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Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
Real User
Top 20
Jun 14, 2025
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
Pros and Cons
  • "The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include its easy configuration and user interface."
  • "Fortinet FortiGate has a very stable Linux-based operating system that is easy to use."
  • "One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD. That's the only drawback."

What is our primary use case?

We are IT MSPs, and we provide solutions for clients based on their requirements and expectations. 

We are a Fortinet FortiGate partner, reselling products such as FortiGate 100F, 60F, and 70F. We are currently exploring newer versions including 70G, 90G, and 120G. I have also worked with Fortinet FortiGate F200. The UI is similar across all these firewalls, with differences mainly in capacity limitations.

What is most valuable?

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include its easy configuration and user interface. 

Its firmware is very stable, which is a significant advantage. I have experienced many challenges while configuring Sophos during firmware upgradation, where changes occur and certain features stop working, requiring reconfiguration. However, Fortinet FortiGate has a very stable Linux-based operating system that is easy to use.

What needs improvement?

One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD. That's the only drawback.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for the last 4 to 5 years.

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June 2026
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is highly scalable because it is easy to allocate resources. It is very flexible, especially when using a VM base, as you can easily increase any configuration you want to upgrade. Scalability is now a common feature in all firewalls.

How are customer service and support?

I have had positive experiences with both Sophos and Fortinet as service providers. When we face any issues with firmware or other things, we can directly approach them for assistance.

As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.

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

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations.

I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet.

Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward. It involves step-by-step configuration, setting up rules, configuring network interfaces, WAN, LAN, and creating basic rules.

Most of our clients are using on-premises firewalls. If they have a private cloud, they typically establish a site-to-site tunnel. However, in general, they rely heavily on on-premises firewalls.

What was our ROI?

Fortinet FortiGate is a premium product. From a cybersecurity perspective, the ROI typically comes within 1.5 to 2 years. When investing in cybersecurity with Fortinet FortiGate 200, which costs more than $10,000, companies that are growing directly can expect ROI within 1.5 to 3 years. This calculation considers future planning and monthly security spending, including license upgrades every 3 years. This refers to new procurement only, as license upgradation is a separate consideration.

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

If you are looking for a quality product, it will come at a higher price. Expecting them to be significantly cheaper is unrealistic. In terms of pricing, it is a bit costly. However, the functionality and support offered are worth it. 

What other advice do I have?

Regarding SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate, I have configured and merged WAN lines. There are two options: round-robin and session-based, and I typically prefer the session-based connection. With Fortinet Unified SASE, for multiple locations, we configure site-to-site tunnels where all data transmits directly to the Central Office.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten because AI is still in development and constantly evolving. Nothing is perfect, which is why I chose that rating. There is definitely room for improvement.

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. MSP
PeerSpot user
Hassan Wali Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant Network and Cybersecurity at Redington
Real User
Top 5
Feb 4, 2026
Comprehensive security has simplified multi-site deployments and protected remote users
Pros and Cons
  • "The ease of use and the user-friendly interface are the beauty of this firewall."
  • "For improving sectors, they need to focus on technical support and work on the technical part."

What is our primary use case?

I have worked on multiple products including Fortinet FortiGate VM, Fortinet FortiGate firewalls of different models, FortiSwitch, FortiAP, FortiADC, FortiWeb, FortiAuthenticator, and some other products as well.

I have been working on Fortinet FortiGate and Fortinet FortiGate VM for around five or six years. I have deployed it as a perimeter firewall, as a data center firewall, and as a campus firewall in many banking sectors, commercial sectors, and oil and gas sectors. Most of my clients have deployed Fortinet FortiGate firewall on-premises to protect their services.

What is most valuable?

The ease of use and the user-friendly interface are the beauty of this firewall. The UI itself and the documentation are completely available on the internet. The UI is very easy, and you can easily understand the implementation. The product itself has very strong deep features and security features including IPS and malware protection to prevent and save against cyber attacks.

I have very good hands-on experience and very good deployment experience with Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN. Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN allows you to use multiple internets and multiple interfaces separately to load balance your internet and to load balance your services between multiple service providers. This is a very good feature in this firewall that you cannot get as a free default feature in other brands.

The network performance after enabling SD-WAN is very smooth and very efficient. I recently deployed this in forty commercial sector sites with stores that previously had MPLS circuits. With the MPLS circuit, they had a very high cost for private connectivity between sites and branches. After deploying SD-WAN, the operational cost was cut down around fifty to sixty percent because of this implementation. All MPLS costing was wiped out from their IT budget and is now dependent on internet circuits, which are normally standard internet connections.

