Skip to main content
TrustRadius
FortiGate

FortiGate

Overview

What is FortiGate?

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.

Read more
Recent Reviews

Best NGFW firewall

10 out of 10
January 11, 2024
If I think of a firewall, first word comes to my mind is Fortinet FortiGate. Best in the industry, as well as in reliability and …
Continue reading

TrustRadius Insights

FortiGate is a versatile product that has been widely used by various organizations to address their network security needs. Users have …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 11 features
  • VPN (38)
    9.8
    98%
  • Firewall Management Console (38)
    9.6
    96%
  • Policy-based Controls (38)
    9.6
    96%
  • Reporting and Logging (38)
    8.2
    82%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

What is FortiGate?

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.fortinet.com/corporate/abou…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

347 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is pfSense?

pfSense is a firewall and load management product available through the open source pfSense Community Edition, as well as a the licensed edition, pfSense Plus (formerly known as pfSense Enterprise). The solution provides combined firewall, VPN, and router functionality, and can be deployed through…

Return to navigation

Product Demos

Fortinet Fortigate Firewall SSL VPN Demo

YouTube
Return to navigation

Features

Firewall

A firewall is a filter that stands between a computer or computer network and the Internet. Each firewall can be programmed to keep specific traffic in or out

9.3
Avg 8.5
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is FortiGate?

Fortinet’s FortiGate is a firewall product with high integrability. It can be deployed on-premises or as a Virtual Machine in a variety of modules. The granularity of the product enables buyers to tailor their purchase to their business needs. FortiGate integrates into multivendor environments, including IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.

FortiGate’s functionality includes the core firewall features, such as intrusion prevention, anti-malware, and web filtering. It also includes SSL inspection, threat protection, and scalable segmentation, all within low-latency standards.

FortiGate Video

FortiGate Demo

FortiGate Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Reviewers rate VPN highest, with a score of 9.8.

The most common users of FortiGate are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(359)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

FortiGate is a versatile product that has been widely used by various organizations to address their network security needs. Users have reported that FortiGate serves as a reliable firewall solution, providing advanced security features and protecting the infrastructure from known and unknown attack types. It is not just a firewall but a full Unified Threat Management solution, offering security checks for risks like SPAM, infected attachments, and spyware.

FortiGate has proven to be suitable for different use cases, such as small office connections, enterprise proxy, threats management solution, and routing and layer 3 management. It offers excellent routing and VPN performance, making it an ideal choice as the core of a company network's layer 3 and routing infrastructure. Additionally, FortiGate is highly regarded for its ease of setup and management, delivering intuitive visibility into multiple network activities that aid in troubleshooting network and security issues.

Virtualized FortiGates are also available, making it a suitable option for companies with strong virtualization infrastructures. The product line includes devices that can withstand environmental extremes, making it viable for industrial environments. Organizations have utilized FortiGate for securing external services, inter VLAN routing, protecting users' internet access, segmenting internal networks, and creating a security fabric using Fortinet switches and APs.

FortiGate provides robust VPN capabilities for remote workers, including site-to-site VPNs for larger sites. Users have praised its user-friendly interface for policy creation and selection of security profiles. The solution is also utilized as the primary internet-facing firewall, protecting networks from outside threats while allowing secure remote access through SSL VPN.

Customers have recommended FortiGate as an alternative to more expensive solutions due to its cost-efficiency without compromising on performance or functionality. With its powerful technologies and extensive support ecosystem provided by Fortinet, FortiGate has enhanced security and resolved issues across organizations of all sizes.

