Fortinet FortiWeb is very good as a web application solution. I have been working with Fortinet FortiWeb since 2020.
Fortinet FortiWeb Web Application Firewall WAF (PAYG)
Fortinet Inc.External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Excellent Protection, Complex Interface
Security measures have improved but patch releases create challenges
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
When using Fortinet FortiWeb, it will not leak your real IP address. Your HTTP, HTTPS, and IMT file will be secured, and the signature should be upgraded. A VIP IP address is required. That IP will be translated to Fortinet FortiWeb. When the user browses the website, it will reach Fortinet FortiWeb only, not reaching the server directly.
Fortinet FortiWeb enhances web security with its effective features that handle inbound and outbound traffic.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in Fortinet FortiWeb. The team was only from FortiGate itself. They are making new firmware versions and releasing them before checking, which leads to many bugs in these versions.
The reason for not giving Fortinet FortiWeb an eight is because every 45 to 60 days, they are releasing a patch. Without checking these patches, users face many issues, which are called bugs, and some policies will not work.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiWeb since 2020.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Deploying Fortinet FortiWeb is not difficult. If you install the VM, it uses the same console. If you install on-premise, it also uses the same console. It depends on where the web server machine is available. If it is in the cloud, we need to use VM devices. If it is on-premises, we use on-premise devices.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Regarding stability, I would rate Fortinet FortiWeb a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding scalability, I would rate Fortinet FortiWeb a 4.5 out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Fortinet provides very good support and services for everyone regarding future updates of Fortinet FortiWeb.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not work with Cortex Xpanse and Cortex XCM solutions. A different cybersecurity team in our parent company handles those solutions.
How was the initial setup?
If the customer provides the proper information, I can complete everything regarding installation, setup, and configuration of Fortinet FortiWeb within three hours.
What about the implementation team?
I perform maintenance for Fortinet FortiWeb for my customers and help them troubleshoot. I am the person involved in the maintenance of Fortinet FortiWeb.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for Fortinet FortiWeb varies with different models having different prices. It depends on the requirement. For VM machines, the price increases based on CPU configurations of 2, 4, or 8 CPUs.
Compared to other vendors, Fortinet FortiWeb has competitive pricing in the market. For partners, pricing depends on partnership level, such as Gold or Silver.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I would recommend Fortinet FortiWeb to organizations specifically for two or three servers. For larger environments with more than 100 servers, I would recommend F5 BIG-IP.
What other advice do I have?
I have not utilized Fortinet FortiWeb's machine learning capabilities, as I only perform configuration based on customer requirements.
The compliance version of Fortinet FortiWeb has firmware version stability issues.
Fortinet FortiWeb offers three solutions: on-premises and VM solutions.
My overall rating for Fortinet FortiWeb is six out of ten.
Effective in protecting web applications include web filtering, DDoS protection, and geo-location blocking
What is our primary use case?
The FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) is used when customers want to publish their sites and protect their internal public websites. Some customers ask to protect their AWS or Azure network, and during that time, we also suggest the web solution. In the network, we can use next-generation firewalls upstream or in flows wherever required, making it mandatory with the parameter-level layer security.
We focus on websites with FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF). Features such as anomaly input validation, XML protection, and API protection are already present, but we also need configuration settings that indicate the advantages or disadvantages of enabled features. If the GUI includes notifications and improved logging capabilities that allow us to see traffic and store logs for six months, that would be very helpful.
What is most valuable?
The features of FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) that have proven most effective in protecting web applications include web filtering, DDoS protection, geo-location blocking, and blocking SQL injection attacks.
The AI machine learning capabilities included in FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) analyze patterns effectively. For example, if any user tries to input any text format in a web form mistakenly using SQL queries, the web solution detects the input, checking whether it's impacting or analyzing queries in the database. Everything is analyzed to ensure protection.
What needs improvement?
Their AI technology is good. Overall, Fortinet is only good.
