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Director_45785 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Jun 13, 2024
Helps block certain applications and websites to enhance user productivity and maintain application security
Pros and Cons
  • "FortiWeb Web Application Firewall helps us to block certain categories of browsing, such as weapons, and other inappropriate content on the client side. We have also blocked social media sites like TikTok and Facebook to enhance user productivity and maintain application security."
  • "We haven't faced any significant issues with FortiWeb Web Application Firewall. But they can lower the pricing, since it is a concern, especially in South Africa and the technical support, could be more responsive at times."

What is our primary use case?

The solution helps us to block certain applications and websites.

How has it helped my organization?

The use of FortiWeb Web Application Firewall, combined with Office 365 and Azure ID, has streamlined our VPN use and network security. With single sign-on, users only need to remember one process instead of two or three, which has improved our business security. 

What is most valuable?

FortiWeb Web Application Firewall helps us to block certain categories of browsing, such as weapons, and other inappropriate content on the client side. We have also blocked social media sites like TikTok and Facebook to enhance user productivity and maintain application security.             

What needs improvement?

We haven't faced any significant issues with FortiWeb Web Application Firewall. But they can lower the pricing, since it is a concern, especially in South Africa and the technical support, could be more responsive at times.

Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiWeb
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiWeb. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using FortiWeb Web Application Firewall of the past two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have encountered some issues with the stability and would rate it an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The customer services is good but sometimes they are unresponsive.

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

Before FortiWeb and Fortinet, we used to work with Sophos. We switched to Fortinet mainly due to better support and the availability of distributors in our country. In South Africa, Sophos lacked sufficient support and the resolution times for queries were often prolonged. With more vendors and better support, Fortinet has proven to be a more reliable choice.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment process of FortiWeb Web Application Firewall was easy. It took half an hour to be deployed.

What was our ROI?

FortiWeb Web Application Firewall has definitely helped with notifications of potential threats and vulnerabilities. It has impacted our operational costs by reducing them by 20%. This is mainly due to savings on bandwidth and infrastructure costs, as well as improved efficiency in handling potential threats.

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

I would rate the pricing a four out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

FortiWeb should include log retention for 90 or 180 days built into the product, without requiring an additional license. Having to buy extra licenses for longer log retention is problematic and adds to the cost.

I would recommend FortiWeb to other users.

Overall, I would rate FortiWeb an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
BatuAkalin - PeerSpot reviewer
Corporate Information Technology Security Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 10
Jul 29, 2024
Has antivirus features and helps to comply with GDPR and KVKK
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's integration with other products is easy. Its most valuable feature is the antivirus engine. The tool helps us comply with GDPR and KVKK standards."
  • "FortiWeb WAF's tuning causes trouble. It's complicated. The solution needs to improve the signature feature as well."

What is most valuable?

The solution's integration with other products is easy. Its most valuable feature is the antivirus engine.  The tool helps us comply with GDPR and KVKK standards. 

What needs improvement?

FortiWeb WAF's tuning causes trouble. It's complicated. The solution needs to improve the signature feature as well. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the product for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution's pricing a ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My company has 50 users. 

How are customer service and support?

The solution's support is very good. 

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

I use Palo Alto and Symantec products simultaneously. We chose FortiWeb WAF because of its pricing and easy implementation. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution's deployment is easy and takes ten days to complete. We have two resources involved in its maintenance. 

What was our ROI?

The solution is cost-effective since it is cheaper than other alternatives. Also, the false positive rates are low. 

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

I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the overall product a nine 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
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiWeb
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiWeb. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2100774 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of IT at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Real User
Feb 22, 2023
A cost-effective solution with good pricing and good analytics and filtering capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "Some of the threat detection analytics and the filtering capabilities they give us for filtering a certain type of information that we don't want coming into the site are its valuable features. The analytics are pretty good in terms of being able to see what threats have been detected and mitigated, where they're coming from, and things like that."
  • "Their documentation is fairly complete, but it's sometimes a little bit difficult to search for exactly what you're looking for to resolve an issue. There have been times when we've gone to try to search for areas that we needed to get information on, and it has not always been extremely clear exactly how a particular thing needs to be set up."

What is our primary use case?

We're using the Fortinet FortiWeb firewall to front-end the production and test applications we run on Azure. We're an Azure environment, and it front-ends those applications.