In summary, FortiGate has proven to be a reliable and versatile network security solution, addressing a wide range of use cases such as firewall protection, VPN establishment, threat management, routing infrastructure, and secure remote access. It provides advanced security features, intuitive management interfaces, and cost-efficient solutions for organizations of all sizes.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 39)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I'm a senior network engineer with over 25 years of experience and an MSc in network security and in the last 8 years or so I've worked on several projects where we've replaced the following vendors with Fortinet FortiGate CheckPoint Sophos Cisco (ASA to be honest) Microsoft TMG (yea!) WatchGuard F5 and a few more. I've also deployed their switches, APs, Management, and Analytics Platform and done some of their slightly more advanced technologies like ADVPN. In the 25 years I've been in networking it's rare to find a technology platform that is both effective and easy to deploy, usually it's one or the other but so far Fortinet FortiGate seems to have struck that balance.
  • Debugging and troubleshooting features are very detailed and easy to use
  • The GUI is well thought out and intuitive
  • The out-of-the-box features (non-license dependent) are well worth it
  • Easy to deploy (even for a moron like me)
  • FortiManager (uggh)
  • Software vulnerabilities (I know it's an occupational hazard but still)
  • Some cosmetic issues in some firmware releases and browser compatibility are still hit-and-miss but that's minor
  • Be more creative with the product naming but please don't go the the extreme like Cisco where you have no idea what the hell they're talking about sometimes.
It's great for customers who need a reliable, easy-to-configure, intuitive platform with high-end security processing hardware, a decent technology ecosystem, and support at a price that most CFOs would be ok with. Also, for anyone still using MS TMG.
January 11, 2024

