We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is highly regarded for its robust security features, including geofencing, firewalling, IPS, antivirus, and a user-friendly interface. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls excel in embedded machine learning, real-time attack prevention, and the ability to accurately identify applications.
Fortinet FortiGate-VM needs enhancements in key activation, log management, cloud management, MFA offerings, web filter options, application inspection, GUI features, bandwidth issues, VPN connectivity, pricing, performance, and documentation. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls require improvements in SD-WAN customization, best practices, machine learning capabilities, troubleshooting tools,next-generation capabilities, rule creation, monitoring interface, bug fixing, configuration support, IoT security, traffic shaping, machine learning for virus prevention, security functions, usability, training programs, SSL inspection, external dynamic list feature, internet filtering, API integration, and bug fixing.
Service and Support: Some customers have praised the support team of Fortinet FortiGate-VM for their quick response times and knowledge. However, other customers have mentioned slow response times and difficulties in finding information quickly. Customer service for Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls has received mixed reviews. Some customers have praised the knowledgeable support team and timely issue resolution. However, others have mentioned difficulties in reaching the support team and issues with the support ticketing system.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is generally straightforward and easy, while Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is not complex and easy. Prior knowledge can simplify Fortinet's setup, whereas Palo Alto may require proper planning.
Pricing: Fortinet offers flexible pricing options with no extra expenses, while Palo Alto is considered pricier. Nevertheless, Palo Alto is known for its reliability and high performance as a firewall solution.
ROI: Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers enhanced stability and heightened security. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide greater visibility, reporting capabilities, and streamlined management.
Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiGate-VM is the preferred solution as it is highly recommended due to its easy setup, robust security features, cost-effectiveness, and satisfactory ROI. Users find it user-friendly, easy to deploy, and with an intuitive interface.
"It is quite easy to handle."
"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"SSL-VPN is very useful for us and has been very reliable."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"Initial setup is very straightforward with a wizard, if needed."
"The solution offers good documentation."
"The setup is simple."
"It's almost perfect. It's very stable. We don't have many hardware issues."
"The most valuable features are site-to-site connections and UTM."
"An enhanced security solution for any kind of alert that we have configured."
"I find the simplicity to be most valuable."
"The ROI is good since I get free support."
"I like the navigation of the general Panorama solution. I can easily navigate around and get to the thing I need. I'm not wasting time trying to find something."
"I like that they are more stable than the previous ones, and they allow a lot of other features."
"The management options are good."
"In general, I appreciate the regular firewall function of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls."
"One of the best firewalls on the market."
"The interface and dashboards are good."
"It's one of the best products I've worked with. It's typically a market leader on Gartner. It's a very respected brand."
"Identifying applications is very easy with this solution."
"There is a lot of improvement needed with SSL-VPN."
"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."
"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."
"There are some license issues. Not every feature must have a separate license. There must be some of kind synergy between the license so we don't have to pay for every individual license that we would like to have."
"FortiOS is not simple."
"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the protection, it did not prevent us from being attacked. Additionally, Fortinet FortiGate could provide more features for WAF devices. I should not have to purchase two solutions, it would be a benefit to combine these features into one solution."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"The tech support calls were not the best and could be improved. There have been times when we felt as if we knew more about the device than the support person on the phone."
"The product does not have a good graphical interface."
"When new versions are deployed they tend to be a little buggy, so they should be more fully tested before release."
"The product needs to focus on cloud-nativeness and pricing."
"In terms of improvement, there have been some problems with the bandwidth of the security layer."
"To improve FortiGate-VM, Fortinet needs to harden it more. For example, if you are using Hyper-V, then you need guidelines for hardening FortiGate-VM that are specific to the Hyper-V environment. If it's VMware, there should be at least a guideline on how to harden the firewall."
"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."
"FortiGate should be more customer friendly and budgeted better."
"Most other VPN clients include mobile VPNs but Palo Alto does not."
"The stability, scalability for enterprise-level organizations, and technical documentation have room for improvement."
"We have a lot of the older firewall models, i.e., the PA-220. It seems that with newer operating systems the PA-220 is becoming slower than when I first bought it. It is not really an issue for users who are passing traffic through the firewall, but more from the management access of it."
"I believe it would be beneficial if the solution could integrate with Google Chrome, especially for students who use Chromebooks. However, as far as I know, the solution currently does not support Google Chrome."
"The solution would benefit from having a dashboard."
"The only downside of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, in my opinion, is the relatively higher price compared to Cisco FortiGate. This is especially noticeable when deploying basic configurations and considering the cost of licenses."
"Over the past one or two years, Palo Alto Networks has added a lot of features into the NG Firewall products. I think this is becoming more complicated for our customers. Therefore, we could use some best practices, best practice tools, and implementation guides for some of the complicated features."
"The tool's central management system is complicated, making it challenging to manage multiple devices centrally. Individually, the firewalls are easy to use and manage. I'd like to see better central management features in the next release. They've introduced some, but I haven't tried them yet, so I can't say how effective they are. However, having a single management interface would be a big improvement."
More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Pricing and Cost Advice →
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is ranked 6th in Firewalls with 162 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is rated 8.6. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls writes "We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is most compared with Check Point NGFW, Azure Firewall, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Netgate pfSense. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls report.
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In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most.
PA is good at app control, web filtering and such like, they have always been top of the pile there. The GUI is very good, and their product is very user-focused.
Fortinet is good for scalability and predictable high throughput (ASICs in the hardware), and useful things like authentication flexibility, CLI config (if you have any networking/Cisco people, they always seem to prefer CLI over GUI) and have better OT features, maybe relevant to your manufacturing use?
Fortinet seem to have a broader integration offering with their security fabric than PA do, plus they can do Fortinet-based wifi, switching, etc. Depends if you are prepared to go all-in with a single vendor.
Hi,
Both FT and PA have compelling features for large Enterprises. I would like to add a few good points about Fortinetwhich might be helpful ( from my 13 years of engagement with them as Distributor and Partner)
Fortinet:
Have higher throughput; which comes with competitive rates
Wide range of models to select to meet your requirement, without spending heavliy
Outstanding customer support and very active customer care team
Easly available skilled resources from the channel for deployment and post-implementation support
Regards
Abhilash
Hello. The question is what you are going to have as a result of application