# Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) vs FortiGate-VM NGFW Comparison
---
## AI Generated Summary
- **G2 reviewers report** that FortiGate-VM NGFW excels in user experience, with many praising its **straightforward setup** and **modern user interface**. Users find it easier to manage multiple firewalls compared to competitors, highlighting its efficiency in handling complex threats without performance degradation.
- **According to verified reviews** , Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual is recognized for its **comprehensive protection** against advanced threats and malware. Users appreciate its scalability, making it a solid choice for businesses with **multiple branch locations** or **cloud-based applications**.
- **Reviewers mention** that while Cisco Secure Firewall offers strong **logging and reporting** capabilities, it faces challenges in **ease of setup** compared to FortiGate-VM. Users have noted configuration difficulties that can hinder initial deployment.
- **Users say** that FortiGate-VM NGFW provides a more **lightweight management experience** , allowing for quick adjustments and updates. This flexibility is particularly appreciated in dynamic environments where security needs can change rapidly.
- **G2 reviewers highlight** that Cisco Secure Firewall's **quality of support** is a strong point, with users noting high satisfaction in their interactions. However, FortiGate-VM's overall support experience is still rated positively, though slightly lower than Cisco's.
- **According to recent feedback** , both products are well-regarded for their **intrusion prevention** capabilities, but FortiGate-VM NGFW edges out with a more user-friendly approach, making it easier for teams to implement and manage security policies effectively.



| | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Star Rating** | 4.2 out of 5 | 4.6 out of 5 | 
| **Total Reviews** | 93 | 245 | 
| **Largest Market Segment** | Mid-Market (43.8% of reviews) | Mid-Market (57.3% of reviews) | 
| **Entry Level Price** | No pricing available | No pricing available | 

---
## Top Pros & Cons

### Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)

Pros:
- Ease of Use (1 reviews)
- Easy Management (1 reviews)

Cons:
- Complex Coding (1 reviews)
- Complex Configuration (1 reviews)

### FortiGate-VM NGFW

Pros:
- Ease of Use (12 reviews)
- Features (10 reviews)

Cons:
- Difficult Learning Curve (4 reviews)
- Expensive (4 reviews)

---
## Ratings Comparison
| Rating | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
  | **Meets Requirements** | 8.8 (83 reviews) | 9.1 (193 reviews) | 
  | **Ease of Use** | 8.1 (82 reviews) | 8.9 (196 reviews) | 
  | **Ease of Setup** | 7.4 (51 reviews) | 8.9 (162 reviews) | 
  | **Ease of Admin** | 7.7 (49 reviews) | 9.1 (148 reviews) | 
  | **Quality of Support** | 9.1 (74 reviews) | 8.6 (191 reviews) | 
  | **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?** | 8.8 (47 reviews) | 9.1 (144 reviews) | 
  | **Product Direction (% positive)** | 7.5 (83 reviews) | 9.5 (192 reviews) | 

---
## Pricing

### Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)

#### Entry-Level Pricing

No pricing available

#### Free Trial

No information available

### FortiGate-VM NGFW

#### Entry-Level Pricing

No pricing available

#### Free Trial

Yes

---
## Features Comparison By Category

### Unified Threat Management (UTM)

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)** | N/A | N/A |
| **FortiGate-VM NGFW** | 9.3/10 | 124 |

#### Security - Unified Threat Management

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Antivirus** | Not enough data | 9.3 (97 reviews) | 
| **Whitelists** | Not enough data | 9.4 (99 reviews) | 
| **Antispam Filtering** | Not enough data | 9.0 (90 reviews) | 
| **Content Filtering** | Not enough data | 9.2 (96 reviews) | 
| **Web Filtering** | Not enough data | 9.7 (98 reviews) | 
| **Firewall** | Not enough data | 9.7 (104 reviews) | 

#### Administration

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Reports & Analytics** | Not enough data | 8.7 (97 reviews) | 
| **Dashboard** | Not enough data | 9.4 (99 reviews) | 

### Data Center Security Solutions

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)** | N/A | N/A |
| **FortiGate-VM NGFW** | 9.4/10 | 77 |

#### Prevention

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Intrusion Prevention** | Not enough data | 9.6 (59 reviews) | 
| **Firewall** | Not enough data | 9.5 (63 reviews) | 
| **Encryption** | Not enough data | 9.2 (57 reviews) | 
| **Security hardening** | Not enough data | 9.4 (56 reviews) | 
| **Cloud Data Protection** | Not enough data | Feature Not Available | 