Best NGFW firewall

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
If I think of a firewall, first word comes to my mind is Fortinet FortiGate. Best in the industry, as well as in reliability and scalability. This firewall has a wide range of features and an infinite number of applications which can be used according to the requirements of an individual. This firewall is suitable for large scale organizations as well as for small and mid scale organizations. Easy to use with very effective GUI which supports almost all security profiles such as Web filtering, Application Control, IPS, IDS etc etc.
  • Best thing that Fortinet team does really well is their support to the customers which is exceptionally well
  • Supports both GUI & CLI
  • Customization of security profiles is possible
  • Another great feature is their detail log report which is also available on FortiCloud
  • Unified application for all features (Forticlient)
  • Sometimes Forti DNS server becomes unavailable.
  • Their log service has some scope for improvement.
  • Upgrading the firewall version should be done without downtime. Although downtime for Flash formatting the firewall is less but it is there.
Let it be a small office, home or a Multi National Company, Fortinet FortiGate can fit there very well. Performance capability of the firewall is really at the next level. The traffic analyzing feature of the firewall is really efficient and also at a very high rate. The throughput of the firewall is very good.
Jesse Bridgelal | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet FortiGate is a Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) that provides state-of-the-art security for your Network. Fortinet FortiGate provides the full Unified Threat Protection (UTP)Suite for our Company and includes powerful network protection services such as IPS, Anti-Malware, Antivirus, Flood Detection, BotNet Detection, Web Filters, and other security services. Fortigate provides a powerful first line of defense for our network, with proactive alerting and intrusion prevention. Fortigate and the FortiClient combine to provide versatile and secure VPN services for our Remote workers. the Site to Site VPN is also a powerful full-time VPN for larger sites that need WAN Connectivity. Fortigate provides a very intuitive interface which allows our Team to configure and utilize the most powerful features of this Firewall with ease.
  • Powerful and reliable SDWAN Services
  • Unified Threat Protection with powerful features such as IPS, Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Anti-Spam
  • Powerful IPS Services backed by industry validation
  • Provides Reliable Publishing Services for providing secure remote access to internal services
  • Provides excellent Remote Access Services via IPSEC and SSL VPN Tunnel technologies.
  • Features a simple and intuitive user interface which is well designed and easy to follow.
  • There could be some improvement to the Logging Services to include more details
  • 10 Gigabit Interfaces should be available for the lower models as well.
  • Simpler installation of the FortiAP services when being used.
Fortigate Firewalls models are designed to be used in networks of any size. They come in sizes varying from Entry Level to large enterprise. Fortinet FortiGate is best suited tot he Corporate Network environment where high security is required. The Devices also offer powerful WAN services and SDWAN features which make them an excellent alternative for your basic WAN Router. With features such as OSPF and BGP and SDWAN, they provide advanced network services and enhanced security at a lower cost. Because these boxes are purpose built and include Security Processor (SPU) technology, they outperform other devices in their class.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Being an IT consultant and Software Development Centre (Lab) for our Parent Company, we are very specific and skeptical when we choose a product that will be implemented across many other daughter companies. 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 [Fortinet] Fortigate as our main Firewall. Fortigate has a very well refined and functional SD-WAN solution when it comes to load balancing for normal Internet Traffic, be it web browsing, Application traffic, IPSec or SSL VPN traffic. Some of the top NGFW still lacks the basic load balancing feature (to be practical) in small and mid scale organizations where budget is a constraint in selecting the technologies. Another feature is to have the traffic shaping (QoS) or bandwidth allocation to users, Application, subnets with all possible variables in configuration. Explicit Proxy is also a great feature, to be configured on the Firewall itself. SSL VPN configuration on firewall is also very easy with the help of Wizard.
  • 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.
  • Though, I think Fortigate is one of the best options for small and mid-sized organisations, 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.
  • Scalability - this is something that I personally have faced twice in the same organization. Fortigate is not easy on scalability part, you have to change the hardware box in order to scale the firewall as organization grows.
  • Fortigate sometimes stucks on GUI, which is basically happens due to Disk error. And the only way to mitigate the issue is to reboot the firewall. Which is very hard if you have a 24x7 production running behind the firewall.
  • HA switch over in certain conditions is also have some room to improvement. Basic internet link flapping can cause HA switchover, if not configured wisely and with custom settings. HA switch over also takes more than normal time, approx 4 minutes sometimes.
