FortiGate NGFW vs Palo Alto Networks
Fortinet offers better value with transparent pricing
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Fortinet Leads with Integrated, AI-Driven Security Excellence
When innovation, efficiency, and comprehensive protection are paramount, Fortinet outperforms Palo Alto Networks every time!
Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) deliver superior AI/ML-powered threat detection, zero-trust integration, and ASIC-accelerated performance in a unified, cost-efficient platform. Powered by a single operating system (FortiOS), our converged security and networking solutions empower enterprises to achieve seamless cloud-to-edge security, automated operations, and lower TCO. This eliminates the gaps, complexities, and higher expenses frequently encountered with Palo Alto Networks.
| Business Use Cases | Fortinet's Strengths | Palo Alto Network's Gaps |
AI/ML-Powered Threat Protection Fortinet leverages ASIC-accelerated threat processing and integrated AI/ML across the Security Fabric, enabling real-time detection and protection from zero-day ransomware and advanced threats at scale—without impacting performance. |
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| Early, comprehensive, and high-confidence detection and protection from even the latest sophisticated, AI-driven threats | Fortinet's threat protection is powered by FortiGuard Labs, which leverages over two decades of organically developed intelligence, unparalleled global visibility from 750M sensors, and cutting-edge AI research, to deliver precise and proactive security. FortiGuard Labs leads through deep collaboration with industry frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, and law enforcement agencies, ensuring intelligence is comprehensive, actionable, and effective in disrupting today’s ever-evolving cybercrime. |
Palo Alto Networks has limited resources, fewer patents, narrow coverage, and less industry engagement. |
| Instant protection from zero-day malware, including ransomware, at the point of attack | FortiSandbox, powered by ASIC-accelerated inline processing, delivers multi-layered zero-day protection with AI-driven behavioral detection and rapid verdict delivery (seconds). |
Sandboxing (WildFire) has limited file-type coverage, lack of larger file size support, lack of comprehensive analysis, and limited on-prem options. |
Network and Security Convergence Fortinet provides a unified Security Fabric with identity-aware policies, seamless integration across the endpoint, cloud, and network infrastructure, and automated segmentation—while simplifying management and improving visibility. |
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| Unified branch office security and networking | The Fortinet Security Fabric consolidates critical security and networking functions into a single, integrated platform, providing unified visibility, simplified operations, and automated threat protection across the entire digital attack surface. No extra hardware is needed (FortiGate includes built-in SD-WAN, ZTNA, Wi-Fi, switch controller). |
Solutions require complex deployment and additional add-ons and tools. |
| Automated containment of threats across the entire network with immediate, coordinated response | Fortinet's platform enables automated, real-time threat intelligence sharing and a coordinated response across the entire Security Fabric. If a threat is detected on the Wi-Fi network, the converged firewall can immediately isolate the compromised device and enforce policy changes consistently everywhere, eliminating the manual intervention and delayed response typical of fragmented systems.
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The portfolio of acquired point products means they often operate in silos, hindering automated real-time threat response and requiring manual intervention that slows containment.
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Zero Trust and SASE |
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| All-in-one cloud-delivered secure access with identity-aware application control | Fortinet Unified SASE is fully cloud-delivered, with integrated SD-WAN, ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and firewall-as-a-service. |
Prisma Access lacks native SD-WAN capability and requires separate Prisma SD-WAN licensing. |
| Seamless secure access for distributed and hybrid workforces | Native ZTNA capability is included in FortiGate with no extra licenses. FortiClient is a unified agent that includes ZTNA and endpoint security. |
Add-ons to Prisma Access are required for full ZTNA functionality. |
| Consistent security and user experience across cloud and on-premises environments | Fortinet SASE, with all components running on one operating system, FortiOS, leverages FortiClient (with agent and agentless options), along with native wireless LAN support via FortiAP and FortiSwitch. It delivers unified security policies and seamless experience for all users and devices across clouds, branches, and on-premises environments. This simplifies management and ensures consistent protection and user experience. |
Lacks native wireless and LAN integration for branches, relying on third-party solutions, while its inflexible endpoint agent limits support for unmanaged and non-standard devices. This introduces complexity, inconsistent policy enforcement, and user experience disparities across environments. |
| Granular application access control for every user and device | Fortinet SASE enforces access control to applications per-user and per-device via coordinated policies managed through unified tools across the highly integrated Security Fabric. |
There is no equivalent cross-product automation. Manual policy stitching is often required. |
Performance and Cost Efficiency Fortinet’s ASIC-based architecture offloads compute-intensive tasks like deep packet inspection and encryption, delivering high throughput, lower power consumption, and reduced operational costs—maximizing performance and ROI. |
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| Scalable deep traffic inspection at full speed | Fortinet’s ASIC-accelerated architecture delivers deep traffic inspection at massive scale, maintaining full-line-rate performance even with advanced security services enabled—ensuring zero trade-off between security and speed. |
There are no dedicated security processors. Performance issues and increased latency will occur with generic CPUs during high-traffic processing. |
| Power-efficient, high-performance security that maximizes savings | Fortinet’s custom ASIC architecture offloads intensive tasks like packet filtering and encryption from the CPU, delivering industry-leading performance with significantly lower power consumption—reducing operating costs, extending hardware lifespan, and maximizing ROI. |
Higher operational costs will be incurred due to power/heat inefficiency. |
| Cost-effective, flexible all-in-one security licensing | Many licensing options are available, including all-inclusive licensing (UTP/Enterprise bundles) and lower-cost subscriptions. Plus, flexible pay-as-you-go models are also an option. |
À la carte subscriptions have premium pricing (CN-Series + Prisma Cloud add-ons are often required). |
Securing AI Fortinet’s AI-driven threat intelligence is embedded across network, endpoint, and cloud protections, delivering predictive threat detection and automated responses, ensuring AI-powered security is proactive and fully integrated. |
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| Protects AI workloads with identity-based access control | FortiCNAPP and Fortinet ZTNA secure access to AI workloads with identities and entitlements.
