Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

The main use cases for Fortinet FortiGate are in the data centers, mainly for web filtering, IPS, and IDS.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are UTM, web filtering, and IPS. We have Palo Alto firewalls in place. The ease of integrating SD-WAN capabilities depends on the requirements of the customer.

Fortinet FortiGate is a very light product. It's easy to understand.

Fortinet should improve its software, as we are seeing lots of firmware versions generated for each vulnerability issue. It becomes difficult for us to keep updating the firmware frequently due to bugs. 

We would like to see the SSL VPN feature included again in Fortinet FortiGate since it was removed from version 7.6.3 onwards. 

For DDoS protection, there can be more features in Fortinet FortiGate.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about 15 years.

It is stable.

As implementers, we find it easy to scale up.

We have about 100 people, and we are using Fortinet FortiGate 60.

I would rate Fortinet tech support a nine out of ten based on my experience.

We also work with Palo Alto firewalls. The main difference is in the software. Palo Alto's database is also updated for threat analysis. If you are installing a Palo Alto firewall for the first time, it is a bit complex, but with Fortinet FortiGate, the implementation is easiest, as the tabs are easy to understand.

I would recommend it. It is user-friendly.

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

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for the past six years.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate to provide security for network and perimeter networks and gateways, and I rely on Fortinet FortiGate to protect my applications from various Layer 4 and Layer 7 attacks and traffic from malicious IPs while blocking traffic from unwanted IPs.

Fortinet FortiGate is also mainly used to establish IPsec tunnel connectivity with other networks, and users from outside the office network can connect to resources via IPsec VPN as well as site-to-site and client-to-site VPN, which leverages access and resource availability across various networks and simplifies resource accessibility worldwide.

One of the main features that I use in real time with Fortinet FortiGate is web filtering and App IDs based on application control. Previously, I allowed application access policies based on ports, but it could not prevent traffic based on the same application port with different use cases. For example, port 443 can be used for various purposes, but it could not restrict access for some specific applications. The App ID based control is useful for me to restrict traffic based on application usage and user access, which is the primary purpose of Fortinet FortiGate in real time.

Fortinet FortiGate offers next-generation firewall features and security features that restrict access for malicious traffic, URLs, and IPs, which is a major feature that Fortinet FortiGate offers.

The next-generation firewall capabilities including deep packet inspection and application controls via App IDs, Intrusion Prevention Systems, web filtering, URL filtering, and anti-malware protections are essential features that are present in Fortinet FortiGate to prevent various cyber attacks and threats in the network.

Fortinet FortiGate is also mainly used to establish IPsec tunnel connectivity with other networks, and users from outside the office network can connect to resources via IPsec VPN as well as site-to-site and client-to-site VPN, which leverages access and resource availability across various networks and simplifies resource accessibility worldwide.

The security features could have been more similar to those in the Palo Alto firewall with major data protections and WildFire, and deeper inspection capabilities, which Fortinet FortiGate lacks. Additionally, I notice that Fortinet FortiGate often experiences resource utilization problems where memory is heavily occupied regularly, necessitating cleanup tasks.

During firmware upgrades, the process is not smooth; one of the VMs often goes out of sync and exits the HA cluster. Therefore, I separate the HA between the firewalls and perform upgrade activities one by one manually. The graphical dashboard representation of the data is frequently inaccurate, leading me to rely on syslogs for more dependable information. The log retention period on the device seems too short despite having ample memory and disk capacity, which is a major issue.

I have been working in my current field for the past seven years.

The scalability experience indicates that if I need additional features or security capabilities, such as sandbox features, I can add them by opting for separate licenses, making it convenient for me.

Fortinet FortiGate customer support appears somewhat good, but for complex cases or major incidents, I often do not receive prompt support from the OEM, resulting in multiple follow-ups to get the necessary assistance.

Previously, I used to have a Cisco ASA firewall, which had fewer security features for protecting the network from day-to-day attacks and threats. Fortinet FortiGate firewall has next-generation capabilities with various security features including deep inspections, filters, URL filters, URL categories, and IPS protections while controlling application access based on application IDs, along with anti-malware protections to safeguard applications from malicious threats and attacks. By using Fortinet FortiGate, I significantly reduced major attacks that could exploit my network.

I would advise others considering Fortinet FortiGate, particularly those concerned about budget and pricing with decent performance and support, to proceed with Fortinet FortiGate, as compared to other next-generation firewall products, Fortinet FortiGate has lower license support costs, which is a significant advantage. Moreover, from my experience, it performs its job effectively with no major issues related to performance or functionalities including policy control, VPN, and security features. I would rate this product a 7 out of 10.

The typical use case for Fortinet FortiGate is because of the user-friendly interface.

Fortinet FortiGate's best features are the manageability part and centralized management. The community support available for Fortinet FortiGate is also a significant advantage. Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization, offering ease of management with no network disruptions; it works seamlessly.

The room for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is related to prices; the renewal prices have to be aligned with the customer's pockets, as at times they are very aggressive, leading to the possibility of changing vendors.

I have experience of working with Fortinet FortiGate for more than 10 years.

