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reviewer1448721 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Dec 24, 2020
Good stability and fair pricing with an easy initial setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The customization potential is quite impressive."
  • "The ease of use could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for the firewall for the most part. It's to help us with security on our network.

What is most valuable?

The solution has a very good set of rules.

The customization potential is quite impressive. It can be customized based on our licensing contracts.

The initial setup was pretty simple. We didn't find it to be overly difficult to execute on.

Technical support is rather helpful.

We find the stability to be pretty good.

We didn't have any trouble setting up the solution.

We find the pricing to be fairly good.

What needs improvement?

The ease of use could be improved. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for about five years. We have been continuously working with FortiGate itself throughout that time. It's been a while.

Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
January 2026
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, the stability has been pretty good for us. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. I'd describe the stability as reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I can't really speak to the scalability of the solution, as it isn't as aspect I handle. I've never tried to do it, so I'm not sure how it works.

We have about 50 users on the solution. About one third have access to it.

How are customer service and support?

We only really had one issue in the past where we had to deal with technical support. We needed some restoration of some data. It wasn't a bad experience. We were satisfied with their level of service. They seem to be knowledgeable and responsive.

How was the initial setup?

In terms of the initial setup, the process was not complex at all. We found it to be very straightforward and easy. We didn't run into any issues setting everything up.

We have one engineer that handles ongoing maintenance for us when we need it.

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

The pricing is fair. I don't feel that it is too expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I've been good with using Fortinet. It's a fine tool. 

Overall, I would recommend the solution to other organizations.

I would rate it a nine on a scale from one to 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
reviewer1307664 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Center Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Dec 22, 2020
Very secure, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The security for endpoints is the most valuable. It is very secure for our workers. It allows us to secure a transaction and enable security for a specific segment in the workflow."
  • "I would like the deployment and integration of this product to be easier. We should be able to deploy the features more easily and have different types of access. It should be easier to integrate. Currently, we need to develop APIs to use this interface."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to secure connections for communication. This solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises. We are using the latest version.

What is most valuable?

The security for endpoints is the most valuable. It is very secure for our workers. It allows us to secure a transaction and enable security for a specific segment in the workflow.

What needs improvement?

I would like the deployment and integration of this product to be easier. We should be able to deploy the features more easily and have different types of access. It should be easier to integrate. Currently, we need to develop APIs to use this interface. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is good. We have 1,000 users of this solution in our organization. Currently, our usage of this solution is 50%.

How are customer service and technical support?

They have 24/7 support.

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

We were using a different solution, and we switched because of the security and price.

How was the initial setup?

It was complex earlier, but it is not that complex now. It took us about 24 hours to implement it. It was quick. It is integrated with the services that our IT team has. We have all the high-value services, such as support services, monitoring services, and integration services.

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

It is around $50,000 per month.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate SWG an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
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.
reviewer1193787 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Manager at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Dec 16, 2020
Installation is super easy, stable operations, and has prompt and responsive customer service
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit."
  • "Some of the software stability could improve."

What is our primary use case?

We use it as a firewall for securing our HQ and branch.

What is most valuable?

The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit. 

What needs improvement?

A feature for bandwidth monitoring and the ability to have more bandwidth testing would be useful to include in future releases.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for just about a year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 40,000 employees and the product is very scalable. The different hardware units are quite good and are an appropriate size for enterprise-sized businesses.

How are customer service and technical support?

They're very prompt and responsive, and very helpful. In our experience, they responded on the same day and the next day for fixes.

How was the initial setup?

The installation was super easy, we were up and running in less than 50 minutes.

What about the implementation team?

We did it the implementation ourselves. We used an in house team of four to do the deployment. 

What was our ROI?

Some of the software stability could improve.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend FortiGate to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Senior Network Architect at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Real User
Dec 13, 2020
Highly affordable and comprehensive
Pros and Cons
  • "It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
  • "They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."

What is our primary use case?

Our clients' main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is for the firewall on the outside perimeter to the internet. Some of them have started using it for SD-WAN.

What is most valuable?

We are software integrators. 

Our clients like the packaging because it's an appliance. It has specific chip sets to accelerate different features in the product.

Additionally, it's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there.

What needs improvement?