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| Enables early vulnerability detection in AI applications | FortiDAST tests AI applications and detects vulnerabilities in advance.
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| Prevents malicious inputs from reaching AI systems | FortiWeb inspects HTTP traffic, sanitizes prompts and inputs.
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| Prevents sensitive data leakage from AI outputs | FortiDLP applies a sensitive data filter on outputs and prevents data leakage.
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Cloud, Container, and Hybrid Mesh Firewall Fortinet extends consistent, automated security policies across public, private, and hybrid clouds (including containerized workloads), integrating with CI/CD pipelines to protect applications without slowing deployment. |
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| Delivers seamless, consistent network security across hardware, cloud, and containers | Fortinet delivers a unified FortiOS experience across hardware, cloud, and containerized NGFWs. Modular, lightweight container security enables DevOps teams to seamlessly embed network security controls directly into containerized applications when required. |
The Palo Alto Networks containerized firewall is hard to deploy, complex to operate, and has increased latency when in a high-scale environment. It requires manual configuration in multi/hybrid-cloud environments. |
Simplified and Optimized Operations Fortinet’s single-pane-of-glass management, automation, and unified security policies reduce operational complexity, streamline workflows, and minimize human error—making enterprise-scale security easier to deploy and maintain. |
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| Reduces misconfigurations and IT workload | There is a single OS (FortiOS) for Fortinet firewalls of all form factors (hardware, cloud, containers) and Fortinet's converged networking solutions, all under a single pane of glass, FortiManager. |
There are feature disparities between hardware and cloud firewalls. No converged networking features like SD-WAN natively, leading to multiple management tools and potential policy inconsistencies. |
| Unifies firewall and network management with streamlined AI-driven oversight | With over 40 AI-powered capabilities ranging from security analysis to network optimization, FortiAI-Assist helps generate configuration and perform troubleshooting, alert triage, and fixes across the entire managed Fabric, delivering concrete use cases and tangible efficiency gains. |
Bolted-on AI tool with basic, reactive suggestions and guidance; lack of automated remediation and no generative reporting.
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| Offers continuous AI-powered security assessment with automated remediation | AI-driven Security Rating is available for the entire managed Fabric for continuous monitoring, compliance, and auto-remediation. |
There is no built-in posture scoring for firewalls.
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OT Security Fortinet delivers comprehensive OT security and seamless IT/OT convergence, featuring automated detection, virtual patching, segmentation, and unified management, ensuring robust protection for industrial environments while maintaining operational efficiency and minimizing disruptions. |
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| Automated detection and shielding of vulnerable OT devices | FortiGate NGFWs with active FortiGuard OT Security Service subscriptions can automatically detect many OT-specific protocols, devices, and vulnerabilities to enhance security visibility across OT environments. In addition, FortiGates can automatically set up IPS rules to protect vulnerable OT-specific devices (virtual patching) to protect legacy devices still tied to critical operations. |
While Palo Alto Networks, in theory, supports automated visibility and protection of OT-specific devices, the supported protocol, application, device, and vulnerability count supported in Prisma AI is limited compared to FortiGuard Labs. Therefore, many customers will find themselves unable to protect their environment with a Palo Alto Networks solution. |
| Segmentation and microsegmentation of OT zones | FortiLink enables direct integration between FortiGate NGFW and FortiSwitch, allowing users to deploy specific security profiles and policies down to the individual switch port level. This allows OT operators to prevent east-west traffic from moving into OT zones and across OT-specific devices. |
No LAN products or segmentation capabilities are available.