SASE is a very good feature. For example, I recently deployed this for a customer with users in remote locations. The issue was that they wanted users to remain connected and keep monitoring systems after office hours with no malware installed on the laptop while staying protected. The use case of SASE involved implementing the POP itself on the cloud. The users, whether remotely at home or anywhere in the world, are connected to and keep connected with POP. They access the internet securely with secure company policies as defined by IT. They are not allowed to go directly to the internet without IT policies as defined on SASE POP. There is very good integration from SASE to Fortinet FortiGate firewall to access private access.

What needs improvement?

For improving sectors, they need to focus on technical support and work on the technical part. Although it is good, they need to onboard these things and improve the technical part of the support factor. Although it is good, it needs much more improvement to get more business and a bigger footprint in the market. Second, AI in the market and malware detection exist. Fortinet FortiGate already has these features in the Fortinet FortiGate sandbox features with built-in AI features. I prefer that they work on more features that they can provide in Fortinet FortiGate firewall.

I would rate this product ten out of ten. For example, when comparing it with Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate, I can provide a very good point. In Palo Alto, some features must be purchased separately. In Fortinet FortiGate, it comes with the Wi-Fi controller built-in. Features that you need to buy a separate license for in Palo Alto do not require additional licenses in Fortinet FortiGate as they are built as complimentary features in this firewall.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The network performance after enabling SD-WAN is very smooth and very efficient.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is the same, and I would rate it ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support can be marked as ten out of eight. There is some lag, but you can find documentation and all things over the internet. They can provide support, and I would rate it eight point five to nine.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What about the implementation team?

My technical team are all technically expert in deployment of Fortinet FortiGate firewall.

My team has around five or six people who are all technically sound in Fortinet FortiGate firewalls.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

If we are talking about Check Point, Cisco, and Palo Alto, these are the top-tier firewalls and top-tier vendors for providing firewalls. Following the Gartner report, Palo Alto and Fortinet are at the top in the Gartner report. Because of that, Fortinet FortiGate firewall itself does not require management centers as required in Cisco and Check Point. Fortinet FortiGate firewall cannot be managed by a management center. In Fortinet FortiGate case, there is no requirement for these prerequisites to configure or implement Fortinet FortiGate firewall without a management center. We can deploy Fortinet FortiGate firewall without any management center. It is a very web-based firewall and you can access the firewall GUI from the website, and we can easily deploy it without any management center. In Check Point or Cisco cases, a management center is required. In Cisco case, the Firepower Management Center is required to get the advanced features. But in Fortinet case, it does not require these things. This is a very beauty of this firewall.

I suggest buying Fortinet instead of buying Palo Alto, Cisco, or Check Point. I will definitely recommend Fortinet.

What other advice do I have?

Fortinet FortiGate has different models of firewalls which are high capacity and high variant firewalls that you can deploy as data center firewalls to protect your data centers, your server farms, and your services which are hosted inside a data center.

Fortinet FortiGate has embedded services, these FortiGuard services which have machine learning-based and artificial intelligence-based malware analysis. These services analyze malwares and next-generation malwares that are not easily identified by signature-based detection. They have the capability to analyze malware by AI-based methods and can identify zero-day attacks. Before they exploit as a zero-day, they prevent this signature and stop this attack to prevent that this is an attack. Those services are hosted in my data centers, web applications, storage, and SaaS. All are protected by those cyber attacks.

Regarding pricing, we cannot compare it right now because pricing matters based on business size and the business deal. We cannot say whether it is high or low. Sometimes we can easily compete with any brand, and in some cases we cannot compete. For example, if we have a big deal, we can get good discounts from Fortinet team. In some cases, the deal is not big, so we cannot get enough good discount. Deployment from FortiSASE to your Fortinet FortiGate firewall over SD-WAN is very easy. Fortinet gives you multiple connections from SASE POP to your Fortinet FortiGate firewall. They have fully redundant connections on SASE POP if you have the same redundant connections with ISP connection on your Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. They have the secure SPX tunnel from FortiSASE to Fortinet FortiGate firewall. You can easily access from Fortinet FortiGate firewall to SASE applications and SASE users who are connected on SASE POP can access local services from SASE POP to Fortinet FortiGate and access the local services.

My overall rating for this product is nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Last updated: Feb 4, 2026
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Fortinet FortiGate
June 2026
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Mageshwaran S - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at airtel
Real User
Top 5
Jun 19, 2025
Enables customers to manage security effortlessly with intuitive features and easy integration
Pros and Cons
  • "The main benefits that Fortinet FortiGate brings to customers include that if you're going for a single fabric with core switches, access switches, and APs, compared to legacy Cisco or Aruba, the Fortinet FortiGate does not require a controller for the access points."
  • "I would rate the technical support of Fortinet FortiGate as a five because it is not as strong as Cisco. Additionally, the turnaround time is very high compared to Cisco."

What is our primary use case?

My customers use Fortinet FortiGate for their branches and campuses; we have provided it for small retail and industrial networks. 

Chennai is totally based on MND and BFSI for the factories, and since Fortinet FortiGate provides OT Security, they have numerous features. In the same single firewall, they can use SD-WAN as well as OT signatures to have visibility for partners.

What is most valuable?

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include selling a perpetual license as a primary benefit, and the license cost is not much compared to Cisco, Meraki, or HP. 

Feature-wise, I can rate Meraki over Fortinet FortiGate a seven or eight since they have micro-segmentation and application routing. They can detect real-time threats with FortiGuard, which is similar to Palo Alto. Now they are implementing AI features, and I recently went through the demo, which is amazing.

The main benefits that Fortinet FortiGate brings to customers include that if you're going for a single fabric with core switches, access switches, and APs, compared to legacy Cisco or Aruba, te Fortinet FortiGate does not require a controller for the access points. Fortinet FortiGate itself acts as a controller.

Similarly, they have FortiLink, which connects all appliances in a single stack, allowing maintenance with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer. In comparison, Cisco requires a separate controller for SD-WAN and Nexus ACI controller, and other things require a Cisco DNA controller. However, with Fortinet FortiGate, it's simple to maintain using FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, thus being very much easier and cost-efficient.

What needs improvement?

In terms of improvements for Fortinet FortiGate, they could offer evaluation licenses, as compared to Meraki, which provides a 90-day evaluation. In Fortinet FortiGate, they do not provide standard evaluation licenses; instead, we need to request them from the OEM through the account manager for POCs. If we want to conduct a demo, we need to work with real hardware. 

In comparison to Cisco, we have DCloud, which helps with providing demos to customers, but in Meraki, I need to reach out to them, book a lab, and they need to provide all the hardware. I need remote access and L3 engineers to program it; only then can I offer a real-time demo to the customer.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the Fortinet FortiGate for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

My impression of FortiGate's performance is that it performs quite well; when performance issues arise, it's not the box, it's the users, traffic, and bandwidth overloading. Apart from that, whatever the capacity of the hardware is, it is performing quite well.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Regarding the scalability of the Fortinet FortiGate, if it is a VM, it is easy. However, if we're talking about hardware, in the designing phase, we need to consider being about 30% or 20% higher to make scaling easy. Otherwise, they need to change the entire hardware. That's why we are pushing managed services, so the ISP and MSSP partner will take care of scalability. Still, in terms of scalability, it is quite difficult; if they are expanding, they need to change the hardware for the new hardware.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the technical support of Fortinet FortiGate as a five because it is not as strong as Cisco. Additionally, the turnaround time is very high compared to Cisco.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

My impressions of the setup costs are that they are reasonable; definitely, they are reasonable.

What was our ROI?

The change in return on investment after implementing Fortinet FortiGate solutions for the SD-WAN for hybrid workforces is evident; we did it five years ago for one customer, and now the end of support and end of sale life has come. I can see a 10% to 20% infrastructure change. We received 2% to 3% higher than the original sales, and we have also done the renewals. They are also increasing branches, and overall, the RMS has increased by 50% to 60%.

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

My impressions of the setup costs are that they are reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

For users who would like to start working with Fortinet FortiGate, my recommendation is that it will not create a problem, but once it has been programmed correctly, and all the use cases are rightly fitted, you can forget the issues. The only thing that needs updating is the threat intelligence and network configurations. Apart from that, maintaining FortiGate is easy.

I work with the dynamic segmentation feature in the Fortinet FortiGate. The dynamic segmentation feature plays a significant role in preventing the lateral spread of different threats within the data center environments; for example, for web hosting, there are multiple OEMs who have different warehousing solutions, and they don't want to mix the data between their OEMs. In this case, dynamic segmentation comes into the picture, allowing me to create multiple VRs for the data center within a single tunnel for data segregation.

I work with some customers who are going to integrate the unified SASE capabilities in Fortinet FortiGate, and we are working actively on that, but up until now, I've not taken any deployment on the SASE part. We are working with multiple customers, but they are not suggesting it yet. As of now, I just went through the demo for the AI regarding the SD-WAN part, and I didn't go for the data center things. If you ask me about the SD-WAN front for deployment or integrating the SASE along with that, it is comparatively easy. Within minutes, I can see it in real-time; they can deploy five branches or 10 branches within 10 minutes or 20 minutes. I haven't worked with the hardware-assisted DDoS protection in the Fortinet FortiGate; instead, I have worked with Radware or Arbor for DDoS solutions.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Shane Maxson - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity specialist at STS Aviation Group
Real User
Top 5
Dec 3, 2025
Centralized security has simplified remote site protection and reduced staffing needs
Pros and Cons
  • "Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by centralizing the way to access all of our network firewalls."
  • "I wish Fortinet FortiGate's UI updates would be done in a more simplified way to improve it."

