We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Fortinet FortiOS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The stability and scalability of this solution are satisfactory. Its SD-WAN, VPN, and URL filtering features are very useful."
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"The solution is very easy to understand. It's not overly complex."
"The usage in general is pretty good."
"The interface is very good."
"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was straightforward."
"Some of the key features of the solution is that it has good reporting, you can receive many details from the connection, for example, clients and website information."
"Overall, the pricing of the solution is very good. The product offers good value."
"I like the way Firepower presents the data. It gives you two classifications for the evidence, something based on the priority of the evidence and another classification based on the impact of the evidence in your environment. This makes it very easy to spot the evidence that is most impactful to my environment. Instead of having to go through all the evidence based on that priority, I can focus on the evidence that has the most impact on my environment."
"The clusters in data centers are great."
"For our very specific use case, for remote access for VPN, ASAs are very good."
"It's protecting the organization against the impact of cyber threats and cybersecurity. We run manufacturing plants that have hazardous material, and we don't want that manufacturing process to be impacted by break-in exposure, cyber threats, or any other similar thing."
"Valuable features include DMZ segmentation, and IDS and IPS."
"VPN load balancing has been particularly essential for my connections to integrate via multiple time zones."
"An efficient, easy to deploy and dependable firewall solution."
"It is easy to create interfaces and routing, which all can be done at the GUI level."
"We have expanded the wireless access point and switches using Fortinet FortiOS."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are the ease of use and user-friendly interface."
"Performance-wise, I think FortiOS is much better than its Juniper counterpart. Based on our actual experience and performance metrics, FortiOS-based products are much better than Juniper."
"There are many useful features, such as web security and advanced threat detection."
"For my organization, it has become much easier to scan the firewalls because the solution is more user-friendly than competitors."
"The stability of Fortinet FortiOS is great."
"The stability of Fortinet meets our requirements and I'm satisfied with it."
"The initial setup is straightforward, and it is very customer friendly."
"There are some complex administration tasks in their administration portal. That needs to be improved."
"Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
"The UI could be improved."
"There are just some services that aren't available. For example, the Ethernet or point-to-point protocols. They could add these services to their product offering - especially services for ISPs."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"One of the problems that we have had is the solution requires Java to work. This has caused some problems with the application visibility and control. When the Java works, it is good, but Java wasn't a good choice. I don't like the Java implementation. It can be difficult to work with sometimes."
"The initial setup could be simplified, as it can be complex for new users."
"Web filtering needs improvement because sometimes the URL is miscategorized."
"The policies module in FMC specifically isn't the most user-friendly. Coming from Cisco ASA, Cisco ASA is a little bit easier to use. When you get into particularly complex deployments where you have a lot of different interfaces and all that kind of stuff, it's a little bit tricky. Some usability improvements there would be nice."
"The solution is overcomplicated in some senses. Simplifying it would be an improvement."
"The ability to integrate (as options) all-in-one features -- like anti-spam, anti-virus, etc."
"Most of the time, when I try to run Java, it is not compatible with ASA's current operating systems."
"Cisco Secure Firewall's integration with cloud providers has room for improvement. We could do more in terms of integration, for example, if we had a tag on an instance."
"Fortinet FortiOS need to manage its memory and CPU utilization better. It peaks at times, which sometimes can be challenging."
"It should also manage the local DSCP network."
"While it is a solid solution, there are some product limitations which exclude it from deployment in some situations."
"The reporting and monitoring could improve, they have a lot of limitations. The monitoring is not easy compared to the other firewall."
"For monitoring purposes, we don't have any option to monitor the ISP link."
"The implementation could be simplified."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve by limiting the need for the CLI and GUI combination. The more functions they can have on the GUI and less on CLI would be helpful."
"Technical support could be better. Some competitors have much more responsive support teams."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiWeb, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection and Sangfor NGAF. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Fortinet FortiOS report.
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