External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is for VPN and its appliances and for securing all of our remote locations.
A specific example of how I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure my remote locations is that we set rules on each of our locations about what traffic can and cannot go in, so we can allow certain connections for our partners such as Frontiers.
The best features Fortinet FortiGate offers are the built-in security functions, which I think are very nice.
We find the built-in security functions most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate, particularly web filtering, as it is all hands-on. Web filtering is our standout feature, and I don't want to add anything else about the features.
Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by centralizing the way to access all of our network firewalls.
I wish Fortinet FortiGate's UI updates would be done in a more simplified way to improve it.
I choose nine for my rating because I think there's always room for improvement, and I think some of the things in the UI need to be adjusted so they're a little bit more simplified and not overcomplicated.
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for at least three and a half, maybe four years now.
In my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is very stable, and it has been quite consistent during times of downtime.
Fortinet FortiGate's scalability has been keeping up well with my organization's growth or changes, as each location gets larger and we feel the need to put a Fortinet FortiGate in each one.
We have had to reach out multiple times to Fortinet engineers for customer support, and it has been great every time; they always seem to get to the bottom of it within one to two calls.
We did use a different solution before Fortinet FortiGate, but it has been so long that I cannot remember who it was; it may have been Palo Alto.
I believe we have seen a return on investment in terms of fewer employees needed, but otherwise, it is outside of my scope.
I was not directly involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate.
We did consider other options before choosing Fortinet FortiGate, but it was a straightforward decision, and I am not quite sure what the other options were.
I do not have anything that is unique to us about how we use Fortinet FortiGate in our setup.
We do not utilize Fortinet FortiGate's data center solution, and we do not feel the need to consider AI and ML enhanced FortiGuard services within Fortinet FortiGate.
I would advise others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate to make sure that they get their configurations right from the start, as that means they have less of a need to get support involved. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.
We deploy the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) mainly in education, with retail, big retails, and other industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, and some banking.
Some of the best features with the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) particularly are its security focus, the easy to configure IPS, the Layer 7 capabilities, and the easy way to configure different VDOMs in each equipment so we can separate the different features or the different sites that the client may use in one data center.
The application control feature has helped manage the network traffic with filtering and antivirus capabilities. When we use it in SD-WAN solutions, we can apply in a unified and easy way the different profiles for each branch, and we can also have one profile for the hub if they have a data center with some servers connecting to the FortiGate. We can have different profiles, and it helps us to detect easily any threat that we may have in the network and control the outbound traffic to the internet, restricting those applications or those web services that the final users don't need to have access to.
The FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)'s anti-malware protection is very effective, as we have demonstrated through our work with this feature.
The FortiGate's analytic tools have provided insights into network security events by implementing the IOC license, Indicator of Compromise, in some customers, which has been very helpful because it demonstrates that we can identify the threats more easily or the difference in the way that the customers use the network. We can identify the possible behavior of the customers on the network and can identify the possible threats and isolate that customer if we receive any threat for the network or the company.
The web filtering has also helped for maintaining network security because we have been implementing some filters in customers so they don't have access to potential sites that can make a threat to our network, for example, to access peer-to-peer networks or any other sites that are not allowed in the company.
The FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) could be improved in application control if they can have a bigger baseline of applications that they can identify, because this is something that is always growing. I know that Fortinet with the team is updating this database, but it's something that grows at a pace that is very difficult sometimes to keep up. This applies to all vendors, not only Fortinet.
I would rate their support for the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) on a scale of one to ten as 7.5.
Positive
The pricing for the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is fair.
My company has a business relationship with Fortinet as we are both resellers and we also use the technology. If they had any questions regarding my feedback on the FortiGate solution, not the NGFW, but the FortiGate, it would be okay for them to contact me in that regard. I rate the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) 8.5 out of 10.
I am working as a presales engineer or system engineer, designing solutions for other clients.
The clients use this solution for their data centers and perimeter security.
The main reason customers prefer Fortinet FortiGate is that it's security-centric, allowing them to implement security features such as a next-generation firewall and translate this to the WAN or SD-WAN architectures, or as a base if they want to grow in more security features or other verticals such as ZTNA and SASE. It's a little baseline for the rest of the verticals or features that can be exploited.
