Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
Sitti Ridzma Salahuddin - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at Trends and Technologies, Inc
Reseller
Top 5
It's a user-friendly solution with good interoperability, and it's cheaper than most
Pros and Cons
  • "FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features."
  • "While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use cases for FortiGate are SD-WAN and the next-gen firewall.

How has it helped my organization?

Most clients in the Philippines seek a cost-effective solution that can secure their network, and FortiGate is often their first choice. If your network is secure, there's less downtime and threat exposure, increasing overall efficiency. 

Fortinet's secure SD-WAN helps us remedy threats faster. It's user-friendly, and you can see everything on the FortiGate dashboard through a single pane of glass. Secure SD-WAN has reduced our mean time to detect. We haven't had any significant issues so far. 

SD-WAN has reduced our help desk tickets by making us secure. Many of our clients switched from other brands to Fortinet, and they feel that the FortiGate box and the added security FortiGuard provides have exceeded their expectations. 

What is most valuable?

FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features. 
FortiGate has always had good interoperability. Their fabric enables you to integrate a lot of products into one vendor. 

The secure SD-WAN gives you a tool for failproof your connections, especially with a branch-to-branch setup. FortiGate also comes with FortiGuard, which is an excellent threat-detection service. They have their own R&D and threat intelligence for FortiGuard.

What needs improvement?

While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up. 

Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
869,095 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for more than two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate FortiGate an eight and a half out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate FortiGate a nine out of ten for scalability. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Fortinet support a nine out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also use Meraki. FortiGate has advantages in terms of usability. Also, if we don't pay for the Meraki license, it becomes useless. 

How was the initial setup?

Deploying FortiGate is straightforward. It typically takes about three days to deploy and configure the solution. One person is usually enough to deploy it. 

What was our ROI?

Most of our clients are still using the FortiGate D Series, so they have gotten their money's worth. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Fortinet is much cheaper compared to the other leading platforms. However, most of our customers are asking for bigger discounts on license renewals. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
PeerSpot user
Global Chief Information Officer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Provides solid protection against viruses, malware, and other threats
Pros and Cons
  • "FortiGate improved our security. It's one of the best hardware firewalls."
  • "It would be nice if FortiGate incorporated some built-in endpoint protection features. I would also like a built-in SOC dashboard for managing multiple Fortinet firewalls."

What is our primary use case?

We use FortiGate for our firewall. We have a typical business environment that includes end-user workstations, an ERP, web hosting solutions, etc. It's around 600 endpoints. 

How has it helped my organization?

FortiGate improved our security. It's one of the best hardware firewalls. We're secured against various outside threats. It's hard to know how effective a firewall is if you aren't experiencing attacks. We haven't been affected, so we've seen the benefits of the solution from day one. 

What is most valuable?

FortiGate provides solid protection against viruses, malware, and other threats. 

What needs improvement?

It would be nice if FortiGate incorporated some built-in endpoint protection features. I would also like a built-in SOC dashboard for managing multiple Fortinet firewalls. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used FortiGate for five years, including my work at my previous company.  

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

FortiGate is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

FortiGate could be more scalable. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used Cisco firewalls previously. FortiGate is a little better in terms of web protection, but it's more expensive. 

How was the initial setup?

We had professional services deploy FortiGate. For maintenance, we have an annual maintenance contract, and there are periodic firmware upgrades. A network admin is responsible for maintenance. 

What was our ROI?

We've seen a return in the form of greater security and threat protection. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

FortiGate is a little expensive. In addition to hardware and licensing, there are some implementation and maintenance costs. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten. I would recommend FortiGate, but Cisco is one of the best. The biggest lesson I've learned from using FortiGate is that it's crucial to install and maintain the solution properly. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
869,095 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Paul Duxfield - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant at Spark New Zealand
Real User
An easy-to-configure product with a reasonably good graphical user interface
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to configure."
  • "The web process often has a memory leak."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to provide firewall, cybersecurity, VPN access, and SD-WAN connectivity worldwide.

What is most valuable?

The GUI is reasonably good. The product is easy to configure.

What needs improvement?

The product runs out of memory. The web process often has a memory leak. The support cost could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution’s stability is good. I rate stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. Some customers have 20 users, while others have about 5000 users.

How are customer service and support?

Support is good. It's a bit scripted. It takes a while to get to somebody who knows what they're talking about. It'd be nice to talk to someone technical upfront. Sometimes we have to go through a service desk and go through a whole lot of quick repetitive questions before we get to talk to someone knowledgeable.

How was the initial setup?

I've been working with the product for ten years. I find the initial setup quite simple.

What about the implementation team?

