Fortinet FortiGate vs. SonicWall TZ

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
SonicWall TZ
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
SonicWall TZ is an entry to mid-tier NGFW for small to mid-sized companies. It is a Unified Threat Management solution, with additional native decryption and deep-packet inspection capabilities.
$329.60
Pricing
Fortinet FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
SonicWall TZ270 High Availability
$329.60
SonicWall TZ270 (hardware only)
$414.04
SonicWall TZ370 High Availability
$493.04
SonicWall TZ270 Wireless-AC (hardware only)
$502.57
SonicWall TZ370 (hardware only)
$618.34
SonicWall TZ270 TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$689.16
SonicWall TZ370 Wireless-AC (hardware only)
$708.23
SonicWall TZ270 TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$769.52
SonicWall TZ470 High Availability
$776.33
SonicWall TZ270 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$796.76
SonicWall TZ270 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$930.24
SonicWall TZ370 TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$973.82
SonicWall TZ470 (hardware only)
$973.82
SonicWall TZ570 High Availability (HA) Unit
$988.80
SonicWall TZ470 Wireless-AC (hardware only)
$1063.71
SonicWall TZ370 TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$1085.50
SonicWall TZ370 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$1107.29
SonicWall TZ370 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$1232.60
SonicWall TZ570
$1240.77
SonicWall TZ670 High Availability (HA) Unit
$1273.46
SonicWall TZ570 Wireless-AC
$1356.54
SonicWall TZ570 with 8x5 Support (1 Year)
$1450.51
SonicWall TZ570 Wireless-AC with 8x5 Support (1 Year)
$1588.07
SonicWall TZ470 TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$1596.25
SonicWall TZ670
$1596.25
SonicWall TZ470 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$1729.72
SonicWall TZ470 TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$1805.99
SonicWall TZ670 with 8x5 Support (1 Year)
$1867.28
SonicWall TZ470 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$1876.82
SonicWall TZ570 TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$2006.20
SonicWall TZ570 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$2192.80
SonicWall TZ570 TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$2200.97
SonicWall TZ570 Wireless-AC TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$2442.04
SonicWall TZ670 TotalSecure - Essential Edition (1 Year)
$2574.15
SonicWall TZ670 TotalSecure - Advanced Edition (1 Year)
$2868.34
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Free Trial
YesYes
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.See pricing link for TZ Series (Gen6) editions. All prices have been converted from pounds. Conversion rates may change.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Fortinet FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Considered Both Products
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. …
SonicWall TZ
Chose SonicWall TZ
We found SonicWall TZ licencing to be far simpler than barracuda options for the use cases we needed. We have run several other barracuda products andover time have swithced away fro other offerings - mostly due to the ease of use of the GUI. We also had much better support …
Chose SonicWall TZ
The son of all subscription for antivirus is much more cost-effective and works just as well as Symantec antivirus products.
Chose SonicWall TZ
SonicWall TZ is good at some things but overall I would pick Fortinet and UDM-Pro appliances most of the time and their VPN solution does not require paid license. Interface more modern and intuitive. Overall, better bang for your buck.
Chose SonicWall TZ
SonicWall TZ was a no brainer to choose over Fortigate or pfSense. We had used Fortigate units in the past and, in our experience, the interface is terrible, both on the device and the cloud side. There are constant updates that require you to jump through hoops to upgrade and …
Chose SonicWall TZ
We were using the cisco asa but there are lots of security features that are missing in these devices. SonicWall is a combination in advanced security and advanced routing. You can easy to use this firewall.
Chose SonicWall TZ
I have chosen SonicWall TZ over the Fortigate as more ease of use and support been outstanding.
Chose SonicWall TZ
We chose the Sonicwall TZ250 because it has reliability in the Dell Sonicwall brand. It is a reliable product, with excellent support and warranty with face-to-face service should the need arise. It is cheaper than the competition, does not take up rack space, does not heat up, …
Chose SonicWall TZ
We like it is a small, portable, and has many features. I have confidence in the brand a long time. Support was also a differential to make the decision.
Chose SonicWall TZ
Pretty much similar functionality. SonicWall TZ400 compared to ASA 5506 has better hardware performance. SonicWall licenses cost less money which makes it better for the same needs and functionality. However, the Cisco ASA Internet unity and knowledge base are bigger then …
Chose SonicWall TZ
Our previous firewall, from Xyzell, couldn't handle the bandwidth that video files needed within the internal LAN, so we looked at alternatives. SonicWall came recommend by a different IT professional for its solid performance and good documentation. We further researched the …
Chose SonicWall TZ
SonicWall and WatchGuard are both fine appliances, but I am accustomed to the Barracuda NG. The Barracuda Control Center is so powerful and useful that it beats out the other two. SonicWall does a great job of dividing up firewall rules and NAT policies, but this is a …
Chose SonicWall TZ
SonicWall TZ is a much better product. Easier to administer and use and much more elaborate in its rules. I would choose it over Watchguard any day.
Chose SonicWall TZ
Costs, features and ease of use were the determining factors. The UI alone outweighs the CLI from the ASA and SRX, features were easier to understand and licenses were more easily obtained.
TrustRadius Insights
Fortinet FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