Fortinet FortiGate compares favorably to others in terms of the technology. Second, it's about the relationship they build with their customers. I'm in Colombia, and I can say they have an excellent sales and engineering team that provides a great experience for their clients. They are very attentive and engaged. This company has a rich history; they grow alongside their clients. They take the time to show clients all the benefits and features of the technology they offer. It’s a much more personal experience for everyone involved.
Fortinet Unified SASE is strong for providing consistent security policies across multiple locations. Working with Fortinet in the SASE aspect has been easy. Customers appreciate the features we can offer with Fortinet SASE and ZTNA solutions. They particularly appreciate how they can integrate everything with the baseline of Fortinet FortiGate, and how they can easily apply all the features they need to secure access to different applications from a single console. Some clients use the Fortinet FortiGate data center solution for their data centers as a hub and the perimeter security service.
My experience integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate is in the middle ground. Fortinet FortiGate, as a security-centric fabric, can implement an SD-WAN solution. It can be somewhat manual in some cases, but using other tools that Fortinet has, such as FortiManager, makes implementing an SD-WAN network easier with less effort.
The implementation depends more on the engineer's skill when integrating SD-WAN with Fortinet FortiGate. If you don't have extensive skills in implementing Fortinet FortiGate, it can be difficult, but with more experience, it becomes easier.
In the presales team, I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for about five years, and as a customer, I worked with it for about two years between 2016 and 2018.
Fortinet FortiGate is very stable and secure for customers.
It's easy with Fortinet FortiGate as they have a very good solution for scalability. If we need to grow in branches or licenses, we can easily do it. The most important aspect of growing this solution is their strong enterprise-level account managers, who always help customers find the best solution and an easy path to grow their architecture with Fortinet.
I would rate their customer service around eight because not everything is perfect, but they have very good customer experience and relationship management.
Positive
It depends on the size of the company or the solution they want to implement with Fortinet FortiGate. Most companies could have another vendor or baseline products, so we need to depend on the scenario.
It is very straightforward to set up initially. The duration depends on the size of the company and the solution they want to implement. They might already have another vendor or a different baseline of products, which makes things more complex.
As for deployment models, we typically offer both on-premises and cloud options. We have been working with AWS, and it has been a very positive experience. They provide readily available machines, and everything is easy to find in the marketplace.
I believe it's a fair price for the kind of technology they offer their customers. Sometimes, I think they could apply more discounts to engage customers further. This approach would be beneficial, as it helps us expand the solutions available to clients. As for discounts, they do engage clients with them, particularly in strategic business situations, such as with large accounts in sectors like banking and big retail.
When comparing Fortinet to other vendors, Fortinet generally tends to offer better discounts. However, this does not imply that their solutions are of lower quality; rather, they demonstrate expertise in meeting customer needs.
Some users utilize AI and machine learning enhanced features, such as the FortiGuard services, though not all do as the AI features are relatively new. However, we have successfully positioned some features, particularly in areas such as AI. For example, the threat detection capabilities and the AI assistant available in the FortiAnalyzer service are noteworthy. Fortinet offers a license that can be utilized for AI features, especially in FortiManager. Users appreciate this feature because it helps them achieve better network configuration. If they encounter any issues within the network, they can easily leverage AI to find solutions to those problems.
Overall, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten because while not everything is perfect, they're really doing their best and demonstrating it through their technology.
Fortinet FortiGate is mainly used for next-generation firewall features.
Most of our customers primarily use FortiGate as a general-purpose firewall and for remote work. During COVID, they needed to enable the SSL VPN licenses, which was a straightforward process, and they benefited greatly from that. However, apart from this, I don’t see a significant differentiator between FortiGate and other firewalls.
Most of our implementations are standalone. We have a few integrations as well with Active Directory and other things. It is pretty straightforward, and we have not had any issues.
The main value comes from the simplicity of the product in terms of configuring and managing.
Their user interface could be improved from a configuration perspective.
I have personally used it for about five years, but the organization has been using Fortinet FortiGate for the organization and customers for about 10 years.
Stability is excellent. We have not had issues from the product itself.
We have deployed Fortinet FortiGate from 50 user locations to 100-200 user locations. We have not had any issues with any of those models.
I would rate their support an eight out of ten. There's always room for improvement.