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Fortinet FortiGate as Perimeter FW on multiple locations. Applications visibility, scalability, feature availability, and ease of use are the most prominent attributes of Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. Just turn on the feature you require and if your license supports it, you are good to deploy the new requirement for your business.
  • SDWAN
  • Application visibility
  • Stitching of Security Fabric
  • Automation of various tasks
  • Some features are only available in CLI, make them available in GUI
  • Route maps and prefix list availability in GUI
  • Separate QOS section in menu bar
Well Suited for:
  • Multi-links traffic load balance via SDWAN.
  • Proxy deployment's if required.
  • DLP
Binita Kharbanda | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet's FortiGate solution is being used in my organization and we are able to achieve the security with this cost efficient firewall. It comes with powerful technologies to secure the infra from known and unknown both attack types. On the top of that, it has an user friendly user interface where policy creation is easy and we can select the security profiles per rules.
  • IPS
  • Remote VPN (Forti VPN)
  • Advanced Malware protection
  • Logs
  • Cost effective
  • CLI Commands
  • Documentations
  • High Availability
  • Content filtering
Fortinet's Fortigate is a Firewall which can be suited to all the types of organizations starting from Small/ mid size to Large enterprises. Due to its cost effectiveness even a Small organizations can afford it. In the return Fortigate will give you the industry best technology to secure your organization infra.
Vinit Sharma | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Fortinet FortiGate in our Remote area locations because it has one of the best features of remote VPN for connecting remote sites to the main branch. Also, they are providing the UTM feature that is giving the best outputs as compared to other firewalls we have in our enviorment. Fortinet FortiGate resolved our Security & remote VPN issues.
  • Real UTM
  • Remote VPN
  • DLP
  • Email filtering as well as content filtering
  • Anti-Spam
  • No advance routing feature available
  • Nating customization options not good as compare to other market available firwall's
  • CLI needs to be more easier for begineers
Fortinet FortiGate Provides a Deep Scanning feature identifies malicious traffic over network easily & also having advance level of such security feature in a cost-effective manner. It also helps us to content filtering & anti-spam over data.
Basant Gupta | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet FortiGate firewall provides you ultimate threat protection for your organization. This is only one and [many] powerful firewall offers UTM. Most of firewall offers UTM but most of main features is missing but in Fortinet we have web filtering, anti virus, content filtering, application control, which help you organization from external threats so your business will not [be] harmed from any cyber attack. I have this product in one of my location. I am satisfied with [its] high performance and advanced protection.
  • High performance threat protection.
  • Web filtering.
  • Anti virus.
  • Application filtering.
  • Content filtering.
  • Email control.
  • Highly protected with advanced security features.
  • Command line is not easy so you will face problem to remember the commands.
  • Not good technical support and issue with SLA.
  • Not easy to configure and implement.
I am using this firewall in my one location which we have limited users but our client data is very critical, we need deep security and we want to scan the every packet deeply, so I chose this one. I am really happy with UTM features. I am using email and DLP features for more control on my users.
Amin Mirzakhani | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Fortinet FortiGate] is being used by the organization to secure all external services on the edge and also for lan inter vlan routing and protection and users internet access.
  • 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
  • Needs some improvements in SSL Offloading capabilities
[Fortinet FortiGate] is perfect for edge network protection and also internal user protection.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
This device is being used across the entire organization. We are using it as our primary Internet facing firewall. It is protecting our network from outside threats and ensuring that the users inside the organization are protected as well. All authorized users have access to the FortiClient VPN software so they can access resources from remote locations.
  • VPN client is easy to use and can be customized for your organization.
  • All features are enabled on the firewall with little to no impact on performance.
  • Easy to configure interface on the firewall but also has a command line available for high level admins.
  • Excellent technical support department - very quick response time.
  • Pricing was amazing compared to peers.
  • Sales team was lacking information (type of licensing, hardware model, etc). Make sure you ask lots of questions.
Our firewall is fantastic. It's very quick and easy to configure. Fortigate offered a lot of assistance during setup so that our downtime when switching was very limited. The technical support team is amazing and have a very quick response time. Compared to it's peers, Fortigate has exceptional pricing for the same or better feature set.
Michael Singh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Coming from a Cisco background, I first brushed this off as some knockoff. But in all honesty, it is far superior to the products I have used in the past.

