Fortinet Networks offers a variety of next-generation firewall solutions. Their NGFWs are available as physical appliances, virtual firewalls, and cloud-based firewalls. They also offer various security products and services, including endpoint, cloud, and security operations solutions.
Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks NGFW have received high appraisals from users and analysts. However, a few key differences separate the two providers.
Cost
Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks offer an impressive range of next-generation firewall products backed by a vast blanket of purpose-built security subscriptions. These provide highly automated and preventative protection against threats at every stage of an attack, safely enabling applications and users while delivering performance without compromise.
Fortinet’s PA-Series NGFW hardware is designed for simplicity, automation, and integration. It has consistently outperformed all competing devices in NSS lab tests and provides high threat prevention throughput. Prices vary based on the size of the device and support package. The high-end PA-7000 series offers business and service provider deployments flexibility, simplicity, intelligence, and power to safeguard data centers at top speed.
Now, what is the difference between Fortinet vs. Palo Alto Networks NGFW? NGFW Fortinet is profitable in general accounting terms, and its adjusted operating margin jumped from 19% in fiscal 2022 to 24% in 2023. Its revenue and billings are proliferating. The company is more diversified than Palo Alto, and its sales growth is more consistent. Its forward earnings multiple is slightly lower than Palo Alto’s, but its adjusted EPS growth is still expanding.
Performance
Both Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks rank highly regarding firewall performance in independent testing by NSS. Both also have extensive lineups of cybersecurity products to protect various environments. User reviews and industry research reports also point to the quality of each product.
ML-powered NGFWs stop 40% more zero-day threats than competitors in real-time with Inline machine learning. Dedicated processing resources assigned to networking, security, and signature matching deliver predictable performance. PA-5400 Series high-performance appliances provide scalability and high throughput for data centers, internet gateways, and service provider deployments.
Fortinet NGFWs are available as physical devices (PA series) and VM-series virtual NGFWs to support a variety of cloud-based and virtualized environments. Powered by the same solution as those on top public cloud platforms, Fortinet NGFWs are easy to deploy and use with a single management console.
Fortinet NGFWs can be used with other security tools to form a comprehensive security fabric that automatically shares actionable intelligence with all devices, applications, and users. This enables automation and provides consistency across the network for improved security posture.
Features
Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks NGFW both offer a variety of features. These features include centralized management and automation, a user identity and access control system; machine learning-based inline protection, IoT device identification, file capture with integrated malware analysis, and security policies that adapt to changing threat landscapes.
NGFWs are available as physical appliances or virtual firewalls in the cloud or on-premises infrastructure. Both offer several options for network architecture, including SD-WAN, ZTNA application gateway, and 5G Wireless WAN. NGFWs feature security fabric integration, automatically sharing actionable intelligence and orchestrating operations for an optimized end-to-end cybersecurity posture.
Both NGFWs are also known for their performance. Fortinet consistently performs the best in NSS lab tests compared to other firewall vendors. However, some customers complain about the stability of Fortinet NGFWs during infrequent firmware updates. The company compensates for this with a strong partner channel and comprehensive support services. In addition, Fortinet offers a free trial of its software so you can test it for yourself. If you decide to purchase, Fortinet provides a competitive pricing model for its hardware and subscriptions.
Convenience
Fortinet offers a variety of firewall options, including physical appliances and cloud-based services. They are known for their unified architecture, eliminating the need to integrate multiple security tools into a single platform. This includes threat protection, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, file blocking, site blocking, antimalware, content ID, and more.
The unified platform also helps security teams follow best practices more efficiently and decreases human error. The NGFWs also offer performance consistently ranking at the top of independent third-party tests.
Fortinet also offers a centralized management console called Panorama, which can manage multiple firewalls from a single interface. This is useful for administrators working on various devices from a central location. The NGFW also features the FortiSandbox cloud and WildFire, which both provide a variety of malware detection techniques. The sandbox cloud uses a custom hypervisor, supporting bare metal and virtual machine analysis. The database is entirely hash-based, which means that even if you add just one bit to the end of a malicious file, it will still be detected.
Security
Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks offer high-performing NGFW security that users rate highly, analysts and independent testing organizations. However, according to NSS Labs, the former provides better value with lower TCO per protected Mbps.
Unlike other firewalls that rely on off-the-shelf chips, Fortinet’s proprietary hardware and FortiOS software are designed to run together as a unified system. Fortinet NGFWs use stream-based processing engine technology and provide multiple protection features simultaneously without slowing down device performance.
In addition, the company’s AI/ML and networking convergence technologies reduce costs with fewer appliances and simpler management. Fortinet also has a robust partner ecosystem, making integrating security systems with the rest of a company’s infrastructure easy.
The Fortinet Security Fabric includes NGFWs, centralized management, ML-powered threat prevention, SD-WAN, cloud-delivered security services, and endpoint detection and response capabilities. It can be deployed physically or virtualized and is compatible with various third-party network devices. Its deployment solution, FortiDeploy, simplifies installation with zero-touch provisioning and revolutionizes onboarding. The company also offers managed security services through MSSP partners to reduce risk and minimize the impact of cyberattacks.