Positive
We are a small system integrator and an authorized partner for Fortinet FortiGate, Cisco, Cisco Meraki, Palo Alto, Sophos, and Check Point. We cater to the SMB and upper SMB market and some enterprise customers. Most customers do not require fully fledged integrated solutions.
In Sri Lanka, there is about 40% market penetration for Fortinet. They have partnerships with two telcos, so most corporates with MPLS links who wanted to move out with the operator are offered managed SD-WAN solutions using Fortinet FortiGate.
We have Cisco customers as well, including local customers and global customers whom we support using Cisco firewalls. Comparing Cisco and Fortinet firewalls is challenging. You cannot compare a Ferrari with a normal Nissan sedan from a product and feature perspective. The SMB market segment and the upper SMB market segment are very price-conscious. Cisco does not offer firewalls that are competitively priced for this market segment, especially compared to Fortinet's offerings. They only recently released the 200 series, which can compete with the FortiGate 50 models that we sell.
Fortinet FortiGate is pretty straightforward compared to Cisco.
It is mostly on-prem. One or two clients are using it on the cloud.
Our customers get their ROIs on the price points that we sell in this market.
For the market and the segment that we cater to, the FortiGate pricing structure is sufficient.
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.
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.
We use Fortinet FortiGate as edge protection for the customer site. Right now, we are trying FortiNAC before deploying it for our customer. We link Fortinet FortiGate Firewall to our SIEM solution. We have a cybersecurity department, and we aggregate all the logs of the firewall, the proxy, the PC, virtual machine, and other systems.
The interest of the Fortinet FortiGate appliance is the ability to manage quickly and easily the different functionalities. It's easier to use rather than Palo Alto, for example. AI should be a good improvement. The only difficulty that I have today with the Fortinet FortiGate is that on the Forti appliance, there are many functionalities.
As we are trying FortiNAC right now, there is some improvement needed on the product. For the rest, perhaps having more packages would be beneficial. We do not use FortiManager for our own usage. We have developed some scripts using Ansible and we automate everything.
We have been using the solution for more than 10 years.
The question concerns failures on the appliance or security breaches.
Not all functionalities are scalable.
The access to the support is good. When specific information or professional services support is needed, the professional services are very expensive.
Most of the time we are implementing the UTP service.
The implementation is handled by my team. They are involved in the deployment for the customer and use it day by day. We have three people dedicated to the security part on the Fortinet FortiGate and roughly eight people working on it in the security team.
The cost reduction potential exists but is difficult to quantify.
Fortinet is increasing its value in this area. It's easier to use compared to Palo Alto.
The functionality is acceptable but nothing really impressive. For some customers, we are using Fortinet FortiGate, FortiNAC, FortiAnalyzer. FortiMonitor is used for one customer. For FortiMonitor it's FortiAnalyzer. We don't use FortiAnalyzer on AWS. For both, we need the approval of the head office.
On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this solution between seven and eight.
I currently work in the automotive industry, providing software for automotive dealers, and we only use Fortinet FortiGate for corporate purposes.
One of the best features of Fortinet FortiGate is how effectively the software is written; the virtual network interfaces significantly outperform Cisco in my project. I didn't need separate switches or load balancers because I was able to resolve internal FQDNs of the load balancers, which was impressive. The centralized management allowed us to manage 50 devices effectively, which I found better than Cisco.
During a recent upgrade from old devices to the latest ones, corporate IT faced challenges as there was no straightforward migration process, requiring many manual steps. I've completed upgrades with Cisco before where the process was simple, but this time it wasn't the case for corporate IT. I also heard that SSL-based VPN will be discontinued, which could be concerning.
I have used Fortinet FortiGate for several years; initially, I brought FortiGate to my previous company during a project.
Integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward, with minimal complexity involved.
My experience with Fortinet FortiGate support has been excellent, as I was fortunate to have an office in Vancouver where Fortinet had staff. We worked closely with tech personnel through the project. While I usually don't give perfect scores, the support was great. However, one area for improvement is that many functions can only be accessed via CLI, which has discrepancies between the web interface and direct connection.
Positive
I pushed corporate IT to replace SonicWall with Fortinet FortiGate, and now in my current company, we have FortiGate that we recently upgraded to the latest models.
