Subscription Nethsecurity vs Fortigate

Hello everyone!
I would like to know what are the advantages of using Nethsecurity that costs me $349.81 per year and the license of Fortigate costs $235 in Brazil?

Thats a $235 per each fortigate instance,

With Nethsecurity, you can manage and use the same License for multiple Nethsecurity instances/installations per organization.

Not Only do you get that, you also get a Single PANE of glass, to monitor and manage all the nethsecurity installations you manage in one beautiful Dashboard.

@Francenildo are you sold?

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In the vast majority of small businesses we only have a firewall.

The difference in money is only 0,32 cent per day. The goodwill you will show by choosing, discussing and supporting Nethsecurity is invaluable.

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Greetings @Francenildo starting I found this community and NethServer I worked as Head of Systems of Lidotel Paraguana a hotel chain, and due to an error of the accounting system provider that used MS SQL server and did not change the connection ports to the first instance of security, and that our fortigate did not have a license for any of its internal services, either firewall and all those offered by the brand we were hacked and damaged both IP telephone exchanges and the smart switches of each floor of rooms when they gave me access to the firewall that was the jurisdiction of Lido Center In Caracas I realized that we did not have licenses for any of the services, in the midst of the failures mount nethserver as a firewall and I was able to save a server of 2 that I had for the hosting of the guests.

What do I mean; I bet the security with nethsecurity that at that time was only allowed with hardware and now we can install it on our equipment and offer the security they deserve and the support of this great community, and I would not bother paying for their services because I know they are of quality. and they constantly improve.

It will currently be developing a client for nethsecurity on Android and iOS, I am adapting my workplace to be more comfortable and with everything I will need to avoid setbacks. Since here in Venezuela the blackouts are constant and I will not risk that the Mac I have will be damaged.

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You can download the nethsecurity image directly Installation — NethSecurity documentation

FortiGate is a widely adopted enterprise-grade next-generation firewall with a comprehensive set of features and extensive security subscriptions, considered by many (Gartner, Forrester and others…) to be the global leader in cybersecurity. It’s definitely the best choice (along with PaloAlto and CheckPoint) if you want maximum protection and security.
It’s also certified by many international and independent security organizations.

NethSecurity is a more affordable and easier-to-manage Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution, suitable for organizations with more basic security needs.
It definitely doesn’t have the same level of recognized and certified security.

Naturally, the best choice depends on budget, technical skills, and the complexity of the IT environment.

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@gmaoret obviously all the above arguments make valid points, however the specific question was why to choose a more expensive (32 cents a day) option over a cheaper option.

So I guess the only considerarion made by @Francenildo is budget? Taking on all (just like mentioned) considerartions related to the required/desired and best fitting and manageable security level is apparently not prority or not the right question(s) were asked?

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“FortiGate is a widely adopted next-generation firewall with a comprehensive set of features and extensive security signatures, considered by many (Gartner, Forrester and others…) as the global leader in cybersecurity.”
Taking into account all that was mentioned as a matter of choice, how can I convince my client to use Nethsecurity, if it is even more expensive and is much less known?

Brother, what does the company require? What security measures do they need? Will they manage them? Will they depend on you for support? These are many questions to evaluate. Now, the products may have all the certifications in the world, but they will depend on the configuration and knowledge of a professional, and that also costs money. Unfortunately, here in Venezuela, there are hackers who offer them the firewall of a home router, and when you go to offer them the best service, they scream loudly.

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Hello Francenildo!

I think that you received very valid responses: choosing the right product is always a balance between customer requirements and how much time and effort you want to put on the product configuration.

I understand that the price of “Business” plan could be a high for the Brazilian market, but probably you could also go with the “Personal” to start.

Still, you could sign a partnership program and pay a lot less for each installation, with full support included. If you have just 2 or 3 customers, the subscription is good, but if you have more, a partnership is much more cost effective for you. If you’re interested, send a mail to: sales@nethesis.it

Not really, you should by a subscription for each installation.

