Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

I am reselling FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) or handling the administration of this product for various customers such as universities and those in the hospitality industry.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is more realistic in application, allowing for more specific, customized security policies without the extensive work involved with static rules. This feature is what I desire from the next-generation product. Its segmentation capabilities allow me to apply rules based on team needs or social networks, automatically updating for new networks. This removes worry about what happens when a new social network appears.

It would be better if there was more transparency regarding what the automatic rules do. When a site is blocked, it is necessary for me to consult the logs to understand what the Next Generation Firewall policy has blocked. There is usually no information about what is included or not included in these automatic rules.

I have had about five years of experience with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW).

The support is not good because I generally search for solutions online. When I open a case, they usually identify it as a bug they are working on. I must study the best version to install to avoid previously found bugs.

Neutral

The initial setup of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is pretty straightforward and easy.

For one implementation, only one person is needed for configuration. However, for tasks like interconnecting, putting the device in a rack, and other physical requirements, more people are required.

The licenses are expensive, and whenever a customer needs to renew the license, it becomes a significant expense. However, the hardware itself is relatively inexpensive compared to the license costs.

Netgate pfSense and FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) differ significantly in terms of pricing and features, with FortiGate offering many more features.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) a seven.

The SD-WAN feature of Fortinet FortiGate has been most impactful in maintaining our network's integrity.

Fortinet FortiGate's threat detection capabilities are good for our use because it's an internal firewall; however, we haven't enabled some of the features that are there. We've enabled IPS and antivirus generally.

They could improve the response time and quality of support.

I'm not sure what additional features they need to have in the future to make it better. For the purpose that we use it, it is doing the job, but I haven't explored some of the features.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for seven years.

I haven't had any issues with the stability or performance of the actual firewall. It has been fine with no bugs.

We didn't have to think about upgrading or anything; it does what we bought it for. If it wasn't for the end of support and the end of sale, we would not think about changing it. We are considering similar products for upgrading, maybe newer or bigger hardware.

The product is scalable. Currently, 120 people are using Fortinet FortiGate in my company.

I would rate their technical support about six out of ten; I'm not fully satisfied. They could improve the response time and quality of support.

Neutral

Fortinet FortiGate has delivered financial and operational ROI to my organization. It took about two to three years to realize ROI with Fortinet FortiGate.

At the time we bought them, I was satisfied with their pricing; I don't know how the new pricing will be.

We have to pay additionally for maintenance or support; it is not all included.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a seven out of ten.

On-premises

We use FortiGate as a firewall. We have a FortiGate 201 model.

It's good that we didn't get hacked or attacked, indicating strong threat prevention.

The reporting on employee behavior and the prevention of new viruses are essential features. Additionally, we have found it convenient for monitoring if users download documents from unknown websites.

The AI part needs improvement to enhance its functionality.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate IPS for almost three years.

Fortinet FortiGate is very stable. We have not faced any delays or issues.

The scalability is good. We haven't faced any issues, and it supports our organization well.

The technical support is very good.

Positive

We use FortiGate for our data center firewall and Sophos for our internet firewall. We find FortiGate to be more stable than Sophos.

The initial setup was straightforward and did not present any issues.

The installation was performed by a product's partner. I supervised the process.

Overall, the stability of FortiGate IPS is impressive, and I would recommend it to others because of its stability.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

On-premises

Other

I use Fortinet FortiGate just for the data center to connect to it. I put Sophos on the internet and FortiGate on the data center.

For application filtration, I really appreciate many features of Fortinet FortiGate because it is more reliable, easy to use, and the reports are easy to read and understand. I have integrated Fortinet FortiGate with the database for reading the reports. I can recommend Fortinet FortiGate for enterprise-level because it has many features and solutions, though I would not recommend it for small companies or individual companies.

To improve Fortinet FortiGate, I think they need to improve the software and make updates more quickly, rather than taking a long time to update the software or firmware.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for approximately four to five years.

I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten, with ten being the best.

I would rate the scalability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten, as I think it is reliable and very dependable.

I would rate the technical support from Fortinet between eight and nine; it is a very good vendor, but sometimes there is a delay in getting information from us or maybe a delay for us to contact them.

I am using Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos.

In the beginning of my work with Fortinet FortiGate, the setup was difficult, but after many attempts, I became an expert on how to install and modify every command. For a regular user, I think it is very easy to understand and read the product documentation.

I use Sophos for firewall and Fortinet FortiGate for data center.

I really recommend Fortinet FortiGate. My overall rating for Fortinet FortiGate is 9 out of 10.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

The main use cases for the product revolve around perimeter security, and it depends on LAN to WAN traffic, especially in work-from-home scenarios wherein the customer wants to access the local infrastructure remotely. It is also sometimes used in data centers, but many times Palo Alto is used.

Fortinet FortiGate serves as the first line of defense. It is robust and easy to configure, and I haven't seen any breaches happening when configured properly based on best practices. In the Indian market, clients have a lot of trust in this product.

The most useful functions of Fortinet FortiGate are SD-WAN, which is very easy to configure. Its user interface is also very good, making it easy for any engineer to explain configuration changes over the phone without needing to take remote access. Integration of SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate is simple to integrate.