FortiGate, from Fortinet, and SonicWall TZ are next-gen firewalls (NGFWs). They are competing solutions, however SonicWall TZ aims more at smaller companies as an entry level NGFW, while FortiGate customers include large enterprises. Both vendors are network security specialists and provide related products and services besides their firewalls; see the respective SonicWall and Fortinet vendor pages. Fortinet will tend to be deployed at larger companies and enterprise vis-a-vis SonicWall, with a correspondingly higher price tag.

Features

Both FortiGate and SonicWall TZ present certain advantages that might make them the correct solution for some networks.

FortiGate is an established vendor and the product receives frequent feedback and across the board high ratings. For a few standout features, FortiGate users say its VPN is high performing, its GUI and administrative setup are fluid and easy to understand. Users will get great results when the firewalls are properly configured, which most users say is not hard to do with proper training. Additionally, and unusually for many appliances that can be deployed in enterprise environments, users praise FortiGate for clear and straightforward pricing.

SonicWall TZ is just as highly rated for its market. Reviewers single out its excellent traffic inspection and geolocation based traffic filtering, and highly configurable network access rules controlling who and cannot access network resources. Its antivirus is also highly praised, and users point out that the SonicWall TZ appliance cost is low. 

Limitations

Though these are high rated next-gen firewalls, there are a few considerations that buyers should keep in mind before deploying either solution.

A number of users say the FortiGate GUI, while excellent, takes time getting used to. Training should help get new users up to speed and may be a necessity for many users. Also, firmware upgrades for FortiGate seem to produce an unusually high number of annoying bugs. Opposite SonicWall TZ, FortiGate users find its traffic shaping rules and setup to be less intuitive. This appears to be users’ least favorite feature.

SonicWall TZ’s weak spot appears to be its logs, alerts, and reporting. Particularly the reporting is said to be lacking in detail. And while the appliances are not terribly expensive, users find the subscription cost to be surprisingly complex. Specifically, they complain that the association of the firewall’s various potential functions to separate licenses means licenses can proliferate. The end result is that costs balloon surprisingly as each and every thing the user wants is gated behind its own little recurring fee. This a la carte approach may keep overall cost down, however. SonicWall TZ is also not liked for its interface and admin controls, which are comparatively basic.

Pricing

SonicWall’s TZ series appliances are available from the company’s former parent company Dell Technologies, among other third-party vendors. The series starts with the lower end TZ350 (available now for around $400) and rise to the TZ600 series for about $1600. To load the firewall with SonicWall Antivirus and Intrusion Prevention comes in at about $300 per year. Advanced Gateway Security, a subscription-based combo of services that adds application control & intelligence as well as content filtering among other features comes in at about $1500 yearly. Its SSL VPN license costs $375 to add.