We are still not enforcing it, but probably we are going to do it in the future. For now, we bet on customers good faith :wink:

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As a person who not spare critics to the project…

Starting that Nethsecurity is based on OpenWRT, @Francenildo you can today test what NethSecurity can do for you and your customer without any fee, which is not possible AFAIK with Fortigate.

Resilience to issues for both products is different…
NethSecurity could be compromised from Nethesis developers errors, OpenWRT flaws, and vulnerabilities into packages that OpenWRT rely on.
On the other hand… let’s say that Fortinet, Sonicwall, or bigger names likes Cisco are experiencing a bumpy period. Bigger and more famous the names are, bigger the chances thay might be targeted by cybercriminals.

It’s not something of today, or last year… using a more famous name-product is not a guarantee of a better product or with less flaws. So don’t forget, in design and setting, for any of your pick, to have a “healthy” paranoid level, to consider failure is always an option.

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Something similar happened with MikroTik, where a vulnerability affected many devices and many used it as a firewall. Anything can happen.

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@giacomo I will send an email, I want to know more about the partnership, thank you very much for responding.

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If you wanna create a partnership with Nethesis, first you need to have some active NethSecurity subscriptions. Then we can talk about it :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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At first glance, FortiGate firewalls looked like a sweet deal — solid specs, good price, seemed like the perfect middle ground.
But then… reality hit harder than a bad firmware upgrade on a Friday night.

Believe me, I work with them every single day. Over the years, every “shiny new release” has added more bugs than features. It’s like they have a secret KPI: “How many new regressions can we introduce this quarter?”

Their SSL-VPN? Oh, that’s legendary — for all the wrong reasons. It’s the cybersecurity equivalent of Swiss cheese: full of holes and somehow still on the menu. You patch one CVE (like the infamous CVE-2023-27997, remote code execution for everyone!), and before you can even say “firmware update,” another one pops up.

Starting from version 7.2, you could still get away with using proxy-flow mode for some flexibility. But by 7.4? Forget it. SSL-VPN got quietly deprecated and replaced by their new “standard,” basically a WireGuard wannabe with Fortinet branding. Because apparently, reinventing the wheel is easier than fixing it.

Then there’s the management interface — sometimes it freezes, sometimes it logs you out mid-config, and sometimes it just… decides you’re not worthy of saving changes. And don’t get me started on FortiManager, which feels like it was designed by someone who never actually used it in production.

Oh, and memory leaks? Still a thing. Logd crashing? Of course. High CPU usage when traffic spikes? Absolutely. FortiGate sometimes behaves more like a moody teenager than a security appliance.

Now, don’t get me wrong — FortiGate can work well, if you babysit it daily and pray before every upgrade.

If your client has high-end requirements, skip the drama and go with Palo Alto. Their data plane is a beast, super stable, just pricier (but your sanity is worth it).

If you’re dealing with smaller setups, go with NethSecurity. The devs are awesome, the community is buzzing, and the support is top-tier. Plus, they actually listen to feedback — imagine that!

Meanwhile, Fortinet’s new business model seems to be: “Want proper support? Sure — just buy our Premium license for a mere 3K!”

So yeah… hope that helps — coming from someone who’s spent years wrangling Sophos, Palo Alto, Fortinet, and happily using NethSecurity.

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Very good to know, thank you.

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Is this your contact?

Fortinet Fortigate is more convenient (economically) only if you use the basic features (ATP subscription) and the entry-level models (30G and 40F… even with the 50G and 60F, which are still entry-level, I believe the cost increases significantly…).

If your customers need more powerful models with greater performance (typically 70G or higher) and advanced security features (UTP or Enterprise subscription, SOCaaS services, FortiGate Forticloud management and analysis, Fortianalyzer, etc.), then they become MUCH more expensive…

Ultimately, it’s up to you to convince the customer what’s best for them (and for you…).

Let’s say you can sell it like this:

Fortinet FortiGate only makes sense if you activate the advanced features (and therefore the cost increases…). Otherwise, without the advanced features, NethSecurity probably protects more (although less known and certified…)

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it is the contact of @alefattorini

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