Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

We've deployed FortiGate on some customer premises. We've also deployed other Fortinet products, such as FortiMail and FortiManager. We often bundle Fortinet devices. We use FortiGate as a firewall. It is for security and protection. 

The solution has helped our clients secure their network efficiently. It offers security across multiple sites and helps monitor traffic effectively.

It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well. 

The UI is better than the alternatives. 

We like using Fortinet devices. They integrate well with one another.

Fortinet provides good visibility and segmentation.

Fortinet's devices are purpose-built to operate in various environments. It operates well across clouds. We can run Fortigate as an MSP.

It helps with intrusion prevention specific to various environments. It provides us with details about the traffic for better monitoring. 

FortiGate has helped reduce the risk of cyberattacks that might disrupt our client's production. 

The product provides policies for strict monitoring to make the network secure. If something hits against a policy, it will be blocked.

We'd like to see the product offer higher discounts to users. They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers. 

The company has been using the solution for the last five or so years. I've maybe used it for three years.

The stability depends on the FortiGate model. You need the right model for the amount of GB traffic. If a customer deploys a smaller model on more traffic, there may be issues. Otherwise, it handles traffic well. Overall, it's a stable solution. I'd rate stability nine out of ten. 

Our clients are quite sizable. One of them is one of the biggest telecoms in our country. We also have smaller customers that deal with smaller FortiGate models. We have a variety of customers of different sizes from around the country.

It's a scalable solution. I'd rate it nine out of ten. 

Technical support is good. They offer very accurate solutions. We learn a lot from them. We're happy with their level of service. 

We typically deploy the solution to our client's VMs. The deployment sometimes takes about a month. We have a team of 12 people who work on the FortiGate side. 

Their services are good, and we are happy to work with them, however, the pricing could be cheaper. 

We're a Fortinet partner. 

If we have the option of which firewall to choose, whether Fortinet, Cisco, Juniper, et cetera, we will choose Fortinet. We're very comfortable with their devices. We have a very skillful team, and we've become very comfortable with Fortinet. They have good support as well.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

We use the solution to secure our entire data, limiting user traffic from within the system, which needs to be assessed to be secure. That is the main motive behind choosing the solution.

Suppose I don't want to pay for the users. We would have done some whitelisting and content filtering on the FortiGate web gate. Based on the policies, any user traffic is filtered through the secure gateway.

It's a flexible solution.

What happens in FortiGate is that a lot of bugs come on a system-by-system basis, like when Fortinet launches new firmware in FortiGate. Most software launches with known or unknown bugs. When we go for upgradation, even after running a bug scoping exam, we don't know whether the BIOS for which we are upgrading would affect the end user. We don't know how the FortiGate firmware will behave in your environment. Whatever the known bug, FortiGate lists it in their documents, but you never know how the problem will impact your environment. That's a major disadvantage of FortiGate because, somewhere, it's very unstable.

Another issue is how deduplication services don't work reliably after enabling deduplication on Fortinet. When they launch any new firmware in the future, they have to ensure firmware functions.

I've worked with Fortinet FortiGate SWG for more than ten years now.

I rate the solution's stability a seven out of ten.

I rate the solution's scalability a seven out of ten. We have around 700 users on the platform.

If any issues arise, we have to log a ticket with Fortinet. By default, they log all the tickets in P3 or P4 priorities. For P1 or P2, they ask to call us on their phone numbers and lines. Whenever we try to call on the phone for any P1 or P2 issues, the next time, the number gets busy, or the email is unavailable. That's why

I feel the support is not up to the mark, and they must work on it.

Neutral

I rate the solution's initial setup a seven out of ten. The deployment time depends on the scenario, such as your infrastructure size. To deploy the solution on a cloud, you have to buy it from the marketplace and deploy it on the cloud. But after that, you have to do a lot of configurations. That depends on the size of the operation.

One person is more than enough to implement the smaller version of the solution. But if the organization is bigger, with more than 500 or 600 users, we would need three to four people.

Fortinet is priced low.

We are exploring Netskope and evaluating it for the future.

