Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

The use cases of the solution depend on what the customer wants from the tool. If a customer is looking for a core firewall, I provide them with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW). Suppose a customer is looking for a tool from a patch connectivity perspective with multiple branches and wants those branches to be connected to the data center. In that case, we can suggest FortiGate Next Generation Firewall's features to them.

Routing and reporting are two areas where the product has an added advantage compared to any other product.

Vulnerabilities owing to viruses in the OS need to be reduced in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall from an improvement perspective.

Some vulnerabilities get added to the system every two months, which may be code execution or backend and backdoor issues.

In the future, the product should be able to tackle vulnerabilities. Research and development to increase the product's security capabilities is needed.

I have been using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for a year now. My company has a partnership with Fortinet.

From a stability perspective considering OS and if the vulnerabilities are present, I rate the stability a seven out of ten since it creates a lot of issues in general.

We suggest FortiGate Next Generation Firewall to small and medium businesses.

When it comes to enterprise-level businesses, and considering the need for two-layer security, consider a perimeter firewall, while I can suggest FortiGate only at a level of a core firewall. Suppose an enterprise customer has multiple branches and more branch networks. In that case, they need SD-WAN connectivity with security, for which I suggest they go for FortiGate's SD-WAN feature.

In general, it will not be enough for enterprise companies to have only Next Generation Firewall alone.

I am not familiar with the technical support team because my support team works with them. The solution's technical support is good. We do not face many issues when dealing with the solution's technical support team.

Previously, we were using Check Point in our company.

Compared to Check Point, FortiGate Next Generation Firewall needs to look at how to improve the way it deals with the vulnerabilities which are not there at Check Point and the security effectiveness provided by Check Point.

It is easy to use and implement since anyone can do its configuration part, but there is some requirement for someone with proper technical skills to implement it properly. I can implement anything in any way, but that doesn't mean I can implement any product properly. The implementation requires certain technical expertise.

The implementation of the solution can take two days.

One person is required for the implementation phase.

The solution's pricing is competitive.

The usefulness of the product is an aspect that depends on the customers using the tool. We cannot even compare two products and say one is good for the customer and the other is bad. If a customer asks me to be an architect for their data center, I would say that for a perimeter firewall, they need to go for Check Point. Coming to a core firewall, if a customer says that they need two layers of security and two different vendors, it should be Check Point on the perimeter level. At the core level, a customer can go for Fortinet. Certain customers prefer the SD-WAN feature from Fortinet if they have branch firewalls and want an SD-WAN feature too. FortiGate has an added advantage because they have an SD-WAN feature with security that we can provide to their branch devices.

I don't have any suggestions for those planning to use the solution since we are pretty new to the solution, and we need to devote time to be able to comment on the solution.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

We use SD-WAN to connect the checking role between our branch offices, like Yap installation or fire shooting. We use Fortinet FortiGate to control the different segmentation.

The IT manager could monitor every security device and increase SD-WAN. Still, the SD-WAN function had to be integrated into our older device. So now our IT manager can see all the end user information about the network information and security event in the single panel base. SD-WAN has helped the organization to remediate threats.

We provided great information to our end users, and our guys could quickly interact with the tool for information.

Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features. It is a straightforward solution for our partners. The solution is more efficient for user applications.

In the next release, the tool can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything.

I have been using the solution for twenty-thirty years.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

The customer service and support team is good. 

Positive

We used CheckPoint previously. We switched because it was high-priced.

The initial setup was easy.

It was deployed through a vendor team of one-two person.

We think the price is lower, and suitable for most end users.

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution. 

I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules. 

I have been working with the tool since 2015. 

The tool is stable. 

The tool is scalable. 

I did not contact the tool's technical support team because it is very strong and stable. 

The tool is easy to deploy. 

I would rate the product an eight out of ten. 

We use Fortinet FortiGate for VPN. We connect the branches together for the HQ. That's why we are using the VPN, and we publish some of the websites in the HQ, and the users can access that website from outside with the two-factor authenticator and a token key. We are using FortiGate to control the connection between the branches. But, for the software, we are using this to collect the data to extract reports.

I like FortiManager.

Improvements depend on your specific needs. Currently, it meets my requirements. Whenever I need something, Fortinet improves and updates the software for me.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for about ten years.

Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution.

On a scale from one to five, I would give its stability a five.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable. If you are familiar with it, you can work from anywhere and do whatever you want. It is very easy to scale. We have about 500 users in our organization. It is not only engineering and not IT because we publish many websites from HQ to other branches. End-users use the Fortinet username and password to log in with two-factor authentication and the token.

Technical support is good.

On a scale from one to five, I would give technical support a five.

Positive

The initial setup was very easy. We had two third-party members and four of my team members implement this solution. It took us five to six days to install and deploy both the software and hardware. For the software alone, it took us about two days to implement. You need two people to manage and maintain this solution.

We had a third-party company help us with this implementation. They came and did the first setup, and after that, I followed the technical support from Fortinet.

Licensing costs are acceptable. I think it's cheaper than Cisco. We pay for the license on a yearly basis.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Fortinet FortiGate a ten.