I have faced no trouble with the stability; it works seamlessly, and the support is good, as most of the time customers themselves can resolve issues.

Fortinet FortiGate is not a scalable solution, as they give you a number and each box comes with concurrent connections; if you need to expand, you have to change the box.

I would rate technical support a seven on a scale of one to ten.

Neutral

Before Fortinet FortiGate, we used SonicWALL, Sophos, and GuardShield for our customers.

The initial setup varies from customer to customer, as we are a system integrator, having sold more than 500 plus boxes.

We have expertise in integrating SD-WAN capabilities with FortiGate, but I'm not the right person to comment on it.

The ROI after implementing Fortinet solution means that while it is there, they have now become very expensive; for example, if I buy a product for 10 lakhs INR today, after three years they will ask for 15 lakhs, which is a major concern for customers.

My advice to other organizations considering Fortinet FortiGate is to evaluate the features of other products as well, as Sophos also does a great job, but users may not adopt it due to its presence. 

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate overall as seven.

Fortinet FortiGate serves as our perimeter network firewall for our internal needs, and we also use SD-WAN to combine several internet service providers. I have experience with integration of SD-WAN capabilities, and I can explain my feedback on this.

The impact of SD-WAN on my network performance is clear, and if we speak about Fortinet Unified SASE, it is effective for me. My experience with this unified agent brings some examples to mind.

There are some areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiGate, including some small challenges I have faced.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about two years.

I do not work with Fortinet FortiGate Data Center solution, and in general, Fortinet FortiGate is stable. I never see any crashes or downtime; it performs fine overall, but I wonder if it is also scalable or if there may be some limitations, possibly regarding cost to scale.

I never see any crashes or downtime; it performs fine overall, but I wonder if it is also scalable or if there may be some limitations, possibly regarding cost to scale.

I would give technical support from Fortinet nine points as well, noting that only the licensing model could be a bit improved, and all the rest is fine.

Positive

In terms of pricing, the solution is a bit expensive, but I think it was a better option than Checkpoint, which is why I replaced it.

Since implementing Fortinet FortiGate, I have not seen significant changes in ROI, but what I can share about deployment is that Fortinet FortiGate is easy to deploy.

I deploy the solution on the cloud.

Since implementing Fortinet FortiGate, I have not seen significant changes in ROI.

In terms of pricing, the solution is a bit expensive, but I think it was a better option than Checkpoint, which is why I replaced it.

In terms of pricing, the solution is a bit expensive, but I think it was a better option than Checkpoint, which is why I replaced it.

I am working with Fortinet FortiGate as a customer. I purchased the product from Fortinet directly, and if we speak about integration of SD-WAN with Fortinet FortiSASE, it has a positive impact on application performance in my case. For SD-WAN, I am not using it, so I would rate my overall experience with Fortinet FortiGate as nine out of ten points. I don't want to see new features included or new integrations for now.

We are using Fortinet FortiGate for the SD-WAN solution between our branches. We also started using Fortinet's access points, wireless solution, and full fabric with switching. We are using many products from Fortinet.

We don't use Fortinet FortiGate for data center solutions; we just use Fortinet FortiGate for perimeter firewalls and wireless and switching.

The main benefits that Fortinet FortiGate provides is the security of the network.

Fortinet FortiGate has many functions, and it is one of the best next-generation firewalls with an affordable cost than other vendors. 

Fortinet FortiGate is useful for network performance, and it helps to optimize the links between branches and the applications that are used from the data center to other branches. 

The integration between SD-WAN and FortiGate is easy. It accommodates our needs.

They can add automation for monitoring and policy optimization on the firewall. I think using AI to do some optimization on the policies would be beneficial, such as providing alerts about policies that haven't been used for a long time or identifying overlapping policies.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for at least six to seven years.

I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate as eight out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Fortinet FortiGate as eight out of ten.

I would rate technical support from Fortinet as seven out of ten. While there are no issues, there is improvement needed for fast response and clear response from Fortinet's technical support.

Positive

The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate is very simple.

Palo Alto is the main competitor in the market. Fortinet FortiGate provides a simple solution. It is less expensive than Palo Alto and meets our requirements. 

We do the exercise from designing and planning with Fortinet FortiGate, and then we purchase through a partner.

My overall rating for Fortinet FortiGate is eight out of ten.

Fortinet FortiGate is used just to manage our network because our network is managed by another company. I work in a small to medium-sized industry.

Fortinet FortiGate is used to prevent security failures. Since implementing the solution, we have seen improvements in security and in the distribution of our network.

In my opinion, Fortinet FortiGate could be improved by making the appliance smaller than what we have here, as it is pretty big.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for three or four years.

Fortinet FortiGate is better for large enterprise networking compared to MikroTik because we have about 100 people using our network, and we have had few problems compared to the time we were using MikroTik, which didn't work for us as well as the Fortinet FortiGate 200D does.

We never have any issue or problem that hasn't been solved in two or three hours. The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with. Fortinet FortiGate does not require a lot of maintenance.