My department (Enterprise Managed Services) currently uses Fortinet FortiGate in tens of thousands of locations. We use the whole suite with FortiAP and FortiSwitches. The whole family intertwines fluidly with great features and support. Even better is its policy and configuration management with FortiManager or logging and reporting with FortiAnalyzer. The web interface is so intuitive and the CLI is a breeze to use. The current offerings of FortiGates range from small branch office sized firewalls to large multirack datacenter beasts. The VPN capacity, SSL inspection, and other traffic metrics are insane for the purposes we use them for. The high availability and SD Wan features that customers want are so easy to use and configure. I highly recommend FortiGate as an alternative to more expensive solutions that are still 5 years behind.

Another side note, the support and training portals are very very informative. Even the certification exam materials are now free. FortiGate is definitely pushing boundaries with its UTM devices. Many job listings in Denver are now asking for FortiGate experience! Highly recommended.
  • VPN
  • IPS/IDS
  • UTM
  • SD-WAN
  • IPv4 Policies
  • Web content filtering
  • Firmware stability
  • Traffic Shaping policies
  • Better wizards as it can be cumbersome to some new engineers.
FortiGates are very well suited when used in conjunction with FortiManager for scalability and management reasons. Larger model FortiGates are not necessary for smaller environments. The basic models do just fine.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet Fortigate currently sits on the edge of our network, and it is used to monitor all incoming and outgoing traffic on the network. It allows us to shut down access to the network and restrict access only to applications and protocols that should be allowed based on the services we currently use. It is a core component of our IT security strategy for the organization.
  • Allow secure access to the network for external vendors.
  • Protects the network from nefarious online activities
  • It gives us granular control over what we allow in and out of the network and the flow of traffic between network points (LANS & WANS).
  • It allows us to connect multiple offices over WAN connections.
  • Training - The software and device is complex I believe free training should be offered for administrators to become experts on how the device function as opposed to learning by a bit of trial and error or discovering useful features only when the necessity arises. Companies usually like to avoid the added costs of training. Therefore, free training courses to certification would benefit all shareholders and lead to even further widespread adoption over the competition.
  • Any simplification of the user interface to implement essential security features would be welcomed. It can be relatively daunting for a new administrator, especially if having to use the command prompt.
  • More screenshots in the online documentation or more videos to guide admins on how to implement useful security features I find the documentation online sometimes a bit hard to follow. Still, if screenshots were added, it would simplify the process.
To protect networks ranging from small to enterprise, especially if you are connecting multiple office locations to share IT services where feasible.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We use Fortinet FortiGate to terminate to our AWS instances for monitoring thousands of customer devices. Using the Fortigate was the answer to the overlapping network issues we had with customers. It's working as designed
  • It's easy to stand up-the registering process is straight forward.
  • The flow of the GUI is second to none- easy to navigate.
  • One thing that I have noticed with other vendors like WatchGuard is the automatic creation of policies when configuring a VPN tunnel. That helps speed up the configuration to get that tunnel up faster.
  • I would also like to see a traffic monitor that shows all live traffic coming in and out. A great tool to use for troubleshooting, that's a feature on the WatchGuard that I like.
Fortinet FortiGate fit in whatever environment you need to provide firewall/UTM functionality. Their range of hardware choices gives the end-user options to fit any scenario.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet FortiGate is used to secure our network across 17 buildings. We also use it for home filtering of devices and VPN connections for a few home users.
  • Filtering.
  • Firewall protection and monitoring.
  • Interface can be not as intuitive for those not specializing in firewalls.
  • Proxy is cumbersome.
FortiGate is well suited for people who want a firewall setup and don't want to have to do much managing beyond that. Partner network is great.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet Fortigate is the Firewall of choice in our organization now. We use them at every location, in every city or town, in every building, as well as in the homes of employees requiring remote access to the organization systems. Fortinet Fortigate solved two problems in our organization:
1. How do we reduce the costs incurred securing our infrastructure and assets, while at the same time not exposing those assets to undue risk; and
2. How do we simply our infrastructure, while increasing our visibility into those assets, with the limited resources available.

Fortinet Fortigate solved both those questions, and actually improved our security posture.
  • Fortinet Fortigate created a simplified cost structure for every device we installed, saving our company thousands of dollars compared with our previous vendor of choice.
  • Fortinet Fortigate firewalls contain a tremendous and robust feature set allowing our organization better protection while reducing the number of devices and software required to do similar functions if we went with our previous vendor.
  • 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.
Fortinet Fortigate is a robust firewall and security device. Fortinet has devices geared for any situations, and for any sized company...from single computer small businesses to extremely large organizations with thousands of computers. Fortinet Fortigate is reasonably priced and contains the ability to have multiple functions embedded into a single device, making management that much simpler. Its robust feature set is top-notch and is on a level playing field with the largest names in the business, and in my view, because of the cost difference, wins hands down.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use our FortiGate as the primary firewall for our centralized district-wide Internet as well as a secure VPN for the few users that use this within our organization. It addresses the need we had for a Next Generation Firewall that was easy to transition to, very secure, full featured, well supported and at a reasonable price.
  • Very effective firewall. If set up correctly, creates a very secure environment.
  • Amazing price when compared to same feature set as other prominent firewalls.
  • Updates. I have an HA pair but I always lose connection for a minute or two when upgrading.
  • Interface display. I have a bug where I have to refresh several times to view policies and objects.
We started with a new Palo Alto because it was so well recommended but when we moved the circuit from 2GB to 10GB the price rose to astronomical heights. We heard about FortiGate being very comparable if not better. I attended a Firewall Shootout and the FortiGate clearly came out on top. The price savings for such a high quality product made this an easy choice. It's great that it also has built in features such as VPN, web filtering and access point controller. Because we are a school district, we really need a dedicated web filter but it's likely a great option for a non-educational company.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use this software to protect the company in various ways. For example, as a content filter, and also as a firewall to administrate inbound and outbound traffic by closing ports. Finally, with the reports we do some useful analytics in order to make decisions and better understand the final users in the network.
  • Web filtering.
  • Command line interface is a little bit hard to use.
  • Lack of AI.
FortiGate is very well suited when we need to block some dangerous websites in order to protect our network from threats like viruses, data loss, and hacking in general. Also, we use it to block some traffic like virtual desktops.
January 15, 2020

