Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software vs. Fortinet FortiGate

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the core OS for the ASA suite. It provides firewall functionality, as well as integration with context-specific Cisco security modules. It is scaled for enterprise-level traffic and connections.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
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortinet FortiGate
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortiGate
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
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortinet FortiGate
Considered Both Products
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Cisco does transport-layer inspections, NAT and VPN just great. CheckPoint is more expensive, gives greater network visibility compared to Cisco ASA, next-gen features work faster on CheckPoint (model-dependent). Management Centre for Cisco NGFW is a heavy virtual appliance …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
For next generation firewall feature sets FortiGate is a bit better and gives better value for the investment. However in the whole Cisco environment I find Cisco ASA to work better when defining end to end use cases with some orchestrator. Over all we have found the place for …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
We specifically switched away from Cisco ASA in the last year. Much happier with the new product. The FortiGate firewalls have options up and down the line and they all work flawlessly together. We've got sites with large and small firewalls, all linked together. If you are …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Integration with Cisco Ecosystem, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software integrates smoothly with other Cisco security products and networking solutions. We have already invested in Cisco networking equipment and infrastructure which is why we chose Cisco Adaptive …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Cisco has made it easy to buy, set up, and manage all of our firewalls with the central FirePower Management Center. All licensing is done via one license portal too. Tech support is standardized for all ASA devices and like support engineers who know the different models to …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Cisco ASA is doing well, has [a] lot of documents available, [and easy] implementation, however, other vendors are also very easy to deploy. Cisco ASA has [a] great support team. Cisco ASA is truly [a] next-generation product. Now it is cloud-managed, along with zero-touch …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
The ASA led the pack for our use case since we were familiar with it and the ASA (and ASAv) was able to integrated with our environment very easily. We were also able to apply MFA to the ASA with very little effort, further improving our posture. In comparison, other tools were …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
I am a CCNP and will always go with Cisco because they are more affordable than Palo Altos and yet they do the same job and easy to deploy.
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Configuration and management of Cisco's ASA are straightforward. We chose Cisco ASA for many reasons, as well as Cisco's threat response reports. We previously had issues with Sophos UTM due to its poor performance. We no longer have to be concerned about performance issues …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
We were using pfSense before in our environment but we were facing continuous issues in configuration management & policy-based management. After the implementation of Cisco ASA, it has resolved both the previous problems & also provided us a reliable solution with High …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
We have been using and deploying different vendor-based firewalls. Our main considerations for selection; use case, functionalities, and the price of the product. When there’s a Vpn or detailed routing scenarios Cisco ASA is the
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
When comparing Cisco ASA to other vendors' products we needed to bear in mind that most other security vendors offer a next-gen Firewall solution while the ASA is still a legacy firewall. Based on this, Cisco ASA is by no means a loser here. Cisco ASA is an extremely capable …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
We feel familiar with Cisco products and the way Cisco is doing business.
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Above all, the robustness and quality of the components, the support and the rapid resolution of warranty issues. Cisco is a serious company and demonstrates this by making the processes with the client as easy as possible.
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Cisco tried to build a new platform by bolting acquired and rebranded SourceFire as a next generation platform but really missed the boat. Cisco should be considered a networking company not security. Firewall technology is changing and Cisco needs to reevaluate their place in …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Cisco made sense from the standpoint that my engineers already knew it and there was little learning curve. Personally, I prefer a purpose-built hardware solution. Untangle is not ready for the enterprise as a whole but works great to do web/application filtering . …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
We evaluated other Cisco security devices and other vendors, but chose the Cisco ASA due to it's price point and compatibility. While Fortinet and Palo Alto are leaders in the field, we found that for the price, the features we needed were fully satisfied by the ASA. We …
Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Sonicwall firewall, Checkpoint SMB firewall, fortinet
FortiGate
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Cisco ASA is [a] good product but you can't say this is providing the security from every points. Lots of features are missing in Cisco ASA but Fortinet [FortiGate] is fully loaded and all the advanced features are available for secure your company.
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
We are previously using Cisco ASA in our environment & always concerned regarding security because ransomware attacks are increasing day by day. After implementing Fortinet FortiGate we are getting a bucket of security features at almost the same cost with the best technical …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
We have both devices Fortinet FortiGate and ASA with firepower services, but [the] main difference is price. The price is [less for] Fortinet FortiGate and we are getting the all features. Email filtering and DLP is extra features and very advanced which we will get only in …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Sonic wall as a firewall also gives us its main function as the Fortinet FortiGate. Sonic Wall is best suited when you want to use it to connect your cloud environment to your private on-premise network. But on reputation most vendors prefer or recommend Fortinet Fortigate if …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Fortinet code configuration is a little bit cleaner, it has sub-modules for different components. One of the nice things about Juniper and pitfalls is that you drop out to the FreeBSD command line if there are any issues. Fortinet and Cisco do not have that capability. …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
The cost was comparable to the SonicWall we were looking at but feature wise, they are in a different league. The Fortigate offered far more next generation firewall features and they were bundled in with the license we chose. The interface is much easier to use and we spend …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
FortiGates are more professional and offer a robust command line.
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Ongoing costs and licensing options - the FortiGate product line comes out a winner every time. We especially like the granularity and licensing options compared to something like Meraki that is mostly "all or nothing" or the SonicWall which is less granular and just not as …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Feature to feature comparisons, Cisco and Fortinet are on par with each other. Both have great service and support. Both have robust security features that protect your network from various threats and exploits. Both have great logging and reporting capabilities. Both are high …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
FortiGates are cheaper than most alternatives (except solutions like pfSense, of course.). They are also very easy to configure and have affordable security subscription options.
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
We selected Fortinet FortiGate because it was cheaper compared with another similar appliance. Also, FortiGate is very easy to install and administrate. They have very good resilience and provide very good support. There's good traffic inspection and notification. The VPN is …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Fortinet was well placed on the Gartner report which lead to my initial investigation into the company. I quickly narrowed my selections down to Palo Alto and Fortinet, due to feature set, reputation and ease of use. Fortinet won out simply because Palo Alto did not offer a …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
FortiGate was more cost-effective and offered more functionality. FortiGate is much easier to use and manage.
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
I feel that the Fortigate can do everything the Cisco ASA can do, at a lower cost and without specialized vendor training.
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
The solution was selected by our parent company, but the idea of changing platforms is still daunting. Fortigate offers an ability to convert your ASA, Checkpoint, JunOS, etc. configs to Fortigate for a small cost. This product works like a champ and eliminated the reasons why …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
FortiGate has a strong offering at a very competitive price point. I like that with your subscription you get access to all of the pieces, and that features aren't arbitrarily turned off unless you buy a specific license or bundle. For what you get for the price, it's really …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
UTM comprehensive security is a plus.
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
When you talk about firewalling, the competitors are the usual big names (Cisco and Check Point). Both of them are (in my opinion) more costly and more complex to manage. If we talk about other security threats, as I said, having one device able to do (almost) everything is a …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Compared to Palo Alto Networks' firewalls FortiGate has the better price while the worse security design. FortiGate is an all-in-one appliance with many many features that are not completely implemented. In contrast, Palo Alto firewalls have the better concept on how to …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Fortigate provides a more robust feature set than Sonicwall, and at a better price point than either Cisco or Sonicwall. Both Moxa and Cisco provide industrial DIN mounts, but Moxa lacked a data center product. Cisco has both industrial and data center products, but at a much …
Top Pros
Top Cons
TrustRadius Insights
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortinet FortiGate
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Cisco ASA and FortiGate are products that provide security for network applications, including firewall, SSL, web filtering and VPN. Both Cisco ASA and FortiGate are well liked among medium to enterprise sized businesses, but large established businesses tend to choose ASA, especially if their server environment is already Cisco. FortiGate is more popular among medium-sized businesses, which are more likely to be price sensitive.

