involved two engineers.

There are financial benefits as Fortinet's products are considered good value for money due to their robust features, despite being priced higher than competitors.

Fortinet products are very expensive compared to competitors like Sophos and SonicWall. From a pricing perspective, I would rate them a six.

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is a leader regarding Gartner. It has a friendly user interface and is very secure compared to others with many features. I recommend it to other companies because of these advantages. I would rate the product a nine. The overall product rating is nine.

Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft Azure

We use Fortinet FortiGate IPS to enhance our network security. It is especially necessary to secure the edge of the company.

The whole IPS suite is valuable, especially with the updates from FortiGuard. It provides real-time updates, offering a good vision on any changes. For example, if the rating of a certain website changes, we can investigate potential malicious content with FortiAnalyzer.

The pricing of Fortinet FortiGate IPS could always be improved.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate IPS for two and a half years.

The deployment of Fortinet FortiGate IPS was moderate in complexity. It took approximately two hours to deploy, depending on one’s knowledge, and it was carried out by four or five engineers in the company.

Stability is generally good, but if you include FortiOS underlying in the FortiGate, there are often some patches to do and some loopholes. I would rate the stability as eight out of ten.

The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate IPS is good, and I would rate it nine out of ten.

The technical support from Fortinet is rather good, and I would rate it nine out of ten.

Positive

I worked a little bit with WatchGuard, but I do not know a lot about it. I am only here for two years and do not have experience with other vendors.

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate IPS took about two hours and was of moderate complexity.

The implementation of Fortinet FortiGate IPS was carried out by my team internally with four or five engineers involved.

I rate the pricing with an eight out of ten. They could always improve the pricing.

No, we are not considering any alternatives for Fortinet FortiGate IPS. We are quite happy with the product.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate IPS as it is a core component of cybersecurity for our company. Having a FortiGate without IPS services doesn't make sense for us. I would rate the overall solution nine out of ten.

On-premises

We use different solutions from FortiGate, focusing primarily on their firewalls within our department. However, due to a reorganization, the operational maintenance of FortiGate is now managed by someone else.

The most helpful features of FortiGate include its firewall policy, specifically the user-based policy, which I find to be quite beneficial in managing our network security effectively. FortiGate has also provided reliable protection against many attacks, although it lacks the ability to detect specific attacks like SQL injection, which usually requires a web application firewall.

The main area needing improvement is the user-friendliness of FortiGate's integration with other Fortinet tools like FortiAuthenticator and VPN services. Configuring these services is quite complex and not very user-friendly, requiring technical steps that are difficult for normal users to understand. Fortinet support's resolution of issues is slow, and the research on making the solution user-friendly needs to progress further.

I have worked with FortiGate for more than eight or nine years.

We have not faced any stability issues with FortiGate since we specified sizable RAM and CPU, and our size was adequate for our traffic.

Fortinet provides a prompt response. However, the resolution process is slow. While their response time is quick, their ability to resolve issues takes a long time.

Neutral

We have previously used a solution called Cyberoam, which has been replaced with a new brand. There are also managed firewalls offered as a cloud solution that we have not considered yet.

In terms of cost-effectiveness, Fortinet tools like FortiGate are costly for us as a higher education institute in India. Our expenditure is focused on minimal levels, however, FortiGate's pricing is positioned for corporate levels, which can be inflexible.

We are considering replacing Fortinet with a different solution, taking about a year to change configurations and rules.

Fortinet should consider developing a pricing scheme for the education segment since educational institutions in India operate on non-profit terms and under government regulations. They could potentially follow Kaspersky's example, which provided a more affordable pricing model for students and educational institutes. 

As a product, I would rate FortiGate around seven out of ten.

On-premises

A typical use case for this solution is that we have small to medium-based customers, and we need a central firewall, which should provide firewall and next-generation features, VPN for home office, and for mobility users, mobile users, and this is what we all use with the Fortinet FortiGate firewall.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my client's organization because we have know-how of FortiGate; we could debug problems, we could set up our settings as planned, and I appreciate the easy way of configuration, that we can use parallel GUI and CLI, or CLI and web interface, which we can use in parallel. It is a product that we can use very easily.

Fortinet FortiGate can be improved because we have some smaller customers, and with the SMB or small customer solutions with the two letters, 50, 70, 90, they sometimes cause problems. They could improve the smaller devices. One issue is that they have retired SSL VPN for existing devices. This causes significant effort for us to change customer setups. Additionally, they changed features when we only make a patch update and not only a major update. This is really a problem.

I have experience working with Fortinet FortiGate for 20 years, and I wanted to see if we have the right product because we have some problems currently with Fortinet.

I find Fortinet FortiGate to be a stable solution.

