Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

When trying to move from MPLS to SD-WAN they have a very good SD-WAN offering. 

The solution integrates well.

It has high-quality security features.

It provides a full end-to-end security suite.

The security of the solution is good.

The solution could have licensing fees reduced in the future.

I have been using the solution for 5 years.

It is not common for the solution to become unstable, but it does happen. The good thing is, they constantly release updates. If the version you are using has a bug, in the next version it definitely will be fixed.

The solution is highly scalable because they have devices that can handle a large amount of traffic. The VM version with the hardware appliances is widely scalable. It can handle small businesses to large scale enterprises. In terms of mode of deployment, you have VM, hardware appliance, and cloud. There is cloud management as well that is scalable. It can suit a number of deployment scenarios.

We currently have 50 employees using the solution, some of our clients that have deployed it has 1000 users and it has not given a problem.

The customer service was very fast to respond to our needs.

The installation is not difficult but there is a learning curve, it becomes easy over time. 

The basic installation took approximately two days. A more complicated scenario can take even up to two weeks. Depending on the options that you are looking for, there are many things you can consider. If you are looking at a complex design then you are going to take more time.

I did the deployments myself with one other technician.

The pricing of the solution is very competitive. The license price can vary depending on the product you have and the different types of licenses you need. For example, they have an enterprise and UTM license. It depends on the type of license and the size of the company.

Fortinet has a product that can cater to any area of the security market. For example, application firewall and authentication products.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution as a hardware firewall. In China, there's a lot of content that would be available in the West that isn't allowed here. We're able to block certain content from getting through filters.

The solution offers a very good package for all kinds of virtual appliances, subscriptions, and so on. It's a reasonable price. It's not too much.

The services on offer are just superb. 

The way it can block certain content is very useful for us. It gives you a good heads up as to what streams are being blocked from the network, which helps with visibility.

The simplicity of the product is great. It's very easy to use, which is a compliment we get all the time in terms of feedback.

There seems to be good reporting features. 

The scalability is there. If you need to expand the product, you can.

The menu structure is more logical than, for example, Cisco or SonicWall. I find that the Fortinet is easier to understand in terms of the installation process and setup. 

The only problem that we have here in China is that the whole subscription process on Fortinet is a little bit difficult if you are doing it from China. China has kind of a firewall around the country, and we sometimes have complications due to that aspect.

As a whole, I don't think that the product is actually missing any features.

You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution.

I've been working with the solution since about 2016. It's been a few years at this point.

The solution is very stable. There aren't issues with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable.

The scalability is good. You can expand it as needed and add on extra apps to add in extra functionality if you want to.

We mostly deal with mid-range companies. 

I only talk with people here in China that are the Chinese sellers or distributors from Fortinet. They are Chinese and I don't speak or understand one single character Chinese. So for me, it's very difficult to communicate with technical support. Most of the time, I let them talk with one of the people who I know who is fluent in English and Chinese. That's what I do. 

Most of the time, I can do all the research on the internet to see what kind of device I need and then I get a translator and we figure it out.

We only use Fortinet's FortiGate for our hardware firewall protection.

However, if our clients need extra security, we may add other brands and security layers. We also work with SonicWall, Checkpoint, and Barracuda, for example.

I've also worked with pfSense, which is free, however, it has much more of a do-it-yourself approach. It's also quite different from other solutions. If you have Cisco experience, you'll be able to navigate Fortinet, whereas pfSense requires much more in-depth study. It has its own language, basically. That's one of the reasons you won't find too many of its configurations in China.

The initial setup, for me, at least, is very straightforward. It's just a few clicks and you're set up. It may be a bit more complex for someone else who may not be as familiar with the product.

I have partners that assist with the initial setup and I have network engineers who are doing the job for me. They are working for me as they are my employees. As their boss, of course, I have to know a little bit about how to handle it as well. We handle the implementation process for our clients. We implement it according to ISO and Chinese security standards.

The solution is pretty affordable. It's not overly expensive. It's not like Cisco where you pay an awful lot of money mostly for the name.

There are extra apps you can add to the product, however, those come with an extra price tag as well. That said, it allows you to do more things and expands its capabilities.

I like to use Fortinet due to the fact that with the device you can do so much more, it's not only web filtering. If you decide to use it for something else, you just pay some money to Fortinet for another package and you are good to go. It makes it a little bit easier for small or large companies as it's so flexible in its offering. 

In China, due to business constraints, licensing is quite complicated here.

I'm a service provider in China. Basically, I'm connecting companies, foreign companies or Chinese companies, or even foreign public services to business VPNs or business cross border interconnections.

Whether we use the latest version of the solution or not depends on the client, their needs, and the environment. If a client needs more security, we may even layer in other brands to help with that.

We tend to keep deployments on-premises as you can run into issues with using the cloud in China. We prefer to have it on-premises and then bring lines in to hook everything up. It's simpler and there are fewer issues.