Features

Cisco ASA and FortiGate provide many of the same services, but there are standout features of each.

Cisco ASA is easy to deploy and works well in most environments. It adapts well to small and medium scale servers, especially servers that use Cisco products already. Users like the VPN for connecting remote users to the network or connecting one site to another, and businesses appreciate the web filtering component. The hardware is reliable, as is Cisco technical support. 

FortiGate is a newer up-and-comer to the world of network security. It handles traffic spikes and larger server loads with ease, and is more affordable than its comparable competitors. The interface is simple to use, and the firewall is easy to configure. Simplified pricing allows businesses to pay only for the services they use.

Limitations

Each of these firewall products has its own limitations that may affect which one potential customers will choose.

Though many users appreciate Cisco ASA and its reliable system and support, it can become expensive for smaller businesses, especially when factoring in support contracts. The interface is clunky and can be difficult to use. ASA is not as fully-featured as an NGFW (it’s missing the reliable multi-WAN support FortiGate has), and several users reported switching to an NGFW for a more robust solution. 

The downside of FortiGate’s simplified pricing is that it affects scalability. If a user wants to increase server performance, they must buy additional products. Various versions of the software can be buggy, and frequent patches are released. While the user interface is good, the command line prompt can be confusing to use.

Pricing

FortiGate pricing is available by quote from Fortinet or 3rd party providers. ASA pricing can be found by contacting Cisco or a certified Cisco Partner.