It is definitely a scalable solution.

I rate technical support seven out of ten because we made a migration from a FortiGate 200 on another customer side, and we wanted to switch a FortiToken from one model to another one, which was only possible with support. It worked, but we needed about 10 different calls; it was really complicated. Support helped, but people changed every time. Every call, we had a call number, and in each call, people changed, so we had to explain again what we wanted to do. For a similar process, we had to make two different calls, one for mobile token, one for hardware token. This was really challenging. Support is working and good, but it's not perfect.

Positive

We've used Sophos firewalls, but we don't use them anymore because they cause too many problems for us.

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward.

I haven't seen an ROI with Fortinet FortiGate.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Fortinet FortiGate is okay. We won a deal in comparison to Check Point where FortiGate was much cheaper. Compared to Sophos, the base models seem to be cheaper with Sophos, but the services seem to be cheaper with FortiGate.

I remember doing research on peerspot.com about IT solutions. I wanted to investigate differences between firewall competitors or firewall vendors and Google led me to their site. I have checked a few reports, and they have not been very useful for us. For comparing different vendors, I was also led to their site. They have different types of reports, including user voices and Palo Alto Networks review tips and advice from real users in an 80-page long report. They have market shares and rankings and customer voices, but the customer voices point to a single feature, so I don't get an overall picture of the comparison.

My relationship with Fortinet is that we are a reseller. We have made some tests with SD-WAN but have not introduced this product into production. We use Fortinet FortiGate firewalls and some next-generation fire features proxy, but we don't use SASE. We utilize NPS services, FortiGuard services, antivirus, and malware protection. My clients are typically small to medium businesses, with customers from about 20 to 500 people. I would rate Fortinet FortiGate overall as a seven based on my experience in the last year. Before it would be an eight, but now it's seven because of the problems with the SSL VPN. Additionally, we bought some 50G models that still have a 7.0 firmware, which is really old, and this is not good.

On-premises

Majorly, I use Fortinet FortiGate for establishing SD-WAN in different remote locations. I also use it for segmenting wireless from LAN and implementing basic policy routing for departments. The next-gen features on Fortinet FortiGate permit proxy access, where URLs can be specified for specific users or departments to access.

Fortinet FortiGate has several valuable features. The configuration and policy setup are easy to implement. There are embedded features in Fortinet FortiGate, including DLP features, WAF presence in the firewall, and proxy capabilities. It has security profiles that can be set for various functions. In terms of security, it is particularly strong.

SD-WAN offers better reach, good reachability, and enhanced performance for network optimization. People implement SD-WAN today because of reachability and network optimization capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is effective in protecting against malicious access. It has a robust security architecture, which is something I truly like about FortiGate.

The SD-WAN integration is very simple. I appreciate the simplicity of the FortiGate system. It's one of the things I like most about it. With FortiAI, it's very easy to input your queries, and the system helps you set it up. If you prefer to do it manually, there is excellent documentation and step-by-step guides available to assist you. For me, the experience has been seamless and straightforward.

I cannot think of many improvements needed for Fortinet FortiGate. However, the pricing compared to competitors is quite high, though you get value for what you pay with Fortinet FortiGate.

With FortiSIEM, I have experienced some challenges. It has been suspended and is not available for utilization now. They should work on improving FortiSIEM.

I have worked with both virtual appliances and physical devices, primarily with hardware devices, for over five years. The models I have used include 60, 100, and 201 series.

Fortinet FortiGate is one of the best firewalls available. There are no crashes or performance issues. It is very stable and reliable.

The solution is scalable.

I have worked with Sophos and Check Point firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate leads compared to other solutions. Based on customer requests, we provide different options. I recommend people should consider Fortinet or Sophos, depending on their needs. Fortinet FortiGate performs well against other firewalls in the market.

The hardware is easy to set up. I have only had issues with the activation of the evaluation license. 

There has definitely been a return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate.

The pricing depends on the capacity required. There are 100 series, 200 series, and 500 series options. The prices are moderate and reasonable for each series.

For organizations using Fortinet FortiGate, it is important to utilize the security profiles properly. Make sure anti-spoofing is set up and networks are well-segmented on the Fortinet. Ensure proxy configuration is based on URL access stability.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

On-premises

We are using Cisco for the core switch, and for the firewall and WAN security, we are using Fortinet FortiGate. For distribution switches, we are using Ubiquiti. 

We are using the 200F series of Fortinet FortiGate for our main branch and model 60 for our branch offices at five locations. We have connected a site-to-site VPN with Fortinet FortiGate. 

