Fortinet FortiGate vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
FortiGate
Score 8.6 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
Splunk Enterprise Security
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Splunk Enterprise Security is an analytics-driven SIEM that helps to combat threats with actionable intelligence and advanced analytics at scale.N/A
Pricing
Fortinet FortiGateSplunk Enterprise Security
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FortiGateSplunk Enterprise Security
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 FortiGateSplunk Enterprise Security
Considered Both Products
FortiGate
Chose Fortinet FortiGate
FortiGates are more professional and offer a robust command line.
Splunk Enterprise Security
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
Qradar is easy for first-timers. Easy to deploy and manage but if you need an advanced solution for ML, Anomaly Detection you need to use Splunk. Qradar is solid, too. But Splunk has advanced functionality for detection and automation.
Features
Fortinet FortiGateSplunk Enterprise Security
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Fortinet FortiGate
8.7
53 Ratings
1% above category average
Splunk Enterprise Security
-
Ratings
Identification Technologies8.951 Ratings00 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.351 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Inspection8.852 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls8.953 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP8.750 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console7.752 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.253 Ratings00 Ratings
VPN9.052 Ratings00 Ratings
High Availability9.348 Ratings00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection9.251 Ratings00 Ratings
Proxy Server8.639 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of Product A and Product B
Fortinet FortiGate
-
Ratings
Splunk Enterprise Security
8.5
103 Ratings
7% above category average
Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings8.0101 Ratings
Correlation00 Ratings9.0100 Ratings
Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings9.0101 Ratings
Deployment flexibility00 Ratings9.0102 Ratings
Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings8.097 Ratings
Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings9.0103 Ratings
Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings8.097 Ratings
Data integration/API management00 Ratings8.099 Ratings
Behavioral analytics and baselining00 Ratings9.596 Ratings
Rules-based and algorithmic detection thresholds00 Ratings9.097 Ratings
Response orchestration and automation00 Ratings8.088 Ratings
Reporting and compliance management00 Ratings8.096 Ratings
Incident indexing/searching00 Ratings8.0102 Ratings
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Fortinet FortiGateSplunk Enterprise Security
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User Ratings
Fortinet FortiGateSplunk Enterprise Security
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(79 ratings)
7.5
(104 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(5 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(21 ratings)
7.0
(4 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(2 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(27 ratings)
6.6
(6 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(5 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
7.0
(2 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.0
(1 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(2 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.0
(3 ratings)
9.3
(99 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Fortinet FortiGateSplunk Enterprise Security
Likelihood to Recommend
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'.
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Cisco
Well suited: Splunk ES is highly recommended in an environment with many data sources and experienced computer engineers. It has a steep learning curve, but once that hurdle is crossed, it is absolutely a beast. It is also very expensive, so a company putting a high amount of budget in Security is needed. Not well suited: Splunk ES is not recommended if a company has only a few sources and some non-technical IT users. The price won't justify the fewer data sources and scratching just the surface level. Moreover, non-technical IT users would be better off with something that has a query builder, unlike Splunk.
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Pros
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.
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Cisco
  • Advanced Threat Detection and Correlation: ES stands out in its ability to detect sophisticated threats by correlating data from multiple sources. For instance, it can identify unusual patterns in user behavior, cross-referencing with network logs to flag potential insider threats.
  • Real-time Monitoring and Alerting: ES offers robust real-time monitoring capabilities. It excels in promptly alerting us to critical security events, such as suspicious network traffic spikes or unauthorized access attempts, allowing for immediate response.
  • Comprehensive Log Analysis: ES ingests and analyzes an extensive range of log data. It's particularly adept at parsing and making sense of complex log formats, making it a versatile tool for understanding system activities and security events.
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Cons
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
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Cisco
  • ES on the cloud (SaaS) has too many limitations with platform administration.
  • Supported integrations are not always on par with enterprise support especially when dependent on 3rd-party proprietary APIs.
  • In later versions, unforeseen glitches seem to show up that have no resolution except version upgrade. This used to not be the case in prior versions which were very stable.
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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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Cisco
We are very happy with Splunk and would advise anyone to take a serious look at it. It might look pricey but the rewards Splunk offers seem endless.
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Usability
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.
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Cisco
It takes real effort to make it smooth. The interface is fine once you know your way around but it's not something a new guy can hop into and start using confidently. I guess the main reason for that is how much fine tuning it needs. We spent weeks customizing correlation searches and filtering false positives before it started working the way we needed.
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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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Cisco
I'm not an ES user, but, in my implementation I usually try to prevent all service stops to guarantee High availability to the final customers.
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Performance
Fortinet
Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
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Cisco
ES requires a very performant infrastructure: if it has it's performant, otherwise not. I had situation with a very performant infrastructure and I didn't notized that it was a distributed architecture, it seemed that there ware few data on my PC, othewise I experienced less performant infrastructures with less performaces.
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Support Rating
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.
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Cisco
It's good when it's responsive, but I've had times where I had to wait quite a while for a response. But these are typically the exceptions rather than the rule. When you do get a response it is always well-informed and appropriate. I would say they've been trending better over time with this.
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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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Cisco
I experienced only on-line training, but the trainers were very professional and competent. Maybe it could be more useful if they also have an experience in projects because sometimes they didn't have a real project experience to communicate to the students. Anyway, it was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself, aven if I have more than 10 years of Splunk activity experience.
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Online Training
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Cisco
It was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself. The only problem was that, when I worked with the Splunk Professional Services, I found some difference between the training contents and the information from PS. In addition is required a long experience on Splunk Enterprise for the data ingestion part, in other words I'm able to work with ES because I'm worling on Splunk since 11 years, otherwise I'd some problem.
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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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Cisco
It's a fantatic product and it was very useful the presence of Splunk Professional Services for the Design Phase and the final Health Check.
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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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Cisco
Splunk enterprise is the only solution that we’ve been able to identify that provides risk based alerting, which allows our SOC to reduce analyst fatigue which would be a huge problem without it. Before RBA, there were thousands of alerts a day and it was impossible to review all of them
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Fortinet
No changes needed to terms and conditions.
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Cisco
for my exterience, unit pricing and billing frequency are correct. As I already said, I hint to have more discount flexibility, expecially with new customers, because there are competitors less expensive and very aggressive that are dangerous. In addition the possibility to don't pay the license for the development period could be a very interesting feature for the final customers.
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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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Cisco
- 8 out of 10 and took 2 for the data pipeline and administration part. Even if you'd like to improve yourself or your team, you have to pay a lot of money and it could be more than GIAC education + cert. - Normalization for Data models and CPU-based searches can be a problem sometimes.
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Professional Services
Fortinet
No answers on this topic
Cisco
I had a fantastic experience with Splunk Professional Services: they worked with us in our last SON project (a SOC migration for a very large customer) and helped to build a multi tenent environment even if ES isn't a multi tenant platform. Th Splunk PS was a very professional and competent people, he is italian and was able to speak with our italian customers.
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Return on Investment
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.
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Cisco
  • ES has highly impacted ROI because as the customer of the ES the work we do for creating use cases for clients in terms of security-related aspects by their logs has given more return than investment.
  • The correlation searches we run to get detailed results from the Data models are very less time-consuming than Splunk Enterprise itself we can get quick responses to the use cases and dashboards populated because of ES.
  • The CIM compliance feature is ES has made more jobs easy in the terms of finding more Authentication related data we can get data onboarded in the Email data model from O365 and search is email data model instead of searching for particular indexes.
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