In terms of what can be improved, they do have certain features that you can only configure through a CLI and there's no GUI interface for it. That's a pain. But it's nice that the user can do everything one way or the other.

They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for at least the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is pretty stable.

It is hard to judge this year because of everybody working from home. Everybody is using up a lot of bandwidth so I'm not sure if that is a cause for some of the instability with the Forti client. The only place we've seen instability would be updating Forti client with their software called EMS.

So pushing out the client with EMS, like a client update to remote users, has proven a pain in the butt. But that could be because the end users' VPNs are maybe a little bit unstable just because of the high bandwidth demands. It is hard to determine. Maybe it is because some of these users are in remote areas, or non-urban or smaller towns, as opposed to being in an urban area where bandwidth is a little better.

We never jump ahead and say, "Oh, yes. 6.5 just came up. Let's jump on that." We'll probably just wait six months and see what goes on first. And I guess that's probably what a lot of people do because it's protecting your intellectual property and everything which that company owns.

I'm not saying that there's no instability. People will generally just wait and not jump out unless they're testing in the lab. They're not going to jump out and put the first revision that comes out on their firewalls.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, it scales very well.

They have different models for different sizes. Obviously, if you buy too small and you have to upgrade, then it's a box swap. Some other vendors can just add another unit and you cluster them together. In their case it's more of just switching the box out for more performance boxes if you go too low.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is very good.

Every time we've had to open up a case or get their help, if we surpass that person's ability, it gets escalated right away. So it's very good. It usually gets resolved within a day or two.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is fairly straightforward.

What was our ROI?

In terms of ROI, they're inexpensive. Because they're inexpensive, they're just everywhere, in the Federal Government, schools, everywhere where budgets are fairly tight. And it is a very good product. It's a product that's built that if you need to you can add a different box and remove that feature from your main FortiGate and just run it on a different box.

So if you need to expand, you can always do it that way too.

They have good integration if you have multiple firewalls and it allows you to be able to push out policies to all of them at the same time.

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

Fortinet FortiGate's pricing is pretty hard to beat.

What other advice do I have?

On a scale of one to ten, I would give Fortinet FortiGate a 10 out of 10.

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. Integrator
PeerSpot user
Head Of IT Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Dec 11, 2020
Has a good payment function for applications but configuring and management is not easy
Pros and Cons
  • "The payment function for applications is good."
  • "Difficult to add or define, and not that easy to configure and manage."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for a data center firewall. I've been using Fortigate but I'm also currently evaluating Cisco and Check Point. We are customers of Fortinet and I'm in IT infrastructure. 

What is most valuable?

I like the payment function for applications.

What needs improvement?

It's difficult to add or define, and it's not that easy to configure and manage. We're looking for something more flexible for the long term. I also find that the performance is limited in comparison to other solutions. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable but when you do scale, it limits the performance. We have over 1,000 users in our company and four people who deal with the maintenance of all our solutions. 

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is acceptable, and they're good in terms of local support and global support. If they cannot resolve the issue they will pass us to another level of support. 

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

I previously had experience with CheckPoint, Cisco, and Palo Alto. I would rate Palo Alto as the best firewall in the world. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is relatively straightforward. 

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

This product could be a little cheaper although compared to other similar solutions, it's more reasonably priced. 

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
reviewer1238928 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales Engineer - Sênior at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Dec 9, 2020
Good web filtering, nice GUI, and an easy initial setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is straightforward."
  • "Technical support could be better. You don't always get the level of help you need right away."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution just for internal segmentation and connection of some ranges using IPSec.

How has it helped my organization?

Currently, the solution is saving costs for us and blocks applications effectively using layer seven.

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable aspect is the IPS for potential mitigation from the cloud inside our network. 

The VPN SSL is important for us. 

The web filter is very good. 

The GUI is okay.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The documentation provided is okay, I find that sometimes, with other startups, it's hard to find a good amount of documentation in order to assist you with the product. In this case, the solution offers a good amount of detail.

The solution offers good analyzing capabilities.

What needs improvement?

I'm not sure if the solution is really lacking anything major. For us, it works okay.

They seem to have made a lot of improvements since the last release.

