We performed a comparison between Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and Fortinet FortiGate-VM based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers a range of important capabilities including VPN Blade, IPS Blade, URL filtering, and Applications Control Blade. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is highly regarded for its robust security features such as geofencing, firewalling, IPS, antivirus, and intrusion prevention systems.
For Check Point CloudGuard Network Security, there is a need for improvements in the support system, cluster creation on AWS, data protection visibility, DLP feature, user interface, integration, cost reduction, documentation, and flexibility in deployment. Fortinet FortiGate-VM needs enhancements in key activation, throughput, web application firewall integration, technical support, integration simplicity, customization, pricing model, and web-filtering configuration.
Service and Support: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has received both positive and negative feedback regarding its customer service. Some customers commend the technical support provided by the company, while others express dissatisfaction due to slow response times. Fortinet FortiGate-VM also has a combination of positive and negative reviews regarding its customer service. Some customers are content with the support they receive, while others believe that it requires improvement.
Ease of Deployment: Check Point's setup is user-friendly and straightforward, although some mention that it may require technical expertise and can be complex. The initial setup for Fortinet is generally easy and straightforward. The deployment time ranges from a few hours to a week, depending on the complexity and size.
Pricing: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is regarded as costly to set up, however, it provides excellent security and value. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is competitively priced and more affordable than certain alternatives. That said, expenses may rise when scaling or incorporating additional functionalities.
ROI: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers a notable ROI range of 80% to 85% and delivers enhanced benefits and performance. Fortinet FortiGate-VM ensures stability and heightened security, garnering positive ratings for ROI from users. It is crucial to exercise caution while sizing to prevent any potential financial losses.
Comparison Results: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is the preferred product compared to Fortinet FortiGate-VM. Users find the initial setup of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security simple and user-friendly. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers valuable features such as VPN Blade, IPS Blade, URL filtering, and Applications Control Blade, along with advanced threat prevention capabilities.
"We can detect any attack of viruses or malware at the first point of contact."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."
"The features that we have found most valuable are the SSL VPN and the User Portal."
"The web filtering facility and application control are the most valuable features from the point of view of our clients. The VPN feature is also quite popular amongst our clients. Two-factor authentication is one of the good features in Fortinet. These features are important for the current scenario of security. Security has become a necessity nowadays. With cyber-attacks becoming more common, protecting an organization's data is one of the major tasks. It is also very stable and scalable, and it is very straightforward to configure. Their technical support is also good."
"Good load balancing feature."
"Fortigate is very scalable to serve our customers' needs. We have scaled already from fifty to more than a hundred instances of Fortinet FortiGate. Around 20 staff are required for deployment and maintenance, mostly engineers."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its management console."
"Auto-scaling and zero touch are valuable features."
"The CloudGuard Network Security's most valuable feature is implementing IPS for accessing our data center and server environment in Azure. It helps us to prevent attacks. By protecting our environment with Check Point, which we were already familiar with, it provided a solution that extended into the cloud environment."
"Some retail customers find the scale-up and scale-down features valuable, particularly with scale sets. This is useful for handling increased loads on devices and utilizing firewalls, similar to on-premises setups with active standby configurations."
"The tool's deployment is rapid. Its dashboard is also useful. It's easy to deploy both on-premises and in Azure. In an office with VMware running, deployment is a simple process. Similarly, in Azure, deployment is easy and scalable. Adding more CPUs is a straightforward task – just shut it down, modify the security, and restart. This ease of use translates into cost and resource savings, and faster deployment times."
"Check Point is one of the few solutions that pay attention to cloud security. Many others mostly focus on providing on-premises solutions."
"The number of options it gives for deployment or security is valuable. When it comes to security, it has a feature that is super awesome for zero-day-based attacks. Their IPS is also very capable. We tested other firewalls, and we understood that it is the best one in the market."
"Any kind of cloud environment anywhere can be protected through this effortlessly."
"In terms of administration, it's perfect."
"The most valuable feature is the WAN optimization."
"Initial setup was quite straightforward, as we can simply head to the required sections to apply the planned network."
"We work in the archiving domain where a secure environment is very important. We have some special requirements regarding the security of infrastructure."
"It is very useful to make lists for rules and prepare firewall rules."
"GitDM, like FortiGate VM, provides similar features to FortiGate appliances or cloud solutions. However, FortiGate VM is more suitable for heavy traffic and inspection compared to GitDM. Unfortunately, FortiGate VM lacks a dedicated SPU for inspection, and all features rely on CPU and RAM."
"The reporting is good."
"FortiGate is a nice and very good product."
"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."
"Currently, FortiGate is providing SSL VPN. But they're missing some features that are available in Palo Alto's SSL VPN."
"The user interface could be improved."
"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."
"With the reports, you can see it, and you can get good feelings so upper management can go, "Oh, wow. That looks pretty." However, it's very basic."
"We would like to see better pricing."
"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."
"To some degree, it's almost a question as to why some of this stuff isn't simpler. For example, for an AP deployment, while it's integrated, the number of steps that you have to go through in order to get the AP up, seems like a lot."
"With the incorporation of a lot of AI and machine learning, they can build some sort of a matrix for low-level threats or low-level things that require attention. There can be automation of those tasks so that we don't have to take more time and effort. There should be machine learning to eliminate level-one types of tasks."
"The convergence time between cluster members is still not perfect. It's far away from what we get in traditional appliances. If a company wants to move mission-critical applications for an environment to the cloud, it somehow has to accept that it could have downtime of up to 40 seconds, until cluster members switch virtual IP addresses between themselves and start accepting the traffic. That is a little bit too high in my opinion. It's not fully Check Point's fault, because it's a hybrid mechanism with AWS. The blame is 50/50."
"The solution is not that flexible when deploying on-prem."
"The challenge mainly revolves around the slower functionality of virtual IP switching in Azure Virtual Network compared to on-premise solutions. On-premise, switching between clusters is faster, taking only a few seconds, while in Azure, it can extend up to five minutes. The downtime is a concern for us."
"Check Point CloudGuard Network Security should give productive reports as per business requirements. It needs to improve support since the time-limit extended beyond a day. It should include more seamless API integrations."
"The solution lacks the capability to scale effectively."
"Check Point CloudGuard Network Security needs to improve the management of the actual firewalls. Improvement is also needed for the consolidated UI of different security aspects."
"Zero touch removes any independence for configuring."
"The management tools should be more user-friendly."
"Data backup functionality could be included in the product."
"The licensing needs to be improved. We need longer licensing periods, especially for POCs and trials. It should be for six months. Right now, it's too short of a timeframe."
"The product may not be as robust as Palo Alto. However, unless you are a big bank, you probably won't need it to be."
"It should have the SD-WAN feature. This would increase the number of features that are available in the box."
"The block, the clarity, the quarantine command, is not very user-friendly. You would have to do everything through the command line and I would have preferred if it wasn't a CLI."
"FortiGate-VM could be improved by making it cloud-based. I'd like it to be a cloud-based management solution instead of just a dedicated management orchestration tool."
"The technical support is not very responsive and is an area that needs to be improved."
More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pricing and Cost Advice →
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is ranked 8th in Firewalls with 121 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is rated 8.6, while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security writes "Highly reliable, great visibility, and centralized management". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate-VM writes "An easy-to-manage and configure tool that provides ample documentation to help with the setup phase". Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is most compared with Azure Firewall, VMware NSX, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, Cisco Secure Firewall and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, whereas Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS and OPNsense. See our Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM report.
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