I'm currently deploying 50 units around the country. It'll take me about ten minutes each to configure the solution. Once the product is set up, we need about one or two people to maintain it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution’s price has gone up recently, but it's still good value for money compared to the other firewalls we use. Especially for smaller ones, it is good value for money. Our customers pay for licenses annually or once every two to five years. If we have an older version, the support costs get quite high. I rate the support cost a six out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I work with lots of firewalls. I deploy the product on FortiManager. It'll take me about a day to configure FortiManager. We have lots of customers. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Network Consultant at Jooya
Consultant
A solution with good performance that is also price-wise reasonable
Pros and Cons
  • "When I survey FortiGate products, I see that they have a good performance, especially in terms of next generation firewalls."
  • "One of the weaknesses of the solution is something we noticed, especially after comparing the tool with SD-WAN features, since, unfortunately, in a massive scale size environment, the solution is not good. I"

What is our primary use case?

First, we use the solution as a native firewall. After a native firewall, we use IPS. We also use NGFW features like antivirus, IPS, and shaping, which are very important features for companies. We also manage all of my products with FortiManager or FortiAnalyzer and collect online data. For another feature, we try to use SD-WAN products. The SD-WAN feature on FortiGate was implemented for a company with thirty or fifty branches. We had a good experience with the conversion between Cisco and FortiGate for secure access points because Now I'm a consultant for network administration, and we have a challenge with choosing one of these, and so for example, someone, if I actually choose a Fortinet product, SD-WAN based on Fortinet, sometimes someone chooses SD-WAN based on Cisco, but because my special is Cisco, I prefer SD-WAN based on Cisco.

What needs improvement?

One of the weaknesses of the solution is something we noticed, especially after comparing the tool with SD-WAN features, since, unfortunately, in a massive scale size environment, the solution is not good. It cannot be recommended for massive scaling in terms of size, especially for businesses with more than 1,000 branches.

Cisco is very stable, especially on the larger scale side, and it's very important for SD-WAN features. If you try Next Generation Firewall for a big company, then it is good to purchase a Cisco product. However, Cisco's price is a little high and more than Fortinet's prices. But for small companies, it is better to choose Fortinet and FortiGate products, which is important.

A company needs a tool for accounting. Unfortunately, now we don't have any accounting, especially for the quarter and control side. We don't have any solution in FortiGate. However, Sophos Firewall has it, so it is good for Fortinet's next version.


For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) for more than eight years. I am just a technical person, so I'm a solution designer, a network architect involved in network security.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In FortiGate, after FortiOS Version 5.6, it is stable, and there is no problem. However, we had many problems with FortiOS Version 5.0.5 in FortiGate. Now, when we use FortiGate's FortiOS Version 7, we don't have any problems. The solution has improved, and it is a good product now. For a larger scale, my recommendation is to choose a Cisco product like Firepower Services because, in a massive-scale business, stability is very important.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When I survey FortiGate and FortiGate products, I see that they have a good performance, especially in terms of next generation firewalls. In the future, improving such features and performance is absolutely better. Juniper has a better performance compared to FortiGate.

How are customer service and support?

Speaking about technical support, I have a good experience with design, especially in terms of security design and security architecture.

In level one support, they connect to customers directly, which is a part of our work, and we should solve customer problems. But I prefer staying in level two, where we develop, implement, and solve huge and complex problems, because I have had a good experience with this for more than ten years. Also, I think I have good behavior when under heavy pressure.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think price-wise, the solution is totally reasonable since it has many products to serve, starting from small homes to massive scale sites. A company can choose from one of the offerings by the solution company. Also, it's very important to choose a contract support level. Some companies may choose RMA with support twenty-four hours and seven days a week. So, it depends on the contract support, I think. The Fortinet appliance is a reasonable purchase for companies.

Regarding the license costs, when you choose the 100 series, it is completely different from the 1000 series. It's very important, and so when you choose one-year support or five-year support, or seven-year support, the pricing depends on which one you choose.

In Iran, we have a massive sanction, so we don't use direct support. We don't talk about this. But, concerning my country and direct support from Fortinet, I can't speak about this event. So, in Iran, I don't have an idea about the use of support since we don't use direct support, but we do get indirect support.


What other advice do I have?

When planning to choose FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), the scope of the company is very important. Also, it is important for a company to consider if they want one gig, ten gigs, or another concurrent pair concurrent session. Totally, a company's scale and size are very important. After that, for example, we use a prototype with a five gigabit per second, including the performance. However, if we compare Cisco, Fortinet, and other things, Firepower is very good because Cisco's Firepower is a big and active solution which is very strong compared to Fortinet. However, it's very important for a company to have a native firewall, so such companies can't choose from Fortinet series. So, it very much depends on the situation of the company. So, before that, we review a company's requirements and survey network. After that, usually, I recommend the solution. Also, it is very important to have a budget. For example, a company can first tell me about its budget, like, one billion dollars or whatever. After that, we choose a guide and recommend choosing one of the solutions.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.


Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Ibidapo Ibrahim - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT Infrastructure at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Includes many valuable features, is extremely stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
  • "The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use Fortinet FortiGate for the protection of our perimeter, VPNs, web filtering, application filtering, and general edge protection.

How has it helped my organization?

I received four tickets a year when I joined my current company, and what the solution has really done is enabled the SD-WAN feature. This has given us more value and reduced the amount of time spent on the manual management of our edge device. We are now able to set our SLAs and be on autopilot.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN. The new web flash is especially noteworthy because it supports Google and the single sign-on for our VPN activities.

What needs improvement?

The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. To scale our firewall we only need to add more hardware. We currently have over 2,000 users.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Mikro Tik before the organization decide to switch.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. As long as we know what we are doing the deployment can be completed within one business day.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed by a partner and two people were required. We completed the configurations ourselves.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is flexible. We pay for our device and our subscription according to our needs.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a ten out of ten.

One interesting and critical thing about Fortinet is the add-ons they have included with their firewalls, such as SD-WAN, which would cost a lot of money with other providers but is included with Fortinet's firewall.

When looking for a solution that can better optimize our connectivity and also keep providing security along the website for our branch offices, Fortinet FortiGate is the best solution. The solution is worth every cent. I use FG-61E and for the size of the device it has been very stable for the three years with only occasional reports to apply updates. Fortinet FortiGate has been very responsive to vulnerabilities that have been released. Our business is 24/7 and we don't have leaks. Our servers are always available.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Taha Turkestani - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT specialist at SAUDIA ALIRLINES
Real User
Top 5
A stable and effective solution for controlling browsing traffic
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution effectively controls browsing traffic."
  • "The dashboard is not user friendly so is a bit complicated."

What is our primary use case?

Our company uses the solution as a firewall for our tech network. 

We just added the solution and currently only use it to control browsing traffic and block social media. We have 100 employees and IT staff using the solution. 

What is most valuable?

The solution effectively controls browsing traffic. 

What needs improvement?

The dashboard is not user friendly so is a bit complicated. Training is important or you will suffer when completing tasks.

We would like the ability to divide users by position and assign different rules to each position. For example, managers are allowed to browse YouTube but employees are not allowed. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for two months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

We have not yet needed technical support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use another solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward and took a few hours. 

What about the implementation team?

A third-party company handled our setup and implementation. 

Two administrators handle ongoing maintenance. 

What other advice do I have?

I recommend the solution and rate it an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
David Carlson - PeerSpot reviewer
CIO at Camco Mfg.
Real User
Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without IT help.
Pros and Cons
  • "FortiGate is easy to configure. We configured one of the units and sent it to Indiana to be installed. We asked them to give us a call when they got it, so we could help them through the process, but they called us back to tell us it works great."
  • "Fortinet needs to continue to improve network traceability. Other than that, we haven't run into anything that would give me any concern."

What is our primary use case?

We're a manufacturing shop. So we have 500-700 users on FortiGate SWG and various devices on the manufacturing floor and inside the warehouse using it. Our ERP is on-premises in the United States, so traffic from Asia to the US passes through it.

Eventually, it's going to be used throughout the enterprise. So we're using the gateways today. We have purchased two access points for wifi. Fortinet's devices all talk to each other and use the same management platform. We're planning to transition to 100 percent Fortinet gradually.

How has it helped my organization?

We adopted Fortigate to go to SD-WAN. When I looked at the market, I found Fortigate offered some of the best SD-WAN capabilities, and they're reasonably priced compared to some of their competitors.

We went to SD-WAN because we're moving to Microsoft Dynamics for finance and operations and putting our telephone system into the cloud. As we shift more and more capabilities into the cloud, we need the ability to manage and monitor everything. If we're putting our ERP into the cloud and have performance issues, I need to understand if it's a problem with the internal network, the cloud connection, or Microsoft. Fortinet can pinpoint the source of the problem, so we can work with the right people to get it resolved.

What is most valuable?

FortiGate is easy to configure. We configured one of the units and sent it to Indiana to be installed. We asked them to give us a call when they got it, so we could help them through the process, but they called us back to tell us it works great. 

Non-IT people could plug it in, connect it to the fiber, and get it running without  IT help. That was fantastic. Fortinet also offers a single pane of glass that we can use to manage our routers with gateways, so that's convenient. We're running a VPN to our remote location, and the performance is good. We're changing all our VPN connectors on our laptops from Cisco's Anywhere to Fortinet's VPN because the performance is just so much better.

What needs improvement?

Fortinet needs to continue to improve network traceability. Other than that, we haven't run into anything that would give me any concern. Their support team has been fantastic. One went down, and they immediately sent me a replacement. Everything that they've done has been great.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using FortiGate SWG for about  six months now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

FortiGate is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I was pleased with the scalability.  We have a mid-range appliance in our headquarters and entry-level devices in our remote sites. They all perform extremely well. We did never needed to purchase their largest devices to get the performance we need.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Fortinet support eight out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We switched from Cisco to Fortinet for a host of reasons, including price. It's also easier to set up and manage.  Cisco requires you to understand how to configure the bare metal, which requires configuration inside the switch, but Fortinet lets you set up profiles and download them. 