I am using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall appliance.

The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering.

Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI.

I used Fortinet FortiGate within the last 12 months.

Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution.

I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable. We have not had any problems.

We have approximately 150 people using Fortinet FortiGate in my organization. Everyone is using it.

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

There is room for improvement.

We have used many other solutions, such as Check Point and Cisco Firepower. I have found Fortinet FortiGate is much easier to configure. However, some others solutions have more functionality, such as Check Point and Cisco Firepower.

I rate the initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate a four out of five.

If we properly designed the installation beforehand, the installation would take us 10 to 15 minutes.

We did the implementation in-house.

We are on an annual license to use Fortinet FortiGate.

I rate the price of Fortinet FortiGate a four out of five.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

Any time a firewall is deployed at a customer site, we'll use the intrusion detection, mostly on the input side, on VPN connections, as well as forward connections and established related environments. If you go to a website, you want to be sure it returns the content that it should, for instance. So we'll use IPS both for user traffic originating from behind the firewall, inbound NAT PAT, as well as for VPN connections. We are partners with Fortinet. 

Integrated management would probably be the most valuable feature. I can take a single FortiGate and manage switches and access points from a single login. I think it's on par with a Palo or a Check Point. I also like their sandbox. The solution covers what we need for most environments, whether small, midsize or enterprise. That aside, the user interface is pretty good and the packet capture works fairly well. The CLI is their own flavor of everything, but that's going to be true for just about anybody that's out there. IPS has widespread capabilities.

The biggest problem we have is the way they handle virtual IPs. It's not handled well at all and even pfSense handles that better. There are three different ways to configure it, depending on whether it is an internal or a through process, and it's just unnecessarily complicated. It would be nice if everybody got together and agreed on some language in their CLIs, but that's not going to happen. If you only dealt with one product on a regular basis, then the problem wouldn't be as evident.

I've been using this solution for many years. 

Scalability is relative because a given platform only has so much horsepower. It's not too bad to move from one platform to another, as long as they're on the same software rev. If they're not, then you run into the typical hassles where a backup from an earlier rev doesn't cleanly install on a newer rev. It would be nice if that was a little bit cleaner. 

The customer support is excellent. The first-line tech support is pretty quick about establishing whether they're going to be able to address a given problem. They can often escalate it on the phone, but they're also pretty good and timely if you're going through email. Once you have somebody assigned, it's pretty good.
We also have great local engineering support here in North Carolina. 

The initial setup isn't too complicated for a single WAN. You have to assign your name, your address, set up your aliases and then build rules. I think the VPN configuration could be a little simpler, but it's no harder than setting it up on a SonicWall, for instance. The setup can be done in less than an hour, including running updates and registration. A single person can deploy 10 switches, a pair of FortiGates in HA, and let's say 10 access points. One person will do the programming and then all installation is done by two specialists by code.

Fortigate is as cost-effective as its competitors. As the boxes get big, it gets pretty expensive but that's for large organizations that have a substantial IT budget.

My advice is to go through some basic training before trying to take it out of the box because the language that's used to configure FortiGate is not the language used on the Cisco ASA or on WatchGuard, or Juniper. The language is a little different so what you think you're configuring and what you're able to configure are two different things. The way that the policies are applied is different than it is from other boxes. So just because you have a technician-level cert with Cisco, you will not be able to successfully configure a VPN on a FortiGate. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

We use Fortinet FortiGate for web filtering, IPS reporting, and firewall policy routing.

What we like about Fortinet FortiGate is that it's fast. You can also use it immediately, e.g. you don't have to wait and apply the policy before you can use it. It's robust and offers immediate usage, unlike Check Point, which we noticed was a slow product.

Fortinet FortiGate is also more secure, depending on how you set up the SD-WAN technology.

We also like the zero trust access, arrays, and the EDR features on this product. It's also 100% more user-friendly, e.g. even when I worked with them configuration-wise. The availability of the support hotline and their knowledgebase articles, e.g. the Cookbook, help a lot. Those articles are accessible to everyone, and they're free.

Whenever you implement a solution, you can run through Cookbook, then you can install the Fortinet certificate if you aren't able to, if you're stuck, but most of the time you are likely to get it right. The Cookbook explain everything straight to the point, and this makes it much easier.

Fortinet FortiGate can be integrated with different platforms. They have integrations in place, but I can't say they're 100%.

I've used Fortinet FortiGate for three years, and the last time I used it was last year.

The product is very stable. It's a powerful product.

Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable product.

Installing Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward. The Cookbook tells you where the issue is, then the packs that come with the software, they are quick to advise on what bugs you can expect, and how those bugs can be fixed. I enjoyed installing the product.

The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate took less than a week. We spent another week migrating the policy, or recreating the policies on the new object, because of the incompatibility with Check Point. We had to recreate the policies, otherwise, the change was quick, and we just had to mount them and connect the HA link and the other internet link. The setup was quick.

The product has different licensing models, depending on what you're going to do. For the IoT service, initially the program was for free, then the IoT service and the mix firmware that we had, we had to pay.

Services are separate in terms of Fortinet FortiGate license models, e.g. you could have IPS, AV scanning on high availability, etc. The license could be on annual renewal.

I evaluated Check Point, but my problem was that it was too slow to install, and you have to wait long while your environment is down. With Fortinet FortiGate, it was instant. Fortinet FortiGate is very easy to install, unlike Check Point. Fortinet FortiGate is a better product.

I have experience with Fortinet FortiGate. I used to manage the product in the past, but in a different company. I transferred to another company into a new position, and Fortinet FortiGate is being used in my current company.

This product can be deployed both on-premises and on cloud. We use version 300E for on-premises, and VM04 on cloud.

They are doing a lot of things to improve Fortinet FortiGate, that I can't think of anything else I'd like added to it. There's zero trust access, the EDR, and the arrays. I can't really say that there's anything that they have not started. They're able to provide what I want.

We started with 100 users of Fortinet FortiGate in the company, then it went up to 270 users, because we also had a child company with end users of this product.

We didn't have to contact technical support for Fortinet FortiGate, because we had a third-party guy who was helping us, and we seldom contact him. If we find an issue, we just email, and he'll write back to us. We also get advise on the old firmware, for example, that there's a higher chance it's static and could be affected by vulnerabilities. Any help was done quickly, and it was nice. Nowadays, we are doing all the work, e.g. not having to contact our third-party guy.

We don't really need a team for deployment and maintenance. There's another engineer we're sharing ideas with, otherwise, deployment and maintenance are both very straightforward. You just need to know what you're doing, e.g. a good path, IPsec channels, etc., and it'll be much easier.

I can recommend Fortinet FortiGate to others, especially because I understand it the most now. We do know everybody won't choose it, because Check Point, Cisco, and other competitors are coming up with robust devices. Everyone wants to win against their competitors, but I'm happy with FortiGate. It's a product I can recommend to others.

I'm rating Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten, because it doesn't give me any issues. It's very easy for me to rate it a ten.

It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall. You don't need to pay some other company for another product to do that for you. The firewall can do that for you. So, it's an easy-to-use product for people to be independent. They don't need to rely on other vendors to do what the firewall can do. They can do everything.

The GUI is good. I'm really happy with the ease of use of the firewall. Fortinet's support is also great.  

I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself.

I've had different models of Fortinet since 2009. They all are physical appliances. I had 300As, and now I'm on 300Ds. I've got a remote site with a different model, which probably is 60F. They are great little firewalls, and for bigger size places, they have 300 models.

I don't have virtual appliances. I don't have a virtual infrastructure. I have an older virtual environment with Hyper-V, and the servers are not up-to-date. It was a money thing. So, it was better to go with the appliance itself.

I'm happy with what they got. It is a great product. Sometimes, you're going to get a lemon—the way it initially happened with FortiAuthenticator 300F—but that doesn't happen very often.

If there is a problem, the next business day, they send it and get the replacement, and they help me configure it.

In terms of its users, everybody uses the firewall because they're going out. That's our egress point. So, there are about 20 users for that. We have a dozen IPsec tunnels with which we connect to different companies. So, security is a big part of it. I also have a remote location with about 10 users who use a different firewall.

We probably won't be increasing its usage. Now that I got Authenticator, it nicely compliments the Fortinet firewall. The size of the company isn't going to grow any more than what it is. So, we're good.

Their support is great, but it also depends on who you get for support. From the support perspective, they can help you do it yourself, which is always more beneficial to both parties. They can stop being so time-sensitive about the call duration and let a user help himself a little bit more.

It takes time to study this stuff, and I don't always have time to do it. So, I'm looking for a quick answer because I get interrupted all the time during work. I don't always have the time to study something and figure it out. So, I have to call them, but I don't always get somebody who really knows what they are doing. They don't know deep enough to help you. They're troubleshooting with you, and that's the difference between Level 1 and Level 2 support.

When I first got here in this job in 2007, they had Cisco ASA Firewall, but it was too cryptic. You had to enter all these CLI commands for a configuration. It also didn't do everything that Fortinet could do. It was very limited, and it wasn't easy to use. I know what I want to do, and I don't have to learn a special language in order to do it. I just want to be able to use some basic programming code that they have put into the firewall and use the GUI interface with it to actually visualize what I am looking at. Some of the Cisco products are not visual enough. That was one of the reasons I stayed away from it. Cisco is also very high-priced. They price themselves out of business a lot of times for equipment, but Fortinet is just great.

I've also used SonicWall before. It was okay, but it is better for bigger places. I was looking for a midrange-size firewall for a couple of hundred users, and I felt Fortinet was the right fit.

Its deployment and maintenance are easy. 

I pretty much used the support from Fortinet to do it. They're good about their support. I did it myself by being a nuisance to Fortinet. I kept calling them to ask questions. They had to remote on to it and see you do something you don't know how to do.

It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive.

Fortinet has got great firewalls. They do everything. They do FortiTokens for two-factor. They do the IPsec VPNs, SSL VPNs. They have a great GUI for you to know, but you still got to know the CLI commands. 

I would rate it a 10 out of 10. It does its job, and it is easy to use. The support is great.