Managing Fortinet FortiGate involves three corporate IT personnel, and although it initially took them quite a while to handle some tasks, I provided scripts that allowed them to work much quicker. What took them a day or two is now a job of just 10 to 15 minutes. Scripting and utilizing Git repositories would make things smoother, and I intended to publish modules for Terraform but haven't had the time yet.
Overall, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate around an eight, as there is always room for improvement.
The main use cases for Fortinet FortiGate are mostly for an industrial company firewall, focusing on firewall, web server, and new-gen, next-gen firewall.
What I appreciate about Fortinet FortiGate is that the UI is easier than what I've previously known from Sophos. Compared to Sophos, I prefer Fortinet, and the system and configuration settings are easier.
The main benefits I have seen from using Fortinet FortiGate for the organization are due to the other branch in another country, as the connection is smoother than the previous firewall.
For Fortinet FortiGate, I am not sure yet what can be improved or enhanced because currently, I am comfortable with this solution.
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for less than six months.
I think Fortinet FortiGate is stable because previously it had a hiccup around a bug within the authentication VPN due to the firmware, but after updating, it's easier to control.
In terms of scalability, I find Fortinet FortiGate scalable. There are no issues yet with scalability in Fortinet FortiGate.
Regarding the technical support of Fortinet FortiGate, I have already tried to contact them previously for a problem. I would evaluate the technical support of Fortinet FortiGate as friendly and easily understandable for our problem, as they have a high understanding of the Fortinet FortiGate system.
Positive
I prefer Fortinet FortiGate over Sophos because of the connection system, the web GUI, and I think Fortinet is much more secure than Sophos.
The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was easy. The setup needs around a few days to test before deploying to the customer, and while deploying, it's easy to contact customer service to help us with it.
We are utilizing SD-WAN capabilities in Fortinet FortiGate, but not extensively, just a few times. I have not yet seen any impact on the network performance with the SD-WAN, as we're just monitoring it.
My experience with integrating SD-WAN capabilities within Fortinet FortiGate is that the project for SD-WAN is not very long, approximately one month of testing, so for now, the connection is clear with a bit of misconnection.
I would personally recommend Fortinet FortiGate.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution an eight.
Fortinet FortiGate is among the best firewall solutions, having a significant market share in Egypt. Fortinet FortiGate has a very simple configuration, is easy to set up, and includes SD-WAN features at no additional cost. I recommend Fortinet FortiGate to act as an internet or perimeter firewall.
Features such as URL filtering, intrusion detection, and threat prevention make it suitable as a perimeter firewall. It also includes free SD-WAN features. It is recommended when any customer has more than one site, as it can act as an SD-WAN solution without any extra licenses, with SD-WAN being a built-in feature. It is a very easy solution.
From my experience, I see that the datasheets of the Fortinet FortiGate portfolio need to be more accurate because correct sizing is essential. The datasheets should provide clear information when deploying features.
When comparing Fortinet to all other vendors, I believe most features are available in Fortinet. I'm not sure if the DNS security license is available in Fortinet; if not, it is important to add Fortinet DNS security and sandboxing licenses. I know Fortinet has a separate sandbox solution, but I am unsure about sandbox features in the firewall. In contrast, Palo Alto has a DNS security license, email security, and WildFire license that serves as a sandbox solution.
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for around eight years.
I find Fortinet FortiGate to be very stable.
The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate depends on the project. If the project meets accurate sizing, it can be scalable, but if the presales engineer does not accurately size it, Fortinet FortiGate can have limited resources to scale. It depends on the project.
I evaluate Fortinet's technical support as a seven out of ten. They aren't the best support, but when we need assistance with any features or field activities, we can utilize the internal support team of the vendor located in our country.
Neutral
I believe it is cost-effective. With Fortinet FortiGate, we can pay once for every renewal period, and there are no CAPEX expenses because Fortinet FortiGate is easy to configure, easy to manage, and familiar to most engineers.
It is not the cheapest one, but its price is very competitive.
When comparing Fortinet FortiGate to Palo Alto or other firewalls I've worked with, Fortinet is more stable, easy to configure, easy to manage, and is competitive in price.
