Fortinet FortiOS Reviews

The primary use case is for integrated cybersecurity.  

The VDOM (Virtual DOM) is a virtualized firewall that has some opportunities for flexibility that are an advantage in certain configurations. The other valuable part is that this flexibility makes it easy to integrate with Cisco products.  

The product really has everything that we need as far as features for this type of solution and our use case. It works fine for us. One thing that can be improved is the pricing model. It is currently subscription-based and I think they should probably try to change that.  

We have been using FortiO since around 2016. So we have been using it for four years.  

We had some issues with the stability of FortiOS, but I do not think it was because of Fortinet. It was because of how the integrator handled the configurations. The partner that implemented it originally did not do it optimally. We ended up having to change the partner in order to have it done correctly.  

So far we are satisfied with the technical support. We have not had a lot of need to use them.  

We had been using Check Point and we still use it. In fact, we have been working with Check Point more than Fortinet. I may be a bit biased toward Check Point because I already have more implementation support for it than FortiOS.  

The difference between the price of the products is also obvious. Pricing is more flexible with Check Point than with Fortinet. Fortinet ends up being more expensive because of the pricing scheme.  

The pros and cons of them are not so much different. If it were my choice and we were going to change what we use or choose between the two, then we would move back to using Check Point exclusively. 

I think that the setup was a bit complex because we have a complex network. Because of that, we had to do some interoperability testing first and that made the initial setup take longer than it would in another, simpler environment.  

The initial setup is one other area that could be simplified.  

We used a partner for the implementation. We ended up having to replace them with a different partner because of installation issues. The second partner was able to fix the issues.  

The costs for the maintenance and subscription for Fortinet FortiOS software alone is actually half of the cost of the hardware. For example, if your hardware costs were about $40,000, your yearly subscription to FortiOS is about $20,000. That is kind of the drawback to using Fortinet. By comparison, that $60,000 is already three years of maintenance or support with Check Point for the same scale setup. It is a significant cost difference.  

I would probably recommend Check Point to most users considering FortiO if they do not have any ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) implementation or a Cisco ACI. If you could do a workaround on the ACI, then I would probably still recommend Check Point. But if you do not know how to make that type of adjustment or can not and you do not have any partners that need to access your systems, then it is better you go for Fortinet.  

We primarily use the solution as a firewall. It's protecting customers from the internet to have access to servers behind the firewall.

We co-locate customers' servers at our company, and we also give them firewall protection. Mostly, people that co-locate a server don't have any firewall so they ask for the service through us.

The solution is very user friendly. 

The product is very easy to configure, compared to other firewalls that I've worked with.

Fortinet needs to make this solution even more robust. Sometimes when we get a DDoS attack, the cannot withstand it. We can run out of sessions very easily. That said, I suppose if you want more a robust system, then you could purchase higher-end solutions, which are more expensive. Still, I would like to see more protection from even in the low-end version.

The pricing needs to be improved. It's quite pricey.

In terms of the CLI, if they could make it more intuitive, and more user friendly, it would make the solution better. I like to work on CLI instead of through the GUI. If you are used to it then you wouldn't mind the way it works right now. However, for those that don't, there's just a sizeable learning curve.

I have been dealing with the solution for three and a half or four years.

The solution doesn't really scale. If you want a bigger box, you need to scrap the box you have and trade up to get the larger capacity. You can't just "add" to it per se on existing solutions you've bought. It's hardware, so it doesn't scale well.

We're not looking to increase our usage right now. COVID-19 really slowed us down in a lot of ways.

We have a local supplier that helps us a lot every time we need to open a ticket. So far we haven't had that many issues. The few ones that we have had, we didn't have any problems with opening up tickets and getting support.

The solution is not complex at all. I'd say it's very easy. There's a learning curve, however, once you're used to the device, it's very easy to set up a firewall. It's fairly straightforward.

The solution is too expensive. If they could push down their prices, that would be great. However, I'm not in charge of purchasing. I wouldn't know about the exact costs.

We're just customers. We don't have a business relationship with Fortigate.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

FortiGate as a product is very easy to configure. There is a lot of data now with switching IDS and IPS. It's a truly complete solution for our customers.

It's a good idea to have the firewall connected to the switches. That way, the firewall is the controller of the switches. We like how the solution is designed with that in mind.

The solution's switches are lacking. They need more features added to them to build them out a bit. The switches are very simple if you compare them with other companies like Cisco or Aruba. Those organizations offer their clients much more.

Technical support could be better. Some competitors have much more responsive support teams.

I know the last version had NAC, network access control, added inside the firewall. It's a process, however. There's still work to do. The next version will be better. Right now, you can't authenticate other devices. You only can authenticate Forti devices and not devices from other companies. This could be the next addition to the solution that will make its performance even better. 

I've been dealing with the solution for ten years now. It's been a decade.

The solution is stable. We have no issues in that regard. There aren't bugs and glitches. It doesn't crash. It's reliable.

The solution is very scalable. We have a solution from the most basic office setup to a very complex data center. It works well in either scenario. If a company requires scale, this solution can provide it.

I have used technical support in the past. It's good for the most part. However, other companies, from my experience, have better technical support. They might be able to improve this aspect of the solution a little bit.

While it's easy to access them, finding a solution to whatever problems you are dealing with takes a long time. They need to get better at turning around queries faster so clients aren't kept waiting for so long.

The initial setup is very straightforward. I wouldn't describe the process as complex.

Deployment takes one to two hours. Everything happens pretty fast.

The pricing is good. They are especially fair when compared with other companies, like Palo Alto, for example, which can get quite expensive.

We work with a lot of manufacturers of firewalls. It's normally Fortinet, however, we also work with Cisco, Palo Alto, and Sophos. My company works with Barracuda as well. To be honest, I am not a specialist with Barracuda. I normally don't work with that.

That said, typically, when we work with clients, one of the first solutions we will suggest will be Fortinet. We do normally also recommend Cisco first, as well, due to the fact we are Cisco partners. We're also partners with Fortinet.

We have a deal with Palo Alto and our security center recommends Barracuda because of their other security solutions like WAF or solutions in the cloud (not their firewall). 

Normally, we use the on-premise deployment model. At this moment, we are working with a public cloud deployment model as well.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall.

We primarily use the solution for our firewalls. 

Basically we're providing security distribution for our client. One of the solutions we utilize are firewalls. It helps secure the environment and monitor traffic.

There are a lot of features that we like within the solution. The resources or performance of the firewall is very good. However, the real selling point is the fact that the solution offers so many features, it gives our clients a lot of extras that they can work with. There's a lot on offer.

Right now, it's very trendy to integrate everything into the cloud. This solution would be more effective if they did more integration in that regard.

I've been using the solution since 2016. It's been a few years now.

The solution is very stable, however, in rare instances where there happens to be a bug or glitch, the good thing about them is that they release fixes whenever there's a bug on the OS. Users will need to upgrade their OS if this is the case in order to get the fix. It's great that they deal with the bugs head-on and put out fixes efficiently.

The solution is quite scalable. It's one of its selling features. Although, I believe that most competitors would also scale just as well.

Support is very fast and reliable, but it absolutely depends on the ticket, or what it is comprised of or how hard the errors or problems are. Easy questions are dealt with quite quickly, but harder issues might take at least an hour or so before a user would get a reply. 

We mostly focus on Fortinet products for our firewalls. We don't really use a different solution and haven't used something else in the past. I'm familiar with Sophos firewalls but have not deployed any just yet.

While Sophos is more expensive than Fortinet, from what I have seen, their functionality is basically the same. The difference between the two appears to be simply in the architecture of each solution. They are quite similar, but the user interface is a bit different.

I'm quite comfortable with the solution, so for me the process of installing the solution is quite straightforward. I would say it's very straightforward, and it's easy to learn, especially because they offer a very good GUI. It's not as easy to set up as, for example, FortiGate, which is an application on FortiOS. FortiOS is just a bit more complex.

