We use it for the network security operations of our customers. We've many different use cases, such as client security, server security, or DMZ sites.
Technology Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable
Pros and Cons
- "The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."
- "Web security solutions can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy.
It's a very easy and simple solution for implementation and integration. I don't have any problems with this solution.
What needs improvement?
Web security solutions can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for 10 years.
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Fortinet FortiGate
January 2026
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is good. It's generally used in only one place as a standalone, but sometimes, it's used at multiple locations.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is good. I'd rate it an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used Palo Alto, which is a good solution for a firewall, and their application signatures are very good.
How was the initial setup?
I was sometimes involved in its deployment. Its deployment was simple for me. It was very simple and easy. It took five to six hours.
It does require maintenance. There are probably one to two people required for its maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I'd recommend it to other people. It's good, and in our country, this product is very popular in our sector. It's easy and cheapest.
Overall, I'd 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. Reseller
Medical Coder at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reliable, simple to implement, and offers good accessibility
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is stable."
- "We'd like to have multi-factor authentication via fiber."
What is our primary use case?
We're a healthcare company and use the solution in many ways. It builds a tunnel between the customer and our office. We use it for directing applications. It clears application problems based on latency and packet loss. People working from home can connect to the VPN in a secure way as well.
What is most valuable?
We like the accessibility it provides.
Every process we do is underwritten under Fortigate.
When we have to access the tunnels, we can use a VPN to access applications from the customer.
We can dig into the security and enforce security policies. Everything is controllable from the server.
It is easy to set up.
The solution is stable.
It's reliable.
Technical support is helpful and responsive.
What needs improvement?
Fortigate is always innovating. I'm not sure if any improvements are needed.
We'd like to have multi-factor authentication via fiber.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for six to seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. I'd rate it eight out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution scales very well if it is the cloud. If there are hare hardware pieces involved, and more users are added, we have to swap out the hardware box.
Most SMBs are on this solution. We have 20 to 50 customers on the product.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have a mixed environment. We have Cisco and Fortigate. Whatever is needed is what we will use.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. I'd rate the ease of setup nine out of ten. The deployment depends on how long it depends on the design and implementation needs. It might take about a month. Most of the infrastructure is static.
Right now, we have three people who are able to handle deployment and maintenance. It does depend on what kind of network it is.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the implementation ourselves. We are certified in Fortigate. We only depend on a vendor for the hardware part and any related warranties. We can do the configuration and building of the firewall.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure of the exact pricing. My understanding is it is pretty pricey. I'd rate it seven out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
We are a customer and end-user.
Fortigate is a one-stop solution for all network needs. There are many features that are embedded into the firewall. The more you use it, the more options will be revealed. It's very strong on the market.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten overall.
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.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Network Cybersecurity Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
It protects against zero-day threats, which is critical in a constantly changing the threat landscape
Pros and Cons
- "I like FortiGate's zero-trust capabilities and protection against zero-day threats. Zero-day threat protection is critical because we're seeing constant changes in the threat landscape. The sandboxing and web access controls are also robust."
- "FortiGate IPS is somewhat pricey compared to other solutions. There is also room for improvement in terms of the radio signals. The FortiGate WiFi has a relatively short range. I've found there is a lag in its zero-day malware response that could be better, and FortiGate could integrate better with other brands of equipment or identity management solutions."
What is our primary use case?
I'm a reseller with clients in industries ranging from healthcare to banking and manufacturing. My customers use FortiGate IPS for network protection and segmentation.
What is most valuable?
I like FortiGate's zero-trust capabilities and protection against zero-day threats. Zero-day threat protection is critical because we're seeing constant changes in the threat landscape. The sandboxing and web access controls are also robust.
What needs improvement?