They are already making improvements with the integration of AI and machine learning (ML). While I haven't personally used these features yet, I see that the focus is primarily on AI operations that fall under the umbrella of AI and ML. Additionally, they offer FortiManager with a signal dashboard that allows for the monitoring and configuration of multiple FortiGate firewalls, which is quite impressive. Moreover, they now provide a SaaS offering for FortiManager, which I believe is a good development overall.

If they can come up with a feature that allows scalability within the firewall itself, such as 'scale as you grow,' that would be a valuable improvement. Fortinet is already implementing AI and ML, although I haven't used it personally. AI ops are covered under it, and they also have FortiManager, which allows for monitoring and configuring multiple Fortinet FortiGate firewalls through a single dashboard.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for more than 10 years.

When it comes to stability, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten, as I haven't seen any downtime wherever I proposed it.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate's scalability as an eight out of ten.

I would rate the support from Fortinet a nine out of ten.

We also work with Palo Alto solutions. Palo Alto has a distinct advantage because it offers some great features that are already available, such as DNS security, which we have a lot of experience with. Palo Alto is unmatched in a data center environment. This is why many people tend to trust Palo Alto firewalls more compared to FortiGate. As for perimeter security, FortiGate excels in that area.

In most small and medium enterprises and SMBs, we usually propose SonicWall, and for enterprises, we work with Palo Alto or Fortinet FortiGate, depending on the requirement. It makes sense to propose the Fortinet FortiGate firewall, especially if the customer is already using the SD-WAN feature.

The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate is simple.

The only challenge with Fortinet FortiGate is the pricing model.

Currently, we are considering Fortinet FortiGate solely for perimeter security, and for SASE and other approaches, we go with other solutions. I have not used AI and ML FortiGuard services with Fortinet FortiGate yet.

Overall, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

We use Fortinet FortiGate for the firewall as well as for the VPN. Any of the users outside the organization use the VPN. Any staff members working outside the office headquarters or our office location use the VPN.

The main aspect that I deal with is URL blocking and web access. I don't work with other aspects of this firewall.

It has upscaled our security posture, especially regarding external connectivity, because any access or connection from the company has to go through the Fortinet FortiGate firewall. It's doing a pretty good job. We do not have any complaints there.

Anything that we don't want to allow is not coming in. Anything we want to allow is not being blocked. We always have the granular control where we can block malicious IPs or subnets if needed.

Geofencing allows us to limit the countries from which we allow IP connections. There are many features that I may not even know or haven't explored, but in general, Fortinet FortiGate is doing a pretty good job for us. 

The web controls are what I appreciate about Fortinet FortiGate. We have extensive controls over areas where we could block external-facing IPs, external URLs. We can do geo-fencing with the firewalls, which is a good feature. 

There are too many updates coming for VPN, and the VPN keeps disconnecting frequently, which I find problematic. It does what it's supposed to do, but I practically face reconnection issues with the VPN. 

Regarding the Fortinet FortiGate firewall, I don't have any input. My scope is limited.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for around three years.

Fortinet FortiGate is stable. We haven't seen any latency issues related to it, though we do experience latency from ISPs.

I would rate the scalability as eight out of ten based purely on my exposure to security controls relating to URL blocking and website access. 

I haven't had a chance to work with Fortinet FortiGate technical support, but from my colleagues' experience, they say the Fortinet FortiGate people are easy to reach but hard to schedule time with. It's not as easy as having the Fortinet FortiGate engineer on the call and getting other teams involved; it requires careful arrangements to join in with the Fortinet team. I would give their support a neutral score of maybe five.

Neutral

I don't know why we switched to Fortinet FortiGate from Juniper; it's a management decision.

I was not involved in the deployment. I think it's not that difficult; there's no complexity involved as long as we are clear on what we want to do.

We have it on both cloud and on-premises.

I was not part of the team that implemented it. I don't know how much they invested, but it would be worth the investment.

My overall experience with Fortinet FortiGate rates as eight out of ten. 

I am working as a presales engineer or system engineer, designing solutions for other clients.

The clients use this solution for their data centers and perimeter security.

The main reason customers prefer Fortinet FortiGate is that it's security-centric, allowing them to implement security features such as a next-generation firewall and translate this to the WAN or SD-WAN architectures, or as a base if they want to grow in more security features or other verticals such as ZTNA and SASE. It's a little baseline for the rest of the verticals or features that can be exploited.

Fortinet FortiGate compares favorably to others in terms of the technology. Second, it's about the relationship they build with their customers. I'm in Colombia, and I can say they have an excellent sales and engineering team that provides a great experience for their clients. They are very attentive and engaged. This company has a rich history; they grow alongside their clients. They take the time to show clients all the benefits and features of the technology they offer. It’s a much more personal experience for everyone involved.

Fortinet Unified SASE is strong for providing consistent security policies across multiple locations. Working with Fortinet in the SASE aspect has been easy. Customers appreciate the features we can offer with Fortinet SASE and ZTNA solutions. They particularly appreciate how they can integrate everything with the baseline of Fortinet FortiGate, and how they can easily apply all the features they need to secure access to different applications from a single console. Some clients use the Fortinet FortiGate data center solution for their data centers as a hub and the perimeter security service.