The improvement needed is in their response time. In the past three to four years, whenever we called for support, they responded quickly, often within five to ten minutes, and addressed our issues immediately. Now it takes longer, and they talk about SLA and 48-hour response times. Even with critical issues, they say, 'Okay, that ticket is assigned; we need to wait for their update in four hours or two hours,' which is taking too long now.
If there are issues, we need to contact the development team since we don't have configurations we can do ourselves; most features or configurations are managed by the development team. The graphical user interface looks difficult to understand, as other products allow us to see all features in one place.
The AI in FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) is just a checkmark option. To use machine learning features, we only need to enable or disable it. However, we must check how useful it is in real-time environments to determine how it protects or identifies threats.
There are features like web filtering, DDoS protection, geo-location blocking, SQL injection blocking, anomaly input validation, XML protection, and API protection already present, however, we also need configuration settings that indicate the advantages or disadvantages of enabled features. If the GUI includes notifications and improved logging capabilities that allow us to see traffic and store logs for six months, that would be very helpful. Currently, we cannot see any logs for allow traffic or monitor daily traffic effectively, which requires external syslog servers or cloud subscriptions. If inbuilt larger logging capability is added, it would enhance usability, and features like clickable options to unblock or create exceptions would greatly assist customers in managing their websites.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with them for Five years.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support by Fortinet is good. The back-end development team is available, and if any issue arises, they will help us immediately by providing solutions when contacted.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) is reasonable. That said, it depends on how many websites we need to protect. The licensing is based on the number of websites or individually. If the customer has multiple websites, the price reduces automatically since it depends on the number only. If the customer wants to buy initially, there is a default license available.
When going for multiple websites, the price also reduces.
What other advice do I have?
I am providing next-generation firewalls or FortiWeb Web Application Firewalls (WAF).
Both web application firewalls and next-generation firewalls are available, which we are doing daily.
I usually recommend the FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) for various types of companies, including retail, hospitals, manufacturing, construction, and banking.
It is the best option on the market.
I rate FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) eight out of ten.
Delivers robust security with significant ROI and seamless integration
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
For how long have I used the solution?
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How are customer service and support?
How would you rate customer service and support?
Negative
How was the initial setup?
What was our ROI?
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
What other advice do I have?
I'm an technical support for a lot of network security products
Offers competitive pricing and robust channel support with good training
What is our primary use case?
I mentioned that the firewalls, such as the one from Fortinet, help protect my infrastructure from outside attacks. They perform a lot of network scanning and do not allow any unauthorized person to access my details and data. That's their application. A similar action is performed by the web application firewall, where web applications are restricted to certain users. This means that not anyone with malicious intent can access my web application content.
What is most valuable?
The good thing about Fortinet is that their enablement is very good in terms of training me and enabling resources on their technology.
Secondly, if I look at their pricing, Fortinet's pricing is way more competitive than Cisco or Palo Alto. They have almost 45% share in the firewall market, as per IDC. Fortinet is a large-sized company where their channel program is very robust and very flexible. They also understand the different personas of the channel stakeholders. In that way, they are rapidly growing in the channel ecosystem space and have started getting a lot of business. They are replacing many big traditional players in that space.
What needs improvement?
There are some issues pertaining to the migration. If some of my customers want to migrate from F5 to Fortinet Firewall, or the Fortinet WAF solution, there are some migration issues since I cannot migrate all the elements quickly using Fortinet Firewall. There is some integration work required to do that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet for almost one year and eight or nine months.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is truly exceptional when I compare it with similar large-sized companies. In that category, they are top-notch at this point in time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I was with SquadCast earlier.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
F5 is a leader. They have some technical supremacy. F5 is more in demand, however, other players like Radware are also available in the market.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution eight out of ten at least.
Seamless integration and has enhanced security management
What is our primary use case?