The deployment time varies. It largely depends on the number of security policies that demand attention. It's most likely one day or so, so it's not too long. However, it can vary. You only need one person to deploy the product.

We implement the solution for our clients. We handle the deployment for them ourselves using our in-house team. Typically I'll be the one to deploy it for the clients directly, and then I'll hand everything over to after-sales support.

I'm not sure of the pricing, but my understanding, after looking into Sophos, is that Fortinet is less expensive than Sophos.

We're using version 6.2 of the solution right now, however, the latest version available is 6.4.

I'm part of the security team at our organization. We're business partners with Fortinet.

I would advise other companies to choose a firewall brand that they can they afford. Cost is an important aspect. It needs to work well within an organization's budget. It doesn't make sense to look at products that are out of an organization's price range, so make sure you are looking at options that are affordable. 

The second thing to consider is the solution's functionality. If that particular brand or particular product has the functionality required, and they are able to implement it on their network or in their infrastructure, that's a good sign. 

The third consideration should be support. It's important for a company to understand how fast and how reliable the support is. That's very important after the sale.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

It's a security device. We use it to keep the bad guys away.

A firewall is a security appliance. FortiGate also does email filtering and does data loss prevention.

All networks are security-driven, we get throughputs and security. We feel that the people at Fortinet are easy to deal with from a support standpoint. If they need to jump in and help us, they're very willing to do that. Their email filtering, their data loss prevention, their intrusion prevention, type of products in the newest OSs has been outstanding.

I have been using Fortinet FortiOS for ten years. 

The stability is excellent. 

Scalability is wonderful. Affordability is really good.

Everybody's being protected by the firewall. The firewall device is using the operating system. And so, in that sense, you could say everybody is using it. The people that are actually technically working with the Fortinet devices are a handful, six to eight technicians.

We feel that the people at Fortinet are easy to deal with from a support standpoint. If they need to jump in and help us, they're very willing to do that. Their email filtering, their data loss prevention, their intrusion prevention, type of products in the newest OSs has been outstanding.

We've used other solutions in the past. But we've settled into FortiGate for around 10 years. 

The initial setup was straightforward. It's pretty much just plug and play. It takes hours. 

They're very competitive and easy to work with in terms of pricing. I can't say, that's why we chose them, that's why we've stuck with them. It's a very well-respected name in the industry.

Everybody wants to go to Cisco for different things and everybody loves to hate Cisco. Cisco is a great product for large companies. They're low income, they're low-end products and their support for their low-end products leaves a lot to be desired. That's hence why SonicWall, Extreme Networks, and Fortinet are in business. There are these other smaller companies that are getting involved with the smaller companies, taking market shares away from Cisco because Cisco's support for their product is bad.

The support contracts are usually about $100 - $200 a device. The support contract usually includes software upgrades, hardware maintenance, and hardware break-fix. And they very seldom break.

I am looking at replacing some SonicWalls for a customer. I think SonicWall is its competition. SonicWall is got a good product, but I still believe that FortiGate is the best product for the people that we deal with.

My advice to someone implementing this solution is not to take shortcuts. Shortcuts aren't good. Don't hesitate to use FortiGate's technical support.

Always buy support. Always buy FortiCare. You can buy it for one year, two years, or three years with the initial purchase. We always buy it and sell it to our customers for three years. And the product will last more than three years.

Fortinet competes in the big companies as well. We just don't. Our marketplace is the smaller users two or three, maybe four locations, 150 to 300 endpoints. So we're not dealing in the 10,000s of users trying to get into 100 of servers. We're dealing with tens and fifties and a hundred, trying to get into a few servers.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. It could more scalable for the lower end users. 

Our primary use case for this solution is for deploying network security systems for SMBs or mid-range corporations.

We use the SSL VPN web portal and we actually find it very useful because we don't need to bother with installing additional client-side software.

The most valuable part of the application is the graphic user interface of the application where you can see specifically what's going on in the system at a glance and quickly assess the system. The GUI is very good.