Features
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortinet FortiGate
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
8.1
49 Ratings
5% below category average
Fortinet FortiGate
9.2
38 Ratings
8% above category average
Identification Technologies8.632 Ratings9.636 Ratings
Visualization Tools7.030 Ratings8.736 Ratings
Content Inspection7.932 Ratings8.937 Ratings
Policy-based Controls8.645 Ratings9.638 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP8.347 Ratings9.237 Ratings
Firewall Management Console8.547 Ratings9.638 Ratings
Reporting and Logging5.948 Ratings8.238 Ratings
VPN9.048 Ratings9.738 Ratings
High Availability9.047 Ratings9.733 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.046 Ratings9.636 Ratings
Proxy Server8.032 Ratings8.927 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortinet FortiGate
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortinet FortiGate
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(87 ratings)
9.5
(65 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.1
(4 ratings)
9.9
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Availability
7.5
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(8 ratings)
8.6
(26 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.5
(2 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareFortinet FortiGate
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco ASA's are great for internal network connected access between a firewall and the central management server. And, for complex networks where high security requirements with overly strict compliance are necessary. For networks with limited connectivity to the core or for poor network connectivity these are not the best solution. There are other more stand-alone firewall's that do this better. These firewall's are a little more complex to set up to start with so significant knowledge of these devices is required to set them up and ensure they are best practice installed.
Read full review
Fortinet
For FortiGate Firewall, the basic functionality and requirement is met easily as Fortigate is among market leaders in NGFW. There are some extra points that inclined us to use Fortigate as our main Firewall. [Fortinet]Fortigate has a very well refined and functional SD-WAN solution when it comes to load balancing for normal Internet Traffic. 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 - 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. Though, I think Fortigate is one of the best options for small and mid-sized organizations, there are some areas for improvement. First, the CLI interface is very hard to adapt as the commands and directory hierarchy is very different for common syntax and standards.
Read full review
Pros
Cisco
  • ASA is our VPN concentrator. The client and server are very stable and very easy to use
  • ASA also offers Intrusion Prevention, to an extent. This is also very useful for an improved security posture for a small company
  • ASA allowed us to scale very quickly. We could onboard clients, partners, and consultants and give them a great onboarding experience as well
  • Administrative costs with ASA are low. It's very easy to administer.
Read full review
Fortinet
  • It is the most reliable NGFW that we have ever been touch with it.
  • You can easily upgrade the firewall cluster firmware without user attention!!!
  • User IDentity based feature is fantastic and intrusion prevention just works with least false-positive possible.
  • Very reachfull and intuitive GUI, just love it
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • The ASDM software is at times a nightmare to install because of different java versions[.]
  • [The firewall] could do with a power button, just to be able to do a hard reboot when needed[.]
  • It would be nice to manage the firewall via the web on port 443[.]
Read full review
Fortinet
  • When we switched to Fortinet Fortigate, it took some time getting used to and become familiar with the new interface. Being used to strictly command-line interfaces, a full GUI-based firewall was something brand new. Careful planning had to be done when creating rules to ensure we didn't miss anything. However, once we got used to the new GUI interface, going from one Fortinet product to another was simple, as Fortinet used the same interface for all of its devices.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
To be honest there has been now great products out in the market compared to Cisco ASA. I beleieve Cisco has to do a lot of improvement in this area. The other defeiniete factors is the cost when it comes to renewals which is always a premium on Cisco products
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
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
The user interface shared among many simultaneous users is very easy to get around. With shared favorites among users, most tasks are easily bookmarked and can quickly be found and edited. Their strategy for web filter integration is easy to understand and manage as well. With some general direction, setup and maintenance were easy to do and easy to teach others in the organization to do as well.
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Reliability and Availability
Cisco
I generally have not noticed the outages, however since it's a machine it can malfunction, we need to implement the firewall infrastructure in such a way that it is highly available with device failure, region failure etc. Else any solution will be having the issues if they are not build with resiliency.
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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
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Fortinet
Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
Read full review
Support Rating
Cisco
The support is usually very good and gets back to you very quickly. However I had some instances of when two engineers will give me wildly different answers to what I thought was a simple question. Overall however I do rate the support highly and they are generally always very good.
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Fortinet
We live in Turkey. Fortinet's Turkey office [dealt] constantly with us in our every problem or our experience. In addition, global support teams also supported every ticket we opened in every problem we encountered. They support innovative approaches and evaluate and offer solutions. In this context, they were very supportive of the problems we encountered in previous versions.
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In-Person Training
Cisco
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
Cisco
It was quite a good one, how ever requires an expertise to deploy hence the SMB segment would be finding it difficult to implement this product. The one good reason is that there are lot of ASA certified engineers in compared to the other certified engineers. Hence this resembles positively on the deployment as you have quite a lot of experienced engineer on your deployment
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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
Cisco
We were using [pfSense] before in our environment but we regularly facing difficulties over it due to software bugs & downtime. After implementing Cisco ASA, it resolved our availability issue & provides us a reliable solution with the best security features & easy to understand GUI.
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
Scalability
Cisco
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
Cisco
  • Most network engineers have worked with ASA, so there is no need for re-training when adding or turning over staff
  • Current configs from older devices plug in easily, and are operational on larger devices if an upgrade is required
  • Many support options available
Read full review
Fortinet
  • Fortigates have an interesting bundle model for support and subscription services that make it an attractive option to deploy Firewall, IDS, Ant-virus, anti-SPAM in a single device. The cost of the bundle is pretty much what you pay for the device, not requiring huge expenditures on it's time to renew the hardware.
Read full review
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