Technical Tip: FortiFirewall (FFW) vs FortiGate (FGT)

enguyen3467 · ‎10-09-2023

Description

This article describes the difference when choosing the correct image to download from the Support Page for 2 lines of Fortinet firewalls: FortiGate and FortiFirewall.

Scope

FortiGate, FortiFirewall.

Solution

Each line of products has a different priority, reflected in the licensing offer:

FortiFirewall prioritizes throughput and these units do not have any UTM features. It is mostly used by ISPs or Telecommunications customers to utilize the most bandwidth for the Internet traffic for consumers. As a result, the primary differences between each license tier can be measured in terms of bandwidth.
FortiGate prioritizes network security. It is popular with businesses to prevent any unauthorized access to internal resources. The licenses associated are mostly for hardware features to further harden the security of the network.

When obtaining the license or image for the product, take care to differentiate FortiFirewall, which begins with the acronym 'FFW'...

... From FortiGate, which begins with the acronym 'FGT':

For other Fortinet abbreviations, see Technical Tip: Deciphering abbreviations for Fortinet products.