FortiGate IPS is somewhat pricey compared to other solutions. There is also room for improvement in terms of the radio signals. The FortiGate WiFi has a relatively short range. I've found there is a lag in its zero-day malware response that could be better, and FortiGate could integrate better with other brands of equipment or identity management solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used FortiGate IPS for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate FortiGate IPS nine out of 10 for stability. When we've had problems with the platform, they were mostly configuration issues, not the fault of the product itself.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate FortiGate IPS eight out of 10 for scalability, but we haven't scaled it up that much. We would have a better idea of its scalability if we used it on a bigger project. We can say with certainty that FortiGate is scalable enough for the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Most of our clients are small and medium-sized companies, but we do some smaller projects on the enterprise side, like consultation and subcontracting.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Fortinet support eight out of 10. They're generally quite good, but sometimes the response is slower than I would like. When you're paying for support, you usually expect a response in a day or so, but it took Fortinet two or three days to address an issue once. That was the only time I got a slow response. They are usually much quicker.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I rate FortiGate IPS eight out of 10 for ease of setup. We do on-prem and cloud deployments. It's a hybrid cloud setup where we install FortiGate on virtual machines from AWS. We can typically deploy FortiGate in a day. It might take two days if our client needs a lot of configuration work.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate FortiGate IPS two out of 10 for affordability. It's more expensive than competing solutions. It ranges between $1,000 to $7,000 depending on the model. They offer one-year or three-year licenses.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Fortinet FortiGate IPS eight out of 10. If you're already using Fortinet, I recommend staying with it. However, if you want to reduce your costs, you can consider other solutions like SonicWall, Sophos, or Palo Alto. Fortinet is an excellent cybersecurity solution, but it's expensive.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Support Engineer at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Good web interface, great functionality, and has helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "You have access to CLI in case you have no web access."
- "The learning curve is a bit higher."
What is our primary use case?
This is an appliance. It is hardware. It's for intrusion detection mainly. It can do routing and switching yet focuses mainly on detection and prevention.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the fact that one device can do multiple tasks, such as both routing and firewalling.
It had a good web interface.
You have access to CLI in case you have no web access.
Technical support has been helpful overall, even though we haven't used them much.
What needs improvement?
It's a bit more complex to configure in comparison to Cisco.
The learning curve is a bit higher.
It's not the least expensive solution on the market.
How are customer service and support?
We've only had a few issues and everything was solved very fast. We are satisfied with the level of support on offer.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've also used Cisco. These solutions are not quite the same.
I've also used MicroTik, which is slightly less expensive.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is okay. In comparison, MicroTik offers better pricing yet has the same functionality. Therefore, it is a bit more of an expensive option.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer. We have the drives in our server room.
I'd rate the product eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior IT specialist at a import and exporter with 10,001+ employees
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.
Assistant Manager-Networks at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has a good set of UTM features, great bandwidth shaping mechanism, and efficient algorithms
Pros and Cons
- "Has a very user-friendly interface and doesn't require any prior knowledge."
- "The system can slow down when inspections are carried out."
What is our primary use case?
We manage a university and we're dependent on Fortigate to monitor everything including our research activities. All our network related services are logged by Fortigate. I'm a network administrator and we are customers of Fortinet.
How has it helped my organization?
Fortigate has been helpful in mitigating ransomware attacks and we receive notification of threats from the cloud services.
What is most valuable?
We've found the most valuable feature to be the very user-friendly interface. The solution doesn't require any prior knowledge and that's not the case with other firewalls. Fortigate can mitigate all attacks, it can handle a lot. It has a good set of UTM features, a good bandwidth shaping mechanism, and other features. It has efficient algorithms and it competes well with Palo Alto and TechPoint. In terms of VPNs, it has an unlimited count, better than other solutions and it's included in the package.
What needs improvement?
We sometimes have issues when carrying out inspections because the system slows down and our clients complain about it. The only other drawback is that we have to manually insert certificates for our clients. Most social networking sites have dependencies and to completely block them requires a deep inspection profile. For protection, we need to put the certificates in for all of our clients. It's a major drawback not having it embedded in the system. I would very much like to see Forticlient's new TNA technology included with the original license for Fortigate. It currently requires an additional license which is quite costly for us as a middle-size organization. We could include it with VPN for our clients.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a really stable product and one of the main reasons we've stayed with it for the past eight years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is completely scalable, we have over 8,000 users. Almost half of those are students and the rest are teaching staff and researchers. We also have 500 people involved as part of the system support team, IT engineers, and software engineers. The solution requires maintenance and regular upgrades and we have a 9-person team for that.
How are customer service and support?
