FortiAP vs. Fortinet FortiGate

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
FortiAP
Score 9.9 out of 10
N/A
FortiAP is an access point from Fortinet.N/A
FortiGate
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
FortiNet FortiGate is a firewall option with high integrability. It offers a variety of deployment options and next-gen firewall capabilities, including integration with IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.N/A
Pricing
FortiAPFortinet FortiGate
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FortiAPFortiGate
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFortiGate pricing starts at $250 for home office use, up to $300,000 for large enterprise appliances. Must contact sales team for pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FortiAPFortinet FortiGate
Considered Both Products
FortiAP
Chose FortiAP
FortiAPs are much easier to configure and just as secure or more secure than the other brands I have used.
FortiGate
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Fortinet FortiGate is an all-round Network Security solution with advanced Next Generation Firewall features. The purpose built hardware provides unparalleled performance when compared to other similar solutions. The licensing model is very flexible and accommodates networks …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
(Towards Sophos Cyberoam) The VPN throughput is not effective. The device has not any third party certification for the capacity parameters. Wireless controller feature does not exist. No security fabric concept.

(Towards Sonicwall) With compare to FortiGate, VPN throughput is …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
We considered/evaluated Juniper SRX and Palo Alto Networks products to replace FortiGates. But they either had much fewer features or were far more expensive than FortiGate.
Features
FortiAPFortinet FortiGate
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
FortiAP
-
Ratings
Fortinet FortiGate
8.7
51 Ratings
1% above category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.949 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.249 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings8.950 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings8.851 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings8.748 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings7.750 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings8.151 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings9.150 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings9.446 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.349 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings8.737 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FortiAPFortinet FortiGate
Small Businesses
Ubiquiti WLAN
Ubiquiti WLAN
Score 9.0 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Score 9.4 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Score 9.4 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FortiAPFortinet FortiGate
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(78 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(5 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(19 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(27 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(5 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
FortiAPFortinet FortiGate
Likelihood to Recommend
Fortinet
Any rollout is well suited for a FortiAP - from small office networks, to large warehouse deployments. Adding additional APs to your network is simple and easy. Monitoring is simple with Forticloud monitoring. Configuring the devices can be as complex or as simple as you need. Adding additional Fortinet devices (I have switches and firewalls) makes the network even more secure and easy to manage - all devices working in tandem make monitoring much easier
Read full review
Fortinet
Fortinet FortiGate addressed an immediate security issue we had a few years ago. The device gave us a much clearer picture of the activities on our network and also more importantly, increased our awareness of threats from the internet as a whole. Fortinet FortiGate helps us to mitigate these threats with regular signature updates from Fortiguard labs, identifying certain characteristics which, once recognised by Fortinet FortiGate, can be harnessed to deploy powerful 'playbooks'.
Read full review
Pros
Fortinet
  • Built sturdy for harsh environments.
  • They perform and/or surpass performance levels shown on their data sheets.
Read full review
Fortinet
  • SD-WAN - Load balancing of Internet traffic is a USP of Fortigate and makes it stand tall in the competition. Be it 3 or more Internet Links, multiple Subnets/segments of users to distribute and bandwidth load balancing for links and users. SLA based monitoring of Internet Links / MPLS links, makes it even better to choose the links on the basis of performance (Latency, packet loss, Jitter etc).
  • SSL VPN configuration - As we all have WFH force (to some extend or all employee) during Covid-19, it is impossible to plan BCP without having a SSL VPN. In Fortigate, the SSL VPN configuration is very easy with the help of wizard. The deep CLI-level debugging is also very helpful in troubleshooting. Type of tunnel can be easily configured - Full Tunnel or Split Tunnel for SSL.
  • Explicit Proxy - This is also a great feature to shape and re-route the traffic, configuring the Proxy on the Firewall itself. We are using this feature in Pilot for now, and planned to rollout in few weeks looking at the success rate of the POC.
Read full review
Cons
Fortinet
  • I would like to add an option to show which options you change will reboot the access point.
Read full review
Fortinet
  • Documentation is missing a great deal of detail and assumes the customer and just guess and fill in the blanks themselves
  • Fortinet has lots and lots of video guides on topics that only a small percentage of customers would ever need
  • The documentation and video guides do not get updated so most is only relevant to older software versions
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Fortinet
This is an excellent product for an SMB - cost isn't outrageous and deploy is simple. I can monitor my network without breaking the bank.
Read full review
Fortinet
Fortinet's products have kept improving with new software releases and they continue to deliver great value. Their support is also very good. I believe that as a small enterprise, their products have given us competitive advantage delivering features and functionality that enable us to innovate and do things better. They also continue to be a leader in the markets they serve.
Read full review
Usability
Fortinet
I love FortiAP and how easy they are to use. It's very quick to train people to use them at a basic to intermediate level.
Read full review
Fortinet
The firewall runs very well, firmware updates are fairly quick but you must follow the upgrade path. Neglecting this step will cause a lot of pain. If you decide to go with Fortinet FortiGate switches and/or access points, they can be managed within the firewall which is great. We're also using the FortiAnalyzer which easily plugs into the firewall for any reporting you may require.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
We had didn't any hardware failures at our two main office locations and upgraded our units last year after using them for about 5-6 years
Read full review
Performance
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
Read full review
Support Rating
Fortinet
Fortinet support is outstanding! They are second to none. They pay attention to details and the needs of the customer.
Read full review
Fortinet
The Support team at Fortinet is excellent. They can not only help you configure the device for what you are trying to do, they offer suggestions on improving rules, and troubleshooting issues. Their response time is fast, ensuring you are up and running immediately with no questions asked. We had a hard drive failure in one of our Fortinet Fortigate appliances. The tech answered immediately, and started rebuilding the drive after some preliminary investigations. After rebuilding, there were still errors and issues, so they dispatched a brand new Fortinet Fortigate appliance. The tech then backed up the configurations for when the new device came in, which showed up in a few hours. A restore of the configuration took less than a minute, and there were no more errors or issues.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
Make sure that you have the most current version of FortiOS. Make sure all Fortigates are on the same version
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Fortinet
I think all Fortinet clients are definitely business level products. Easy to use. Hardens your network against attack. Gives you more visibility into your network at all times. Helps you get a handle on your users and environment. Definitely worth the cost.
Read full review
Fortinet
[Fortinet] FortiGate is not only cost effective but it gives the comprehensive security against the APT attacks and gives the complete traffic visibility and granular control. You can easily create the VDOMs (Virtual firewall) within a Fortigate firewall and customize the dashboard as per your requirement if you have multiple VDOMs within a single firewall.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
No changes needed to terms and conditions.
Read full review
Scalability
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Fortinet
  • The cost of management decreases almost immediately once the solution is installed.
  • The cost of the APs is far less than other manufacturers with the same feature sets.
Read full review
Fortinet
  • The pricing given to us for our firewall was well within what we were already spending for other vendors solutions and had the added value of eliminating a separate expense for a dedicated web filtering appliance.
  • We have also adopted Fortinet's security fabric approach and thus changed vendors for our switch and AP devices. These devices have come at reduced prices as compared to another previous vendor we were using, particularly in relation to ongoing annual maintenance costs.
Read full review
ScreenShots