Lower level Fortinet FortiGate firewalls come in at a meager $280 – $500 per appliance approximately, while the top of the line rack-mountable, unified threat management solution FortiGate 6500F can come in at about 250k to 1mil depending on service bundle features and duration (1-3 years). The Fortigate 2000 – 3400 series of appliances range from about 150k to half a million fully featured, with services bundled.

Features
Fortinet FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Fortinet FortiGate
8.9
Ratings
3% above category average
SonicWall TZ
5.6
Ratings
43% below category average
Identification Technologies8.60 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.50 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Content Inspection9.40 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.00 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Firewall Management Console8.60 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.50 Ratings5.50 Ratings
VPN8.60 Ratings5.50 Ratings
High Availability9.50 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection9.50 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Proxy Server10.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Fortinet FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.9 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 10.0 out of 10
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
Fortinet FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Fortinet FortiGateSonicWall TZ
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
Good price for scope of functionality Challenge for those that are not highly technical Many options within Firewall Setting that need to understood to maximize use of the device. Would be nice to see some sort of configuration wizard to assist in configuring unit.
Read full review
Pros
  • It is the most reliable NGFW that we have ever been touch with it.
  • You can easily upgrade the firewall cluster firmware without user attention!!!
  • User IDentity based feature is fantastic and intrusion prevention just works with least false-positive possible.
  • Very reachfull and intuitive GUI, just love it
Read full review
  • If you have multiple sites and you want the connect the sites through secure medium this is best firewall for you.
  • There are very advanced features helps you to connect the device easily and securely.
  • Easy to connect the sites through advanced routing protocols.
Read full review
Cons
  • When we switched to Fortinet Fortigate, it took some time getting used to and become familiar with the new interface. Being used to strictly command-line interfaces, a full GUI-based firewall was something brand new. Careful planning had to be done when creating rules to ensure we didn't miss anything. However, once we got used to the new GUI interface, going from one Fortinet product to another was simple, as Fortinet used the same interface for all of its devices.
Read full review
  • management is confusing has many items that could be improved to facilitate the work to the network administrator
  • in the diagnostic tool I would improve the response times, that is, if a ping test is required, it should be quick, since in cases of failures it is sought to minimize the impact as much as possible.
  • each function has a different license item, I would place a single license package for all team functions
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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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No answers on this topic
Usability
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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Overall the new interface is very logical and easy to navigate. We did struggle at first coming from the older interface and finding our way around the new. But our new users found it very simple to find what they were looking for. One negative we do all struggle with is packet cpature not always being clear how its set/what is being monitored. this could do with more information on teh intial page instead of having to look for it
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Reliability and Availability
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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No answers on this topic
Performance
Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Once you get to a competent technician the support experience is better. But I have found that the lower tiers of support are very slow to respond (like 1 email per day) and you typically have to re-explain yourself a couple times before they get it. I have not used Phone support, and that may be a better experience.
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In-Person Training
I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Make sure that you have the most current version of FortiOS. Make sure all Fortigates are on the same version
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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
SonicWall and WatchGuard are both fine appliances, but I am accustomed to the Barracuda NG. The Barracuda Control Center is so powerful and useful that it beats out the other two. SonicWall does a great job of dividing up firewall rules and NAT policies, but this is a preference among engineers.
Read full review
Scalability
My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • 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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  • We have three SonicWall TZ devices and they are very helpful in a VPN set up.
  • The subscription costs for the different features has a great return on investment. It is very well worth the money.
  • The antivirus component has been very effective on the computers and servers the SonicWall TZ device protects.
Read full review
ScreenShots

SonicWall TZ Screenshots

Screenshot of the SonicWall TZ 570 applianceScreenshot of the SonicWall TZ 370W appliance