Fortinet FortiGate vs. Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
FortiGate
Score 8.8 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
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Palo Alto next-generation firewalls classify all traffic, including encrypted and internal traffic, based on application, application function, user and content. Users can create security policies to enable only authorized users to run sanctioned applications.N/A
Pricing
Fortinet FortiGatePalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FortiGatePalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Free Trial
YesNo
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
Fortinet FortiGatePalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Considered Both Products
FortiGate
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Integrated security features multiple security in one platform, cost effective, centralized management, saclability like its models are availble from small to large enterprise for provide proper throughput according to size we can select model.documentation of all features are …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
An excellent ratio of functionality and cost of the solution, the UTM subscription and a wide partner network determined our choice of the Fortinet FortiGate. The solution met all the defined requirements, including personal data protection. Local vendors like UserGate were …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Before Fortinet, we used checkpoint and our log was closed to gain performance. However, all devices were accessing Checkpoint through a different gateway inside. FortiGate is definitely more successful in log detail. We preferred Fortinet FortiGate because it offers stable …
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
Fortigate is cheaper than other vendors and includes basically the same features. The performance is very good and the configuration is really very easy, you don´t need a lot of training to understand the configuration. The VPN connection works very well and the application …
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
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 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
Fortigate is a lot easier to configure and manage than a Cisco ASA Firewall. Fortinet feels a lot more intuitive and easier to configure than Cisco. Fortinet is a lot more innovative and have easier to use products.
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 …
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
The main competitor I can compare Palo Alto to is the FortiGate series of devices by Fortinet. FortiGates are capable UMTs and also less expensive than Palo Altos. That being said, category filtering on FortiGates is less effective, and they are not as feature-rich as Palo …
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto NGFW is quite stable and able to perform most of the security features. It is also have real-time updates for the latest signatures which helps to identify and prevent threats efficiently. The overall deployment is straight forward and easy to implement. User …
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Cisco Firepower only has basic functionality, URL filtering always create problems also GUI is very bad that's why most organization [are] using Palo Alto rather than Cisco Firepower.
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto has a user-friendly GUI and it comes with a single console from where you can manage all the policies and routing. It has advanced capabilities to prevent APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) attacks. Cisco Firepower lacks in capabilities with Palo Alto if we compare it.
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto has the ability to secure public cloud which none of the vendors have currently. With Palo Alto VM series you can deploy firewall VM in minutes and secure your public cloud.
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Why did we choose PAN? The number of exploits written for PAN devices are much smaller than ASA. It's much simpler to manage than the checkpoint. It includes web filtering module with the product. Quite simply, it was just the best bang for the buck. Our management consistently …
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto beats all other current UTM/NGFW at this point in time. Palo Alto has a complete vision and is less buggy/requires less management overhead than other NGFW/UTMs on the market. They are currently developing a lot of products and I can see in the next 5 years, other …
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
PA is a no-contest winner to these. Have not got to mess with the Checkpoints too much, but also hear good things too. Will need to try them out to see who the winner is between them and PA.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Fortinet FortiGatePalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Fortinet FortiGate
9.1
40 Ratings
8% above category average
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
9.4
21 Ratings
11% above category average
Identification Technologies9.038 Ratings9.921 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.738 Ratings9.021 Ratings
Content Inspection9.339 Ratings9.921 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.340 Ratings10.021 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.039 Ratings9.920 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.040 Ratings10.021 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.740 Ratings7.521 Ratings
VPN9.040 Ratings8.321 Ratings
High Availability9.735 Ratings10.020 Ratings
Stateful Inspection9.638 Ratings10.020 Ratings
Proxy Server9.928 Ratings8.810 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Fortinet FortiGatePalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.5 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.5 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.4 out of 10
Sophos UTM
Sophos UTM
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Fortinet FortiGatePalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(67 ratings)
9.5
(37 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(8 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(26 ratings)
8.4
(9 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.8
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Fortinet FortiGatePalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto firewall only affords by Large level infrastructure having a budget for Security Prospect. I will recommend it for the Card information industry & Confidential data solutions. Because it provides a bucket of security features that are not easily vulnerable.
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Pros
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
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Palo Alto Networks
  • The PA handles VPN connectivity without missing a beat. We have multiple VPN tunnels in use for redundancy to cloud-based services.
  • The PA has great functionality in supporting failover internet connections, again with the ability to have multiple paths out to our cloud-based services.
  • The PA is updated on the regular with various security updates, we are not concerned with the firewall's ability to see what packets are really flowing across the network. Being able to see beyond just IP and port requests lets you know things are locked down better than traditional firewalls.
  • It is a great overall kit, with URL filtering and other services that fill in the gaps between other solutions without breaking the bank.
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Cons
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.
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Palo Alto Networks
  • Our specific model is a bit slow and outdated and takes up to 10 minutes to commit a configuration change.
  • Nested security rules would be helpful instead of a linear approach. But rule creation in general is very simple.
  • Documentation gives a very straight forward answer to some items but is very vague in others.
  • Support could be a little better. An issue we had a tech was insistent it was the "other guy" and it ended up being the very latest PAN OS upgrade.
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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Palo Alto Networks
The PA5220s have far exceeded what we have expected out of them. It was a bit of a learning curve coming from another vendor, but everything falls into place now with ease. The capabilities of the solution still surprise us, allowing us to remove other costly hardware and providing a single point of management needed
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Usability
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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Palo Alto Networks
In my opinion, the Palo Alto Firewall is the simplest firewall in terms of management interfaces; though it has more advanced options that apply to more advanced use cases. Configuring basic features on the firewall is nearly self-explanatory; configuring more advanced features can be met with very thorough vendor documentation.
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Reliability and Availability
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
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Performance
Fortinet
Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Palo Alto Networks
We've run into a couple undocumented bugs, but that seems to happen with every brand and technology. Any time we've had to engage Palo Alto support they've always been professional, knowledgeable and prompt. In almost all cases we've been able to resolve our issues without having to escalate our tickets.
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In-Person Training
Fortinet
I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Fortinet
Make sure that you have the most current version of FortiOS. Make sure all Fortigates are on the same version
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
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Palo Alto Networks
No one can say any other companies in this time is better than Palo Alto Networks Next-Generatoin Firewalls. Palo Alto offers very advanced features which protect you[r] organization. Advanced malware protection, anti spam, lots of other threats.
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Scalability
Fortinet
My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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.
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Palo Alto Networks
  • Overall, even though the device is very expensive (both hardware and licensing), the product does produce a decent ROI, given that one (or HA pair) of devices can do so many things, such as anti-virus, anti-malware, URL filtering, SSL decryption, SSL VPN, routing, etc.
  • There will definitely be sticker shock when you're renewal comes up annually (or after 3 years), so be sure to look very carefully at the recurring costs of this product, with respect to licensing and hardware/software maintenance.
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ScreenShots