We have used multiple WAN ASPs and set up SD-WAN. It's quite interesting and user-friendly; essentially, anyone can configure it. All you need to do is go through the documentation, and you'll be able to set it up directly. We experimented with Cisco and other devices, but found them to be somewhat challenging. Additionally, there are commercial aspects to consider. However, with FortiGate, everything is bundled together, eliminating the need to pay extra for SD-WAN management.

Performance-wise, we have great output with SD-WAN in our network. Earlier, when we were using it without SD-WAN, it was very difficult, and our IT team's effort was greater. After this SD-WAN configuration, we have no need to worry about whether the link is going down or not. We just get the notification, and at that time, we work on it. There is no need to run behind that.

The only issue is their renewal pricing. For more than 10 years, we have been customers of multiple Fortinet FortiGate security devices, and every time, it's at a high price. It is very difficult for small companies, especially in India. If Fortinet can reduce the renewal price a little bit, it can expand and target small businesses as well. Currently, only medium and large-scale organizations can afford it. Startups and small companies cannot afford it. The renewal cost is very high. When we get the equipment along with the license, it's acceptable, but the next renewal after one or three years is very expensive compared to other firewalls.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for more than 10 years. It's the fifth device we are using. Earlier devices reached the end of life. After that, we moved to the next product.

Fortinet FortiGate is absolutely scalable enough for our needs.

We have more than 400 employees, and there are six branch offices connected. The branch offices are connected with site-to-site VPN, and multiple roaming employees or working from home employees are connected with SSL VPN. More than 100 people are connecting at a time. We only need two IT people to maintain the security devices.

We very rarely raised tickets with Fortinet. Only on one occasion, when the FortiCloud account was locked, we raised a ticket. Apart from the configuration part, we never contacted them. They were very supportive. With that particular ticket, we got help immediately.

Positive

We are also customers of Cisco and Ubiquiti. We have a core switch, 9000 series switches, and Ubiquiti equipment.

I have earlier worked with Cyberoam and Sophos as a partner. They have a range of devices, and the renewal price is also lower in Sophos compared to Fortinet FortiGate.

I was involved in the deployment of Fortinet FortiGate. The deployment process of Fortinet FortiGate is very straightforward, and since we have experience, it's very easy for us. Even for freshers, if they have basic theoretical knowledge of the setup, they can easily implement it. 

It's deployed on-premises. We are not planning for the cloud. Our clients are not comfortable with the cloud solutions.

We deployed it ourselves with one or two people for the deployment.

The renewal cost is much higher than other firewalls. It is not reasonable.

I would definitely recommend Fortinet FortiGate to others. 

My experience with Fortinet FortiGate has been good overall. I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

On-premises

Our main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is as a firewall. We are using it for cybersecurity purposes.

Our main purpose when we started working with Fortinet FortiGate was to secure our network in all aspects. Fortinet FortiGate performs a very important role in blocking malicious activity in our network. I'm not sure how much it has improved, but it has made our network stable and secure.

The hardware is very stable. Once you install the system, it works in any condition.

The dynamic segmentation feature in Fortinet FortiGate is pretty good.

The main thing they have to improve in Fortinet FortiGate is the technical support; the rest of the features are good enough. We can handle them, but sometimes you really need support, and in that case, we are not getting it at the proper time. I have been mentioning this for the last two years.

There is a migration issue from 600D to 600E, as we are not able to export the configuration file to 600E. It should be like export and import in all variants.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate since 2016, which is approximately nine years.

It's very stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.

It's scalable. 

Their support is very poor.

Neutral

I have not worked with other vendors for the last ten years, but if I get any chance, I will explore Palo Alto.

We want to purchase more Fortinet FortiGate devices, but people are not giving us a proper quotation. There needs to be more transparency in giving quotations. Sometimes prices are very high, and even after the conclusion, the buyer thinks there may be some more reduction in the price.

Currently, we don't have any Fortinet FortiGate data center solutions, but in the future, we are going to plan this one. 

I will recommend Fortinet FortiGate to other users only because the hardware is very stable. I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

On-premises

We are using Fortinet FortiGate 200F. Our main use cases are firewall and security.

It is very stable and scalable.

We are utilizing SD-WAN by Fortinet FortiGate. My experience in integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate in my network is good, and it has worked well with no cases so far.

The effectiveness of Fortinet's unified SASE in providing consistent security policies rates at nine on a scale of ten.

I find the management console not very straightforward, so that's an area where Fortinet FortiGate can improve. They should simplify it and make it more user-friendly. In the next release, I would prefer a more simplified GUI; that's one area I would want to see a quick change.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for three years.

I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten because it hasn't had an outage.

In terms of scalability, it has excellent features. I would give it a ten out of ten because there's still more we can do with it.

We have not contacted Fortinet directly for technical support. Currently, we are working through the local dealers, and our local dealer is Safaricom Telkom. We also purchased Fortinet FortiGate through them.