I'm happy with the technical support although we don't require it much.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment took us around one month back when it was a software-based solution. We had to completely migrate all existing policies to Fortigate. We didn't use any third parties for the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We purchase a license annually and it's a little expensive. We pay extra for SA. You need a decent budget for Fortigate but once you have that, it's completely scalable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We previously used Palo Alto and had a ransomware attack they did not detect so we switched to Fortinet. Aside from that, we preferred Fortigate because it's so user-friendly. Admin can configure all the policies easily using the graphic interface in Fortigate. Palo Alto requires a specific application for all admin aspects and some of them can only be done with command line tools. It's really tough for normal admins to do day-to-day configuration.
We also tried Salesforce but felt that we were unable to depend on it for the entire system. We've implemented it for 2,000 people but it's not as user-friendly as Fortigate and without any expertise it's difficult to use. It's mainly command-line technology. It's time-consuming and budget-wise it can't compete with Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution for a mid-level or enterprise organization and rate it nine out of 10.
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.
Network & Security Team Head at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Highly reliable, effective profiles, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the different types of profiling. It has been the most effective for me. The WAF and the antivirus profile are the most effective in network protection."
- "Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution. However, my issue is the performance only. When I use all the profiles, this affects the performance. From the beginning, I should have had a better sizing of the box."
What is our primary use case?
We use Fortinet FortiGate mostly for a data center firewall.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the different types of profiling. It has been the most effective for me. The WAF and the antivirus profile are the most effective in network protection.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution. However, my issue is the performance only. When I use all the profiles, this affects the performance. From the beginning, I should have had a better sizing of the box.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The coverage and scalability of Fortinet FortiGate are good.
We use the solution for daily operations in the data center. There are hundreds of users that use the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Fortinet FortiGate is great. When I have an issue with the support team, it is when I can't understand what they need and they do not understand. They then typically ask for a remote session which can help us receive the solution. Overall, the support team for Fortinet FortiGate is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is very straightforward.
I rate the initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate a four out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay for the solution annually.
What other advice do I have?
The sizing is very important for the Fortinet FortiGate because after designing you have to choose what size and what kind of FortiGate you will implement. Sometimes you need to implement profiling and this will take from your processing.
In my area, this solution is recommended for many projects because it's very easy to do the implementation and troubleshoot and is highly stable. The integration between many devices, such as the FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager, is good and helps us. Fortinet FortiGate is recommended for any firewall design.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
IT at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees
User-friendly, powerful, and has useful training certifications available
Pros and Cons
- "I love the interface."
- "The reporting was limited."
What is our primary use case?
I rent spaces for the company. I provide the services for the internet for that company, something like coworking. I need to create policies to prevent intrusions on my clients. I create the policies for each client, and I select the company and create the policy with the specific needs. After that, I apply it for the WLAN for that client. That way, I prevent intrusions on the network.
What is most valuable?
It meets my needs.
The product is very user-friendly.
It is quite scalable.
I love the interface.
The power is great.
I have a limited embedded team in IT. I have one man on the team for 1,000 users. And this person can manage all the infrastructure due to the fact that the console is very easy, and the people are very happy with the results pertaining to that interface.
Also, I have created VPNs for all my users to work from their homes.
What needs improvement?
It is very complex.
There are a variety of improvements that can be made.
The reporting was limited. I had to use FortiAnalyzer to obtain a complete solution. The reports are very limited with the solution, basically. Once you implement FortiAnalyzer, you can create very, very detailed reports for all the networks.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for two years now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution scales well. It's not an issue at all if you need to expand.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good. I have additional support from my provider. My provider is a Platinum partner, and half of the technicians have Level 7 or 8 in Fortinet certifications.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the past, I was working with Cisco and Aruba, however, this was more power and the cost was great.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is a bit complex. However, I only need three weeks to create the machines' settings.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For two firewalls with IPS and two access points, FortiAnalyzer, with maybe ten switches, we pay maybe $4,000 a year.
We don't pay any additional costs.
What other advice do I have?
I use a lot of Fortinet devices.
I'm a customer and end-user.
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.
Everything is good. The support is very, very expert. When you need help, all the people are ready to assist - and that is great. Only I recommended new users to take maybe the certification basics, NSE 1, NSE 2. It's free in the academy for Fortinet. Most problems you can fix with that information and that education, so it's very helpful to be knowledgable.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: January 2026
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