#### Detection

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Intrusion Detection** | Not enough data | 9.4 (59 reviews) | 
| **Security Monitoring** | Not enough data | 9.4 (54 reviews) | 
| **Anti-Malware / Malware Detection** | Not enough data | 9.3 (55 reviews) | 

#### Administration

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Compliance** | Not enough data | 9.4 (55 reviews) | 
| **Administration Console -** | Not enough data | 9.4 (59 reviews) | 
| **API / integrations** | Not enough data | 9.0 (52 reviews) | 

### Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS)

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)** | 9.5/10 | 6 |
| **FortiGate-VM NGFW** | N/A | N/A |

#### Prevention

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Intrusion Prevention** | 9.3 (5 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Firewall** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Encryption** | 9.7 (5 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Security hardening** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Cloud Data Protection** | 9.7 (5 reviews) | Not enough data | 

#### Detection

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Intrusion Detection** | 9.3 (5 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Security Monitoring** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Anti-Malware / Malware Detection** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Administration

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Compliance** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Administration Console -** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **API / integrations** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Generative AI

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **AI Text Summarization** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Agentic AI - Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS)

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Autonomous Task Execution** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Proactive Assistance** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

### Firewall Software

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)** | 9.3/10 | 16 |
| **FortiGate-VM NGFW** | 9.0/10 | 131 |

#### Administration

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Policy Management** | 8.6 (13 reviews) | 9.2 (105 reviews) | 
| **Logging and Reporting** | 9.6 (12 reviews) | 8.9 (104 reviews) | 
| **Application Gateway** | 9.2 (11 reviews) | 9.2 (93 reviews) | 
| **Concurrent Sessions** | 9.2 (11 reviews) | 9.3 (99 reviews) | 

#### Agentic AI - Firewall Software

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Autonomous Task Execution** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Adaptive Learning** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Functionality

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Virtual Private Network (VPN)** | 9.6 (13 reviews) | 9.4 (106 reviews) | 
| **Antivirus** | 9.3 (12 reviews) | 9.0 (98 reviews) | 
| **URL Filtering** | 9.4 (12 reviews) | 9.4 (102 reviews) | 
| **Availability** | 8.9 (12 reviews) | 9.5 (99 reviews) | 

#### Monitoring

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Load Balancing** | 9.2 (10 reviews) | 9.2 (93 reviews) | 
| **Continuous Analysis** | 9.2 (12 reviews) | 9.0 (94 reviews) | 
| **Intrusion Prevention** | 9.5 (13 reviews) | 9.2 (110 reviews) | 
| **Intrusion Detection** | 9.4 (12 reviews) | 9.3 (99 reviews) | 

#### Generative AI

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **AI Text Summarization** | Not enough data | 8.2 (20 reviews) | 

#### Artificial Intelligence - Firewall

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **AI Firewall** | Not enough data | 7.7 (5 reviews) | 

### AWS Marketplace

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)** | N/A | N/A |
| **FortiGate-VM NGFW** | N/A | N/A |

#### Agentic AI - AWS Marketplace

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Autonomous Task Execution** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Multi-step Planning** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Cross-system Integration** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

### Data Security

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)** | N/A | N/A |
| **FortiGate-VM NGFW** | N/A | N/A |

#### Compliance

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Access Management** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **At-Risk Analysis** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **DLP Configuration** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Sensitive Data Compliance** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Administration

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Database Management** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Deduplication ** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Backup** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **API / integrations** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Security 

| Feature | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Multi-Factor Authentication** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Data Transport** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Data Types** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Security Tools** | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

---
## Categories
**Shared Categories (1):** [Firewall Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/firewall-software)

**Unique to Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) (2):** [AWS Marketplace Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/aws-marketplace), [Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS)](https://www.g2.com/categories/intrusion-detection-and-prevention-systems-idps)

**Unique to FortiGate-VM NGFW (2):** [Data Center Security Solutions](https://www.g2.com/categories/data-center-security-solutions), [Unified Threat Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/unified-threat-management-utm)


---
## Reviewer Demographics

### By Company Size

| Segment | Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv) | FortiGate-VM NGFW | 
|---|---|---|
| **Small-Business** | 13.5% | 20.3% | 
| **Mid-Market** | 43.8% | 57.3% | 
| **Enterprise** | 42.7% | 22.5% | 

### By Industry

#### Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)