What is our primary use case?

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is for VPN and its appliances and for securing all of our remote locations.

A specific example of how I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure my remote locations is that we set rules on each of our locations about what traffic can and cannot go in, so we can allow certain connections for our partners such as Frontiers.

What is most valuable?

The best features Fortinet FortiGate offers are the built-in security functions, which I think are very nice.

We find the built-in security functions most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate, particularly web filtering, as it is all hands-on. Web filtering is our standout feature, and I don't want to add anything else about the features.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by centralizing the way to access all of our network firewalls.

What needs improvement?

I wish Fortinet FortiGate's UI updates would be done in a more simplified way to improve it.

I choose nine for my rating because I think there's always room for improvement, and I think some of the things in the UI need to be adjusted so they're a little bit more simplified and not overcomplicated.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for at least three and a half, maybe four years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is very stable, and it has been quite consistent during times of downtime.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate's scalability has been keeping up well with my organization's growth or changes, as each location gets larger and we feel the need to put a Fortinet FortiGate in each one.

How are customer service and support?

We have had to reach out multiple times to Fortinet engineers for customer support, and it has been great every time; they always seem to get to the bottom of it within one to two calls.

How would you rate customer service and support?

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

We did use a different solution before Fortinet FortiGate, but it has been so long that I cannot remember who it was; it may have been Palo Alto.

What was our ROI?

I believe we have seen a return on investment in terms of fewer employees needed, but otherwise, it is outside of my scope.

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

I was not directly involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did consider other options before choosing Fortinet FortiGate, but it was a straightforward decision, and I am not quite sure what the other options were.

What other advice do I have?

I do not have anything that is unique to us about how we use Fortinet FortiGate in our setup.

We do not utilize Fortinet FortiGate's data center solution, and we do not feel the need to consider AI and ML enhanced FortiGuard services within Fortinet FortiGate.

I would advise others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate to make sure that they get their configurations right from the start, as that means they have less of a need to get support involved. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.

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?

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Dec 3, 2025
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Ahmed Ouda - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Consultant at Connect-Experts
Real User
Top 20
Jun 25, 2025
Can secure some sites and good ROI but challenges with web filter integration
Pros and Cons
  • "It's safe and secures my network and applications in some sites."
  • "I haven't configured or experienced any stability issues."
  • "I face difficulties integrating Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory."
  • "I often ask for help from the local provider. I haven't found the required efficient help."

What is our primary use case?

I'm using it for web filter and then using it for VPN connection user to site, and I'm using it to make a virtual ID to link a real ID from the server to provider to my servers to publish servers.

What is most valuable?

I work with Fortinet FortiGate SD WAN. I configure the SD WAN to use two Internet service providers from two different service provider links. When one of them is down, the SD WAN goes down. I have to go to the SD WAN and remove this link from the SD WAN member. I confirmed that with the local provider and it's working. Sometimes, when a member of the SD WAN link is down, the SD WAN is down, and this is not the solution. I made the SD WAN for redundancy, however, when a member of the SD WAN link is down or I finish the quote of the Internet, all the SD WAN stops working and users experience problems.

What needs improvement?

With the web filter, when I go to post some websites under certain categories and open these categories, I experience some problems. 

Additionally, I face difficulties integrating Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory. When I set preferences to use Active Directory users, it sometimes works and sometimes does not work. When I integrate Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory and use this integration to make a web filter policy, the functionality is inconsistent. I have tried restarting the Active Directory domain controller and the firewall, but the problem persists. As a workaround, I use the MAC address of the user to define the settings.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for about five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't configured or experienced any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's safe and secures my network and applications in some sites. However, I have significant problems when implementing web filters, which is a very problematic issue for me.

How are customer service and support?

I often ask for help from the local provider. I haven't found the required efficient help. Currently, I have problems connecting to some banking systems and departmental Texas portals. I have asked for help but haven't found assistance through the site or through the local provider. When trying to open a ticket, they reply with solutions that are not applicable to my situation.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I didn't have a firewall previously. That said, I did have a VPN gateway.

How was the initial setup?

I haven't configured or used the initial setup.

What about the implementation team?

I didn't choose or have knowledge about the implementation team.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment was good.