We currently aren't using any of the advanced features.

How has it helped my organization?

Fortinet FortiWeb has given us a more cost-effective security solution. Because it's a software-as-a-service or infrastructure type of platform, we've been able to replace our dedicated hardware platforms. It has given us more flexibility to be able to utilize it as a service.

It has minimized the number of technical resources and the amount of time that we've had to dedicate to setting up and managing the front-end firewall capability. From that standpoint, it has saved us time. I don't know exactly how machine learning is attached to that, but if that had anything to do with the simplification and the ability to give us the information we need reporting-wise, then it has helped us with that.

It has allowed us to not spend as many resources on trying to manage the setups that we used to have to do in the past on the security side. It has taken care of that, so at a higher level, we can manage and configure that. It has reduced some of the time that the staff spent on that, but it's hard to measure the time saved.

What is most valuable?

Some of the threat detection analytics and the filtering capabilities they give us for filtering a certain type of information that we don't want coming into the site are its valuable features. The analytics are pretty good in terms of being able to see what threats have been detected and mitigated, where they're coming from, and things like that. That has allowed us to do some additional filtering because by looking at threats, we can apply additional filters and try to minimize some of them.

Fortinet FortiWeb works well for what we do and what we use it for. It's fairly easy to use, easy to set up, and easy to monitor. It's easy to configure, monitor, and manage.

What needs improvement?

Their documentation is fairly complete, but it's sometimes a little bit difficult to search for exactly what you're looking for to resolve an issue. There have been times when we've gone to try to search for areas that we needed to get information on, and it has not always been extremely clear exactly how a particular thing needs to be set up. It sometimes takes a little bit of research to dig into figuring out exactly what it is. More examples would be helpful on what they have. The information sometimes doesn't relate directly to the state of the product at the time, so examples would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution for a little over a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has been very good. In the time we've had it, we've had only one issue when they had some sort of outage for themselves that affected us. That was the only one that I've encountered so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't done a lot on scaling, but just from configuring the product and looking at it, it appears to be fairly good at scaling. It appears to be fairly or moderately simple to set up for scaling, but we haven't done a lot of scaling with it yet.

It's an in-house hosted web application environment that we utilize. We probably have around 500 to 1,000 people using it. We use it within our company environment. We've anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people depending on the customers that we have linked into it. 

How are customer service and support?

I've contacted their tech support. For the times that I contacted them, they were very helpful. I'd rate them seven out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

We did have some specific hardware firewall solutions that were in place at data centers. When we went to the cloud for our applications, we wanted to move to a cloud-based front-end firewall infrastructure. We didn't want to be managing the hardware at locations. 

How was the initial setup?

It was fairly straightforward. It was fairly easy to implement, but the documentation with some examples might have made it simpler. Overall, it was fairly easy to get the initial implementation in place and get things worked out.

What about the implementation team?

We did it all in-house. We had probably three people for its implementation.

It requires minimal maintenance. We probably have two people involved in the maintenance.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI. The previous hardware solutions we had were fairly expensive. They had a higher cost of maintenance and actual manual support because we had to support the infrastructure and we had to support the product itself. By FortiWeb providing us with a service solution that does that, we're not managing hardware. We're not investing in the hardware upfront, and we're not providing the labor to maintain and install that particular part of it. The only thing we focus on now is the setup and then the constant monitoring of what goes on and any actions we need to take as we move forward. It has helped us in that sense because we don't have the ongoing hardware licensing and hardware infrastructure that we have to mess with. So, it has definitely been a more cost-effective solution.

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

So far, I have been pretty pleased with the way it's priced and licensed. The way it's done makes it easy, especially for an organization like us, so I've been pleased with the way it's priced and licensed right now.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn't evaluate any cloud-based products. We've used Cisco products and Meraki products in the past, but they all were hardware products. When we were looking for a software solution, I had gotten a recommendation for the product from another person I worked with in the past. That person was using it and mentioned to me that I should give it a try. That's how I got into it. It was through a referral. Once I got it and tested it, it seemed like a pretty good product for what we needed, so that's how we went with it.

What other advice do I have?

Fortinet FortiWeb seems to have worked well for blocking unknown threats and attacks. It hasn't necessarily helped us streamline anything, but it has simplified how we provide the front-end firewall capability.