I recommend Fortinet FortiGate SWG because it is flexible and cost-effective. I rate it an eight out of ten.

Our customers use these devices as security devices, and we sell these devices to our customers. We also use it ourselves. We have the entire lab, and we use some of the functions in our local network.

It protects our customers' networks from viruses and threats.

The firewall, IPS, and VPN functions are the most valuable features. The antivirus functions are also good.

It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers.

In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers.

I have 10 to 12 years of experience with these devices.

Their devices are quite stable. We have not had any problems with the operating systems or maintenance of subscriptions. It is a robust device.

In most cases, they work very fast. It also depends on the device they are supporting. In the case of FortiGate, we do not have any complaints, but when we had to buy the FortiADC solution for one of our customers, we faced quite a few difficulties with technical support. I do not know why, but it could be that some devices are supported by different teams in Fortinet. We had difficulties with FortiADC, but we have not had any problems with FortiGate. I would rate their support for FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Positive

We worked with Cisco and Check Point firewalls. We worked with Cisco ASA for a long time. We worked with it for about five years, and we were happy with it, but it was old-fashioned. We went to Fortinet and started working with this company. 

FortiGate has good security functions and high-level technical documentation. Their documentation is very easy to understand. 

FortiGate's performance is also better than Cisco ASA. It has 10 VDOMs. It is a great function because you can add virtual functions for different groups in your network. It is quite useful.

It is deployed on-premises. Our customers prefer to deploy not only Fortinet devices but all security devices on-premises. They rarely use cloud licenses. Some customers only buy it from us, and for some customers, we also set it up.

Its setup is easy for us, but not every company wants to use our service for setting it up because of the cost. They prefer to install it themselves. In some cases, it could be hard for them.

In terms of the implementation strategy, we first try to understand what problem a customer wants to solve by using FortiGate. We collect a lot of information about a customer's network, such as protocols and devices being used. We try to prepare this device in our local lab. We preload the device and send it to the customer, and then we finalize the installation in the customer's building.

We have very technical staff, and we do not have difficulties with installations. We have had situations where customers do not have much experience with it, and then we recommend them to go for certain features such as IPS, antivirus, etc. 

The deployment duration depends on the size of the environment, but generally, it does not take more than one or two months. 

Generally, two to three people are required for the deployment.

For maintenance, our customers have technical staff. They regularly check and ensure that all the functions are working. We are glad to help them if they need any help.

We have seen an ROI. We have bought a lot of these devices, and we have had a good experience with them. It has saved us a lot of money.

It is quite affordable for our customers. There is a separate cost for IPS, antivirus, web filtering, and other features. They have a great choice of licenses. You can go for the license that you want, which is quite useful.

You have to buy a support license for FortiCare. In most cases, people buy the UTM bundle that comes with IPS, web filtering, and FortiCare. 

They are on the right path. They have improved a lot over the past 10 years. Fortinet is one of the leaders in security devices along with Cisco, Palo Alto, and Check Point.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten. It is stable. It has quite a lot of features, such as IPS, VPN, etc. It is affordable for our customers. It is a good choice.

We implemented Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN for a small company that had two internet service providers. The goal was to configure the two links to operate independently, ensuring that they don't share the load. This way, when one link reaches a certain threshold, we can seamlessly switch to the other without any issues. 

We have FortiManager, which enables us to have a unified view for monitoring and managing our devices centrally, as well as dispatching policies.

The solution enables us to consolidate tools and applications and manage them all through FortiManager. You can configure your SD-WAN from Forti Manager, which gives you management functionality. 

The interoperability of the solutions is good because it allows for compatibility with brands other than Fortinet, and we don't encounter issues with it.

FortiGate SD-WAN facilitated a smooth transition for our customers between their two internet service providers, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity without any downtime.

The solution has helped us remediate threats more quickly by enabling real-time monitoring of both links, providing complete visibility into our end links. You can monitor both links on one platform. It's just one single pane of glass where you watch in real-time what is happening. It's easy to manage that way. It helps you to easily remediate issues. 