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

The setup cost was good. The Egyptian pound is declining, and upgrading Fortinet FortiGate yearly costs about $2000 USD, which equals one hundred Egyptian pounds. I maintain a business relationship with the vendor and receive support from them.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I considered switching to Sophos. Due to my previous experience with Fortinet FortiGate, I preferred to stay with Fortinet FortiGate.

What other advice do I have?

The solution requires careful attention, and when problems occur, they typically don't repeat once resolved. 

I miss having local provider support here in Egypt. International support is difficult to obtain. Local support is preferable yet has become very expensive due to currency devaluation in Egypt. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

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

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Manager, Information Technology at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5
Jun 14, 2025
A robust and customizable firewall with constant updates
Pros and Cons
  • "Fortinet FortiGate is pretty robust. The updates and firmware releases are pretty timely. They have a good product revision and review system, so they are constantly reviewing their configuration and the different mechanisms that are used on Fortinet FortiGate."
  • "The reliability of Fortinet FortiGate is through the roof, we're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently."
  • "We haven't tapped into most of the functionalities that Fortinet FortiGate offers because we're using it just for gateway security. One of the things that I would prefer is a more expansive use of their analyzer. They could do more work on FortiAnalyzer in terms of the data and the information coming from it."
  • "They could do more work on FortiAnalyzer in terms of the data and the information coming from it."

What is our primary use case?

We use Fortinet FortiGate for gateway security, specifically for VPN access, security control, and filtering of traffic. For net monitoring, it has the capability to put the network traffic over to the analyzer. We use FortiAnalyzer to look at the traffic and to see what's happening, what's hitting our gateway, and what our users are doing. We use filtering rules on top of that.

What is most valuable?

Fortinet FortiGate is pretty robust. The updates and firmware releases are pretty timely. They have a good product revision and review system, so they are constantly reviewing their configuration and the different mechanisms that are used on Fortinet FortiGate. They review that periodically and provide new definitions and updates. We have quarterly fixes, updates, and releases, and there are constant new CVEs coming out. They are always keeping ahead of the threat monitoring system that notifies us of the latest landscape, what's new in the phishing landscape, botnets, rootkits, and all of those different malicious tools that are out there. We appreciate the filtering capabilities as well.

It integrates well with the SD-WAN capabilities. It works easily, and the transition was quite simple with literally no downtime.

It is very customizable. We have multiple different subnets going into that FortiGate controller. We have used various models and various designs. We can diversify the number of links coming in either the WAN gateways or the local LANs. We can separate various subnets across the LAN segment. It's quite diverse.

What needs improvement?

We haven't tapped into most of the functionalities that Fortinet FortiGate offers because we're using it just for gateway security. One of the things that I would prefer is a more expansive use of their analyzer. They could do more work on FortiAnalyzer in terms of the data and the information coming from it. I'm not sure if it is because the team managing our analyzer isn't giving us all the information that's required. It could be something based on our own usage of the platform. As we continue to use the appliance, we may learn more about the utility and functionalities that are offered.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is pretty stable, especially the enterprise version. 

The reliability of Fortinet FortiGate is through the roof. We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently. Fortinet FortiGate only goes offline for maintenance. I have seen it running for two years nonstop without doing a reboot. They're pretty stable and energy-efficient, and I make a lot of headroom for growth, specifying my units at least 40% greater than what I need. They are working within the requirements of their provision, and usually, the published specifications for the units are within the range of their operational usage.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is all based on our design. Based on our network design, we can select or pick a product from the product listing that can scale with the growth potential of the organization within a specific time period. We tend to do our planning within time spans, such as the next 10 years, 5 years, or whatever the growth prospect is for that period. We put the units in place that can grow along with that growth development timeline.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate Fortinet's support a solid eight because I'm hard on my support. They're responsive to a greater extent. There are lots of things that I want to get done that aren't done on time. However, the local support that we use for Fortinet FortiGate is pretty technically competent and capable of managing the unit and delivering the functionality we need from the device.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

We outsource the management and configuration of Fortinet FortiGate to a third-party SOC center in Ireland. We don't do that ourselves, but we do manage it and go out to the third party to tell them what we want. They will recommend different methodologies, capabilities, or new features that we can implement, such as SD-WAN, and go ahead with it. We don't manage and do the configuration ourselves. My team's role is pretty much just to operate and utilize the service.

They handle the initial setup in the background. I just give them the requirements, and the engineers respond.

What about the implementation team?

We interacted with two engineers, but I'm not sure what the backend team is like.

What was our ROI?