One thing that should be improved in future versions is an issue we have observed and had problems with a few times. When we try to reinstall a backup for FortiOS, you need to do a factory reset manually or you lose access to a device. I have experienced this situation a few times and it seems like something that should not be required and they should resolve.

I think the product is a pretty stable solution. I did have some cases with the webserver where the appliance actually crashed. Later I research about the issue and I found out that it was actually a bug in the latest version. I imagine that because they know they will issue a fix if they have not already.

I recommend this product to my clients partly because of the scalability. Scaling is never really a problem though it may cost more if the client requires additional licensing or hardware.

I don't often have to contact support. When I do I usually just get help from the online community. I really don't contact their support directly.

I go about initial setup by just implementing the configuration using CLI (Command Line Interface) to propagate the components. I think the initial setup is straightforward.

We are the consultants and we do the installations.

I think the cost of the product categorizes FortiOS because it is a bit more expensive than small businesses will usually want to spend. It is not really practical for SMB or for small businesses. It is mostly for mid-range or higher SMBs because of the pricing. It is not expensive compared to some products, but a small business may not justify the cost. The cost ends up being dependent on the solution you choose and if you want individual or package licensing.

As consultants, we provide different customers with different solutions based on what they need. So, there is no specific product that we evaluate as there are always several options. Mainly I use Fortinet or Sophos solutions to recommend to my customers. We will use on-premises or cloud depending on the needs and how it fits for the client. For Fortinet FortiOS we usually use it in on-premises installations.

I do recommend this product to clients for use but it depends on their case needs. For example, in the AAA (Authentication Authorization and Accounting) some of the accounting and some of the VPN tunneling features are removed from Fortinet FortiOS due to some security configurations. In some projects, we need those features for the client and when that is the case, I cannot recommend that the client use the FortiOS solution.

It would be a better product if there were a logging feature. You need to have FortiAnalyzer in your installation to have logging management capabilities. It will be a better solution if some logging and history capabilities were integrated without requiring an additional product installation.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is the worst and 10 is the best, I would rate Fortinet FortiOS a seven. It is a good product but there are a few problems.

We primarily use the solution for protecting our virtual infrastructure.

The solution needs to adjust its pricing model. With the way they are structured, everything is very disparate and sold separately, and, depending on the solution, it can get quite pricey.

The solution could be more intuitive. Especially when customers have access to it, it's not as simple and straightforward as some of the other devices I've taken a look at.

The solution seems very stable once you have everything up and running. 

The solution is extremely scalable.

Technical support is good. I would rate them nine out of ten.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

It wasn't technical people doing that deployment for the proof of concept, so it took about a day. We also hadn't set up all the features and capabilities. 

We pay $100,000. That covers the cost of the hardware that we run the VN's on. That also includes any SGNA costs for the internal support tech.

We use the private cloud deployment model.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

For me, personally within our company, I am using this for business administration, but the company as a whole uses the product as a general firewall solution.

This product has improved our organization by providing an easy and simple means of filtering of traffic and establishing VPN connections and authentication.

The high-availability feature is the most valuable feature for our company. It is faster and more secure by creating a situation where there are more paths and less opportunity for failure and data loss.

While the product is good and does provide services we need for authenticating and establishing VPN connections, some time ago we had issues with logins. The login event and the performance for this feature were very poor but have improved.

Excluding the login performance — which we would have issues with in the past that made us have to turn off the feature in order to examine the infrastructure — every other feature and functionality has proven to be stable. We have also experienced some issues with performance with filtering traffic but it was on the appliance and because it was just a basic setup.  The real problem was the configuration and had we been more familiar at the time, we would have done a better job with it. So it was not the product that was unstable, it was our application of it.

The solution is scalable, but we really have not had too much of a reason to put the scalability to the test. I cannot imagine an issue where we would have to scale more right now as we use two hardware installations and the high-availability feature manages the traffic. Two appliances for us seems like more than enough.

I think the technical support is not really very good. When we had some issues in the past and sent them to support, we waited a few weeks and in that time we managed to figure out the solution ourselves.

The one issue I am talking about was a very tricky issue, but they should know more about the product than we do even if we are doing the installations. Meanwhile, we had to wait and it was very inconvenient. So I think the process of the way they handle the management of issues could be improved. We managed to get some of the easier issues resolved in part through the support team initially, but when we reached the next level of difficulty, it lasted too long to get a resolution.

We had been using our own solution and wanted to go with a dedicated, packaged product. It was a business decision and would allow us to refocus our internal resources.

Because we have been doing installations of this product for five years, the installation is fairly easy. It was not very easy the first time but now we have a lot of experience in doing installations so, for us, it is easy to set up.

We do not use integrators or resellers as that is what we do and it is our responsibility.

As far as choosing the best licensing solution for your organization, do not buy the cheapest solution. Instead, buy the one that fits the traffic for your company with some room for expansion or headroom. Next year, if the business grows — which is usually what you want to do — you could reach a point where there is more traffic and the performance could become an issue.

We have lots of experience in using and installing FortiOS, and because of the experience has mostly been positive, I recommend FortiOS as a solution for firewalling. Besides the few issues we have experienced in the past, this is a stable solution and the high-availability feature is very, very good. 

On a scale from one to ten, where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would you rate Fortinet FortiOS as a nine. Despite the few problems we had in the past it is a very good solution which does what it is designed to do.

We use the on-prem deployment model of this solution. We use the standard model for our clients. 

In terms of what needs improvements, the troubleshooting could use improvement. When we work with other products like Cisco ASA, Palo Alto, and Check Point, we see a big difference in the troubleshooting. It's not easy to find a report. In order to overcome the problem, you have to install FortiAnalyzer to help you find the troubleshooting problem. FortiOS has its limitations.

I work with many products but this is the most stable OS I have seen. With Cisco, for example, if you do an upgrade, it's not guaranteed that the production will be stable. The upgraded release will release many bugs. FortiOS isn't like this. 

There is something called Fortinet Fabric that helps you to enforce your security by connecting all of your products with FortiGate. For example, if you install FortiClient on your PC it will help you use the VPN and the antivirus. When there is an issue, if you have 1,000 users with FortiClient will send a message to FortiGate. I have many projects and I use FortiManager to manage them. It helps my team minimize implementation time.

We have thousands of user using this solution. Only one person is required for the deployment. 

Their technical support has its positives and negatives. If you contact them, they are responsive and interactive and they have good solutions to the problem. The issue is with the support documents. When you need to do something advanced, there isn't good documentation for it. For basic tasks, there are plenty of videos and information but for advanced tasks or solutions, there is not.  

The initial setup is easy. It's the easiest firewall installation process on the market. I work with three or four other products and this one is the easiest. 

The time it takes to deploy will depend on the needs of the company and how complex they are. A basic installation will take one hour. 

It's important to have 24/7 support because the documentation is poor and you will need the support. It's important to have a support team and a support contract. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten. Not a ten because of the troubleshooting. Other solutions have a mechanism to find your IP network. Cisco has something called Packet Tracer which is very advanced that helps you test your configuration. It really helps the engineers to test without affecting the product environment.   

We use different types of deployment models of this solution besides for the public cloud. Our primary use case is to install it for many clients on their on-prem site. Our job is client-based. We are resellers of this solution. 

The most valuable feature of this solution would be the caching feature. 

Their technical support needs improvement. 

All products have pluses and minuses. It will depend on a client's use case.

The stability is good. 

Scalability is good. 

Sometimes it is difficult to get support. It can take time to get an answer to our problems. They don't always know what the solution is. 

They also offer online support. 

The initial setup is complex. The deployment takes eight to nine months. 

The pricing will depend. It can depend on your partner. Sometimes your partner can get you a better price. 

I wouldn't specifically recommend one product of this type over another. We provide a plethora of products and it depends on the client's needs. 

I would rate this solution a six or seven out of ten. We deal with a lot of products, this one is okay. It really depends on the client.