--- title: FortiGate-VM NGFW Reviews meta_title: 'FortiGate-VM NGFW Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 275 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how FortiGate-VM NGFW works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.6 review_count: 275 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-09-29' parent_category: name: Network Security url: https://www.g2.com/categories/network-security --- # FortiGate-VM NGFW Reviews **Vendor:** Fortinet **Category:** [Firewall Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/firewall-software) **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 275 **AI Enabled:** This product embeds AI to enhance or extend its core functionality. ## About FortiGate-VM NGFW FortiGate-VM is a virtual firewall solution designed to help users secure their cloud environments and on-premises networks. As a next-generation firewall developed by Fortinet, FortiGate-VM integrates advanced security features with the flexibility of virtualization, making it suitable for deployment in various public and private cloud infrastructures. This solution is particularly beneficial for organizations looking to enhance their cybersecurity posture while leveraging the scalability and efficiency of cloud technologies. Targeted at enterprises and organizations of all sizes, FortiGate-VM is ideal for IT security teams that require robust protection against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Its deployment across diverse environments allows businesses to maintain consistent security policies and practices, regardless of whether their infrastructure is on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid of both. Specific use cases include protecting sensitive data in cloud applications, securing remote access for employees, SD-WAN, and ensuring compliance with industry regulations. One of the key features of FortiGate-VM is its AI-powered threat intelligence. FortiGuard utilizes machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data, enabling the identification of emerging threats in real time. This proactive approach to threat detection ensures that organizations can respond swiftly to potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. Additionally, the behavioral analysis capabilities of FortiGate-VM allow for the identification of anomalous activities, further enhancing its ability to mitigate risks associated with cyberattacks. FortiGate-VM stands out in the virtual firewall category due to its seamless integration with existing Fortinet security solutions, providing a comprehensive security architecture. The solution offers advanced features such as intrusion prevention, web filtering, and application control, all of which contribute to a multi-layered defense strategy. Furthermore, its scalability allows organizations to easily adjust their security resources in response to changing business needs, ensuring that they remain protected as they grow. FortiGate-VM delivers unmatched security and value, making it a vital component for organizations seeking to fortify their defenses against the evolving landscape of cyber threats. Its combination of advanced threat protection, AI-driven insights, and flexible deployment options positions it as a critical tool for maintaining a secure and resilient network environment. ## FortiGate-VM NGFW Pros & Cons Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews. **What users like:** - Users find FortiGate-VM's **user-friendly interface and easy configuration** streamline their security management effectively. (12 reviews) - Users appreciate the **intuitive UI and rich features** of FortiGate-VM NGFW, streamlining their networking experience. (10 reviews) - Users highlight the **exceptional security features** of FortiGate-VM NGFW, providing robust protection against various threats. (8 reviews) - Users value the **comprehensive all-in-one security** of FortiGate-VM NGFW, enhancing visibility and threat detection. (7 reviews) - Users value the **all-in-one security stack** of FortiGate-VM NGFW, enhancing performance and simplifying policy management. (6 reviews) - Easy Setup (6 reviews) - Users commend the **fast and secure firewall efficiency** of Fortigate VM NGFW, enhancing their organizational security. (6 reviews) - Performance Speed (6 reviews) - Users value the **comprehensive security protection** of FortiGate-VM NGFW, ensuring robust defense against sophisticated threats. (6 reviews) - Threat Detection (6 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users experience a **difficult learning curve** with FortiGate-VM NGFW, finding the interface and settings complex initially. (4 reviews) - Users find the **pricing and licensing** of FortiGate-VM NGFW to be quite high, impacting overall affordability. (4 reviews) - Users experience **update issues** with FortiGate-VM NGFW, facing challenges with OS updates and performance slowdowns. (4 reviews) - Users face significant **upgrade issues** with firmware, requiring downtime and complicating integration and configurations. (4 reviews) - Users find the **limited advanced features** in FortiGate-VM NGFW restricts its overall performance and usability. (3 reviews) - Users express frustration with **poor customer support** , as simple issues often take too long to resolve. (3 reviews) - Poor Interface Design (3 reviews) - Compatibility Issues (2 reviews) - Complex Configuration (2 reviews) - Complexity (2 reviews) ## FortiGate-VM NGFW Reviews ### 1. Powerful Virtual Firewall with a Great UI, but Complex Licensing **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohamed M. | Freelance Software & Cybersecurity Consultant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **AI Translated:** This review has been translated from English using AI. **Reviewed Date:** August 06, 2026 At G2, we prefer fresh reviews and we like to follow up with reviewers. They may not have updated their review text, but have updated their review. **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The biggest advantage of FortiGate-VM is how easy it is to deploy in a virtualized cloud environment, without needing to purchase expensive physical hardware. The FortiOS GUI is very intuitive and feels much cleaner than older Cisco firewalls I’ve worked with. Creating standard IPv4 policies, managing NAT, and setting up SSL VPNs for remote workers can be done in just a few clicks, rather than having to wrestle with complex CLI commands. I also like that routing, SD-WAN features, and deep packet inspection are integrated into a single pane of glass, which makes it easier to monitor threats and investigate logs. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The licensing model for the VM versions can be confusing and expensive, especially when you’re trying to scale CPU or RAM allocations in a virtualized cluster. Another pain point is that firmware upgrades can be buggy at times. It’s a common rule among network engineers to wait for more mature patch releases, since early firmware updates can sometimes break existing VPN or routing configurations. Finally, while the GUI is excellent for day-to-day tasks, it doesn’t expose all of the advanced diagnostic logs. When you need to do deeper troubleshooting for dropped packets or complex IPSec VPN failures, you’re forced to switch to the CLI, which comes with a fairly steep learning curve. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Before implementing FortiGate-VM, it was challenging to maintain consistent security policies across our on-premise servers and cloud environments. After deploying the virtual NGFW, we were able to integrate security controls smoothly throughout our hybrid network. The initial setup and onboarding were surprisingly straightforward, largely thanks to the strong Fortinet documentation and the helpful support forums. Now we can manage traffic inspection and SD-WAN routing from a single place, which saves us hours of configuration time each week. In addition, the FortiGuard AI-driven threat intelligence feed automatically blocks malicious IPs and zero-day signatures without manual intervention, which has significantly reduced the day-to-day workload for our SOC team. ### 2. Easy Virtual Deployment and a User-Friendly, Responsive Interface **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Thabet A. | Cloud and Security Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account added to their profile **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** August 25, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW is how easy it is to deploy in virtual environments. The setup process is straightforward, and routing configuration is simple and clear compared to other firewalls I’ve used. The user interface is very user-friendly and responsive, which makes daily management and policy changes much faster and less complicated. FortiGate-VM NGFW works well with other tools in our environment. We use it alongside Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Sentinel, and Fortinet FortiAnalyzer. The integration is smooth, especially with logging and monitoring tools, which helps us centralize security visibility and manage policies more efficiently. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One thing I dislike is that the HA setup can be a bit complicated, especially when configuring it for the first time in a virtual environment. Some advanced features also take time to fully understand. Additionally, the licensing and feature activation process could be more straightforward, and the documentation for certain HA and virtual deployment scenarios is not always clear enough. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW helps us secure our virtual and cloud environments by providing strong firewall protection, intrusion prevention, and traffic control. It solves the problem of managing security across different virtual infrastructures in a simple way. The main benefit is better network security with easier policy management and good performance, which gives us more confidence in protecting our systems without needing complex physical hardware. ### 3. Secure Virtual Environments with Comprehensive Protection **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shubham Prashant P. | Trainee, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 24, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I find FortiGate-VM NGFW incredibly valuable for securing virtual and cloud-based network environments, allowing me to control traffic and apply security policies centrally. I appreciate its comprehensive range of security features, including firewall policies, NAT, VPN connections, intrusion prevention, and application control. The device's ability to provide visibility through logs and monitoring capabilities is very useful for identifying unwanted traffic and troubleshooting issues. I like the flexibility of the VM-based deployment, as it eliminates the need for physical appliances, and I can deploy it wherever a virtual security appliance is more appropriate. Another aspect I enjoy is that FortiGate-VM NGFW integrates VPN, firewall, and other security requirements into one device, reducing the management complexity of multiple security appliances. The user interface is comprehensive and, with experience, makes tasks straightforward. Additionally, the manual and setup guides make the initial setup easier. Overall, FortiGate-VM NGFW is a practical solution with strong security controls, particularly for virtual and cloud environments. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The main drawback is that it can take some time to learn and configure properly, particularly for admins who are not well acquainted with FortiGate and Network Security concepts. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to secure virtual and cloud environments, manage VPN access, control traffic, and block threats. It gives me better network visibility and allows centralized security management without multiple appliances. ### 4. FortiGate-VM NGFW: Highly Customizable & User-Friendly **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aavash D. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** This review contains authentic analysis and has been reviewed by our team **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I really like that with FortiGate-VM NGFW, I don't need to buy specific hardware. It's flexible, so I can host it on my server or local machine and tailor it to my needs. It's also available for cloud platforms. The dashboard is very clear, and I find monitoring it daily useful, as it allows me to keep track of logs and searches. The user interface is great, making it easy for network and security engineers like me. I also found the initial setup process to be easy and user-friendly, without any confusing steps. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I don't have specific dislikes, but if I had to make a suggestion, it would be to add integration of some log correlation and SIM facilities, which would be highly beneficial. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to secure our infrastructure, making our cloud and on-prem environments trustable. It's highly customizable, works without specific hardware, and is available on cloud platforms. The user-friendly interface and dashboard are great for monitoring and configuring security protocols. ### 5. Reliable virtual firewall with strong security controls **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michée N. | Lead IT Infrastructure & Hardware Technician, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** September 17, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I like most about FortiGate-VM NGFW is that it gives me a good level of control over network security without needing a physical firewall. I find the web interface fairly easy to work with when creating firewall policies, checking traffic, configuring VPNs, and monitoring security events. I also like the flexibility of the virtual appliance because it can be deployed in a virtual environment and managed from one place. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One thing I find challenging is that some of the more advanced settings can take time to understand, especially when you are working with features you do not use regularly. The interface has many options, which is useful but can also make troubleshooting more difficult at times. I also think the documentation could be more straightforward for certain configurations, with more simple examples for common deployment scenarios. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to improve network security and have better control over network traffic. It helps me manage firewall policies, control access between different parts of the network, monitor traffic, and handle VPN connections from a centralized interface. This makes it easier to identify unusual traffic and troubleshoot connectivity or security issues. The virtual deployment is also useful because it avoids the need for additional physical firewall hardware and gives me more flexibility when managing the network. ### 6. Comprehensive Security Suite, Centralized Management **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Piyush S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** This review contains authentic analysis and has been reviewed by our team **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 15, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like the centralized management and the range of security features available in a single interface. The dashboard of FortiGate-VM NGFW makes it easier to monitor network traffic, manage policies, and review security events. I really appreciate having all these features in one place. I value the firewall policies, VPN, traffic monitoring, and security logs because they help control and restrict network traffic, provide secure connectivity, and make it easy to identify unusual activity and troubleshoot network security issues from a centralized interface. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One area that could be improved is the complexity of the interface and configuration options. For new users, understanding and configuring advanced security policies can take some time. More guided configuration, clearer documentation, and a simpler workflow for common tasks would make FortiGate-VM NGFW easier to learn and manage. The interface can feel overwhelming because there are so many options and settings. It would be helpful to have a simpler setup mode for common tasks with step-by-step guidance and short explanations of what each setting does. Better tooltips and examples for firewall policies and other security features would also make it easier for beginners to get started without having to search through documentation for every step. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW helps me control and secure network traffic, restrict access, monitor activities, and protect against virtual threats. Its centralized interface simplifies policy management and enhances security oversight in a virtual environment. ### 7. VDOM Multi-Tenancy and SD-WAN That Just Works **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Khutso M. | Network & Security , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **AI Translated:** This review has been translated from English using AI. **Reviewed Date:** September 09, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** VDOM-based multi-tenancy is the standout feature for me. I used it to simulate an MSP-style environment with dual tenants on one VM, each with its own firewall policies, NAT and VLAN segmentation, without needing separate appliances or instances per client. SD-WAN with SLA-based link steering was straightforward to configure and handled automated failover reliably in testing. Site-to-site IPsec IKEv2 and SSL VPN setup is well documented and behaves predictably once the phase 1/2 parameters are right. The REST API is genuinely useful in practice, I wrote a Python script against it to audit policy hit-counts and flag zero-hit rules, which cut down manual policy cleanup significantly. For troubleshooting, diagnose debug flow and the built-in packet sniffer cover most break/fix scenarios without needing external tools. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Resource sizing matters more than the marketing suggests. SSL inspection and multiple VDOMs can hit vCPU and RAM hard, and if you undersize the VM upfront, performance degrades in ways that are hard to diagnose without knowing to check resource utilization first. There's also a real gap between what's easy to do in the GUI versus the CLI, some policy and routing tasks are far faster in CLI, which means new admins face a learning curve before they're productive. Policy hit-count and log data isn't exposed as cleanly in the GUI as I'd like, which is part of why I ended up scripting against the API instead. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used it to build a multi-tenant lab simulating MSP client isolation across a multi-site topology, with eBGP peering and route-map policy filtering handling inter-site routing. Having firewalling, SD-WAN and VPN in one platform reduced the number of separate boxes and tools needed for a segmented, multi-site setup. The API access also let me automate policy auditing rather than reviewing rule hit-counts manually, which is a recurring time sink in any environment with a large rule base ### 8. Versatile Virtual Solution with Resource Flexibility **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Khumbo K. | Junior System Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 09, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like that FortiGate-VM NGFW doesn't differentiate much from the actual appliance and offers the flexibility to add resources and modules as needed. It's convenient since I can't easily buy a physical FortiGate appliance in my country, and using it virtually cuts down costs significantly. I also enjoy the ease of setup, as it was very straightforward, except for one setup page issue that I managed to resolve through a forum. Additionally, the ability to connect to a virtual distributed switch with multiple virtual NICs is a great benefit. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The performance of FortiGate-VM NGFW is not as good as that of the actual appliance, mainly because the appliance has application-specific integrated circuits. Although I can use a powerful hypervisor, it still doesn't compare to a device specifically built for certain functionalities. Additionally, during the initial setup, there was an issue with the first setup page not loading, which I had to solve by changing a value in the URL after finding the solution in a forum. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW solves convenience issues by offering FortiOS in a virtual environment, reducing costs and providing feature flexibility similar to the physical appliance. It allows me to customize resources and expand capabilities without hardware limitations, unlike physical devices. ### 9. Agile, Affordable One-Stop Security with Strong Automation Flexibility **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sohel S. | Senior Engineer IT Infrastructure, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One stop solutions for VPN, Web Filtering and Deep pocket inspection. cheaper and more agile .. supports automation anf provide greater flexibility... **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I found more complicated in terms of software stability and Licensing.. it should be simple f and user friendly..If you suddenly need to upgrade a firewall's hardware allocation to handle a traffic spike, you can't just change the VM size in your cloud console. You must also purchase and apply a brand-new Fortinet license tier to match the new vCPU count. Additionally, managing renewals for a fleet of virtual firewalls via FortiGuard token systems can be incredibly tedious. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** The FortiGate-VM NGFW solves the problem of fragmented cloud security by replacing weak native cloud firewalls and disjointed security tools with one unified platform. It bridges the gap between on-premise infrastructure and hybrid cloud networks, ensuring consistent, enterprise-grade protection everywhere. ### 10. Powerful FortiGate Security and Clear Network Visibility in One Place **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 18, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The security features are what I find most valuable. Firewall policies, VPN, traffic monitoring, and threat protection tools are all easy to manage in one place. It also performs well under normal network loads and provides clear visibility into what’s happening across the network, which makes troubleshooting and ongoing monitoring much easier. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The interface can feel a bit overwhelming at first, especially with the number of settings and features available. Some advanced configurations also take time to understand if you are new to FortiGate. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps centralize network security by bringing firewall rule management, VPN access, traffic monitoring, and threat protection into a single platform. As a result, it’s easier to control who can access the network, spot suspicious traffic sooner, and troubleshoot problems without having to rely on multiple separate tools. ### 11. Flexible, Easy-to-Deploy FortiGate VM for Cloud and Virtual Firewalls **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mani s. | Information Technology Support Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 02, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** FortiGate VM is Fortinet's virtualized next-generation firewall, essentially the same FortiOS software that runs on their physical appliances, but packaged to run on hypervisors (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM) or in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI). Here's what makes it valuable: **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Great for flexible, cloud-based firewall needs — easy to deploy and cost-effective. Performance drops under heavy traffic. Best for small/medium setups overall. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate VM NGFW helps secure cloud and virtualized environments without needing physical hardware. It solves problems like protecting multi-cloud/hybrid infrastructure, segmenting workloads (VPC/VNet), enabling secure remote access (VPN), enforcing consistent security policies across on-prem and cloud, and reducing hardware costs while scaling firewall capacity as business grows. It's especially useful for organizations expanding into cloud, needing quick disaster recovery setups, or managing distributed branch offices without deploying physical appliances everywhere. ### 12. Powerful Automation with Cost Concerns **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kwadwo Yeboah A. | QA Automation Tester, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account added to their profile **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 21, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like FortiGate-VM NGFW for its robust REST API and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) support, which integrate perfectly with automation tools like Terraform and Ansible. This allows me to fully automate network configuration without touching a manual dashboard. The REST API and IaC support are incredibly valuable because they let me treat network security just like software code. Using Terraform, I can automate the deployment and setup of the firewall directly inside our CI/CD pipelines, removing all manual configuration. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Running multiple firewall instances simultaneously across parallel CI/CD pipelines demands a high amount of CPU and RAM, which quickly inflates our cloud infrastructure cost. I think this can be looked at and improved. Additionally, the REST API documentation sometimes lags behind major FortiOS firmware updates, forcing me to spend extra time troubleshooting broken API endpoints in my test scripts. The initial setup has a steep learning curve due to complex enterprise routing and licensing. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to spin up secure, isolated environments for testing pipelines, solving environment instability by keeping test traffic isolated. It helps simulate network issues and validate app security with deep packet inspection and security alerts. ### 13. Comprehensive Cloud Security in One: FortiGate-Reliable NGFW for Azure and Hybrid Cloud Security ⭐ **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sifaat Q. | Cloud Consultant, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 16, 2026 At G2, we prefer fresh reviews and we like to follow up with reviewers. They may not have updated their review text, but have updated their review. **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW is its comprehensive security capabilities combined with ease of deployment in cloud environments like Microsoft Azure. It provides advanced features such as IPS, application control, web filtering, SSL inspection, and IPsec/SSL VPN within a single platform, reducing the need for multiple security solutions. I also appreciate its intuitive management interface, detailed logging, and seamless integration with Azure networking. The firewall has been reliable in securing virtual workloads while maintaining good performance, and creating or modifying firewall policies is straightforward once the initial setup is complete. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** While FortiGate-VM NGFW is feature-rich, the initial deployment and advanced configuration can be complex for users who are new to Fortinet products. Features such as SSL inspection, advanced routing, and policy-based NAT require a solid understanding of networking concepts. The licensing model can also be confusing, as some security services require separate subscriptions. Additionally, the management interface, although powerful, could be more intuitive for navigating advanced settings. Troubleshooting in large deployments may sometimes require deeper CLI knowledge alongside the GUI. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** ortiGate-VM NGFW helped us secure our Azure-based workloads and hybrid network by providing centralized firewall management, intrusion prevention, application control, web filtering, and secure VPN connectivity. Before implementing it, managing network security across cloud resources was more complex and required multiple tools. With FortiGate-VM, we were able to enforce consistent security policies, improve visibility into network traffic, and quickly identify potential threats through detailed logging and monitoring. It also enabled secure site-to-site VPN connectivity between cloud and on-premises environments while maintaining stable performance. Overall, it reduced operational overhead, strengthened our security posture, and gave us greater confidence in protecting business-critical applications and infrastructure. ### 14. Centralized Management with Challenging Setup **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Prabhat Kumar T. | Offensive Security Engineer, Computer & Network Security, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 15, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like the centralized management and visibility features of FortiGate-VM NGFW. They make it easier to manage firewall policies and security settings from one place instead of having to handle each environment separately. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I find the initial setup for FortiGate-VM NGFW complex for new users. It requires understanding several networking and configuration concepts like routing, firewall policies, and NAT. I think the documentation should be improved to cover each feature and provide troubleshooting guides, as I didn't find any helpful documentation during my setup. I had to rely on AI assistance instead. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to enforce security policies and for network segmentation. It makes managing firewall policies and security settings easier with centralized management and visibility. ### 15. Flexible, Comprehensive Firewall with Easy Deployment and Control **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** This review contains authentic analysis and has been reviewed by our team **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **AI Translated:** This review has been translated from English using AI. **Reviewed Date:** September 16, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like FortiGate-VM NGFW for its feature parity and consistent security features across hardware and cloud environments, which makes it seamless to work with. The unified operating system, FortiOS, running the same on both cloud and hardware, is really convenient, eliminating any relearning curve. I appreciate the secure routing with advanced routing protocols and IAC automation, which supports frameworks like Terraform for flexible deployments. The hybrid security and fabric integration, along with real-time threat telemetry, really stands out. The performance offloading capabilities utilizing virtual testing and Intel Quick Assist technology adds great value. Overall, I find these features enhance my experience significantly. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I find the default SIP ALG session helper configuration problematic as it often causes one-way audio or dropped calls on voice platforms until it is manually disabled via CLI. The need to address this for optimal operation can be frustrating. Another issue is the resource and DPI overhead; enabling deep packet inspection and full SSL inspection demands significant vCPU allocation and RAM scaling to prevent throughput bottlenecks. Additionally, the trial evaluation limitations, such as the strict cryptographic and bandwidth constraints on demo licenses, make pre-deployment testing tricky without a proper BYOL/PAYG license, which can be quite inconvenient. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Honestly, the main win for us is to our multicloud mess.before VM managing secuirty between on prem and public was bottlenecks due to policy was fragmanted.the built in dw-wan is massive success. ### 16. Robust Security with Complex Setup **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Osamah A. | Computer Technician, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like FortiGate-VM NGFW for its strong security and easy management. It combines firewall protection, IPS, web filtering, application control, VPN, and network segmentation all in one platform. The user-friendly interface makes configuring security policies straightforward, and the monitoring tools offer clear visibility into network traffic and potential threats. I also appreciate its flexibility and scalability in virtual and cloud environments. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I find the initial setup and advanced configuration complex for new users. Some advanced features require additional licenses, which can be pricey. Additionally, troubleshooting can be time-consuming, and I think Fortinet could improve by simplifying advanced configurations, providing clearer error messages and documentation, and offering more flexible licensing options. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to secure enterprise networks, protect against cyber threats, and manage virtual environments. It centralizes visibility and management, controls traffic between segments, and its firewall and filtering features block threats. ### 17. Great GUI and Realistic VM Emulation with EVE-NG and PnetLab **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohammad Aktham Obaid A. | OT/ICS Cybersecurity Engineer - Intern, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 18, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** it can be connected to any virtual machine app like eveng and pnetlab with success real life emulation and we can add as much ram as wanted to emulate real life speed with a great, easy and helpful GUI **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** when i use the VM i could not buy the licence i need, for example i could not buy the ICS/OT license also when i connect it to a software like PnetLab sometimes i lose the access to my GUI and i lose the whole configurations i made but i am not sure if this is a pnetlab problem **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** its solve the "feel worried about changing problems" where you can safely build/emulate your own network to safely test the new configurations and testing new features ### 18. Easy Deployment, Solid Performance, and All-in-One Security with FortiGate-VM NGFW **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Networking | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 08, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** FortiGate-VM NGFW is easy to deploy and manage, even for a virtualized environment. The centralized management through FortiManager makes handling policies and updates across multiple firewalls simple. Performance is solid, and the range of security features (IPS, web filtering, VPN) covered under one platform saves us from juggling separate tools. Documentation and community support are also strong when troubleshooting. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The initial licensing and cost structure can be confusing, especially figuring out which bundles include the features you actually need. The web-based GUI, while functional, can feel a bit sluggish with larger rule sets. Some advanced configurations still require CLI access, which adds a learning curve for less experienced admins. Support response times have also been inconsistent depending on the ticket priority level. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW helps us consolidate network security into a single platform instead of managing separate tools for firewalling, VPN, and intrusion prevention. This has simplified our infrastructure and reduced overhead for the team managing it. It also gives us better visibility into traffic across our virtualized environment, which has improved our ability to spot and respond to potential threats quickly. Overall, it's saved us time on both deployment and day-to-day management. ### 19. Easy, Hardware-Free Deployment with Flexible Backup and Restore **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 03, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I like most about FortiGate-VM NGFW is how it combines strong security features with the flexibility of a virtual appliance. It delivers next-generation firewall capabilities—such as intrusion prevention, application control, web filtering, VPN, and advanced threat protection—within a single platform, which makes overall security management much easier. The user interface is intuitive, and day-to-day administration stays straightforward even in more complex environments. Another key advantage is its smooth integration with cloud and virtualized infrastructures. We’ve been able to deploy it quickly and scale as needed without adding hardware, which saves time and reduces operational costs. Performance has been consistent, and the visibility into network traffic and security events helps us spot and respond to potential threats more effectively. Overall, FortiGate-VM NGFW strikes a solid balance between security, performance, and ease of management, and it has become a valuable part of our network security strategy.With flexible pricing options and premium support and integrated ai features **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** While FortiGate-VM NGFW is a strong security solution overall, there are a few areas that could be improved. One limitation I have experienced is that restoring configurations from a physical FortiGate appliance to a VM deployment is not always seamless. In some cases, I had to manually reconfigure settings, which increased deployment time and operational effort. VM management can also be challenging, especially in larger environments where multiple virtual firewalls need to be monitored and maintained. Although the interface provides a good range of features, some workflows could be more intuitive and require several steps to complete routine administrative tasks. Integration with certain third-party platforms and cloud environments may require additional customization compared to what some competing products offer. From a performance perspective, resource utilization can become high under heavy traffic loads, requiring careful sizing of CPU and memory resources. Licensing and pricing can be difficult to understand, particularly when multiple security services and subscriptions are involved. The initial onboarding process also has a learning curve for administrators who are new to the Fortinet ecosystem. Finally, while FortiGuard's threat intelligence is valuable, I would like to see more AI-driven automation and smarter recommendations for threat analysis and policy optimization to reduce manual effort and improve operational efficiency. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Before implementing FortiGate-VM NGFW, managing network security across our virtual and cloud environments was becoming increasingly complex. We needed a solution that could provide strong protection without adding more physical hardware or creating additional management overhead. FortiGate-VM NGFW has helped us centralize security controls by combining firewalling, IPS, web filtering, VPN, and application control into a single platform. This has made it much easier to monitor traffic, enforce security policies, and respond to potential threats. The deployment process was straightforward, and the flexibility of the virtual appliance allowed us to scale as our requirements changed. One of the biggest benefits has been improved visibility into network activity and better control over remote access. We spend less time managing multiple security tools, and troubleshooting is much faster because everything is available from a single console. Overall, it has strengthened our security posture while reducing operational complexity and infrastructure costs. ### 20. Future of Fortigate VM NGFW **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** September 01, 2026 **Describe the project or task FortiGate-VM NGFW helped with:** FortiGate VM is a virtualized version of the FortiOS firewall, designed to provide comprehensive security features in environments where deploying physical hardware is not feasible. It operates on major hypervisors and public clouds, offering identical functionality to its physical counterparts. Key features include full Layer 7 inspection, built-in SD-WAN, and support for various tunneling protocols. Licensing is based on vCPU, allowing for flexible scaling according to throughput needs. FortiGate VM is particularly beneficial for cloud edge firewalling, disaster recovery sites, and hybrid infrastructure management. **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** FortiGate VM is basically the full FortiOS firewall packaged as a virtual machine instead of dedicated hardware. It runs on the usual hypervisors (VMware, KVM, Hyper-V) and all the major public clouds, and because it’s the same OS as the physical boxes, the CLI, policies, and features are identical — nothing to relearn or reconfigure differently. On the NGFW side you get full Layer 7 inspection: IPS, application control, SSL inspection, antivirus, web filtering, plus built-in SD-WAN and support for BGP/OSPF and overlay tunnels like IPsec, GRE, and VXLAN. Licensing scales by vCPU, so you size it to the throughput you actually need rather than being stuck with a fixed hardware tier. Practically, it’s most useful for cloud edge firewalling, DR sites where you can’t wait on hardware lead times, lab testing before pushing changes to production units, and management of FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer across a mixed fleet of physical and virtual firewalls. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The biggest downside of FortiGate VM, in my experience, is performance. Without the dedicated ASICs (NP/CP chips) found in physical FortiGates, all packet processing is handled in software on the hypervisor’s CPU. That means throughput is ultimately constrained by the host’s available resources as well as the vCPU licensing tier you’re on. SSL inspection is especially impacted, since there’s no hardware crypto offload to absorb that workload. Licensing is vCPU-based, which initially sounds flexible, but it can get expensive fast if you need additional cores to achieve the throughput you’re aiming for. In practice, scaling up this way can end up costing more over time than buying an equivalent physical appliance. **Recommendations to others considering FortiGate-VM NGFW:** To maximize the benefits of FortiGate VM, consider the following recommendations: 1. **Resource Allocation**: Ensure that your hypervisor has sufficient resources to handle the expected traffic load, especially if SSL inspection is a priority. 2. **Licensing Strategy**: Plan your vCPU licensing carefully to avoid unexpected costs. Consider your current and future throughput needs. 3. **Hybrid Deployment**: Use FortiGate VM in conjunction with physical appliances to balance performance and flexibility. 4. **Regular Updates**: Keep your FortiGate VM updated with the latest firmware to benefit from security patches and new features. 5. **Monitoring and Management**: Utilize FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer for centralized management and monitoring to streamline operations across your network. 6. **Testing Environment**: Leverage the VM for testing configurations and updates before deploying them to production environments. By following these recommendations, you can effectively leverage FortiGate VM to enhance your network security posture. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate VM addresses the challenge of extending consistent, enterprise-grade NGFW security into environments where physical hardware either can’t be deployed or simply doesn’t make sense. For cloud coverage, there’s no rack to mount a box in, so VM firewalls can inspect traffic directly inside AWS/Azure/GCP VPCs. It also helps maintain consistency across hybrid infrastructure by keeping the same policies, logging, and FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer-based management across on-prem, colo, and multiple clouds, rather than juggling different tools in each environment. Another big advantage is speed and elasticity: you can deploy in minutes instead of waiting weeks for hardware procurement, shipping, and racking. That’s especially useful for DR sites, temporary environments, M&A integration, or scaling up and down with demand. On the cost side, vCPU-based licensing provides flexibility to pay for what you actually need, instead of over-provisioning hardware for peak capacity—helpful when traffic is unpredictable or seasonal. Finally, FortiGate VM supports east-west segmentation by inspecting traffic between VMs and microservices inside a virtual network, which a perimeter hardware appliance can’t effectively cover. Overall, it delivers enterprise-grade firewalling that’s quick to deploy, consistent across environments, and elastic—ideal for places where physical hardware can’t go or isn’t practical. ### 21. FortiGate-VM: Full Security Stack in One Lightweight VM with Fast Deployment **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in E-Learning | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 25, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I appreciate most is the seamless integration of the full security stack into a single VM. Unlike physical appliances or other virtual solutions that require separate boxes for different functions, the FortiGate-VM gives me IPS, web filtering, application control, and SSL inspection all in one lightweight instance. Deployment on our VMware cluster took under 10 minutes, and the Security Fabric visibility across our hybrid environment has been a game-changer for troubleshooting traffic flows. The SD-WAN features are also surprisingly robust—we're load-balancing two ISPs without needing an extra device. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The licensing model is my biggest headache—the performance tiers (VM-02 vs. VM-04, etc.) are confusing, and upgrading to a higher tier requires a full VM reboot, which means scheduling maintenance windows just to adjust throughput. Also, the GUI is great for basic policies, but once you need advanced SD-WAN rules or policy-based routing, you're forced into the CLI, and the documentation often assumes you're coming from a physical box. The learning curve there is frustratingly steep. Lastly, onboard logging fills up way too fast—you practically need a separate FortiAnalyzer or external syslog server if you want to keep more than a few days of historical data. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were stuck with aging physical firewalls that were hitting CPU limits during peak traffic, and upgrading meant costly hardware replacements and long shipping delays. The FortiGate-VM completely solved that by letting us spin up additional capacity on our existing ESXi hosts in minutes—no hardware wait times. It's also helping us consolidate multiple point solutions; we no longer run separate proxy servers and intrusion detection boxes because the VM handles everything inline. The biggest benefit has been agility—when our remote offices grew, we deployed new virtual instances in under 15 minutes instead of waiting days for hardware to ship. Plus, the centralized policy management via FortiManager has cut our rule-review time by half, which frees me up for actual infrastructure improvements rather than just firefighting. ### 22. Centralized, All-in-One Security for Virtualized Environments **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 19, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** FortiGate-VM NGFW stands out for centralized security management, comprehensive threat protection, and smooth integration with Fortinet’s security ecosystem. Having firewalling, IPS, web filtering, application control, and strong visibility all in one platform makes it well suited for monitoring and protecting virtualized environments, while keeping security operations consolidated and easier to manage. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The main drawbacks are the complexity and cost of licensing, as well as the learning curve for more advanced configurations. The interface can also feel somewhat complicated when you’re managing larger environments, and troubleshooting certain issues may require fairly detailed knowledge of Fortinet-specific features and logs. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW provides centralized network security by bringing together firewalling, IPS, application control, web filtering, and traffic visibility in one place. It helps us detect and block threats, manage and control network traffic, investigate security events more effectively, and improve overall visibility across our environment. As a result, it reduces manual effort for our SOC, speeds up incident investigation, and strengthens our overall security posture. ### 23. Consistent Hybrid-Cloud Security and All-in-One Features with FortiGate VM **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 17, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Several standout aspects make this a preferred choice for IT and security professionals. Consistent security across hybrid and multi-cloud environments is a big one. The same FortiOS everywhere means FortiGate VM runs the exact same operating system as physical FortiGate appliances, so administrators face virtually no learning curve when moving between on-premises hardware and cloud instances like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, VMware, and KVM. With unified policies, organizations can enforce the same security posture, firewall rules, and threat protection standards no matter where workloads live. Another strength is deep feature consolidation. Instead of stitching together separate tools for routing, SD-WAN, VPN, intrusion prevention, and web filtering, FortiGate VM integrates these capabilities natively. Being able to manage firewall rules, review threat logs, and control secure access from a single dashboard reduces operational complexity and can save hours of management time each week. Built-in Secure SD-WAN is also a highlight. FortiGate VM includes robust Secure SD-WAN capabilities out of the box, enabling seamless and secure site-to-site connectivity along with intelligent path selection for cloud applications, without needing added hardware costs. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Performance Drop with Full Security Features EnabledTurning on intensive security inspection features (such as deep packet inspection, antivirus, intrusion prevention, and web filtering) can cause a noticeable drop in throughput capacity. Careful sizing and resource allocation are required to prevent performance bottlenecks. High Cost and Complex Licensing StructureBoth the software licenses and the required security subscriptions (FortiGuard services) are expensive. Additionally, managing license activation files and tying them to specific virtual machine instances or cloud environments can sometimes be an overly rigid and frustrating process.Resource and Cloud Networking ComplexitiesInitial setup and networking configuration in public cloud environments (like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) can be complex compared to traditional on-premises deployments. Administrators also report occasional CPU utilization spikes and packet latency during high-traffic events or simultaneous administrator logins. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** The FortiGate VM Next Generation Firewall solves several critical infrastructure and security challenges, and those solutions translate into major operational benefits: Solving Cloud Security Blind Spots and Inconsistency Problem: Managing security across a mix of on premises data centers and public clouds like AWS or Azure usually means dealing with disjointed tools and different vendor interfaces. Benefit: Because FortiGate VM runs the exact same operating system everywhere, it allows organizations to enforce uniform firewall rules and security policies across hybrid environments, eliminating blind spots and reducing human error. Solving Fragmented Infrastructure and Tool Sprawl Problem: Relying on separate point products for routing, virtual private networks, web filtering, and intrusion prevention creates high overhead and complex maintenance. Benefit: By consolidating these features natively into a single virtual appliance, it slashes the time spent managing multiple security vendors and simplifies daily administrative workflows. ### 24. Single Pane of Glass for IPS, VPN, SD-WAN, and Segmentation **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** August 12, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** A single pane of glass for everything IPS, VPN, SD-WAN, and segmentation. It gives me consistent policies across both cloud and on-prem environments. There are no hardware hassles, the performance is solid, and everything runs through one management interface. Overall, it keeps my workload light and my networks tight. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The license is quite pricey, especially with feature add-ons. Logging and monitoring could be more intuitive; going through CLI for certain features is a hassle sometimes. Occasional upgrade between versions. Great box, but not perfect. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** A virtual firewall that locks down multi-cloud workloads, removes the policy sprawl between AWS and Azure, handles IPS, VPN, and SD-WAN on the same box, scales up with a single click, costs is high but saves me from late night problem calls, and gives me a dashboard to keep all traffic in check so I can stop babysitting the network and focus on actually building things. ### 25. Flexible and Hardware-Free Next-Gen Security for Virtual Environments **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 14, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Since it is a virtual appliance, it eliminates all the common issues associated with physical hardware. Backing up the VM is significantly easier, and the same applies to license management. Furthermore, scaling resources up or down as needed is highly flexible and straightforward. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Occasionally, new firmware updates introduce stability issues and bugs. Additionally, the initial licensing and renewal costs are quite high, and the lack of flexible bundle licensing options makes cost management more difficult. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** It eliminates physical hardware dependency, allowing us to deploy fast and flexible security across our virtual and cloud environments. Additionally, its seamless backup capabilities simplify our disaster recovery processes, ensuring strong data and system security. ### 26. Ideal for Learning Network Security in a Cost-Effective Way **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Musa A. | Full Stack Engineer, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like FortiGate-VM NGFW's easy deployment as a VM and the user-friendly interface. The clear firewall policy management is something I appreciate, and I really love the VPN setup wizard, which makes configurations straightforward. These features make FortiGate-VM NGFW very valuable for use in a lab environment. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** For me in the lab, the initial setup can be a bit confusing if you are new. I think the documentation could include step-by-step lab examples for beginners. Some advanced features require additional licenses, which can be expensive for personal learning. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps me practice real security problems safely and block unauthorized traffic without costly hardware. The easy-to-deploy VM, user interface, firewall policy management, and VPN setup wizard make it very valuable in my lab. ### 27. Powerful, Scalable NGFW—But Initial Setup and Licensing Can Be Complex **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 06, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I like most about FortiGate-VM NGFW is its strong combination of security features and ease of deployment in virtual environments. It provides reliable firewalling, IPS, VPN, application control, and web filtering through a centralized interface. The policy management is straightforward, performance is consistent, and integration with cloud platforms and the broader Fortinet ecosystem simplifies network security management. Overall, it is a scalable and dependable NGFW solution for securing enterprise and hybrid cloud environments. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One drawback of FortiGate-VM NGFW is that the initial configuration and policy tuning can be complex, especially for organizations with large or segmented networks. Some advanced features require additional licensing, which can increase overall costs. The management interface, while functional, can feel overwhelming due to the number of available options, and troubleshooting complex policy or VPN issues may require a solid understanding of Fortinet-specific concepts. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW helps secure virtual and hybrid cloud environments by consolidating firewalling, intrusion prevention, VPN, application control, and web filtering into a single platform. This reduces the complexity of managing multiple security solutions while improving network visibility and policy enforcement. It has helped simplify security administration, strengthen threat protection, and provide consistent security across virtual workloads. ### 28. Cost-Effective Firewall with CLI Familiarity, GUI Challenges **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 24, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I mainly use FortiGate-VM NGFW as the main firewall for our AWS environment. I really like the price and performance of FortiGate-VM NGFW. The cost is a significant factor because at renewal, IPS and web filtering are bundled, so we're not paying per feature. The CLI is another aspect I appreciate; for admins coming from a Cisco background, it feels quite comfortable and familiar. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The GUI slows down under load, so I end up in the CLI more than I'd like. It's worst when I'm pulling logs or big policy lists; pages take several seconds. I would like better pagination and faster log search. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** It replaced our VPN setup that didn't scale and was hard to manage. The price is great since IPS and web filtering are bundled, and the CLI is familiar for those with a Cisco background. ### 29. Reliable NGFW in a VM: Stable Protection with Minimal Downtime **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** it a vm so it wont go down unless the server is down so no component failure for the firewall if its in a VM so its a good thing to have a firewall in a vm rather then putting inside an actual component or a device **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** to be honest i dont have any issues with NGFW so i dont think i have downsides to talk about concernaning this VM FW so if im pleased with the product so no downsides hahaha **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** it benefits me in trying to find another firewall better than this one i actually looked for one that works in a vm and iwas looking for one that tested and proved i used it in a server with a network card that have 4 portsd and after that the fw enabled me to do ip fail over from diffeent ISP and also create networks and implement ddos prevention system ### 30. Robust Security with Top-notch Performance **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ramanaji B. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to secure enterprise networks by managing firewall policies, VPNs, IPS, web filtering, and traffic monitoring. I appreciate its ability to protect our network from cyber threats by enforcing security policies. What I like most about FortiGate-VM NGFW is its security and performance, which stand out the most for me. Additionally, the initial setup was easy and straightforward. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I find the usability of FortiGate-VM NGFW to be an area that could be improved. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to secure enterprise networks by managing firewall policies, VPNs, and traffic monitoring, protecting our network from cyber threats. ### 31. Flexible FortiGate-VM Hybrid Management, but Firmware Updates Can Be Buggy **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Fakher R. | Solar Technician, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** As a network administrator and engineer, I’ve found that FortiGate-VM runs the exact same FortiOS as the physical hardware. Users appreciate the seamless hybrid management, the flexible licensing options, and the low RAM footprint, which makes it easy to fit into different environments. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Buggy firmware updates: Fortinet frequently releases firmware updates that include frustrating bugs. Because of this, engineers often steer clear of the newest “Feature” releases and instead stick with older “Mature” software tracks to keep things stable. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM stops advanced cloud malware via deep packet inspection, unifies hybrid security under one OS, and scales instantly to cut costs.and this is very helpful ### 32. Easy to Deploy and Test, but Support Can Be Slow **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Media Production | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 07, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The solution is easy to deploy and fast to spin up a test system. A great community to get help from if you run into a problem. The price is ok compared to other solutions. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Getting help from support can be a bit bureaucratic. You have to be careful when upgrading to a new release, as it can sometimes affect the existing setup. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** One of the leaders in NGFW. The AI is being implemented more and more in the product, and that is, of course, important for staying safe in today's AI threats. ### 33. Cybersecurity uses of FortiGate's newest firewall solution **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 01, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The application control feature is the most useful for me. As a cybersecurity specialist I want to be able to set as much specific rules as possible. This allows me to filter traffic not only by IPs or port numbers, but also by software. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** It is not easy to get to know how to use this firewall. Newcomers might skip it because of that even though it is one of the most useful firewalls at the moment. Another thing is the high pricing. It is a little bit over the top in terms of expenses. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a cybersecurity specialist my goal is to defend organizations to the best of my abilities. FortiGate's NGFW allows me to be prepared for the current threats. As the name implies - it is next-generation. ### 34. Strong Security, Easy Management, and Reliable Performance **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrew R. | Information Technology Support Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Its strong security features, easy management, and good performance. It provides effective protection while being flexible and scalable for different network environment. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The main thing I dislike is that some advanced features can be complex to s configure, especially for new users. The licensing and costs can also be a little difficult to manage. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** It actually helps protect the network from cyber threats, control network traffic, and improve visibility. This benefits me by making security management easier, reducing risks, and helping maintain a more secure and reliable network. ### 35. Simple Setup, Modern UI, and Easier Firewall Management at a Lower Cost **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** They're relatively simple to configure, they have a modern user interface compared to Palo Altos offerings and i much prefer dealing with cluster FW management through them. for example, if i have to manage 10 firewalls from Forti vs Palo it's easier with fortimanager and quicker compared to panorama. They're also significantly cheaper compared to Palo. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I've been made aware from reliable sources that their threat intelligence data is slighlty worse than palo alto's, this makes it a little hard for enterprise environments to consider them when you have heavy fines if you fail. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Personally, I don’t have any particular problems using FortiGate VM NGFWs. Performance has been good, and the integrations are strong, including the dynamic list integrations, so it wouldn’t be accurate to say I have issues with them. ### 36. Strong Multi-Cloud Support for FortiGate, with Secure Hybrid Environments **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joshua O. | Cloud Infrastructure Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 06, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** It supports multiple cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS and secure hybrid and multi-cloud environments as expected for a FortiGate **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I don't think I have anything to dislike about FortiGate. we haven't found any issues while using it, and none of our customers have complained about it either. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW has made it easy to consistently secure virtual environments. It has improved network visibility, and strengthened threat protection which has reduced the time required to deploy and manage security policies on all cloud environment. ### 37. Advanced Threat Protection and Flexible Deployment with FortiGate -VM **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Networking | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 05, 2026 At G2, we prefer fresh reviews and we like to follow up with reviewers. They may not have updated their review text, but have updated their review. **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** There are a lot of things to like about FortiGate -VM to mention some 1 advanced threat protection - using intrusion prevention, application behavior analysis threat intelligence and others it detects sophisticated attacks and it also helps to identify malicious behavior even if the attacker is already inside the network. 2 Security fabric integration - like FortiSandbox, FortiNDR FortiAnalyzer which helps to improve visibility and automated response across the network. 3 Its flexibility in virtual environments - such as VMware, Hyper-V, AWS, Azure, and GCP. which helps for fast deployment and easy scaling. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One thing i dislike about its licensing might be complex, it have different license types like CPU cores VM models makes it a little confusing. the others are like the dependance in the performance of the VM as we know it is a VM based unlike the hardware appliance this one depends on the RAM, Hyper-V performance, and also its CPU allocation. so the firewall performance is dependable on the VM. if the VM resources are not optimized the firewall may not perform as expected. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1 Reducing Security tool Complexity - as we know many organization this days use separate tools, FortiGate-VM integrates multiple security capabilities like antivirus IPS, VPN in a single platform and integrates with Fortinet Security Fabric. 2 It Support Business scalability - it can scale easily by adjusting VM resources or deploying additional instances. ### 38. Reliable, User-Friendly FortiGate-VM NGFW with Strong Automation and SIEM Logging **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Current User:** The reviewer uploaded a screenshot or submitted the review in-app verifying them as current user. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** March 19, 2026 At G2, we prefer fresh reviews and we like to follow up with reviewers. They may not have updated their review text, but have updated their review. **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** We have been using FortiGate-VM NGFW for the past 8 years, and it has proven to be a highly reliable and flexible firewall solution. One of the key strengths is its ease of use—both in initial deployment and ongoing management. The interface is intuitive, which makes configuration and troubleshooting efficient. We also appreciate the strong automation capabilities, which help streamline routine tasks and improve operational efficiency. Additionally, the ability to seamlessly collect and forward logs to our SIEM system has been extremely valuable for monitoring and security analysis. Overall, FortiGate-VM NGFW is a powerful, user-friendly firewall that meets both our security and operational needs very well. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** At times, depending on the software version, we have experienced issues related to increased CPU and memory utilization. Additionally, there are situations where the number of sessions grows excessively, which can impact overall system performance and stability. These issues can be challenging to manage and may require additional effort for troubleshooting and optimization. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW addresses several critical security and network management challenges, including protection against cyber threats, traffic visibility, and secure access control. It provides advanced security features such as intrusion prevention, application control, and web filtering, which help safeguard our network from various types of attacks. ### 39. Straightforward Setup, Strong Security, and Reliable Performance with FortiGate‑VM NGFW **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 23, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** It’s easy to appreciate FortiGate‑VM NGFW for its straightforward setup, strong security features, and reliable performance. It feels lightweight to manage yet powerful enough to handle complex threats without slowing things down. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The main drawback is that the interface can feel a bit complex at first, and some advanced features require extra fine‑tuning to get right. Updates and licensing can also be a little cumbersome. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate‑VM NGFW is helping tackle network security challenges like intrusion attempts, malware, and unauthorized access. By consolidating firewall, VPN, and threat protection in one platform, it reduces complexity and keeps traffic safe. The benefit is clear: stronger protection with smoother performance and less manual overhead, which means more time focused on actual work instead of troubleshooting security gaps. ### 40. Easy Site-to-Site VPN Setup with a User-Friendly FortiGate UI **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** August 13, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** the ability to easily setup site to site VPN's. Ability to configure this on any cloud or virtual environment. FortiGate UI is probably one of the easiest to use and understand **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** when it comes to licensing it is not the most straightforward. licensing activation can be tricky at some times. The cost to licensing is also high compared to others i have used. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Site to Site VPN to connect different office buildings. Web Filtering certain content that is not allowed by company policies for end users. Assist with remote employees to connect directly. I must say the performance on VPN is good. Administration and integration to current network was easy ### 41. Robust Security with a Need for a Better UI **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dev S. | Network Security Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was not provided any incentive by G2 for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 06, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I love the firewall performance of FortiGate-VM NGFW. It filters traffic smoothly and blocks unwanted access without slowing down the network, keeping the system stable even during high traffic. I also like the VPN feature because it's secure and reliable, allowing remote users to connect easily and keep connections stable. This is really important for daily work. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** It does not work very well sometimes. One thing that could be improved is the user interface. For new users, it can feel a little complicated. A more user-friendly design will make it easier for beginners to understand and manage the settings. Another improvement could be better documentation and step-by-step guidance. Sometimes when setting advanced features, clear instruction is needed to configure correctly. It would also help if troubleshooting was easier when a problem happens. Clear alerts and suggestions could solve issues more quickly. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW to protect my network, control Internet traffic, block unwanted websites, and manage firewall rules. It enhances network visibility, blocks malware, and ensures secure VPN connections for remote users, making network management easier and safer. ### 42. Powerful, User-Friendly Security for Virtual and Cloud Deployments **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ashit C. | Software Engineering Specialist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** March 06, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW is its strong security capabilities combined with flexible deployment in virtual and cloud environments. It provides multiple security features such as intrusion prevention, antivirus, application control, web filtering, and SD-WAN in a single platform, which simplifies network protection. The interface is user-friendly, making configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting easier for administrators. I also appreciate its integration with the Fortinet Security Fabric, which allows centralized visibility and management across different security components. This helps organizations maintain better control over network security while scaling easily in cloud infrastructures. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One thing I dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW is that the licensing and pricing structure can be complex, especially when multiple security subscriptions and add-ons are required for full functionality. The initial setup and configuration can also have a steeper learning curve for new administrators due to the wide range of features and policies available. In virtual environments, the firewall can be resource-intensive, requiring sufficient CPU and memory to maintain optimal performance under high traffic loads. Additionally, firmware updates may sometimes introduce compatibility or stability issues that require careful testing before deployment. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW helps solve key network security challenges by providing advanced threat protection, traffic visibility, and centralized policy management in virtual and cloud environments. It protects the infrastructure from malware, unauthorized access, and application-level threats through features like intrusion prevention, web filtering, and application control. This benefits our team by improving overall network security, simplifying firewall management, and enabling secure connectivity for users and applications across hybrid or cloud deployments while maintaining good performance and scalability. ### 43. Precise Support and Onboarding That Strengthens Client Capacity **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** GCT F. | District Advisory Councillor - Tamavua, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Securing a VAR for Fortigate in the Year 2020, our relationship reached on a high note through support and onboarding process. It is very precise on capacity building to support client. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The key disadvantage is most physical devices last in market for 3-5 years after which it needs to be replaced and small entities may be unable to afford compared to Cisco and HP **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Running virtual and cloud integrations to make troubleshooting affordable while ensuring decentralisation of infrastructure across various platforms both with LAN and WAN ### 44. Powerful FortiOS Cloud Flexibility, But Tiering and Subscription Costs Add Friction **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Qaiser T. | Audit Supervisor, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** July 25, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Same OS: Runs the identical FortiOS image as physical units.Cloud Flexibility: Deploys easily across multiple public and private clouds. Automation: Supports robust REST APIs and infrastructure as code. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** Complex tiering and activation issues Management console slows down during heavy traffic. Advanced troubleshooting requires deep command-line knowledge and finally High pricing for premium security subscriptions. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Fixes inconsistent policies between physical offices and cloud platforms. Exposes hidden threats lurking inside encrypted cloud traffic. Replaces slow, manual firewall provisioning with automated code templates. ### 45. Robust Security with Minor Usability Challenges **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yonas N. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** This review contains authentic analysis and has been reviewed by our team **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** March 05, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like how FortiGate-VM NGFW combines enterprise-grade security with flexibility for virtual and cloud environments. It stands out with its all-in-one security features, including firewall, IPS, antivirus, web filtering, and application control, which makes security much easier to manage and more consistent across environments. I appreciate the strong performance; even with deep inspection enabled, it handles traffic efficiently without noticeable performance degradation. The granular policy control allows me to create detailed security policies that help with proper network segmentation and protecting sensitive workloads. The seamless integration with the Fortinet ecosystem simplifies management and improves visibility. Its scalability and flexibility as a virtual appliance make it easy to scale resources up or down as requirements change, especially in cloud or hybrid setups. I also find the good visibility and logging features incredibly helpful as they make troubleshooting and security analysis much easier. Overall, it is a powerful, reliable NGFW solution that fits perfectly in modern virtualized and cloud infrastructures. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** While FortiGate-VM NGFW is a strong solution overall, there are a few areas that could be improved based on real usage: Licensing complexity: The licensing model can be confusing at first, especially when choosing between different bundles and understanding what features are included. Learning curve: The platform is very powerful, but that also means it can feel overwhelming for beginners. UI and policy navigation: The interface is functional, but when managing many policies and objects, navigation can become less intuitive. Resource tuning in virtual environments: In some cases, fine-tuning CPU and memory allocation requires trial and error. Log analysis without additional tools: Basic logging is good, but deeper analysis often requires additional Fortinet tools. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW provides unified security across virtual environments, strong protection without performance loss, and better segmentation and policy control. It reduces complexity by integrating firewall, IPS, antivirus, and more in one platform, helping me apply consistent security policies efficiently. ### 46. Strong Security with Easy Deployment **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Priyanka J. | Program Coordinator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I really like FortiGate-VM NGFW's capability for exhibit and deployment anywhere, which provides all-in-one security. The strong visibility logging feature is a standout, and the dashboard is very clear, making it easy for me to understand. One of the strongest points is its faster troubleshooting; whenever something breaks, I can check forward traffic logs to see which policy might have allowed or denied traffic, and use real-time packet monitoring if needed. I also appreciate its immediate threat detection, where it clearly shows the top threats and blocked applications, enabling faster incident response. This has been crucial for making clear decisions. Additionally, the installation was very easy and straightforward. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I am highly satisfied with the product visibility login capabilities dashboard design and over the performance from reliable however are improvement good naked better like policy and GUI simplification , performance monitoring granularity, reporting customisation and licence. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** It gives deep visibility with application control user based policies and retail login with help me detect cyber thread smile were ran somewhere IPS attacks the dashboard and real time logs help me demonstrate life attack detection policy behaviour traffic flow analysis ### 47. Solid price point for enterprise firewall, scalable for company with 50+ offices without issues. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Douglas H. | Executive Vice President of IT Infrastructure, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through a business email account **Source: Organic:** Organic review. This review was written entirely without invitation or incentive from G2, a seller, or an affiliate. **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** It works as intended, feature requests take to long but eventually comes down to us smaller customers. Having it run in cloud with 50+ on prem firewalls on our separate SD-WAN is a nice feature and easily scalable when we add new offices. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** There's not much to dislike, it gives you what you need, cli for the users who need it and UI for the new users who dont understand the cli. If anything the identity piece can benefit from some scim automation. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Needed to have a firewall supporting our cloud infrastructure and it solved our problem with VPN tunnels to azure firewall by adding the fortigate to our already existing sd-wan. ### 48. Powerful, Flexible Security for Cloud and Hybrid Deployments **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luis José Enrique R. | Project Development Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** February 14, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** What I like most about FortiGate-VM NGFW from Fortinet is the strong balance it strikes between security capabilities, performance, and flexibility in virtualized environments. From my experience working on system architectures and migrations, I especially appreciate how straightforward it is to deploy across cloud and hybrid infrastructures, which makes it a good fit for modern microservices and distributed systems. The centralized management, advanced threat protection, and deep traffic inspection also deliver solid network visibility and control, without introducing significant additional complexity. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** One thing I find challenging about FortiGate-VM NGFW from Fortinet is that the initial setup, as well as configuring more advanced features, can involve a steep learning curve. This tends to be even more noticeable in complex environments or for teams without deep network security experience. On top of that, licensing and resource sizing in virtual environments can be difficult to plan accurately. It’s especially tricky when you’re scaling infrastructure or trying to optimize performance in cloud deployments, where getting the sizing right can take extra effort. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** FortiGate-VM NGFW from Fortinet addresses key challenges around network security, visibility, and protection in today’s virtualized and cloud environments. It helps secure distributed infrastructures by combining advanced threat prevention, deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention, and centralized policy management into a single platform. From my perspective, this gives me stronger control over network traffic and helps reduce security risk across hybrid and cloud-based systems. It streamlines security policy management, improves visibility into network activity, and supports meeting security standards without relying on multiple separate tools. It also offers scalability and flexible deployment, which is especially useful during system migrations, in microservices architectures, or as infrastructure grows. This helps organizations keep security consistent while still adapting to changing technical and business requirements. ### 49. Effortless Deployment, Scalable Security Solution **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rohan K. | Area Sales Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** February 27, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** I like FortiGate-VM NGFW for its faster deployment, lower infrastructure dependency, and easier expansion, especially as customer environments grow. It makes things much easier for me and my team during both presales and customer discussions. Since it's a virtual firewall, we can quickly deploy it in cloud or virtual environments without waiting for hardware delivery. Plus, the initial setup was kind of easy for me. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** The licensing model can sometimes be confusing, especially when explaining different bundles and add-ons. It would help if Fortinet simplified the packaging to make it easier to position during sales discussions. **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use FortiGate-VM NGFW because it helps us offer a scalable and flexible security solution to customers. It allows faster proof of concept deployments, helping me demonstrate security capabilities quickly during presales discussions. It makes deployments easier in cloud or virtual environments without waiting for hardware. ### 50. Strong Enterprise Security Suite, But High Resource Use and Licensing Costs **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) This reviewer's identity has been verified by our review moderation team. They have asked not to show their name, job title, or picture. **Validated Reviewer:** Validated through LinkedIn **Incentivized:** This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Source: G2 invite:** Invitation from G2. This reviewer was offered a nominal gift card as thank you for completing this review. **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2026 **What do you like best about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** It has IPS it has VPN , Web Filtering and application control which is a nice package to have for enterprise networks. strong performance and scalability for virtual aswell as cloud environments. **What do you dislike about FortiGate-VM NGFW?** THe CPU usage on some of the more advanced features is allot aswell as memory usage. the licensing costs can be quite high for full functionality Aswell as some newer people mmight have trouble because it can be complex/ **What problems is FortiGate-VM NGFW solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its simple, It stopes unauthorised access aswell as detects and blocks malicious traffic, The best features are the VPNs in my opinion because of the encrypted connections it filters malicious traffic ## FortiGate-VM NGFW Discussions - [What is FortiGate NGFW used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-fortigate-ngfw-used-for) - 1 comment - [What is FortiGate-VM used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-fortigate-vm-used-for) - 3 comments - [Is FortiGate and fortinet the same?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-fortigate-and-fortinet-the-same) - 1 comment - [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 - [View FortiGate-VM NGFW pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/fortigate-vm-ngfw/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-09-29+20%3A16%3A11+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=af69d05e-968e-461d-a6eb-2b827cd7c0ad&secure%5Btoken%5D=8aedf9b0db484721250fa9c3a0f487fa46d12e59f066faa7e20329e621e99cc2&format=llm_user) ## FortiGate-VM NGFW Features **Additional Functionality** - Penetration Testing - Alerts/Notifications - Audit Trail - Anti Virus - Vulnerability Scanning - Remote Monitoring & Management - VPN - Behavior Analytics - Reporting/Analytics - Real-Time Notifications - Access Controls/Permissions - SSL Security - Patch Management - Event Logs - Anomaly/Malware Detection - DNS Leak Protection - Third-Party Integrations - Server Monitoring - Real-Time Monitoring - Compliance Management - Network Provisioning - API - Email Alerts - Security Auditing - Intrusion Detection System - Data Visualization - Two-Factor Authentication - Generative AI - Firewalls - AI Copilot - Anti Spam - Threat Response - Activity Monitoring - Risk Alerts - Data Loss Prevention - Single Sign On - Intrusion Prevention System - Secure Login - Policy Management - Activity Dashboard **Security - Unified Threat Management** - Antivirus - Whitelists - Antispam Filtering - Content Filtering - Web Filtering - Firewall **Prevention** - Intrusion Prevention - Firewall - Encryption - Security hardening **Administration** - Policy Management - Logging and Reporting - Application Gateway - Concurrent Sessions - Uptime Reporting - Web Traffic Reporting - Compliance Management - Access Management - Incident Management - Audit Management - Remote Monitoring & Management **Agentic AI - Firewall Software** - Autonomous Task Execution - Adaptive Learning - AI/Machine Learning **Compliance** - Access Management - At-Risk Analysis - DLP Configuration - Sensitive Data Compliance **Administration** - Reports & Analytics - Dashboard **Detection** - Intrusion Detection - Security Monitoring - Anti-Malware / Malware Detection **Functionality** - Virtual Private Network (VPN) - Antivirus - URL Filtering - Availability - IP Filtering - Content Filtering **Administration** - Database Management - Backup - API / integrations **Administration** - Compliance - Administration Console - - API / integrations **Monitoring** - Load Balancing - Continuous Analysis - Intrusion Prevention - Intrusion Detection - Intrusion Detection System - Intrusion Prevention System **Security ** - Multi-Factor Authentication - Data Transport - Security Tools **Generative AI** - AI Text Summarization - Generative AI **Artificial Intelligence - Firewall** - AI Firewall **Additional Functionality** - Spam Blocker - Alerts/Escalation - Role-Based Permissions - Network Monitoring - Visual Analytics - Customizable Reports - Real-Time Analytics - Reporting & Statistics - Anti Spam - Activity Dashboard - Real-Time Monitoring - Real-Time Notifications - Activity Tracking - Hardware Integration - Summary Reports - Alerts/Notifications - Access Controls/Permissions - Real-Time Data - Server Monitoring - Two-Factor Authentication - Log Access - Reporting/Analytics - Multi-Location - SSL Security - Behavior Tracking - AI Copilot - API - Event Logs - Vulnerability Scanning - Risk Alerts - Single Sign On - Dashboard Creation - Monitoring ## Top FortiGate-VM NGFW Alternatives - [Check Point Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs)](https://www.g2.com/products/check-point-next-generation-firewalls-ngfws/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (517 reviews) - [WatchGuard Network Security](https://www.g2.com/products/watchguard-network-security/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (247 reviews) - [SonicWall Next Generation Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/sonicwall-next-generation-firewall/reviews) - 4.1/5.0 (145 reviews)