It's very hard to measure return on investment with security because security is so dynamic. Based on our plan, the ROI has been pretty good. Whatever we expected and planned for, as far as usage goes, I can extend and push my Fortinet FortiGate up to maybe three or four quarters past its end of life. It has performed as expected in that concern, giving us good ROI for what we planned.

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

It was pretty affordable. We did go a little bit above MSRP, but the service pack that was included was quite worth the additional costs.

It is competitively priced compared to other major players in the market. It is significantly cheaper than Check Point, which is a primary competitor. Additionally, its pricing is comparable to that of Cisco's ASA and a few other vendors.

Besides the pricing, we chose Fortinet FortiGate because of the service providers that are here locally and the support for the unit and the product.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine 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
ChandanKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and security lead at Hughes systique pvt ltd
Real User
Top 20
Apr 16, 2026
Strong content filtering has isolated lab traffic and has reduced security costs significantly
Pros and Cons
  • "Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization with its cost-effectiveness because it provides features that are very similar to others, but at a much lower cost, and everything my organization needs is available with Fortinet FortiGate."
  • "I have faced challenges related to support, as I have encountered issues where support engineers are not aligned within the time frame, and sometimes they request multiple logs unnecessarily, causing delays and leaving a bad impression on my end users."

What is our primary use case?

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is content filtering, and content filtering is the primary function. I am also doing East and West traffic filtering.

I use content filtering and East-West traffic filtering by creating groups based on separate projects in Active Directory, and on the firewall side, I create policies, web application profiles, and category-based profiles tailored to each project's requirements.

We have separate projects, and I isolate those subnets from one subnet to another so that both subnets do not communicate directly and only communicate via Fortinet FortiGate itself, with policies created to manage the East and West traffic.

What is most valuable?

Some of the best features of Fortinet FortiGate are its ease of use compared to other vendors, and from a troubleshooting point of view, it is also very useful and easy to troubleshoot. It stands out as easy to use and troubleshoot because I do not need to create separate NAT policies; with Fortinet FortiGate, I align my NAT policies and content filtering within a single policy, making management straightforward, and the logs are clearly visible, making troubleshooting much easier.

Compared to other firewalls, Fortinet FortiGate offers easily manageable features such as vulnerability profiles and threat profiles, which I believe is one of its main advantages.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization with its cost-effectiveness because it provides features that are very similar to others, but at a much lower cost, and everything my organization needs is available with Fortinet FortiGate.

Being cost-effective has allowed us to save a lot of money, which is particularly useful since I was exploring firewalls to secure my internal labs, and finding Fortinet FortiGate was a revelation as I could achieve my requirements without the additional costs of other firewalls.

What needs improvement?

I wish Fortinet would explore SASE solutions more, as it has become very popular and people are increasingly using it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for around the last seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is stable, and I have never experienced issues similar to those from the ASA.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate's scalability is very good, and I believe there are no issues.

How are customer service and support?

I have faced challenges related to support, as I have encountered issues where support engineers are not aligned within the time frame, and sometimes they request multiple logs unnecessarily, causing delays and leaving a bad impression on my end users.

I have had a bad experience with customer support many times.

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

I previously used a Cisco ASA but switched due to certain performance-related issues.

How was the initial setup?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing went smoothly, with no issues related to licensing or installation, and the overall cost is definitely cheaper than other prominent firewalls along with phenomenal features.

What about the implementation team?

I do not have a business relationship with the vendor other than being a customer, but I do have partners to buy network equipment such as firewalls and switches.

What was our ROI?

I cannot share exact numbers for ROI, but I saved a lot of money, which made management very happy, especially knowing that I achieved my functional goals with Fortinet FortiGate that might have incurred more costs with other firewalls.

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

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization with its cost-effectiveness because it provides features that are very similar to others, but at a much lower cost, and everything my organization needs is available with Fortinet FortiGate.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing went smoothly, with no issues related to licensing or installation, and the overall cost is definitely cheaper than other prominent firewalls along with phenomenal features.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated options including Palo Alto, Cisco, and other products before choosing Fortinet FortiGate.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine overall, as I only deduct one point for the support issues I have experienced.

I selected nine because, feature-wise, the product is excellent and cost-effective compared to others, but I deducted a point due to the disappointing support from Fortinet.

I advise others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate to check their requirements first, as it provides all kinds of services other firewalls do and is very cost-effective.

