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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    F5 BIG-IP

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AF5 BIG-IP software from Seattle-based F5 Networks is a load balancing and application protection solution suite available on cloud or via virtual editions, on a subscription or perpetual licensing basis.N/A

    FortiGate

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AFortiNet 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
    F5 BIG-IPFortiGate
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    F5 BIG-IPFortiGate
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—FortiGate 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
    F5 BIG-IPFortiGate
    Considered Both Products
    F5
    Chose F5 BIG-IP
    SSLVPN on F5 works much better than IPSec on ASA. From the user's side, no configuration is required - the user can just install the VPN client, input the URL, and the F5 client does the rest. For ASA, profile installation or configuration is required, so the user must go to …
    Incentivized
    Fortinet
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    99%
    Would buy again
    195 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    48 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    158 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    47 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    194 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    48 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    132 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    43 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    148 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    46 Answers
    Features
    F5 BIG-IPFortiGate
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of F5 BIG-IP and Fortinet FortiGate
    Feature
    F5 BIG-IP
    -
    Ratings
    Fortinet FortiGate
    8.9
    40 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.638 Ratings
    Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.538 Ratings
    Content Inspection00 Ratings9.439 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls00 Ratings9.040 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings9.039 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console00 Ratings8.640 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging00 Ratings7.440 Ratings
    VPN00 Ratings8.640 Ratings
    High Availability00 Ratings9.535 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.538 Ratings
    Proxy Server00 Ratings10.028 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    F5 BIG-IPFortiGate
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    F5 BIG-IPFortiGate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (129 ratings)
    9.0
    (67 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.9
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.2
    (6 ratings)
    8.6
    (26 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.8
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    F5 BIG-IPFortiGate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    F5
    Definitely in larger environments, more mature organizations that obviously have the budget to spend and want best in class. Where it struggles is those organizations that don't have the funding and money to spend on it and need more basic functionality. So I'd say that's smaller customers we've worked with and kind of mid-market. They tend to get scared when they get the quotes. Also we've had some struggles with account team consistency. So for the sales team, just a lot of turnover and a lot of missteps on customer calls.
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    Fortinet FortiGate addressed an immediate security issue we had a few years ago. The device gave us a much clearer picture of the activities on our network and also more importantly, increased our awareness of threats from the internet as a whole. Fortinet FortiGate helps us to mitigate these threats with regular signature updates from Fortiguard labs, identifying certain characteristics which, once recognised by Fortinet FortiGate, can be harnessed to deploy powerful 'playbooks'.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    F5
    • I mean from a basic level, it actually satisfies all the use cases we have, which is basically to have multiple web servers for the front end and then you want that to be equally split across. The traffic comes in from all over the world. We use DRA protection and everything, but then we also internally want to make sure all the servers are being utilized and we provide much more availability across all servers. We just make sure BIG-IP sits in between and handles the traffic accordingly. And it's pretty basic and it comes to drawing traffic. It's pretty easy to configure and set it up and then forget.
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    • SD-WAN - Load balancing of Internet traffic is a USP of Fortigate and makes it stand tall in the competition. Be it 3 or more Internet Links, multiple Subnets/segments of users to distribute and bandwidth load balancing for links and users. SLA based monitoring of Internet Links / MPLS links, makes it even better to choose the links on the basis of performance (Latency, packet loss, Jitter etc).
    • SSL VPN configuration - As we all have WFH force (to some extend or all employee) during Covid-19, it is impossible to plan BCP without having a SSL VPN. In Fortigate, the SSL VPN configuration is very easy with the help of wizard. The deep CLI-level debugging is also very helpful in troubleshooting. Type of tunnel can be easily configured - Full Tunnel or Split Tunnel for SSL.
    • Explicit Proxy - This is also a great feature to shape and re-route the traffic, configuring the Proxy on the Firewall itself. We are using this feature in Pilot for now, and planned to rollout in few weeks looking at the success rate of the POC.
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    Cons
    F5