My experience integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate is in the middle ground. Fortinet FortiGate, as a security-centric fabric, can implement an SD-WAN solution. It can be somewhat manual in some cases, but using other tools that Fortinet has, such as FortiManager, makes implementing an SD-WAN network easier with less effort.

The implementation depends more on the engineer's skill when integrating SD-WAN with Fortinet FortiGate. If you don't have extensive skills in implementing Fortinet FortiGate, it can be difficult, but with more experience, it becomes easier.

In the presales team, I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for about five years, and as a customer, I worked with it for about two years between 2016 and 2018.

Fortinet FortiGate is very stable and secure for customers.

It's easy with Fortinet FortiGate as they have a very good solution for scalability. If we need to grow in branches or licenses, we can easily do it. The most important aspect of growing this solution is their strong enterprise-level account managers, who always help customers find the best solution and an easy path to grow their architecture with Fortinet.

I would rate their customer service around eight because not everything is perfect, but they have very good customer experience and relationship management.

Positive

It depends on the size of the company or the solution they want to implement with Fortinet FortiGate. Most companies could have another vendor or baseline products, so we need to depend on the scenario.

It is very straightforward to set up initially. The duration depends on the size of the company and the solution they want to implement. They might already have another vendor or a different baseline of products, which makes things more complex.

As for deployment models, we typically offer both on-premises and cloud options. We have been working with AWS, and it has been a very positive experience. They provide readily available machines, and everything is easy to find in the marketplace.

I believe it's a fair price for the kind of technology they offer their customers. Sometimes, I think they could apply more discounts to engage customers further. This approach would be beneficial, as it helps us expand the solutions available to clients. As for discounts, they do engage clients with them, particularly in strategic business situations, such as with large accounts in sectors like banking and big retail.

When comparing Fortinet to other vendors, Fortinet generally tends to offer better discounts. However, this does not imply that their solutions are of lower quality; rather, they demonstrate expertise in meeting customer needs.

Some users utilize AI and machine learning enhanced features, such as the FortiGuard services, though not all do as the AI features are relatively new. However, we have successfully positioned some features, particularly in areas such as AI. For example, the threat detection capabilities and the AI assistant available in the FortiAnalyzer service are noteworthy. Fortinet offers a license that can be utilized for AI features, especially in FortiManager. Users appreciate this feature because it helps them achieve better network configuration. If they encounter any issues within the network, they can easily leverage AI to find solutions to those problems.

Overall, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten because while not everything is perfect, they're really doing their best and demonstrating it through their technology.

We usually use Fortinet FortiGate for a perimeter firewall, but also for our outbound traffic as well as for the tunnels, with around 40 to 50 tunnels on our firewall.

We are using it in our data center; we have the 2,000 series HA firewalls.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to replace all the firewalls in other locations, as around 90% of our company operates on Fortinet.

We enable the SD-WAN zone to handle multiple ISPs, allowing it to automatically switch over the WAN link if any latency hits the threshold value, eliminating the need for manual failover. The impact of SD-WAN on our network performance provides great stability with zero downtime; it immediately switches over without any delay, not even a fraction of a second.

Fortinet addresses many vulnerabilities with respect to SSL VPN on their devices; quarterly patch upgrades are released, and the Fortinet team is retiring remote VPN services in favor of whole encrypted IPsec remote VPN to enhance security against hackers.

I have found Fortinet FortiGate's user-friendly design to be the most valuable feature so far. Anyone can easily understand how exactly it works, unlike Palo Alto and Check Point which are complex to understand. 

I believe one area that could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate is posturing, specifically for remote VPN users, as there are OS-based limitations I encountered with only Windows; adding domain restrictions for VPN access would make it more competitive and useful.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for almost five years.

Overall, my impression of the stability of Fortinet FortiGate is very good, as I haven't seen any issues in the five years I've been using it, and there is no degradation of services on the firewall. However, I have observed some issues with FortiAPs, which is a different platform.

Based on my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is very scalable. Earlier it was suitable for mid-infra, but now we can use the firewalls for enterprise-level needs.

Whenever I am stuck or need help, Fortinet support is available 24/7, regardless of the time zone I'm in, and they immediately jump in to assist, provided it is licensed.

Positive

Before implementing Fortinet FortiGate, we were using SonicWall and ASA firewalls, which have now been replaced. The reason the previous firewalls were not suitable for our company anymore is that they were not competitive; they lacked UTM features, had limited VPN capabilities, and were outdated, which led us to select Fortinet over Cisco FTD for future needs.

It's not so complex. It's user friendly. I have implemented more than hundred devices from scratch.

As partners with Fortinet, we are end-users of this tool for our customers.

I am not exactly aware of the pricing of Fortinet FortiGate, but I would say it is considerably cheaper compared to other firewalls.

I evaluated other options, particularly Palo Alto. Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and as competitive as Palo Alto, Check Point, and FTD. It has the same features as other vendors but at a lower cost.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.

On-premises