10 Fortinet Competitors to Know in 2025

What Is Fortinet? 

Fortinet is a company focused on integrated cybersecurity solutions. Although it initially focused on network security appliances and products, it has since expanded to include offerings for endpoint security, intrusion prevention, and cloud security solutions. Its central product is the FortiGate firewall. 

Fortinet integrates security with networking functions, which are intended to help organizations protect data and mitigate threats. This approach aims to combine scalability and real-time protection. Fortinet firewalls and security solutions potentially allow organizations to manage security across infrastructure layers, including on-premises and in the cloud.

This is part of a series of articles about FortiSIEM

Fortinet Limitations 

Fortinet’s solutions have several limitations that might lead organizations to consider competitors. Here is a summary of the main drawbacks, as reported by users on the G2 platform:

• Policy search functionality: The policy search engine lacks persistence. Once a desired element is displayed, it is lost after navigating away, requiring users to re-enter the search criteria repeatedly.
• Customer support challenges: Users report inadequate customer support, including zero support for Windows Surface devices and Windows on ARM platforms.
• VPN reliability: Fortinet’s VPN service is prone to frequent dropouts, leading to disruptions. Many users report being disappointed with connectivity after migrating from other platforms.
• Feature notifications: Mobile applications require better notification systems for certain features.
• Interface port limitations: Lower-end models lack ten-gigabit interface ports, restricting their scalability for high-bandwidth requirements.
• Installation and updates: Users find the installation and update processes to be overly complex and time-consuming, making it less user-friendly for beginners.
• Network stability: Network disruptions sometimes occur, with firewalls disconnecting unexpectedly.
• Cost concerns: Many users consider Fortinet products expensive compared to relevant alternatives.
• Latency issues: Some devices experience higher latency, which impacts performance.
• Log and application design: The log system could benefit from improvements, and the installation process requires simplification. Additionally, occasional interface hang-ups reduce the overall user experience.
• Setup complexity: The initial setup process is intensive, requiring careful planning and configuration. Missing key steps during setup may result in significant troubleshooting.
• Port modularity: Physical ports are fixed in number and type for each model. Some models only include copper ports with no option to upgrade to fiber ports.
• Fortinet first: Fortinet products are designed to work with each other before working with third-party tools which explains their niche positioning in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant reports. 

Related content: Read our guide to Fortinet XDR

Notable Fortinet Competitors 

1. Exabeam

Exabeam is a leading provider of security information and event management (SIEM) solutions, combining UEBA, SIEM, SOAR, and TDIR to accelerate security operations. Its Security Operations platforms enables security teams to quickly detect, investigate, and respond to threats while enhancing operational efficiency.

Key Features:

• Scalable log collection and management: The open platform accelerates log onboarding by 70%, eliminating the need for advanced engineering skills while ensuring seamless log aggregation across hybrid environments.
• Behavioral analytics: Uses advanced analytics to baseline normal vs. abnormal behavior, detecting insider threats, lateral movement, and advanced attacks missed by signature-based systems. Customers report that Exabeam helps detect and respond to 90% of attacks before other vendors can catch them.
• Automated threat response: Simplifies security operations by automating incident timelines, reducing manual effort by 30%, and accelerating investigation times by 80%.
• Contextual incident investigation: Since Exabeam automates timeline creation and reduces time spent on menial tasks, it cuts the time to detect and respond to threats by over 50%. Pre-built correlation rules, anomaly detection models, and vendor integrations reduce alerts by 60%, minimizing false positives.
• SaaS and cloud-native options: Flexible deployment options provide scalability for cloud-first and hybrid environments, ensuring rapid time to value for customers. For organizations who can’t, or won’t move their SIEM to the cloud, Exabeam provides a market-leading, full featured, and self-hosted SIEM.
• Network visibility with NetMon: Delivers deep insight beyond firewalls and IDS/IPS, detecting threats like data theft and botnet activity while making investigation easier with flexible searching. Deep Packet Analytics (DPA) also builds on the NetMon Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) engine to interpret key indicators of compromise (IOCs).

Exabeam customers consistently highlight how its real-time visibility, automation, and productivity tools powered by AI, uplevel security talent, transforming overwhelmed analysts into proactive defenders while reducing costs and maintaining industry-leading support.

2. Cisco

Cisco is a provider of networking hardware and software, offering solutions that combine automation, security, and analytics to optimize network performance. Cisco’s tools aim to scale networks, integrate AI and machine learning for endpoint classification, and maintain network health using telemetry and insights. 

Key features include:

• Automated workflows: Attempts to simplify device provisioning and configuration based on network policies.
• AI/ML integration: Enables endpoint classification and critical alert management.
• Scalability: Offers various router-port configurations and dynamic network expansion.
• Real-time insights: Provides telemetry data for monitoring client, network, and application health.
• Industrial networking solutions: Supports ruggedized hardware for IoT and mission-critical operations.

3. Check Point

Check Point offers security gateways and firewalls to provide performance and threat prevention. It has a unified approach to network security, potentially protecting enterprises, data centers, SMBs, and government institutions from cyber threats. The Quantum portfolio is designed for scalability and protection for on-premises, cloud, and remote environments. 

Key features include:

• AI-powered threat prevention: Aims for a high malware catch rate and phishing block rate, using threat intelligence to help block zero-day and advanced threats like DNS and phishing attacks.
• High performance and scalability: Supports threat prevention with Quantum Maestro, a load-balancing firewall clustering solution.
• Unified management: The console intends to provide centralized access control and policy management across on-premises, cloud, IoT, and remote networks.
• Built-in remote access and SD-WAN: Designed for connectivity with remote access VPN and SD-WAN capabilities for distributed workforces and branch offices.