Positive

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for three or four years, and before that, we used MikroTik. We switched to Fortinet FortiGate because the company that provides service for us started to work with Fortinet FortiGate as a partner, and they showed it to us. We liked it, and we started to use the Fortinet FortiGate solution.

The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate was pretty easy, and they completed it in one hour and a half.

Two people worked to support us on Fortinet FortiGate. One of their job roles was manager, and I don't know the other role.

My advice for people thinking about using Fortinet FortiGate is that you have to try to understand your necessities first. Make a comparison with other players in the market and have a good company to manage the equipment if you don't have the competence to do it yourself, preferably a third company that does this for you. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

My main use case for this product is a firewall.

I appreciate the ease of use, ease of setup, and the different abilities it has. I have been very pleased with it over SonicWall. The interface of Fortinet FortiGate is a lot easier to use and more robust, plus their VPN option is much better; SonicWall is ridiculously slow. I have been very happy with the effectiveness of the unified SASE for providing consistent security policies across multiple locations. It has positively impacted my organization by freeing me up regarding administration; I spend a lot less time on administration. It probably saves me about 30 to 45 minutes a week.

They could continuously focus their improvements on network perimeter security, as that's what they're best at.

I have had four years of experience with Fortinet FortiGate, going on four, possibly five. I cannot remember if we switched over to them in 2020 or 2021, but I think it was 2020.

Fortinet FortiGate is very stable. I don't have any issues with Fortinet FortiGate freezing up or needing frequent restarts. The firmware updates are automatic, and I have just been really happy.

While we're a single office with a single server, I can say that it can definitely be scaled up.

I had a little help from Fortinet FortiGate support, but other than that, it was just me deploying it. I would rate their support a 10; they're fantastic. Their knowledge makes them fantastic; if they had to research something and get back to me, it was very quick, and usually I get an answer right away.

The unit itself is probably comparable in price, maybe a little more expensive than SonicWall; however, the yearly maintenance is quite a bit more, but it is more robust and worth it.

For a firewall, the initial setup was pretty straightforward for us.

I had a little help from Fortinet FortiGate support, but other than that, it was just me deploying it.

I believe all use cases could work for this solution. For us, Fortinet FortiGate is deployed on-premises. We purchased Fortinet FortiGate through a Fortinet reseller. Their knowledge makes them fantastic; if they had to research something and get back to me, it was very quick, and usually I get an answer right away.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an 8 or a 9 overall; everything always has room for improvement, but I'm pretty pleased with it.

My use cases for Fortinet FortiGate mostly involve perimeter-based security and fire-walling.

I find that Fortinet FortiGate is pretty easy to use and integrated, offering many features in one box at a decent price compared to other enterprise vendors. When I first used it as a one-for-one replacement, the functionality was basically the same, but the ease of use compared to the old solution increased, so I definitely saw benefits immediately.

Fortinet FortiGate could improve by enhancing FortiManager, which is the centralized management system. It has many inconsistencies and errors with respect to pushing policies, especially when we have a large network team that needs to push different rules. Improving the consistency and allowing proper stability with many users managing hundreds of firewalls would be beneficial. Regarding cloud deployment in public cloud, it is less flexible and scalable, and customers need to provide and take care of resiliency, scalability, and redundancy. This could be a future improvement for Fortinet FortiGate to better adhere to cloud philosophies.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately 10 years.

The stability and performance of Fortinet FortiGate have been good, as it has been running at the company for quite a few years since we first implemented it.

Regarding scalability, we have hundreds of physical appliances deployed, which are running adequately. However, in cloud deployment such as public cloud, it is less flexible and scalable. Customers need to provide and take care of resiliency, scalability, and redundancy, which could be a future improvement for Fortinet FortiGate to better adhere to cloud philosophies.

I have contacted technical support regarding FortiSwitch integration issues with Fortinet FortiGate. They are good at responding, though I don't need to call support often. For myself, the experience has been good. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would give Fortinet FortiGate's support an eight. I did have some minor issues with the person I talked to, but overall, they were able to resolve the issue.

Positive

I have used alternatives to Fortinet FortiGate.

For someone with a network background deploying Fortinet FortiGate for the first time, the switch is very easy and the UI is easy to navigate. However, their CLI is very difficult to learn, though changes and configurations in the UI are very understandable.

For the deployment of Fortinet FortiGate, it depends on the project, but for smaller or even bigger deployments, one person can easily handle it, excluding data center rack installation.

Fortinet FortiGate requires maintenance, including updates and firmware updates to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities. Overall, it runs fine, but it has security vulnerabilities with respect to some features that may have affected its reputation. Keeping up to date is a normal part of having any product vendor, and their upgrade process has been smooth.

I don't necessarily know directly about their pricing, but Fortinet tends to be lower than Cisco based on the separate projects I've been involved with. In general, Fortinet FortiGate has very competitive pricing.

Cisco Firepower is one alternative to Fortinet FortiGate. Comparing both, ease of use is a major difference. Cisco Firepower's ease of use is very poor, with many bugs and issues that made it non-functional - some things break and pushing policies is very slow.

Previously, I was a customer of Fortinet, but now I am also a reseller partner. I rate Fortinet FortiGate 8 out of 10.