People looking for a firewall should definitely evaluate Fortinet FortiGate, as it is very cost-effective and offers all the features they are likely looking for. I gave this review a rating of nine 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.
Last updated: Apr 16, 2026
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PeerSpot user
AndresEcheverry - PeerSpot reviewer
Director General en INNOVAR IT SAS at INNOVAR IT SAS
Real User
Top 5
Aug 26, 2025
Ensures network security while simplifying administration and offering valuable support
Pros and Cons
  • "Fortinet FortiGate saves a lot of time in expert hours from an expert engineer because the administration of the Fortinet FortiGate solution is easy, which may lead to fewer hours of an engineer spent on Fortinet FortiGate."
  • "One area for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate could be the price, as my clients here are small companies, and they might not have the resources or money to always buy a Fortinet FortiGate solution or FortiGate products."

What is our primary use case?

Our use case for Fortinet FortiGate is network administration and network security; this is the use for Fortinet FortiGate.

What is most valuable?

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are security, configuration facility, and easy configuration. Additionally, we get very good support from the manufacturer. The major impact of Fortinet FortiGate for clients is providing a redundant path from the service locations or servers location to the users that are in another location; this is the best impact.

What needs improvement?

One area for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate could be the price, as my clients here are small companies, and they might not have the resources or money to always buy a Fortinet FortiGate solution or FortiGate products.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been with that platform for about two to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In general, Fortinet FortiGate's stability is very good, but in some cases, there are unusual situations. For example, we have one client with high availability with two Fortinet FortiGates, where one of them has high processor and memory usage while the other one is low, and they work in a passive-active scheme for availability. The strange part is that one Fortinet FortiGate works perfectly, and the other one has high processor and memory consumption.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Most clients are in one location, but two or three clients have SD-WAN characteristics in their implementations.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate their support a nine out of ten. The support is very good, but it's not always easy to find a Spanish speaker, as some clients don't know how to speak English and need support in Spanish.

How would you rate customer service and support?

What other advice do I have?

I integrate SD-WAN features for some clients; specifically, I have three or four clients with SD-WAN integrations, while most of my clients are with one location. I find it easy integrating these capabilities.

Security is very good with Fortinet for my clients; this is one of the best reasons to make a decision to buy a Fortinet solution.

Fortinet FortiGate saves a lot of time in expert hours from an expert engineer because the administration of the Fortinet FortiGate solution is easy, which may lead to fewer hours of an engineer spent on Fortinet FortiGate. It could save approximately 40 hours a month.

I would recommend this solution to others; it's the best solution in the market. The main advice I give to people who consider using Fortinet FortiGate is for security and administration, as we can get complete visibility of the network.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution a 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

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

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
PeerSpot user
Raphael Nwosu - PeerSpot reviewer
EVP, Product Line Management & Growth at Kropmann Communications Ltd
Real User
Top 20
Jul 17, 2025
Offers comprehensive security features with outstanding flexibility for network management
Pros and Cons
  • "There are many features packed and significant flexibility from Fortinet FortiGate in being able to do numerous things."
  • "Generally, every aspect of it being a next-generation firewall provides good value."
  • "In terms of pricing, Fortinet needs to do more to compete effectively."
  • "Even though our currency in this part of the world is becoming increasingly weak, the pricing is now expensive for us. I have tried pushing Fortinet FortiGate to some customers, however, sometimes the transactions don't conclude due to pricing issues."

What is our primary use case?

For now, I have one running on a corporate network. We make use of the modules that are there such as application filtering, web filtering, IPsec VPN, Network segmentation, advanced threat protection and others.

How has it helped my organization?

We extensively use FortiGate's security features to proactively detect and mitigate threat.

Use Web Filtering to control websites accessible to users and block inappropriate or unproductive sites.

Use Application Control feature to limit the use of risky or bandwidth-intensive applications.

We use the network segmentation feature for isolating and limiting potential threats.

Use SD-WAN to optimize the use of our internet links.

IPS functionality detects and blocks malicious network activity.

What is most valuable?

The core benefit is that a lot is packed into it. There are many features packed and significant flexibility from Fortinet FortiGate in being able to do numerous things. Even features such as SD-WAN provide granularity that I'm happy about. Generally, every aspect of it being a next-generation firewall provides good value.

What needs improvement?

In terms of pricing, Fortinet needs to do more to compete effectively. We gained a lot of traction from Fortinet in Nigeria, however, the battle is currently intensifying. Companies such as Palo Alto are making a strong impact. Fortinet was able to gain more attraction than Cisco in Nigeria for the past ten years, however, going forward, I'm not sure that trajectory will be maintained if Fortinet doesn't strategize regarding pricing and partnerships.

Regarding maintaining skilled personnel for Fortinet solutions, if they can address the pricing for certification exams, that would help. Sometimes it's a barrier for people here, especially for companies to train people to get certified. We train people in many other solutions we deploy, however, for Fortinet, though we intend to do that, it would be beneficial if there were more incentives for people pursuing certifications.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using my current solution for almost two and a half years. However, I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for up to seven years now, working with Fortinet.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I am satisfied with the performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is sufficiently scalable for my needs.