4. Sophos

Sophos is a cybersecurity provider offering security solutions such as Sophos Firewall, which serves as the central component of a network security platform. Intended to protect hybrid environments, Sophos Firewall consolidates cybersecurity capabilities, helps simplify management through a cloud console, and integrates threat intelligence from SophosLabs.

Key features include:

• Next-gen firewall protection: Offers deep packet inspection (DPI), intrusion prevention (IPS), and intelligent TLS decryption to protect against potential threats like ransomware and data breaches.
• Synchronized security: Coordinates with other Sophos products (e.g., Intercept X and ZTNA) to hopefully identify and block active threats.
• Cloud-integrated security: Uses Sophos Central for centralized management, cloud-based reporting, and offloaded threat analysis, aimed at boosting visibility and firewall performance.
• SD-WAN capabilities: Simplifies network connectivity between offices and public cloud environments with orchestration, redundancy, and traffic optimization.
• Xstream architecture: Intends to improve performance by offloading trusted SaaS, SD-WAN, and VPN traffic while maintaining inspection for unknown or suspicious flows.

5. Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks is a network security provider that focuses on machine learning and cloud-delivered security. Its NGFWs aim to provide protection by introducing inline deep learning and zero-delay signatures. Palo Alto’s platform is intended to unify network, IoT, cloud, and container security.

Key features include:

• Inline deep learning: The firewalls incorporate inline deep learning, hopefully enabling analysis of unstructured data for detection of various threats, including zero-day attacks.
• Zero-delay signatures: Delivers threat updates to all NGFWs in a network, with the intention that the first device to encounter a threat is the last to experience it.
• IoT device visibility: Uses ML-based profiling to help identify IoT devices, their type, vendor, and firmware, aiming to prevent unmanaged devices from becoming security blind spots.
• Cloud-native security: Potentially protects public and private cloud environments with virtual firewalls (VM-Series) and containerized solutions (CN-Series).
• Automated threat response: Relies on AI and AIOps to predict firewall health, help prevent outages, and automate responses to threats.

6. Barracuda

Barracuda’s network protection portfolio is designed to address the challenges of digital transformation, remote work, and cloud adoption. By leveraging secure access service edge (SASE) technologies, Barracuda intends to help organizations to secure their networks, connect remote workers, and protect cloud-based applications, while simplifying management.

Key features include:

• SecureEdge SASE platform: Combines Firewall-as-a-Service and secure SD-WAN capabilities, offering intent-based configuration and out-of-the-box automation for popular use cases. 
• CloudGen Firewall: Available as physical, virtual, or cloud-based appliances. It combines NGFW technology with secure SD-WAN functionality, hopefully protecting multi-site enterprises.
• CloudGen Access: Implements a zero trust model, aiming to secure access to corporate applications, SaaS, and multi-cloud workloads. It enforces contextual and conditional access policies to help mitigate compliance risks and prevent unauthorized access.
• IoT security: Provides granular protection for internet-connected devices in industrial environments, potentially protecting machinery, sensors, and control systems from cyber threats.
• Web security solutions: Aims to offer control over web and social media usage to prevent malware infections, reduce bandwidth misuse, and boost productivity.

7. SonicWall

SonicWall is a provider of network security solutions, offering NGFWs to protect organizations of varying sizes. These firewalls deliver the visibility, control, and threat protection intended to help organizations maintain a cybersecurity posture.  SonicWall’s portfolio includes physical, virtual, and cloud-native firewalls. 

Key features include:

• Next-generation threat protection: Offers defense against evolving cyber threats, including gateway antivirus, intrusion prevention (IPS), and application control to ensure security coverage.
• Gen 7 NGFWs: The latest generation of firewalls is designed to offer stability, performance, and threat protection. 
• Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP): A cloud-based multi-engine sandboxing service to automatically detect and block unknown and zero-day attacks.
• Content filtering service: Potentially provides control over web activity, blocking malicious, illegal, or unproductive content to improve security and employee productivity.
• Centralized management with NSM: The Network Security Manager platform is intended  for deploying and configuring firewalls, monitoring threats, and automating audit-ready reporting.

8. Juniper

Juniper Networks is a provider of network security solutions that combine networking, security, and AIOps into a unified platform. It uses AI insights to help protect users, devices, and applications across distributed environments, integrating threat detection, policy enforcement, and operational intelligence.

Key features include:

• Unified AI-native platform: Combines security, networking, and AIOps under a single UI, hopefully improving visibility and reducing silos.
• Zero trust edge security: Implements zero trust principles across distributed environments, aimed at protecting remote workers, branch offices, and edge devices with consistent policies and threat prevention.
• Secure AI-native edge: Focuses on a cloud-delivered SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) architecture intended to bring applications closer to users for improved security and performance.
• Threat prevention: Utilizes AI-driven insights and threat intelligence to help detect and remediate vulnerabilities across the network.
• Next-generation firewalls: Provides application-level visibility and control, user authentication, and edge-based threat prevention to potentially protect against attacks.

Conclusion

In the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations must evaluate and implement solutions that align with their unique requirements and infrastructure complexity. By understanding the strengths and limitations of different providers, businesses can select tools that improve security and integrate seamlessly with their operational workflows.