Fortinet offers multiple product sizes suitable for various enterprises, including small, medium, and enterprise customers. Compared to Palo Alto, Fortinet offers a free SD-WAN feature while Palo Alto requires an SD-WAN license with more costs and several licenses. However, Palo Alto does offer more advanced features than Fortinet. A notable difference is that when the Fortinet FortiGate license expires, the box still works until the customer renews the license, while with Palo Alto, the box stops entirely and the customer must renew the license to continue functioning.
My experience in integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate in the network shows that the integration is very simple and has a straightforward configuration.
The Fortinet SD-WAN solution consists of multiple products. To create or set up a full SD-WAN solution, it needs two products from Fortinet: FortiGate and FortiManager, which is a centralized management solution, and FortiAnalyzer, which is a log management solution. SD-WAN connects more than one site. It centralizes management and logs. Fortinet FortiGate with SD-WAN does not require any extra license, but to have the full SD-WAN solution, it is required to have FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer for several reasons. Fortinet products can be VM or hardware.
I have worked with the hardware-assisted DDoS protection in the Fortinet FortiGate, and I think it's good.
I recommend the Fortinet FortiGate when acting as a perimeter firewall, and some customers use it in the data center. I recommend another vendor in the data center, but our customers are very satisfied with Fortinet FortiGate when acting as a data center firewall.
I have limited experience with the AI and machine learning enhanced FortiGuard services, but I know that Fortinet is leading this trend.
Fortinet FortiGate provides SD-WAN and SASE solutions to secure any type of user and any type of traffic. It has many features, including a secure web gateway and secure service edge, helping users access the internet and applications, whether inside or outside.
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.
A use case for Fortinet FortiGate includes connecting nine to ten different sites to the main Fortinet FortiGate firewall and diversifying the traffic with two-way traffic. It functions as a load balancer to balance loads between different sites.
The main benefits of Fortinet FortiGate, especially in India, are its economic value, scalability, and different sizing options. When compared to Cisco or Juniper, upgrading to a higher class involves a substantial cost increase, whereas with Fortinet FortiGate, the next class is only marginally higher.
The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is SD-WAN. It ensures continuous connectivity by taking over during link failures, preventing any downtime for the company. One of my clients faced many problems with the primary internet provider and requested multi-path functionality. We implemented the SD-WAN facility and added another three-link WAN link, converting the normal port into SD-WAN and assigning weightage. When there is no response from the primary connection after a certain number of milliseconds, it switches to the secondary and then to the tertiary connection. The impact on network performance with the SD-WAN is very good, provided it is sized properly based on throughput. It is necessary to calculate how much data is transferring daily or per minute, then size the firewall accordingly and select a particular model.
The Fortinet FortiGate solution offers ease of use, not requiring highly skilled workers. General users with two or three experienced team members can read the manual and implement the needed configurations.
Hardware-assisted DDoS protection in Fortinet FortiGate is very easy to implement with single-click options, though care must be taken not to burden bandwidth. Certain ACL units should be used, applying rules only to interesting or exposed traffic.
Some features in Fortinet FortiGate need improvement as we discover when calling support that certain actions must be done from the command line. Not all features are available in the web UI. Features such as enabling multiple MPLS circuits can only be accomplished through the command line, so these need to be made available in the web UI.
Fortinet needs to improve customer support and documentation.
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for more than 15 years.
Fortinet FortiGate is very stable, but the person procuring the firewall needs to ensure it is sized properly. If the sizing is not proper, it will create many problems.
The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is very good. It has improved significantly compared to five years ago when it was not as scalable.
When we encounter struggles, they perform actions from the backend, taking control and resolving issues. This becomes a black box for us because we do not know what actions they took.
Neutral
The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward and easy. HA is the deployment model we always recommend.
While we have not calculated it specifically, we found the ROI to be good, approximately 97% to 98%.
I utilize the Fortinet FortiGate hardware and have never tried the VM version, working only with normal VPN configuration, user configuration, normal routing, and multiple WAN links. While we are using the dynamic segmentation feature, we have not tested it thoroughly enough to analyze its benefits.
People generally go with the recommendations of high-level architects. For core networks, they typically suggest Cisco or Juniper. In India, the market follows whatever the chief architect suggests without quantifying whether it is worth it.
My advice for others considering Fortinet FortiGate implementation is to focus on its ease of use.
Based on my experience, I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.