In general, I would rate the solution at a ten out of ten. We've just been pleased with the product and the ease of use.

We have created a virtual cloud on-prem, providing services to our different IT domains in terms of software, database and ERP. We've also created a virtual firewall handling the security and protecting servers in the network. No unwanted or unauthorized user can access the servers. That's a good sign of security and the handling of the network. It provides us with oversight. I'm a senior network engineer and we are customers of Fortinet. 

With the Covid pandemic, the VPN has become the most valuable feature. With the majority of traffic connecting from remote locations, the VPN provides stability and reliability. The antivirus and its IPS, intrusion prevention system, also helps with stability.

In our environment, we need multiple virtual firewalls to facilitate end users and customers. Fortinet doesn't provide that but they really should include that feature. 

I've been using this solution for three years. 

Overall stability of the solution is good. I am totally dependent on this device. Basically, it's deployed on the edge of our network. All the software and HR, admin, every department is behind this network. And every user connects their internet services via the VPN. 

Scalability of this solution is good, we can add devices whenever we like. 

Whenever there's an issue and we contact support, the response is positive. The support is impressive. 

We previously used Cisco ASA but that model didn't support the latest technology, and was also very expensive. The main issue that caused us to switch solutions was the throughput of the interface. Cisco was providing us with one gig interface. Because of our gradually increasing bandwidth and network requirements, we had to move to more bandwidth and a 10 gig interface, which Fortinet provides. Although Cisco provides the same on a different model, that model was very expensive. That's why we chose to switch to Fortinet Firewall.

The initial setup is simple. It's only complex if the design hasn't been sorted or tested. If we're deploying, we study the network, traffic patterns, and traffic path, which is, I think, the most important thing about deploying any network device. We can easily create or delete, modify or customize and optimize the feature, the network, the routing, the policy, and the different features of this device. Most of the time we carry out the implementation ourselves, deploying in different phases; firstly connecting the network, and then partially shifting the traffic phase by phase. When we removed ASA and shifted all the traffic to Fortinet, the overall performance and overall working was very impressive. Downtime probably came to a total of 15 to 20 hours. We have multiple groups using this product - I would estimate somewhere between 12,000 to 13,000 users and the solution is used continuously. 

I think the licensing of Fortinet is in the middle range. We also had a demonstration from the vendor that gave us the confidence to work with these devices. We purchased the solution on a bundle basis which the vendor offered us. There are additional costs if we enable a new feature not included in the bundle.

I think Fortinet is a cheaper, stable, scalable, and reliable device. 

From my experience, I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

Our primary use case of this solution is for the firewall and IPS; the security on behalf of our network, to support north and south traffic. We are customers of Fortinet and I'm a systems engineer.

The firewall is stable and that's important. There are a lot of functions we use on the IPS and it works well for us. It's stable, the interface works for me.

We currently have two on-premise data centers with several separate firewall units and unfortunately they don't connect with each other. We'll likely migrate to Azure in the next two years because of that. 

I've been using this product for about seven years. 

This is a stable solution. 

For the traffic we have all five firewalls. The log is minimal with the traffic, which is going over the firewall and we don't require a lot of scalability. 

We have support in the Netherlands, direct contact with our partner but not with Fortinet. For big changes and difficult issues I can get extended support from a partner. I do the simple fixes myself. 

I've used a heap of different products. I've worked with Palo Alto and also with Fortinet. From experience, I prefer Palo Alto, but for the business I'm working in now, Fortinet is okay.

I've had great experience with Palo Alto but I think Fortinet FortiGate is also a great solution. Some time ago we upgraded to the Fortinet solution of our previous partner and there was a memory leak which created problems. Our firewalls crashed multiple times a day and we had a lot of issues. I think the issue was a systems error and it shouldn't have been deployed. It's all very stable now. 

I would rate this product a nine out of 10. 

The features that I have found most valuable are the SD-WAN and their IP4 policy.

In terms of what could be improved, the SD-WAN is quite difficult, because if you install in the new box, 15 is okay, but if you change from an old configuration, if there is already a configuration and a policy when you change to SD-WAN, you must change the whole policy that you see in the interface.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about two years.

Fortinet FortiGate is stable so far. We had a difficulty, but after we opened the support, we found out that it was only from having the wrong config. But so far, it is stable.

So far our biggest client is only FortiGate 400, a small-medium business.

Their technical support is very helpful, although they only have it for their in-the-box and sometimes we have difficulty with the out of box, with the ISP or other things. So we must find a solution for the customer. But if it is the wrong product or if there is a configuration issue in the product, yes, they're very helpful.

I have also worked with the Hillstone network, with Palo Alto and with Barracuda.

In terms of support, so far FortiGate is helpful whereas with Barracuda I didn't get the support like FortiGate.

The initial setup and new configuration are very easy. It is very user-friendly. It's only three clicks from the menu, two or three sub-menus and we already have it configured. It's not difficult because we have experience with the SonicWall, Palo Alto, etc.., but Fortinet is user-friendly.