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| Unified IT/OT management (platform approach) | A single FortiOS operating system allows for unified management and automation across IT and OT solutions, including firewall, switching, WLAN, and 5G. |
Minimal capabilities are offered with PAN-OS.
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| OT field site security | Fortinet LAN Extension allows customers to extend their LANs, including all security capabilities, to remote sites via VXLAN over IPsec where a full firewall cannot be deployed. |
No LAN extension capabilities are available.
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Security Compute Rating
To highlight the difference that a purpose-built ASIC can provide, Fortinet developed the Security Compute Rating benchmark that compares the performance of Fortinet’s ASIC-based NGFW appliance to other NGFW vendors that utilize generic CPUs for networking and security capabilities. The industry average is computed by calculating the average performance of leading solutions, including listed vendors. Security Compute Rating performance numbers are based on each vendor's data sheets.
| FortiGate 90G | Security Compute Rating | Competitors Average | Palo Alto Networks PA-450 |
Check Point Quantum 3600 | Cisco Meraki MX85 | Juniper SRX340 | |
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| Hardware | |||||||
| Interface | 2x 10GE RJ45/SFP+ ports 8x 1GE ports |
- | - | 8x 1GE ports | 5x 1GE ports | 2x SFP 1GE SFP ports 2x 1GE PoE+ 8x 1GE ports |
8x 1GE SFP ports 8x 1GE ports |
| Form Factor | Desktop | Desktop | Desktop | 1U | 1U | ||
| Specifications | |||||||
| Firewall (Gbps) | 28.0 | 9.1 | 3.08 | 3.30 | 3.30 | 1.00 | 4.70 |
| IPsec VPN (Gbps) |
25.0 | 17.7 | 1.41 | 1.70 | 2.71 | 0.50 | 0.73 |
| Threat Protection (Gbps) | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.19 | 2.10 | 0.78 | 0.70 | - |
| SSL Inspection (Gbps) |
2.6 | 13.7 | 0.2 | 0.19 | - | - | - |
| Concurrent Sessions | 1,500,000 | 1.8 | 852,000 | 300,000 | 2,000,000 | - | 256,000 |
| Connections per Second | 124,000 | 4.1 | 30,000 | 48,000 | 32,000 | - | 10,000 |
| Energy Efficiency | |||||||
| Watts/Gbps Firewall Throughput | 0.87 | 28.8 | 25.06 | 11.71 | 7.58 | 55 | 25.96 |
| Watts/Gbps IPsec VPN Throughput | 0.94 | 81.1 | 76.25 | 18.64 | 9.26 | 110 | 167.12 |
| BTU/h per Gbps of Firewall Throughput | 2.97 | 17.4 | 51.8 | 40.29 | 25.76 | - | 89.36 |
Why Fortinet
AI/ML-Powered Security
FortiGuard Labs leverages artificial intelligence to protect against known, unknown, and zero-day threats. Machine learning automates defenses and relieves constrained IT teams.
Networking and Security Convergence
FortiGate, powered by FortiOS, natively integrates SD-WAN, LAN, 5G, ZTNA, and security in one appliance, helping organizations achieve more effective security and better TCO.
Unified Management
FortiManager, with GenAI technology, simplifies networking and security management at scale in a single pane of glass, optimizing operational efficiency and reducing misconfigurations.
Purpose-Built ASICS
FortiGate NGFW appliances are built using a proprietary SPU architecture with custom ASICs, delivering 17x faster firewall performance and 32x quicker encryption than leading CPUs.19
Sustainability
Fortinet appliances are powered by a sustainable ASIC architecture that outperforms commercial CPU and FPGA products, while reducing energy consumption by up to 80%.20
Hyperscale
Fortinet appliances are built for performance that can serve even the largest data centers. Ultra-low latency (ULL) and hyperscale support scale with your business, no matter its size.
Customer Quotes
“The convergence of networking and security as part of Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution met our requirements… [Fortinet] helps reduce the demands on my team’s time and helps me understand my environment, which ultimately means an improved service for our guests.”
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“From a support perspective, we are achieving around $1 million a year in savings, which is a 30% to 40% decrease in costs. And the Fortinet hardware was 40% cheaper than our legacy firewalls right out of the gate.”
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“The simplicity of use is also a major benefit with Fortinet. Everything on the Fabric has a similar feel and interface, which makes things very easy for my team.”
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“The IPS inspection helped us take a big jump forward in terms of security… And the ability to segment into VLANs, keeping point-of-sale traffic isolated from everything else, is a key benefit of the FortiGate.”
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Free Product Demo
Discover the power of converged security and networking with the FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall self-guided demo.
What to Expect:
- Learn about FortiGate NGFW’s AI-powered security
- Explore configuration of security and networking policies
- See how FortiOS provides insights into security status and events