FortiWeb is used for protecting against malicious activities, such as SQL injections, for outward-facing web forms.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of FortiWeb include its dashboard and out-of-the-box integrations with other Fortinet products, which enhance its effectiveness. FortiWeb's position as part of the Fortinet platform makes it particularly beneficial for Fortinet customers, offering seamless integration and operational cost savings.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in the portability on multi-cloud environments. Enhanced DDoS integration to make FortiWeb more unified with other Fortinet products could be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have personally been working with FortiWeb for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of FortiWeb as nine out of ten, indicating highly stable performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of the product a seven out of ten. While it is multicloud-enabled, there is more automation in other products that may better suit complex environments.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the customer service and support as nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What about the implementation team?
Our team, consisting of three certified Fortinet engineers, handles the deployment, although globally, Exclusive Networks has a large team of certified engineers.
What was our ROI?
Operational costs decrease when using FortiWeb within the Fortinet stack due to integrated assessments and security event management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the licensing cost as seven out of ten, considering it good value for money. The price is affordable and reasonable for the features offered.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also work with other vendors such as F5, Proofpoint, and Palo Alto, however, Fortinet stands out for its holistic vision of cybersecurity.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate FortiWeb an eight out of ten for existing Fortinet customers due to its seamless integration and good value for money.
Secures APIs with effective protection against web threats
What is our primary use case?
We use FortiWeb to connect external APIs to our on-prem data center solutions.
What is most valuable?
We use FortiWeb for extended protection profiles to mitigate SQL injection and other web application threats. It is effective against web application threats and helps with our API protection and load balancing.
Additionally, it is cost-effective compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement?
They could integrate some kind of machine learning and AI facilities to automate workflows. We need to update regular patches frequently, and it requires regular installation and testing of these patches.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with FortiWeb for almost five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable for us, showing good performance in handling web security.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate its scalability at six because we have to increase our CPU and memory capacities, as it is confined to CPU and memories.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the customer service and technical support between eight and nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The setup is easy to manage.
What was our ROI?
It helps us save costs, about 20% to 30%.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In comparison to other solutions, the price is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
FortiWeb is suitable for medium-scale companies. I recommend using this solution.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Efficient threat prevention and reporting with strong ROI
What is our primary use case?
We are studying ClearPass as a solution. I was requesting a comparison between Aruba ClearPass and FortiWeb Forti.
How has it helped my organization?
FortiWeb has been a helpful investment in our network.
What is most valuable?
The reporting and token system is good. The AI machine learning was qualified to block and report any suspicious activity.
What needs improvement?
I see no room for improvement at the moment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been familiar with FortiWeb for about three years now.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very helpful. I rate their technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I only worked with similar solutions as a POC.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy.
What was our ROI?
FortiWeb has been a good investment, helping our network and providing a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of Fortinet FortiWeb is affordable and competitive.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend FortiWeb to others. I wish there were more integration with Azure systems.
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.
Reliable, effective web server protection with room for deployment expertise improvement
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case involves using FortiWeb to protect web servers from various malicious activities by integrating it into a firewall with features like URL filtering and application control. Additionally, it was deployed to meet the requirements of PCI DSS.
How has it helped my organization?
FortiWeb has been helpful in securing our web servers effectively. Fortinet FortiWeb is reliable, providing seamless protection and peace of mind regarding the security of our web applications.
What is most valuable?
FortiWeb has antivirus, web filtering, and application control features. Being part of the next-generation firewall, it's highly effective in ensuring security. The capability to protect from malicious activities is significant, alongside other features like application control.
What needs improvement?
I cannot provide feedback on what needs improvement as I haven't used other solutions to compare it against and therefore cannot identify any areas lacking in FortiWeb. Overall, FortiWeb is reliable.
For how long have I used the solution?
It's been a year since I last used FortiWeb, while I previously configured and used it actively.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
FortiWeb is reliable in terms of stability. There haven't been specific downtimes or technical issues with FortiWeb.
How are customer service and support?
We haven’t encountered issues necessitating contact with customer service for FortiWeb, implying stable support from Fortinet.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have no experience with other solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup depends on familiarity with the product. It's manageable with the right expertise. In cases of a simple application, setting up could be achieved in as little as one day.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I can't determine the exact cost of licensing as it was part of a bundle that offered multiple features and licenses.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have no experience with other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I must emphasize the reliability.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.