In terms of price, FortiGate's price is reasonable. Most of the customers stand by it, and are aware that the price is worth it for the performance.

In terms of advice for anyone looking to use FortiGate, you need to learn about trouble-shooting, because sometimes you find out you have the wrong configuration, not because of a FortiGate problem or FortiGate config, so you are responsible to handle the trouble-shooting.

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

One thing they could offer is a version that already has the configuration. This would make it easier. This is something that I would request. I worked with Barracuda, I worked with Palo Alto. If you want it easy. It's very easy. But FortiGate needs to have something more like that, to do it faster.

We primarily use the solution for edge protection as well as the VPN and SD-WAN.

The solution has many valuable features. We tend to use all of them.

The initials setup is pretty easy.

The solution offers very good documentation.

The solution can scale well.

We've been happy with the technical support we receive.

The product is reliable and stable.

The support costs and licensing are sometimes so expensive. They should work on their pricing model.

I've been using the solution since 2018. It's been a few years at this point.

The stability is very good. We don't deal with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

The scalability is very good. If you need to scale it as an organization, you can do so.

We have 100 users. They are largely network engineers, however, we have technicians and active users.

We do plan to increase usage in the near future. We have more projects coming up.

We've used technical support in the past and we've had pretty good experiences. We're satisfied with the level of support we've received.

Their documentation is always good too. We've accessed cloud documentation via the portal and have found it to be helpful. The articles are very complete.

We previously used Juniper. We switched due to the host and the usability of Fortinet.

The initial setup isn't complex at all. We found it to be quite easy. It's straightforward.

The deployment took us about three to four weeks or so.

We use two people for deployment and maintenance.

I handled the implementation myself. I didn't need the help of a reseller, integrator, or consultant.

The solution is pretty expensive. That said, we see the value of the solution as it provides great value to our organization.

We pay to license the product on a yearly basis.

I'm not sure of the exact amount we pay, however, as it is not an aspect of the solution I handle directly.

We are customers and resellers of Fortinet products.

We work with both on-premises and cloud deployment models.

I definitely recommend this solution to other organizations. We've had a positive experience.

In general, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. If the pricing were better, I would rate it higher.

IPS is the main use case because we want to protect our devices, users, and data from external dangers. 

We most probably are using the model of the last year. If the services connected to the hardware are possible on the cloud, we always prefer the cloud. The hardware must be placed on-premises. 

Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies.

We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID. 

They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. 

They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company. 

I have been using this solution for the last two years. 

It is stable, and I don't see any cons of this. 

Currently, everyone who is connected with the company is using this solution. We have up to 240 people.

I have interacted with them but only through emails. There were separate tickets and stories, and I don't remember right now how it was.

It was just a product for home-usage. It was a Cisco device from the small business series. It was less advanced than the similar devices available in the market currently. It was a huge step forward for us to switch to FortiGate.

It was a huge jump for us on the administrative side to implement this kind of hardware because we previously used just a simple product for home-usage. 

We hired a consultant to do this for us and to explain how the system works. After a few weeks, we did new certifications and training for this, and now, it works well for us.

I would recommend this solution. We plan to keep using this solution.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

We mostly use the solution for our internet-facing firewall.

The next-generation firewall features are the solution's most valuable aspect.

The implementation and deployment are pretty simple.

The pricing is very good.

We've found the solution to be pretty stable.

The solution isn't really lacking features per se.

The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now.

The solution needs to do more on the deployment in the multi-cloud. For example, clients have GCP and AWS. How do we deploy FortiGate in a cloud environment? Right now, there's no solution for that.

We're worried that the scalability isn't as good as it could be.

We've been using the solution for about two years or so. It hasn't been an extremely long time, however, it's been a while.

Stability, in our experience, is quite good. It doesn't run a lot of unexpected downtimes or anything of that nature. We haven't encountered any serious problems. There have been a few minor items here and there, however, by and large, it's quite good.

The solution isn't exactly scalable, especially when it comes to the public cloud environment. We'll need to scale up, so we will have to figure out how to do it effectively.

We primarily work with medium and large enterprises.

We find the solution to be pretty straightforward to set up and deploy. We didn't have any difficulties with implementation. 

The deployment takes less than a week. It's a pretty quick process.

We provide maintenance services for our clients.

We actually provide deployment services to our customers that need it. We can handle this aspect for customers.

The solution is on the cheaper side. There are other products that are competitors that are much more expensive.

That said, the pricing isn't just based on licensing costs. There are add-on costs as well a company will need to consider.

We are more of a solution integrator. We are not a straight reseller. We are partners, however. We recommend people to use products. That said, we don't actually resell the actual boxes.

We use different versions and deployments of the solution. It really is dependant on the client and their needs.

We mostly work with Fortinet. It's the main solution we recommend and use.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations. We've had a pretty good experience.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.