Technical support could be better. You don't always get the level of help you need right away.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for about ten years at this point. As it's been about a decade, I'd say we have quite a bit of experience with it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

For the most part, the memory and the CPU are good. It's generally stable. We don't face any issues with this aspect of the solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is fine. If a company needs to expand it, they should be able to do so without any issues.

We only have about 40 users on the product currently. It's not a big company.

For now, the product is good as it is and we don't have plans to increase usage in the future.

How are customer service and technical support?

By and large, technical support is good. It's okay. It's not bad. It could be better, however, they do answer our questions when we have them. We're mostly satisfied with the level of service they provide. Of course, it could always be a bit better.

Sometimes the first contact is useful, and sometimes you don't get the kind of help you need right away. It would be nice if it was more consistent.

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

We also use Sophos. We use both solutions at the same time.

How was the initial setup?

We didn't face any complexity when handling the initial implementation. The process is quite straightforward.

The implementation itself can sometimes take less than a week. On average, you should expect it to be about a week in total.

What about the implementation team?

I didn't need the assistance of a reseller or integrator. I handled the implementation myself.

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

We're charged a licensing fee on a yearly basis. I'm unsure of the exact cost to the company, however. I'm not sure if there are other costs over and above the standard licensing fee.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at Juniper when we evaluated FortiGate. FortiGate is much easier to use in comparison which is why we chose it. The documentation was also better. That, and there was no integration for SSL in Juniper.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We don't have a business relationship with the company.

Overall, I would recommend the product. It comes with a very good set of features.

I would rate the solution ten out of ten. We've been quite happy with it.

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
IT Director at a university with 51-200 employees
Real User
Dec 9, 2020
Includes an antivirus, IPS, and even SD-WAN
Pros and Cons
  • "The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, and also IPS, and even SD-WAN."
  • "FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment."

What is our primary use case?

This Fortinet product is a firewall system, acting as our perimeter firewall. Generally speaking we use this system as a security product to defend from any attacks and to protect our internal network. We are very happy with the security features afforded by this product.

What is most valuable?

The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, IPS, and even SD-WAN.

What needs improvement?

In terms of what could be improved, the FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment

In terms of the FortiGate IPS, we haven't gotten additional tools because they are not free, and we have to purchase them to maximize this IPS feature. As long as they can perform some basic functions to meet our business needs, that is okay. I'm okay with this feature right now, so far.

In the next release of FortiGate the price could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate since May of 2018.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is a very scalable product.

It is managed by the IT department, so only they use it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their support is quite good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite simple.

Not including the preparation, setup took about three days to just unpack them, connect it to the power, power it on, and do some initial configuration. That's just the three days, but we took about two weeks for the preparation and planning.

What about the implementation team?

We had an external partner to help us and to work together with us to do the initial setup.

What other advice do I have?

On a scale of one to ten I would give Fortinet FortiGate an eight.

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
reviewer1450398 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reseller
Dec 8, 2020
Flexible and easy to use, with good support, but they should introduce security at the packet level
Pros and Cons
  • "FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
  • "Fortinet currently has many products bundled with FortiGate including the basic firewall and load balancer, and I think that that they need to have separate product portfolios for each of these specialized services."

What is our primary use case?

We use this product as a perimeter firewall and also in the role of a firewall as a service for our cloud.

What is most valuable?

FortiGate is flexible and easy to use.

What needs improvement?

Fortinet currently has many products bundled with FortiGate including the basic firewall and load balancer, and I think that that they need to have separate product portfolios for each of these specialized services. When it comes to large deployments, I don't think it's a good plan to have all of these services in a single box.

I think that they should introduce in-line security at the packet level, where they can do filtering and other firewall functions. It should not comes down to the infrastructure level but rather, offer services at the ISP level.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using FortiGate for the past four to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This product is scalable and as a service provider, we extend our usage to external customers. There are many users on the platform.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have premium support from Fortinet and it is quite good.

What about the implementation team?

We used their Professional Services for the initial installation.

We have a large in-house team for maintenance, although I am not sure how many are dedicated to this particular product.

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

The price of FortiGate is average and I would say that based on the top five products available on the market, it is in the affordable range.

What other advice do I have?

This is a product that I can recommend to others.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
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: January 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.