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Fortinet FortiGate vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
595
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (2nd), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Sangfor NGAF
Ranking in Firewalls
32nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 13.0%, down from 20.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.2%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate13.0%
Sangfor NGAF1.2%
Other85.8%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859012 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Unified security platform has simplified daily network protection and accelerated troubleshooting
Fortinet FortiGate is generally easy to manage, but there are a few areas where it could be improved. The interface can become complex when managing a large number of firewall policies, and better policy search organization and reporting would be helpful. Firmware upgrades can also require careful planning and testing, especially in production environments. Troubleshooting some advanced issues may require deeper CLI knowledge or assistance from Fortinet support, and more advanced automation and AI-assisted troubleshooting within the management interface would be beneficial, such as clear recommendations for policy optimization, configuration issues, and security events. These improvements could make day-to-day administration even more efficient. More AI-driven capabilities for day-to-day administration would be valuable, especially for troubleshooting, policy optimization, and identifying potential configuration issues. More intelligent recommendations based on traffic patterns and security events could help administrators respond faster. More advanced reporting and dashboards that can be easily customized for different teams and management requirements would also be helpful, while better automation for routine tasks, firmware planning, and configuration validation would further reduce manual effort.
AK
Network Administrator at GC University Lahore
Leverage detailed reporting for effective attack management
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications hosted there, websites, FTP portals, making it quite comprehensive. Essentially, it performs all the…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most useful feature of FortiGate IPS for me is Application Control."
"The features I found most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate include their SD-WAN features and their VPN; they are good and very useful, and my remote user and I are using them all the time."
"Initial setup is straightforward; there weren't too many issues with setting it up and it takes one hour or so."
"The firewall is pretty good if you understand how to use it. It performs at a very high level, and we are loving it."
"Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"With Fortigate, I find fewer attacks and the console easily alerts me about possible attacks so I can prevent the malware attacks."
"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the IPS or IDS implementation. I appreciate most the agility or the flexibility to create hashes to block incoming threats, and I can integrate with third-party threat intelligence with our FortiGate."
"The solution has a very good set of rules, the customization potential is quite impressive, it can be customized based on our licensing contracts, the initial setup was pretty simple, technical support is rather helpful, we find the stability to be pretty good, and we find the pricing to be fairly good."
"You might try Sangfor if you are on a tight budget. The price is affordable, and Sangfor offers a lot of features. We don't have any complaints about Sangfor."
"I think the tool has the feature to detect and kill ransomware in three seconds."
"We use Sangfor NGAF primarily for security, which has helped save our files from being encrypted by ransomware."
"It seems to be a durable, stable product."
"Particularly good in the DPI where we can inspect inbound and outbound traffic."
"The capabilities are mostly within the box."
"The price versus value is good because the solution is less expensive than Sophos, Fortinet, or SonicWall."
"Sangfor NGAF's standout feature is its powerful application control, enabling precise restrictions on mobile user access to approved applications."
 

Cons

"In the balance between links feature normally you can just choose one option to balance. It would be better for the solution to have more than one option, preferably three."
"I believe Fortinet can make Fortinet FortiGate better with reduced costs, free certification, and improved security."
"We can't identify which users are causing challenges when we have issues."
"There could be more modifications."
"There is room for improvement in being proactive about identifying and integrating new signatures."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a very good device overall, though it can be improved in certain areas regarding the licenses, particularly the big one called unified threat management, which has many capabilities."
"I believe that IAM and NGFW need to merge into a single box, instead of there being two separate box solutions."
"The reporting and log management could be improved."
"It does not offer any recommendations on how to mitigate or control attacks."
"Sangfor could improve their interface capacity on the 5100 series model and upgrade their hardware from one gig to 10 gig. This would improve the overall throughput."
"The solution should be able to work in a hybrid setup."
"There is room for improvement in dependency on certain infrastructure, like the DNS dependency on the current DNS server that the company has. It should be standalone. It should not depend on any other DNS server."
"However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."
"The setup phase is quite complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall a five out of ten for pricing."
"We pay for the solution annually."
"On a scale of one being cheap and ten being expensive, I rate the tool's price as an eight."
"It was worth the money overall. It's good value."
"Fortinet FortiGate allows you to purchase licenses for hardware and software."
"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."
"It's an expensive solution."
"I think price-wise, the solution is totally reasonable since it has many products to serve, starting from small homes to massive scale sites."
"Price-wise, I would not consider Sangfor NGAF to be a cheap product. It is an expensive firewall solution, though not as expensive as something like Palo Alto, which is costly. However, the higher price point is justifiable given the feature set the tool provides that other firewalls may not offer in a single dedicated appliance."
"When it comes to the price of firewall solutions, Sangfor NGAF takes the cake."
"The price could be more competitive."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"For four to five physical appliances for a licensed firewall, it costs approximately $4,000."
"The product is very cost-effective compared to other brands or vendors."
"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten."
"For over 2000 users, the cost is around 5000 to 6000 USD. If you want a web application firewall, you have to purchase an additional license for it."
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business374
Midsize Enterprise138
Large Enterprise195
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage at large. In my opinion, Fortinet would be the best option and l use Fortinet too...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know the firewalls change every 5 to 7 years as stated but you really do need to upg...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor NGAF?
The licensing cost is quite high compared to other available firewalls in the market.
What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?
The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardware scalability, allowing for more storage and memory capacity. Making the soluti...
What is your primary use case for Sangfor NGAF?
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications h...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.