It has reduced false positives to some degree. It tries to identify those to tell us what are the different threats, but it's hard to provide metrics without measuring what false positives might have been there. However, I do know that the reporting that it gives can identify that.

Similarly, I don't know if it has reduced the number of alerts. However, I do know that it has allowed us to categorize and understand what types of threats we get. From the threat alerts, we get to know whether they're alerts we should be concerned about or whether they're just alerts notifying us that those are things that have come in that it has taken care of. So, I don't know if it has really reduced them as much as it has helped us to understand what they are and be able to focus more on if there are alerts that we need to take action on and investigate, or whether they're alerts for things that have been taken care of and we don't necessarily have to spend any time on.

Overall, I'd rate Fortinet FortiWeb an eight out of ten for what it does.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Saeid Khanipour Ghobani - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Oct 11, 2022
Cost-effective and super easy to use but is lacking a dynamic routing protocol
Pros and Cons
  • "The anti-defacement feature is very useful because it looks for web changes over time to protect pages."
  • "A better load balancer is needed when multiple servers are used for the same website."

What is our primary use case?

Our company uses the solution to protect websites from SQL injection and excessive attacks on Layer 7. 

We have 500 users throughout our company. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is very easy to use with little instruction. 

The anti-defacement feature is very useful because it looks for web changes over time to protect pages. 

What needs improvement?

A better load balancer is needed when multiple servers are used for the same website. 

A dynamic routing protocol needs to be included with the next release. 

The solution does not handle batch migration as well as F5 Advanced WAF. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for five years and serve as an instructor.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The version we use is stable and reliable with no issues. 

It has been reported that the latest version has some stability issues. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. 

Scalability always depends on usability. For example, using the solution for an industrial company that has an internal product is very different than using the solution for a bank that has 10,000 internal users and 1 million customers. 

I score scalability an eight for the solution, a nine for F5 Advanced WAF, and a ten for Avi Networks. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been great and has a vast knowledge base with quick response times. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy. 

Initial configurations take a maximum of four hours. 

What about the implementation team?

The solution was implemented in-house. 

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

The solution is very inexpensive when compared to F5 Advanced WAF and Avi Networks but offers the same benefits. 

Our one-year license is $24,000 Canadian and includes all users. We are very satisfied with the solution's licensing strategy. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

F5 Advanced WAF includes more features and scalability than the solution but is very expensive. With an unlimited budget, F5 is the better choice.

The solution includes many of F5's features but is inexpensive. 

What other advice do I have?

It is important as part of your regular process to update any tools including the solution. Versions are built in other countries so it is a good idea to ensure you are using the latest, gold-standard version for your area. For example, check for direct internet access, review active directory authentications, and configure users, servers, and certificates. 

The solution is super easy to use, is inexpensive, and includes great technical support. 

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
Andreas Lalos - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Professional Services at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 5
Nov 11, 2024
Enhanced application protection with an extensive attack signature library
Pros and Cons
  • "FortiWeb has a very extensive library of known attack signatures, which makes the product fit for any environment, regardless if the customer uses Windows-specific or non-Windows-specific applications."
  • "For users not familiar with Fortinet, it could be beneficial to provide more user-friendly analytics and reporting."

What is our primary use case?

FortiWeb is used for web application protection. It protects a web application against attacks targeting their web applications, such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and other common application-specific attacks.

How has it helped my organization?

FortiWeb allows the organization to operate efficiently without any downtime or serious security breach.

What is most valuable?

FortiWeb has a very extensive library of known attack signatures, which makes the product fit for any environment, regardless if the customer uses Windows-specific or non-Windows-specific applications. It also has a very low rate of false positives and incorporates other FortiGuard capabilities, such as detection of botnet traffic.

What needs improvement?

For users not familiar with Fortinet, it could be beneficial to provide more user-friendly analytics and reporting. The product could offer better capabilities and analytics to pinpoint threat landscapes more efficiently.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with FortiWeb for approximately four years, maybe more.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

FortiWeb has proven to be very stable and does not introduce latency in the network.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product can scale according to the organization's traffic and architecture. It is available as a virtual appliance and a hardware appliance.

How are customer service and support?

Fortinet provides very good support, which I would rate as eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

At the moment, we are only working with Fortinet and not with other web application firewalls.

How was the initial setup?

Someone without prior experience with the product might find it challenging to deploy. However, Fortinet provides good online training to assist administrators.

What was our ROI?

The total cost of ownership should be calculated based on the actual protection it offers to the application. Deploying FortiWeb can save 20% to 30% of resources within the organization.

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

FortiWeb uses a subscription-based license, but there is also an option for a perpetual license. It's not the cheapest solution. That said, it is worth the investment.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have experience with other web application products.

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
PeerSpot user
Aung Min Oo - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Jan 15, 2024
A tool to protect websites from malware and adware attacks that needs to improve its scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to configure."
  • "FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) needs to update its attack prevention database."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for some of my company's clients who want to protect their websites from malware and adware attacks.

How has it helped my organization?

From a benefit perspective, FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects the customers’ websites, which are used to communicate with the audience or clients.

What is most valuable?

I am not sure about what I like in the solution because I think most of the customers ask for the product whenever they want a WAF tool for any of their projects. After our company had a discussion with one of our local teams, we sold it by providing the features of the FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) that our customers like, as we mostly follow the customer requirements. Our company sells FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) if it meets our customers' requirements.

What needs improvement?

To deal with zero-day attacks, FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) needs to expand and update its database since it is one of the areas where the tool currently lacks. In short, FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) needs to update its attack prevention database.

In FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF), there is a substantial amount of improvement required in the scalability area.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) for less than a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten.

My company only has two customers who use FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF). My company wants to sell the tool to medium and large-sized businesses with 500 or more users.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

Sometimes, the product's deployment takes over one or two days because customers need to check their requirements and then may want some features. In general, it takes a minimum of two or three days to deploy the product.

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

Compared to the other products in the market, FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a reasonably priced product, but sometimes people may consider it a bit expensive. I rate the product price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price.

What other advice do I have?

The product is easy to configure.

I have a separate team of three engineers in the company to manage FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF).

Based on my experience and the comments from our company's customers who use the solution, I can say that FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a good product. Our company's customers who use the solution like it since they have been using it for about a year without any bad opinions or comments about it.

Feature-wise, FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) needs to add more functionalities. Some of the customers who use it want it to have more features, but we cannot find any in the tool presently. I can say what kind of features are required right now in the product. One customer who may want 20 features in the tool may get only 15 features that comply with the customer's requirements.

I rate the overall tool a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
CharlesFamisaran - PeerSpot reviewer
Head - System and Network Admin at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Jan 9, 2024
Easy to setup, stable and scalable solution
Pros and Cons
  • "It is good for web tracking applications."
  • "There is room for improvement in pricing, and actually, the price is a bit higher because on the same terms I purchased, the support subscription is so high."

What is our primary use case?

My main use case is for security and routing.

What is most valuable?

It is good for web tracking applications.  

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement in pricing, and actually, the price is a bit higher because on the same terms I purchased, the support subscription is so high.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for a long time. It has been more than three years now. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is guaranteed stability. I'm okay with stability. I would rate the stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

I am okay with the support. The support's subscription is high. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

pfSense is open-source and free, while FortiWeb is subscription-based. Both are manageable, but FortiWeb's features scale up connections per second, depending on the payment plan. 

How was the initial setup?

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

It took us two days to set up.

What about the implementation team?

I deployed it myself.  I just got a reference from the old system, and I configured it.

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

I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate it a solid 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
Jishain-Ali - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Consultant at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Consultant
Oct 20, 2023
An easy-to-deploy solution with machine learning features that reduce false positives
Pros and Cons
  • "The machine learning feature reduces the false positives."
  • "The documentation is poor."

What is most valuable?

The product has some unique features. The machine learning feature reduces the false positives. The tool detects zero-day attacks. It has an in-built antivirus, which most WAF tools do not have.

What needs improvement?

Advanced configurations require high skill. FortiWeb team should work on making it easier. The documentation is poor. The tool must provide advanced and robust DDoS protection.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for almost six years.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is fine. The support team gives delayed responses if there is a complex issue.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

I have worked with F5 Advanced WAF. It is a robust product and is suitable for complex environments. It is flexible. However, it depends on other solutions for inbuilt security and packet inspection.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. It requires less intervention.

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

I recommend the product to others. Overall, I rate the solution 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
Download our free Fortinet FortiWeb Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiWeb Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.