How was the initial setup?

I was hoping FortiGate would be more straightforward to set up than it was, but my team has been working with it for around six months. They're getting up to speed and learning to manage it on their own. I have two people on my infrastructure team working on it part-time as one of their many responsibilities.

We're still deploying it and waiting on equipment in Asia. We just got the United States up and running. It took a couple of months because we have six sites. However, we weren't actively doing things for most of that time. We did the headquarters and two other locations in the same city. Next, we set up our remote sites. 

What about the implementation team?

We did have an integrator come in and help us in the original setup, but now my team is managing it. You could do it in-house, but there's a learning curve. If you're a Cisco shop moving to Fortinet, your team needs to learn Fortinet byou can to do it in-house. 

Fortinet has a good training program, and you can become certified just like Cisco. You mainly need to use an outside provider so you don't have to undergo that learning curve before you can be productive. They're also going to know the tricks of the trade to do it best.

What was our ROI?

When we were using Cisco, we had a hot fiber connection and a backup in case of issues. One reason we wanted to go to SD-WAN is to be live-live. We wanted to ensure sure that we could use all our internet connections at the same time and not have anything sitting in a backup situation. It's moving traffic much better.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

FortiGate is priced reasonably. We bought a spare to have in case of issues.  It was only $500 for the raw hardware and around $2,000 more annually year for the support and subscription.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at four or five different vendors with SD-WAN capabilities, including Fortinet, VMware, and Cisco.  We went with FortiGate because of ease of use and price.

What other advice do I have?

I rate FortiGate SWG eight out of 10. It's a solid product that's easy to install. At the end of the day, there's no reason to use a firewall without SD-WAN capabilities. It brings so many more features to the table.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Sunil Kumar Nair - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Of Information Technology at Al Falah University
Real User
Useful intrusion detection, high availability, and robust
Pros and Cons
  • "Fortinet FortiGate has many valuable features, such as IDS, and intrusion detection. It has security features that are in part with the technologies that are available in the market."
  • "One of the features that I would like to have is to do with endpoint production, it should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not."

What is our primary use case?

Fortinet FortiGate is used as a network firewall.

How has it helped my organization?

Fortinet has been a Perimeter Security which defends our network from Internet attackers, armed with zero-day exploits of common Internet services like HTTP and SMTP. We applied access-control lists to limit classes of VPN users' access to only what they need as a support team or solution deployers. We Shut off unused network services and defended critical resources first. We Build Internet-style perimeters for partner extranets. We also built secured wireless access.

What is most valuable?

Fortinet FortiGate UTM has many valuable features, such as application control, advanced persistent threat protection, Web and content filtering, IP reputation, integrated WLAN controller, intrusion prevention system, data loss prevention, and antimalware, antivirus, and antispam. It has security features that are in level with the Firewall technologies that are available in the market.

What needs improvement?

One of the features that I would like to have is endpoint protection, this should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately 6 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate has high availability, which means that we have deployed two firewalls. In case of any failure of a device, the other one will continue to work. Our university stays online 100% of the time.

Fortinet FortiGate is quite robust. I haven't had any kind of hardware issue. The system has been running very smoothly with all the upgrades as far as I have continued my support with Fortinet. We keep renewing the support every year, which gives us the eligibility for all the updates.

How are customer service and support?

I used the Fortinet FortiGate support a long time ago. There was a small feature that was not functioning as per the documentation. When they released the latest firmware and the issue was resolved. They provide prompt support.

I would rate the support from Fortinet FortiGate a five out of five.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward we had an right person in-house for deploying it. Moreover, If required, Fortinet has its support extended to us. We can approach them anytime and they can assist us with any kind of complicated configuration.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented the Fortinet using an in-house Technical support team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a subscription-based model to use Fortinet FortiGate. We pay annually for the solution along with the support. If you want to have all the updates, and security patches you will need to renew your support.

The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable compared to other solutions.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated many other solutions, such as Sophos. If you look at Sophos, it has its own endpoint protection. It keeps a record of each client, what are the threats that have happened on each client level, and if there is a ransomware attack. It blocks it and notifies the firewall. I would be able to see a single dashboard view of what kind of threat has happened and how to mitigate them all.

What other advice do I have?

Fortinet FortiGate is a good solution overall. It is very user-friendly and all the policies are very easy to deploy. I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate to any new users who want to have a secure infrastructure.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

There are some better industry-standard solutions out there in the market, and compared to them, Fortinet FortiGate has to be more flexible enough with their solution to be more competitive.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.