Cisco Routers vs. Fortinet FortiGate

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Routers
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco routers support secure, reliable enterprise connections. These enterprise routers help users implement an intent-based, future-ready WAN that is constantly learning, adapting, and protecting. Deploy routers for the branch, cloud, co-location, or the data center with any type of connectivity, including MPLS, Internet, and 4G LTE. With over 30 years of experience and an end-to-end portfolio, Cisco routing solutions can deliver for today’s networking needs. The vendor promises to help…N/A
FortiGate
Score 8.2 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 RoutersFortinet FortiGate
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco RoutersFortiGate
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 RoutersFortinet FortiGate
Considered Both Products
Cisco Routers
Chose Cisco Routers
Cisco product have shown proven operation and reliability for our teams. Our old routers were also Cisco series that where in continuous operation for over a decade with no issues.
Chose Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers are the most reliable and stable internet edge routers ive used. They' have also always offered high performance for the most demanding traffic workloads. Lastly, from all of the various vendors I've used, Cisco routsrs have the best TAC support.
Chose Cisco Routers
Very well! Cisco Routers were much faster.
Chose Cisco Routers
We have used Cisco Routers and ASA for many years, they provide us the stable network connection with high performance, high security, and new technology.
Chose Cisco Routers
When it comes to CIENA routes , we don't use the latest overlay technology EVPN in our CIENA metro environment. Because CIENA doesn't yet support the EVPN VPWS and EVPN VPLS services. We still relay on LDP based Pseudo wires for achieving L2VPN services in our metro …
Chose Cisco Routers
Other vendors definitely bring some great features. We've gone from Fortinet to HPE, to Ruckus. Each product has benefits to consider. For us, Cisco is a trusted brand that's used about thousands of customers and many fortune companies. While some of the newer or smaller …
Chose Cisco Routers
In my opinion, we do not like the Meraki MX compared to Cisco Routers. It is not flexible enough for our needs and is only really viable for very simple east to west traffic. From my experience, for a "Firewall" it has an awful policy management interface that manages to be so …
Chose Cisco Routers
The main reason to go with Cisco Routers is reliability. Other than that most engineers are certified to operate these routers. Other reasons are good technical support, quality community and familiarity/experience within the industry of networking. It is by default product to …
Chose Cisco Routers
Similar, if not slightly better.
Chose Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers stack up against them and we have selected Cisco Routers to accommodate the limited rack spaces. The stack cables are giving seamless connectivity between switches.
Chose Cisco Routers
I have not used any other router apart from Cisco Routers. So cannot compare any other router with the same.
Chose Cisco Routers
Cisco has been the top vendor while selecting the router, they are always on the list. Cisco has been very up-to-date with current market trends and technology. Cisco has better material available over the Internet, so Cisco has better competency compared with any other vendor, …
Chose Cisco Routers
Netgear and Dlink wireless routers also support cloud-based management, however, Cisco is the first one to implement a cloud-based centralized management portal. Cisco Meraki routers provide enhanced network security using Meraki Air Marshal wireless intrusion and prevention …
Chose Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers have better performance and are more efficient when working. They are friendlier in their configuration environment and in turn, their TAC service is superior to that of other brands, and at the same level of documentation it is more accessible than that of other …
Chose Cisco Routers
Cisco routers are great and are the industry standard. They have proven their ability to last and [continually] provide support for their devices. You can go into a lot of IT closets and see old Cisco switches and routers. Why? because they are workhorses and they last. Their …
Chose Cisco Routers
As a Cisco partner, we had access to Cisco devices only. I can't offer this information.
Chose Cisco Routers
Mikrotik Routers are very inexpensive and lightweight routers. They support many features that enterprise routers support like routing protocols, ACLs, Nating, radius server-based authentication, GUI management, and many more. However, it is not built to handle large amounts of …
Chose Cisco Routers
As needing a physical piece, this is the only logical step forward.
Chose Cisco Routers
I haven't used other routers in my career. We evaluated Palo Alto but quickly realized we needed to stay with Cisco, as they never gave us a reason to change. Palo Alto also was a much greater financial investment we were not willing to take, along with the learning curve to …
Chose Cisco Routers
The Meraki devices are much simpler to manage and configure than any of their other devices. Being able to manage all devices at once makes it easier to detect a problem. The monthly subscription fee is the hardest part to look past, as it's a lot more costly to use Meraki …
Chose Cisco Routers
Important reason is the certified and qualified engineers to support the Cisco devices compared to other vendors in the market. Cisco Routers are easy to manage over a long time compared to Juniper devices. Cisco SDM tool also helps for small sites to manage these routers. …
FortiGate
Chose FortiGate
FortiGate has inbuilt SDWAN features along with Next Gen Firewall. Checkpoint Firewall dont have inbult SDWAN
Chose FortiGate
Some of them are great products, but overall Fortinet gives more for less. Also it is really easy to manage for almost everyone. As you should have at least a double layer, with different manufacturers, this is a great choice
Chose FortiGate
We choose Fortinet FortiGate because it provides AI-powered security services and offers more advanced threat protection and response capabilities than Sonicwall TZ
Chose FortiGate
We migrate from Cisco ASA solution to Fortinet FortiGate solution.
The technical feactures and easy operation were the most driver of our evaluation.
Finally the high level of Cost over Benefit was very relevant in the project evaluation.
Chose FortiGate
The Fortinet products have been chosen because of our previous experience with them. The FortiClient is always used with our roaming users together theRedHAt authentications services and the IPS and Web Filtering addons are used, together the WAF, to strengthen our network …
Chose FortiGate
One of the biggest advantages over competitors that Fortinet FortiGate leverages well is its remote virtual private networks options. Licensing is included with Fortinet FortiGate units at no extra cost. We find that the telemetry is easier to compile and most importantly …
Chose FortiGate
Great subscription services and easy branch office VPN configuration. Also a big plus for 2FA via Forti Token integration.
Chose FortiGate
Money is the sinews of war but clearly Fortinet FortiGate and other product like fortimanager for extend and adminstrate remotes sites with dedicated or template of configuration is perfect, same thing with the wortianalyzer as you can find quickly any log from trafic log to …
Chose FortiGate
The FortiGate is a next generation firewall and has more features and more flexibility compared to the Sophos UTM devices and the older SonicWall devices. Technical support from Fortinet is far superior to SonicWall and Sophos.
Chose FortiGate
Better than Juniper, and Checkpoint. Not as good as the Palo Alto although it cost less so I would still make the choice to go with Fortinet
Chose 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 FortiGate
Fortinet FortiGate is an all-round Network Security solution with advanced Next Generation Firewall features. The purpose built hardware provides unparalleled performance when compared to other similar solutions. The licensing model is very flexible and accommodates networks …
Chose FortiGate
Fortinet FortiGate is above other products in the market.
Chose 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 FortiGate
As mentioned in the previous sections, Fortigate is best suited for our use cases of SDWAN, load balancing, SSL VPN, IPSec Tunnels, Bandwidth allocation (per IP, per user based ). Comparing with Palo Alto NGFW and Cisco ASA, the SD WAN and link load balancing based on the …
Chose FortiGate
I stick with this program because of many reasons like it is extremely robust and scalable, as well as simple to set up. Protecting an organization's data is one
Chose FortiGate
[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 …
Chose 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 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 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 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 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. …
Features
Cisco RoutersFortinet FortiGate
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Routers
-
Ratings
Fortinet FortiGate
8.9
Ratings
3% above category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco RoutersFortinet FortiGate
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies

No answers on this topic

Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco RoutersFortinet FortiGate
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco RoutersFortinet FortiGate
Likelihood to Recommend
We will recommend theCisco Routers if there is requirement of high availability and more reliability. Also it is best for implementing and achieving state of the art technologies in both enterprise and service provider environment. The integrated management and monitoring solutions it comes with makes the routers attractive for all network operations. We don't recommend the Cisco Routers if cost is a concern since all these next generation features are very expensive.
Read full review
We reviewed many different vendors product offerings, we found the Fortinet FortiGate to best fit our needs. We upgraded from a previous firewall, the migration was a fairly easy process. We were also able to consolidate multiple firewalls into one unit using vdoms. It's been helpful to have one pain of glass, one support contract and easy to work with support. These firewalls are feature rich which is great, but the support contracts are expensive.
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Pros
  • Helps to separate routing information for different networks for different customers.
  • Helps peers with service providers and Customer Networks and starts the exchange of information between them.
  • Helps facilitate internet connectivity for enterprise networks.
  • Helps transferring Internet or Private Data from one place to another.
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  • 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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Cons
  • I have had the opportunity to work with different vendors of routers and simply from my point of view they are the best equipment in the market. Perhaps the unfavorable point is the costs compared to other manufacturers, but they are still the best option
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  • 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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Likelihood to Renew
We are extremely likely to renew, as we have been very happy with our Cisco Routers for over 10 years. Their uptime as well as stable nature makes them ideal for us, as we are an industry that cannot afford downtime. We trust our partner to recommend our next model Cisco, when the time comes.
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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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Usability
The best thing about Cisco products is their presence in community. When you have a problem you can do quick search and find whoever else had the same question and expert answer for that question. Other thing is there are Cisco certified people we can find very easily if want some help with comissioning these products
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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
No answers on this topic
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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Performance
No answers on this topic
Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
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Support Rating
Cisco support is very good. Of course, sometime you will run into support guy that isn't up to the task. Buf overall, the support system is well structure. You know if this support isn't able to help, you can esclate the situation to find another help. Also, their documentation is well developed and can be very useful.
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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
No answers on this topic
I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
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 Routers are the most reliable and stable internet edge routers ive used. They' have also always offered high performance for the most demanding traffic workloads. Lastly, from all of the various vendors I've used, Cisco routsrs have the best TAC support.
Read full review
One of the biggest advantages over competitors that Fortinet FortiGate leverages well is its remote virtual private networks options. Licensing is included with Fortinet FortiGate units at no extra cost. We find that the telemetry is easier to compile and most importantly communicate with non technical members of staff. The Fortinet FortiGate unit is also extremely stable for long periods of time without showing signs of needing a reboot.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Network management has become easy and fast with cloud based portal.
  • Network policies could be rolled out quickly across the devices.
  • Improvement in Network security.
  • Stable internet connection has lead to less downtime and more productivity.
  • Stable internet connection in each location within the organization.
Read full review
  • SD-WAN : Can't stress it further that we are very happy with this functionality and outcomes in the org. We have multiple WAN and MPLS links and traffic switching becomes an important in order to utilize the best performing line.
  • QoS : We use QoS for almost all internet traffic, be it Web browsing by users, IOT segment, Application based traffic policy and VIP and normal user based bandwidth allocation.
  • SSL and IPSec VPN, both features are fully used to it absolute capacity. IPSec tunnels with multiple sister companies across globe.
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ScreenShots