As long as our policies are granular we are able to use the solution to reduce our MTTD. 

The solution has helped to reduce our MTTR from what used to be five minutes down to 45 seconds.

The solution has helped to reduce the number of help desk tickets because it is now extremely rare for both links to be down simultaneously.

SD-WAN, regardless of the OEM being used, is a beneficial technology that is increasingly adopted by businesses due to its positive impact on business security. It allows us to maintain uninterrupted operations without concerns about past issues.

Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly.

The support we receive when we need to upgrade is not satisfactory and has room for improvement.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for two years.

The solution is stable and we have not had any issues.

The solution is highly scalable.

The technical support is good, but they take a long time to respond and resolve the issues.

Neutral

I have also used Cisco, whose systems are robust and rarely experience downtime. However, with Fortinet, their licensing is highly competitive in terms of pricing. Cisco is primarily geared towards enterprise-level companies, but the learning curve for Cisco is higher compared to Fortinet.

Fortinet's price is very competitive compared to when you look at other brands of equal functionality. The hardware and licensing are compared to the others. It's also simple to use. 

The initial setup is straightforward. I did the deployment and didn't have any issues with it. It took one day to complete. 

The solution provides value and, therefore, offers a return on investment.

The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality. Fortinet FortiGate is more affordable both in terms of hardware and licensing, in comparison to its competitors.

I give Fortinet FortiGate a seven out of ten.

I recommend FortiGate SD-WAN because it is easy to implement and simple to use.

The solution is primarily used as a border firewall as well as for internal LAN segregation, internal IPv4 policy management, a VPN for end users, and IPSec tunnels.

Before we implemented this solution, we had only one firewall and old Linux IP tables with no graphical user interface. 

There is no one feature that stands out as most valuable compared to another. All features are correct and no extra items are needed.

The price of licensing could be better. The security of the FortiOS needs improvement, and features are available only in CLI. They could be available also in GUI.

Features like forward traffic capture or NAC in the VPN should take into consideration both Linux devices and Apple devices.

I've used the solution for more than ten years. 

The scalability is okay.

Technical support is not helpful. 

Neutral

We previously worked with Check Point, Palo Alto, Cisco, Watchguard, and PFsense. 

The setup is easy. Support is not helpful.

We handled the initial setup in-house.

The solution is very expensive. 

The price of licensing is too high.

We did not previously evaluate other options before choosing this solution. 

Other Fortinet products are not the best, and Fortinet should take care as this will influence brand reputation.

The use case varies depending on the customer, but we use all of FortiGate's features, including policies, web filtering, routing, etc. 

FortiGate firewalls are easy to manage through a user-friendly web interface. They also have advanced features like DDoS and DLP. However, I wouldn't recommend enabling all these features on one device because it can cause performance issues. 

We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs. 

I have been working with Fortinet for nearly ten years.

I rate FortiGate an eight out of ten for stability. It is less stable than Palo Alto Networks and Check Point firewalls because there are lots of bugs in the latest firmware. 

FortiGate is scalable. 

I rate Fortinet's support a seven out of ten. We had to open several tickets due to the firmware bugs. We don't have an issue with the support team. It's more of a problem with the testers and developers. 

Neutral

I have also used Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls. Fortinet firewalls are cheaper and easier to manage. Palo Alto is more complex and harder to use, but it's more stable than FortiGate. Palo Alto doesn't didn't have as many models for small and medium-sized enterprises.

FortiGate is easy to deploy. The deployment time varies depending on the customer's network topology. How many policies does the customer require, and what kind of license do they have? FortiGate is easier than Palo Alto Networks and Check Point and takes less time.

We typically start by analyzing the customer's topology and understanding their requirements, including policies, routines, etc. We implement the device once we know what the customer needs. One engineer is usually enough to deploy FortiGate in a small or medium-sized environment. 

An enterprise project requires a more detailed analysis of the network requirements before implementation. That can take two or three days. Once we understand the network, it may take another two or three days to configure the device and one or two days to implement it. 