- **Information Technology and Services:** 18.0%
- **Higher Education:** 6.7%
- **Telecommunications:** 6.7%
- **Computer Software:** 5.6%
- **Hospital & Health Care:** 4.5%
- **Computer Networking:** 3.4%
- **Education Management:** 3.4%
- **Entertainment:** 3.4%
- **Financial Services:** 3.4%
- **Government Administration:** 3.4%
- **Other:** 41.6%

#### FortiGate-VM NGFW

- **Information Technology and Services:** 22.9%
- **Computer & Network Security:** 11.9%
- **Telecommunications:** 9.6%
- **Financial Services:** 7.3%
- **Computer Software:** 6.4%
- **Computer Networking:** 4.6%
- **Education Management:** 2.8%
- **Construction:** 2.3%
- **Automotive:** 2.3%
- **Retail:** 1.8%
- **Other:** 28.0%

---
## Alternatives

### Alternatives to Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)

- [Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls](https://www.g2.com/products/palo-alto-networks-next-generation-firewalls/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (170 reviews)
- [Sophos Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/sophos-firewall/reviews) — 4.7/5 stars (868 reviews)
- [Check Point Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs)](https://www.g2.com/products/check-point-next-generation-firewalls-ngfws/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (593 reviews)
- [Netgate pfSense](https://www.g2.com/products/netgate-pfsense/reviews) — 4.7/5 stars (326 reviews)
- [WatchGuard Network Security](https://www.g2.com/products/watchguard-network-security/reviews) — 4.7/5 stars (268 reviews)
- [SonicWall Next Generation Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/sonicwall-next-generation-firewall/reviews) — 4.1/5 stars (154 reviews)
- [Barracuda CloudGen Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/barracuda-cloudgen-firewall/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (52 reviews)
- [Azure Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-firewall/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (31 reviews)
- [ThreatLocker Zero Trust Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/threatlocker-zero-trust-platform/reviews) — 4.8/5 stars (514 reviews)
- [Juniper Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/juniper-firewall/reviews) — 4.0/5 stars (32 reviews)

### Alternatives to FortiGate-VM NGFW

- [Check Point Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs)](https://www.g2.com/products/check-point-next-generation-firewalls-ngfws/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (593 reviews)
- [WatchGuard Network Security](https://www.g2.com/products/watchguard-network-security/reviews) — 4.7/5 stars (268 reviews)
- [SonicWall Next Generation Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/sonicwall-next-generation-firewall/reviews) — 4.1/5 stars (154 reviews)
- [Barracuda CloudGen Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/barracuda-cloudgen-firewall/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (52 reviews)
- [Juniper Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/juniper-firewall/reviews) — 4.0/5 stars (32 reviews)
- [Huawei Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/huawei-firewall/reviews) — 4.7/5 stars (15 reviews)
- [KerioControl](https://www.g2.com/products/keriocontrol/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (10 reviews)
- [Sophos Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/sophos-firewall/reviews) — 4.7/5 stars (868 reviews)
- [Netgate pfSense](https://www.g2.com/products/netgate-pfsense/reviews) — 4.7/5 stars (326 reviews)
- [Cisco Meraki](https://www.g2.com/products/cisco-meraki/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (217 reviews)

---
## Top Discussions

### Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly NGFWv)

No discussions available for this product.

### FortiGate-VM NGFW

- Title: [What is FortiGate-VM used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-fortigate-vm-used-for) — 2 comments
  > **Top comment:** "FortiGate-VM is Fortinet's virtual appliance version of the FortiGate firewall, designed for deployment in virtualized environments. It serves as a..."
- Title: [What is FortiGate NGFW used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-fortigate-ngfw-used-for) — 1 comment
  > **Top comment:** "It is a next generation firewall which has capability to do layer 7 insapaction "
- Title: [Is FortiGate and fortinet the same?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-fortigate-and-fortinet-the-same) — 1 comment
  > **Top comment:** "Fortinet is the company and FortiGate is their Firewall name :)"
- Title: [What three key additional security features do next generation firewalls provide that legacy firewalls do not?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-three-key-additional-security-features-do-next-generation-firewalls-provide-that-legacy-firewalls-do-not) — 1 comment
  > **Top comment:** "with FortiGate has many Features including SD-WAN, SSL-VPN, Video Filtering, integrated with Sandbox...."

---
**Source:** [G2.com](https://www.g2.com) | [Comparison Page](https://www.g2.com/compare/cisco-secure-firewall-threat-defense-virtual-formerly-ngfwv-vs-fortigate-vm-ngfw)