How are customer service and support?

Their technical support is very good. I'm happy with the technical support. When tickets are logged, the tracking system is excellent, and the response is fast. During the few times I raised tickets, I was satisfied with the support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I have experience with Cisco and a little bit of Sophos. I found Fortinet FortiGate better than Cisco in terms of functionality being packed in one device. 

The scalability for Fortinet FortiGate was unparalleled at that time. I saw Fortinet as a company that had strong strategic plans in terms of maintaining market dominance and having long-term plans to survive in the industry. This industry is very dynamic and Fortinet has been doing the right things to compete effectively.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is simple. It's far better than my experience with Cisco.

What about the implementation team?

In-house

What was our ROI?

The return on investment is satisfactory.

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

The license doesn't currently cover Secure Access Service Edge. Even though our currency in this part of the world is becoming increasingly weak, the pricing is now expensive for us. I have tried pushing Fortinet FortiGate to some customers, however, sometimes the transactions don't conclude due to pricing issues. Fortinet FortiGate may need to give special consideration for countries where currency has depreciated significantly, such as Nigeria. This will help in the competition.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have previously worked with Cisco and Sophos and might have considered those before choosing Fortinet.

What other advice do I have?

I'm always an advocate of Fortinet FortiGate. It's natural that it's the first OEM I recommend when it comes to networking and network security infrastructure solutions. 

Fortinet is my number one, especially regarding the Fortinet FortiGate. For virtual appliances and cloud security, Fortinet is still performing well. For endpoint security, other solutions appear more popular, so perhaps Fortinet should focus more on the endpoint security aspect. 

I rate Fortinet FortiGate nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

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

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
PeerSpot user
Martin Prous - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineering - SigFox Paraguay at TEISA
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Jun 28, 2025
Security features significantly improve data protection and instill client confidence
Pros and Cons
  • "Some of the best features of Fortinet FortiGate include the next-generation firewall features."
  • "I cannot say definitively about the return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate because I have always been in the technical field, but most of our clients are very happy since threats were stopped, generating confidence in the Fortinet brand among our clients."

What is our primary use case?

We are a systems integrator in Paraguay, and my task is usually to configure Fortinet FortiGate as a perimeter firewall and provide all the security features to our clients.

What is most valuable?

Some of the best features of Fortinet FortiGate include the next-generation firewall features. Before Fortinet FortiGate, we usually used Juniper, which is very good for routing and switching, but in security, Fortinet FortiGate is far better than Juniper, especially with deep inspection and data leak prevention. We have nearly every financial institution in Paraguay as a client, putting special focus on preventing leaks of credit card numbers.

The field I’m interested in is the courses we provide to our clients. The PDFs available in the learning system are fantastic. The features they implement are exactly what everyone is looking for. To me, Fortinet is very good and useful.

What needs improvement?

From my perspective, every day is a new opportunity for improvement. I believe that the continual improvement is Fortinet’s best feature. I’m very happy with their ability to consistently improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is stable. Based on my experience, whenever we faced an attack, many other brands, including Juniper, often had vulnerabilities. However, Fortinet consistently delivered the best performance and effectively stopped any threats.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Since we are a small country, our clients usually have minimal security requirements due to relatively slow network speeds. The entry-level versions of Fortinet FortiGate are good enough for our top clients.

We work with both enterprise and SMB clients. We are also an Internet provider. We provide the connectivity and the equipment to bring security to the client. We have all kinds of clients.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate Fortinet's customer service or technical support as an eight out of ten. We have many skilled technicians for Fortinet FortiGate configurations. We only require support for a very advanced feature. People representing Fortinet here in Paraguay are very friendly and work well with us.

How would you rate customer service and support?

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was easy. The setup is easy because most companies don't have complex requirements and just need a basic firewall to shield against external threats and filter internal connections, making the basic configuration good enough until they ask for advanced features.

What was our ROI?

I cannot say definitively about the return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate because I have always been in the technical field, but most of our clients are very happy since threats were stopped, generating confidence in the Fortinet brand among our clients.

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

I do not consider it an expensive solution. It's not cheap, but it's not expensive, especially compared to Cisco, which is the de facto standard here in Paraguay. Cisco suppliers often set high prices, allowing us to enter the security field easily, thanks to our pricing.

What other advice do I have?

Another team handled the SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate. I know that FortiGate can do that. From my knowledge, it is for the balance between two ISPs, but I don't know about performance tests.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight 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
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.