Fortinet has more device options that are affordable for small businesses than Palo Alto, and its enterprise-level models are also cheaper. Palo Alto also has a separate license for VPN connections and SD-WAN, but FortiGate offers these standard features. 

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a seven and a half out of ten. I deducted a few points because of the device's capacity, stability, support, and routing table issues. I strongly recommend FortiGate if a customer wants to use SD-WAN. Before implementing, you should understand the network's topology to minimize unwanted issues. 

We primarily use the product to enhance our network security infrastructure. It monitors and investigates inbound and outbound traffic across our organization, ensuring comprehensive security coverage.

one interface to manage all our fortinet product

The product's most valuable feature is the ease of deploying IoT security with a single click. Additionally, the frequent updates to the online database ensure that our security measures are always up to date, enhancing our protection against emerging threats.

One area for improvement is the licensing policy. If support licenses are not renewed, the product's functionality ceases, which can be disruptive. 

Integrating more advanced threat detection capabilities utilizing artificial intelligence would be highly beneficial in future releases.

I have been using FortiGate for around 15 years.

The solution is highly stable, with minimal disruptions. I rate it a ten out of ten for stability.

Once deployed, the product scalability is constrained, requiring appliance upgrades for increased port capacity.

The customer support team is responsive but relies heavily on external partners for frontline assistance, which can lead to delays in critical situations.

Neutral

aruba, cisco

the move was decided for the convinence of the fortinet's management interface

The initial setup is straightforward for those with a technical background in network security. However, configuring the system requires a good understanding of the product.

We implemented FortiGate with our technical team, which has extensive experience with network security solutions.

Since implementing FortiGate IPS, we've seen an approximately ten percent reduction in operational costs, largely due to consolidating security measures onto a single platform.

The platform offers a reasonable price point compared to its competitors.

Before opting for FortiGate, I evaluated several competitors, including Palo Alto, Checkpoint, WatchGuard, Barracuda, SonicWall, and Sophos. 

FortiGate is a solid choice for organizations seeking comprehensive network security. Ensure your team has the technical knowledge required for effective deployment and ongoing management.

I rate it an eight. 

We are currently using Fortinet FortiGate firewall instead of Cisco.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include good functionality, though the licensing cost is a bit higher. Their response time and throughput are very good advantages.

Some websites or proxies are not embedded in the correct category, and we need to update the Fortinet FortiGate database because numerous websites are appearing every day. Some websites are embedded in the wrong category which we can block, resulting in everything being blocked, so this database needs improvement.

The licensing cost should be more affordable than it is currently. The SD-WAN of Fortinet FortiGate needs improvement; when we create a group address, sometimes the rule doesn't work properly.

Regarding the Fortinet FortiGate database issues, some websites or categories that should be classified as proxy are in different categories. When we open that category due to some other website that needs to be accessed, some proxies are also opened. The FortiGate web filter categories need to improve their database for better control.

I joined the current company two and a half years ago, and we have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about three or four years.

I have only required technical support from Fortinet FortiGate once or twice in two and a half years, and I have had a good experience with them. Their technical team is very knowledgeable. Their response time is very good; whenever we open a case, they respond promptly.

One issue I encountered was with FortiToken, which we configured on the admin profile. While managing four firewalls, I discovered that FortiToken was not enabling due to an issue on one firewall. I opened a case, but it has not been resolved yet. Despite this, my overall experience with them has been very good.

Neutral

In my previous company, we were using Sophos, which had better licensing costs compared to Fortinet FortiGate.

We are not using enhanced SD-WAN Cisco SD-WAN; we are just using the SD-WAN for load balancing.

We are using Ubiquiti for wireless. One drawback about UniFi is that it lacks BeamFlexing, which is available in Ruckus, and the AP radius or Wi-Fi signals are not as strong as Ruckus. However, UniFi is still a good option, though not as robust as Ruckus.

Fortinet FortiGate is quite expensive, but according to the Gartner report, it ranks second or third. My experience with Fortinet FortiGate firewall has been quite good.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate 9 out of 10 overall.