    • Recently we have been deploying F5 web application firewall and we have started the deployment. We have already moved applications out there, but we are not yet to the point wherein I could comment any positive feedback or any negative feedback because we are still going through it, right. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't see any drawbacks or any shortcomings on the F5 product lineup.
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    • Documentation is missing a great deal of detail and assumes the customer and just guess and fill in the blanks themselves
    • Fortinet has lots and lots of video guides on topics that only a small percentage of customers would ever need
    • The documentation and video guides do not get updated so most is only relevant to older software versions
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    F5
    So far experience with F5 BIG-IP has been good, but we are only 6 months into the deployment and will depend on how things run over time.
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    Fortinet's products have kept improving with new software releases and they continue to deliver great value. Their support is also very good. I believe that as a small enterprise, their products have given us competitive advantage delivering features and functionality that enable us to innovate and do things better. They also continue to be a leader in the markets they serve.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    F5
    It's not difficult to understand the parts of application configurations and features. Setting up new virtual servers with multiple profiles, certificates, and nodes is easy for new users through the web interface, which also translates to programability in scripts, DevOps, or other configuration management use-cases. Users from different backgrounds such as networking and infrastructure can use F5 BIG-IP, while users who are familiar with API calls can easily configure objects without needing to understand the platform at all.
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    Fortinet
    The firewall runs very well, firmware updates are fairly quick but you must follow the upgrade path. Neglecting this step will cause a lot of pain. If you decide to go with Fortinet FortiGate switches and/or access points, they can be managed within the firewall which is great. We're also using the FortiAnalyzer which easily plugs into the firewall for any reporting you may require.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    We had didn't any hardware failures at our two main office locations and upgraded our units last year after using them for about 5-6 years
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    F5
    On the occasions when we've had to engage f5 support, they have been great. They have always resolved our issues quickly and been easy to work with and professional. The reason I give them a 10 out of 10, however, is because when we've had issues that have crossed over between the f5 BIG-IP, our Cisco switches, and our Microsoft IIS server the f5 support representatives have been extremely knowledgeable about every product and device involved and have been able to troubleshoot end-to-end without having to engage other vendors.
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    Fortinet
    The Support team at Fortinet is excellent. They can not only help you configure the device for what you are trying to do, they offer suggestions on improving rules, and troubleshooting issues. Their response time is fast, ensuring you are up and running immediately with no questions asked. We had a hard drive failure in one of our Fortinet Fortigate appliances. The tech answered immediately, and started rebuilding the drive after some preliminary investigations. After rebuilding, there were still errors and issues, so they dispatched a brand new Fortinet Fortigate appliance. The tech then backed up the configurations for when the new device came in, which showed up in a few hours. A restore of the configuration took less than a minute, and there were no more errors or issues.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    F5
    Practical cases and hands on , many hours of training with tipical cases
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    F5
    implementation is fine
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    Fortinet
    Make sure that you have the most current version of FortiOS. Make sure all Fortigates are on the same version
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    Alternatives Considered
    F5
    That's the one thing that really stood out. It was a lot easier to use from an administrator standpoint, so I think that's the one thing that really made our team decide to go with this product versus another competitor. Just ease of use.
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    [Fortinet] FortiGate is not only cost effective but it gives the comprehensive security against the APT attacks and gives the complete traffic visibility and granular control. You can easily create the VDOMs (Virtual firewall) within a Fortigate firewall and customize the dashboard as per your requirement if you have multiple VDOMs within a single firewall.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    No changes needed to terms and conditions.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    F5
    • F5 BIG-IP has a highly positive impact on the customers. The main impact is on the security of the web applications.
    • F5 BIG-IP provides an easy and safe way to connect employees to assets and applications that reside in an on-premises environment.
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    • The pricing given to us for our firewall was well within what we were already spending for other vendors solutions and had the added value of eliminating a separate expense for a dedicated web filtering appliance.
    • We have also adopted Fortinet's security fabric approach and thus changed vendors for our switch and AP devices. These devices have come at reduced prices as compared to another previous vendor we were using, particularly in relation to ongoing annual maintenance costs.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots