If you look up the top next-generation firewalls, both Palo Alto Networks NGFW and Fortinet’s FortiGate rank high in the space — and for a good reason.

Palo Alto Networks is considered an industry leader in the category, offering strong ML-powered visibility and zero-delay signatures to quickly address threats. Fortinet, on the other hand, is a popular cost-effective NGFW that provides high-quality SSL inspection and AI-based security services.

SEE: 10 Myths About Cybersecurity You Shouldn’t Believe (TechRepublic Premium)

As they are market leaders of NGFWs, we’re curious to see what differentiates one from the other.

In this article, we take a look at how Fortinet FortiGate compares to Palo Alto Networks NGFW and see which one is best for you and your organization.

Fortinet vs. Palo Alto: Comparison table

Fortinet and Palo Alto pricing

Given the variability of NGFW hardware and software products, I highly recommend contacting Fortinet and Palo Alto directly for a proper price quotation. This is the best and most straightforward way for businesses to get a grasp of how each product fares in terms of pricing. This is because firewall solution prices are calculated based on a particular organization’s needs and requirements.

SEE: Check Point vs Palo Alto: Compare EDR Software (TechRepublic)

That being said, we were able to gather some pricing information to give you an estimate of what to expect.

Fortinet FortiGate pricing

Fortinet FortiGate firewall bases its pricing depending on the hardware needed for each type of business. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Small businesses (1–20 users): $700 to $1,000.
• Larger businesses (15–100 users): $1,500 to $4,000.

Per Fortinet, pricing also depends on other important factors such as the appliance model chosen, cost of any ongoing services or support subscriptions, configuration, monitoring and integration.

Fortinet has a free 30-day trial of its cloud NGFW for both AWS and Azure. In addition, it offers a free product demo via its official product page.

Keep in mind that you will have to hand over basic information and wait for Fortinet to get back to you in order to access its demo.

Palo Alto Networks NGFW pricing

Compared to Fortinet, Palo Alto’s pricing is on the more premium end of the spectrum and likewise depends on the specific hardware you purchase.

SEE: SentinelOne vs Palo Alto: Compare EDR Software (TechRepublic)

According to my research, Palo Alto NGFW hardware will start at around $1,400 and can go as high as $4,100 for higher-end appliances — a much higher baseline pricing than Fortinet.

Like Fortinet, Palo Alto offers a free trial of its cloud NGFW for AWS and Azure. Official product demos of Palo Alto’s NGFW can also be requested via its official channels.

Fortinet vs. Palo Alto: Feature comparison

Security features

Both NGFWs offer a variety of security features catered toward business and organizational use cases. Fortinet boasts its FortiOS operating system that simplifies management and enhances visibility as a singular OS for all its network and security functions.

It also natively integrates zero-trust network access or ZTNA policy enforcement points — a meaningful value-add given the need to secure hybrid workforces in this post-pandemic era. Finally, Fortinet also comes with SD-WAN functionality, helping provide optimum user experience and connectivity in an organization without sacrificing overall threat protection.

SEE: Top 8 Advanced Threat Protection Tools and Software for 2024 (TechRepublic)

If we take a look at Palo Alto, on the other hand, it has its Panorama centralized management platform that unifies security tools, firewall rules and policies. This provides managers and IT supervisors with a bird’s-eye-view of their NGFW setup across their respective networks.

We also get application-aware security policies with Palo Alto, allowing admins to set granular security rules for different users in an organization. Lastly, Palo Alto has its fast malware signature delivery that’s able to match and update known threats quickly to ensure maximum threat prevention.

Performance and independent test results

With regard to independent security test results, both NGFW fare incredibly well. For their cloud firewall offerings, both Palo Alto Networks VM-Series NGFW and Fortinet’s FortiGate-VM scored a perfect 100% in security effectiveness per CyberRatings 2024 findings.

This means that both NGFW exhibited high-quality threat prevention, strong TLS/SSL functionality and policy enforcement while maintaining stability and reliability all throughout CyberRatings’ tests.

SEE: Best Secure Access Service Edge Platforms in 2024 (TechRepublic)

Users worldwide also rate both NGFWs very highly performance-wise. In this aspect, Fortinet’s more affordable pricing shines for smaller businesses. This is because you can get comparable security performance at a smaller price tag.

On the other hand, Palo Alto’s more extensive suite of security features may warrant its more expensive pricing — especially if you need to secure a larger organization. Either way, you’ll get strong security performance from both NGFW providers.

Ease of use

On Gartner Peer Insights, both NGFW providers received high marks for ease of use. In particular, Fortinet’s FortiGate service received a 4.7 out of 5, while Palo Alto was rated a 4.6 out of 5.

Similar to performance, these scores indicate that both Fortinet and Palo Alto provide polished user experiences with their NGFW solutions.

While Palo Alto’s Panorama central management feature is well-equipped to handle large-scale organizational structures, its abundance of options may be overwhelming for smaller teams. If user-friendliness is your main priority, going smaller scale with Fortinet may be better for you.

Consequently, enterprise organizations may find Fortinet FortiGate’s built-in functionality to be lacking when compared to Palo Alto. In this case, having the scalability of Palo Alto can be more beneficial.

Fortinet FortiGate pros and cons

Pros

• Affordable and good value for money.
• Offers the same performance as more expensive counterparts.
• Lower barrier to entry hardware.

Cons

• Customer support could be improved.

Palo Alto Networks NGFW pros and cons

Pros

• Can accommodate large organizations.
• Feature-rich NGFW.
• Granular user-based rules and policies.

Cons

• On the expensive end.
• Requires extensive technical expertise to configure.

Should your organization use Fortinet or Palo Alto?

As far as NGFWs go, both Fortinet FortiGate and Palo Alto sit as top tier solutions. User consensus is clear that you’ll be well-served regardless of which option you go with. That being said, the deciding factor between the two NGFW providers boils down to two things: pricing and business size.

If you’re a small business, I highly recommend Fortinet FortiGate. Its more affordable hardware options while providing the same quality performance and security effectiveness make it a good fit for companies that don’t necessarily have the largest of budgets.

On the other hand, enterprises and larger organizations should go for Palo Alto Networks NGFW. This is especially true for companies where budget isn’t an issue, as its Panorama central management platform and user-based roles are all apt for handling more complex security needs.

Regardless of which provider you go with, I find that most organizations will find great value in either Fortinet or Palo Alto’s NGFW solutions.

Methodology

My comparison of Fortinet and Palo Alto’s NGFW solutions involved an in-depth analysis of their security features, pricing and overall value to businesses.

This head-to-head evaluation consisted of extensive research of both vendor’s official documentation, product pages and datasheets. In addition, I took into account user testimonials and feedback from reputable review sites to supplement my findings and include real-world usage in my final recommendations.