Easy-to-use firewall

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
FortiGate devices are used in our organization as firewalls and VPN servers. Main internet connections used Palo Alo firewalls, FortiGates are used on the secondary ones, as the cost of the FortiGates is significantly lower. SSL client-server VPN is used with Fortinet's Forticlient software as a client piece on PC and Mac computers. Fortinet subscription services are used for web filtering.
  • Compared to Palo Alto, FortiGates are significantly less expensive. I would advise organizations to use them in cases where funds are limited.
  • FortiGates are easy to configure via GUI - it is very simple and logical. Compared to Palo Alto or Cisco ASAs, Fortinet products are easier to work with for less experienced admins.
  • Web filtering subscription services are not as good as Palo Alto's. Palos had a smaller number of false negatives in my experience.
  • Log filtering is better on Palo Altos. It is easier to find log entries for particular events on the Palo Altos.
I haven't worked with a higher-end offering from Fortinet, so my experience can only apply to smaller devices (80E and 60E). These units are less expensive than similar offerings from Palo Alto, making them a good choice for small businesses and branch offices. Also, FortiGate is the easiest firewall to configure, in my experience (among Cisco ASA, Palo Alto, pfSense, etc.). Ease of configuration is also a big advantage for organizations with limited resources. Palo Alto firewalls have better filtering and logging capabilities, though, so organizations with complicated requirements should consider investing in Palo Alto NGFW instead of FortiGate.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
We have deployed the FortiGate firewall in all our 5 branches. There is site-to-site connectivity between all the branches over IPSEC and MPLS. We have enabled the IPS, web filter, application filter and have written the policies based on the IP and user group. A self-signed SSL certificate has also been pushed through AD to decrypt the HTTPS traffic. We are able to monitor and block the malicious URL. We have done both source NAT and destination NAT successfully.
  • The GUI is very simple and understandable.
  • It is a very cost effective firewall with all the enterprise grade features.
  • There are some bugs in the newer versions and patches.
  • Sometimes the firewall gets stuck we need to do a hard reboot which impacts the production.
Fortinet is best suited to SMB customers if the customer has 20 to 500 employees with multiple branches. This is the best cost-effective firewall with a great level of security. But if you are looking for an application-based firewall where you need to define the policy based on the applications, opt for another firewall.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Fortinet Fortigates as perimeter and WAN firewalls nationally and use them for intrusion prevention, web filtering, application filtering, VPN, and proxy.
  • Ease to deploy and manage.
  • Very cost effective when compared to competitors.
  • Good, local, reactive support.
  • Upgrades are always "risky" (usually wait for 2 upgrades before upgrading).
  • Some of the settings don't make sense at first look.
Having used all the big-name players in the market, Fortigate is up there in terms of functionality and adaptability but with the benefit of a lower cost and ease of management that no one else offers.
September 21, 2019

Close your FortiGate

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We like to use it between physical servers and virtual servers to create a stricter zone of security, but it is also well suited in a top-down architecture network.
  • Secure the network from botnet, spyware.
  • You can use URL filters to block certain pages by content or categories.
  • Great site-to-site VPN.
  • Command line interface is a little bit hard to use.
  • HA is not reliable.
I recommend putting Fortinet in a top-down or left-right network architectural. We use them between barebone servers and virtual servers in a vertical scheme.
September 18, 2019