Positive

Before Fortinet FortiGate, we had a South African product called Kerio. We also had a Cisco router, which we had configured to provide some of those benefits, but the problem is it's cumbersome to configure, scalability is limited, and it's very expensive to acquire the hardware and the licenses, so in terms of ROI, I wouldn't recommend it.

We outsourced the initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate. We had the vendor do it. The implementation took about three weeks.

I have seen a return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate. Before this, we used to have many manual systems with overheads in terms of manpower, licenses, and so on, but now there's a lot we have automated, so ROI is exceptionally good.

We are also using FortiAnalyzer and Fortinet VPN, and I have been generally satisfied with them. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten, with the only drawback being the management interface.

On-premises

The use case for Fortinet FortiGate primarily refers to firewall functionality. 

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include the simple user interface. The GUI is in English with intuitive navigation. It is very easy to find solutions, meaning it is simple to locate what we need and which settings we need to modify through the GUI.

We have integrated FortiGate SD-WAN. It's working pretty well.

Areas that have room for improvement in Fortinet FortiGate include support and GUI enhancement. While the GUI is already simple, further improvements would greatly benefit them.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for one year in this organization.

I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate as eight out of ten, as it has proven to be reliable.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable. We primarily deal with small and medium businesses, and for our clients in this segment, it works effectively.

The technical support that Fortinet provides is not satisfactory. When we call Fortinet technical support, it takes too much time to connect with them. The process is complicated, requiring us to hold for many minutes, and when we visit clients, we are not satisfied with their technical support.

Neutral

We work with five firewall vendors, including Fortinet, Cisco, Palo Alto, SonicWall, and Sophos. We have specialists for their products.

We first recommend Fortinet FortiGate or Palo Alto. If a customer cannot afford Palo Alto, we recommend Fortinet FortiGate. If they cannot afford Fortinet FortiGate, we recommend Sophos or SonicWall.

When comparing security policies, Palo Alto is superior to Fortinet FortiGate, but Fortinet FortiGate is adequate. For businesses with higher requirements, we recommend Palo Alto due to its advanced security features, while for small and medium businesses, we suggest firewalls based on their specific requirements.

Deployment of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward. If the customer requires, we can configure it from our end and deploy it directly.

Our clients are small and medium-sized businesses. They can't afford the cloud. They take the device and install it on-premises.

Fortinet FortiGate is cost-efficient. Palo Alto is expensive, but Fortinet FortiGate is not.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate because the GUI is understandable for English speakers, and the configuration is straightforward. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

On-premises

I was involved in deciding on Fortinet FortiGate, but I am not the one who's using it on a day-to-day basis.

We want to make sure that our on-prem servers are protected. We basically use VPN to configure that on Fortinet FortiGate, so that is the major purpose, and that part is working well.

We have not had any incidents where our servers got compromised. It's all good.

For security, it has all the required features, such as the web filter and DNS filter. Also, for accessing the network, we have various rules.

Our IT staff says that some of the security features are better than Sophos's.

Its usability is good. We can easily navigate the system, and we have a very good user experience. It's easier to understand the software compared to Sophos, which I feel is a little more technical and could be difficult for a first-time user.

I want some additional features. For example, I want something to ensure that when we are using Google email or Microsoft email, or Google Workspace, emails can only be accessed on designated machines given to our employees. I would like them to access data from designated machines, not from any machine. It should work for designated mobiles and laptops. I don't know if Fortinet provides something like that out of the box.

We have just installed Fortinet FortiGate, and it has been two months since our installation.

Fortinet FortiGate is stable.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable.

We are going through the vendor for technical support. If we have any issues, we raise a ticket, and they respond immediately.

Positive

Previously, we were using another firewall device, Sophos. Compared to that, Fortinet FortiGate provides more features and better security. Fortinet FortiGate supports WAN migration. Fortinet FortiGate is also better in terms of speed. In the dashboard, we can get all the stats reports and logs.

Deployment is not very difficult because they have their migration tool.

We are facing some challenges. We are working with a third-party vendor, not FortiGate directly, for the installation and other things. The problem is that their knowledge is very limited. We are facing some challenges. With Sophos, we could enable multi-factor authentication for VPN users. FortiGate also allows that, as per our initial analysis. The people we are working with are not able to configure MFA. They are having some technical issues. Fortinet needs to ensure that its partners are well-trained.

Only two people were involved in the deployment process. The vendor side had their own technician, and we had one person here.

Cost-wise, there is not much difference from Sophos, but feature-wise, we get more features.

We did some comparisons between Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos. We went with Fortinet FortiGate because of the security features and easy-to-understand console.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

On-premises