Try Fortigate Awesome

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for policies and DMZ access. We currently use it also for natting for the outside presence of websites for users. We use if for the entire district.
  • The GUI is easy so that is a major plus.
  • The cost is really good. Others we've seen are pretty costly, especially if you are on a budget.
  • An engineer to help with the installation at no cost is really good. Too many times you had to pay for that and travel at times.
  • Management needs a little work but we can get by with a few tweaks.
  • Real-time would be good.
  • Some logging features could use a little lift but not too bad. It depends on what you're looking for.
I think its best suited for large enterprise networks such as a datacenter or a larger business with a million-dollar network, etc. Small businesses with less than 100 people would not benefit from this.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently have two FortiGate firewalls that we use for city and county Internet gateway connections. All the traffic for each organization flows out to the Internet through one of these firewalls. We also use these firewalls as connectors for each organizations DMZ networks using VLAN technology. As our edge/gateway devices, these firewalls serve several purposes. All inbound and outbound connections are explicitly set, which is intended to limit exposure to ports used by bad actors. The software features included in the firewall inspect all traffic for security including https traffic. We are using firewall software to provide web filtering in an effort to increase productivity and reduce access to potentially bad sites. We are planning on deploying more Fortigate firewalls, including virtualized versions, in an effort to segment internal networks. The FortiGate product is also part of our overarching effort to use Fortinet switches and APs to provide what Fortinet considers a security fabric in an effort to make many of our security products work in concert.
  • My favorite aspect of the Fortigate product is the ease of use. The GUI is very easy to get around. The products rules and configuration are easy to learn and apply. The informational tools are easy to look at and produce results that are intuitive and quick to assess.
  • Another great attribute of the FortiGate product was reasonable pricing for the product and then the ongoing support. Living in the SMB space with tight governmental budgets is a huge factor in all my decisions. When a company like Fortinet comes along and produces good products at very reasonable prices it is good for SMB companies like mine. Many vendors price their products in a fashion that is beyond consideration by SMBs like myself.
  • Support is always a big factor in consideration of any product for our organization. Fortinet support has been extremely good. They have provided an onsite engineer at no cost to help us design, implement and maintain new products when needed. The call support has also been excellent, with quick response times and knowledgeable technicians.
  • It looks like they are making an effort to produce a centralized management interface with the integration of switches and APs into the FortiGate interface. They have a good start, but it needs continued work. While you can do some basic tasks for these external devices in that GUI, you must change over to the main browser page of the device itself to do many configuration tasks and check performance issues. I hope that they will add all this functionality into the main FortiGate GUI.
  • One other area of improvement I would like to see is the time to show real-time events in log screens. The results always seem to be a bit behind and you have to refresh to get them to show current things. The FortiAnalyzer product that works in conjunction with the FortiGate firewall addresses this but it would be nice if the default logging was more timely.
Learning from our experience using a couple of different SMB firewall devices, the FortiGate firewall is well suited to our 500 or so user environment. The model recommended to us by the Fortinet engineers has performed well and seems more than adequate for current usage and future growth. Unlike other firewalls we have used, we are able to break open and inspect SSL traffic with this device and also replaced a separate web filtering device we were using. We are looking to add more of these to further segment internal networks.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet Fortigate is a complex solution to assure the security of your network perimeter. It has a very simple interface with sufficient functionality. We like this tool because it is easy to install, easy to administer, has a good price, and good protection. We would say that Fortinet Fortigate is the best in its class because of its high availability, speed, resilience, and the vendor offers very qualitative support.
  • Very easy-to-use interface
  • Good resilience
  • High availability and speed
  • Easy installation
  • More complex configurations must be done via the console
  • Licensing options can be improved
We use Fortinet FortiGate to assure the security of our network. It's a good IDS/IPS with real-time attack information on dashboards. There are daily reports with a lot of intuitive information. It's a good VPN solution for administrators and for users. We've had no incompatibilities or issues working with any of our equipment. Fortinet is a very good appliance with a very good price.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Fortinet FortiGate is a mature solution that help us to assure perimeter security of our network. The implementation was pretty easy. We purchased support from the vendor for implementation. The integration with another solution is very easy: SIEM, DLP, proxy. Very user friendly interface and very intuitive. Detailed logs that can be easy send to the SIEM solution.
  • User-friendly interface
  • Detailed logs
  • IDS and IPS work without any problems
  • Easy to set and manage rules
  • User documentation can be more detailed
  • FortiClient - the app for VPN connection sometime get errors
  • Another problem we did not find
The IDS and IPS solution work great. Identity and prevent attacks is easy. Offenses are very intuitive. The VPN is very good. Easy to set to endpoints. You can easily manage rules and configuration without any deep knowledge. Scheduled reports send to the persons responsible for security is very useful. In conclusion - a mature and stable solution
Return to navigation