The focused Fortinet alternative for cloud — the 98% you actually use.
Fortinet is a powerful, broad platform, and if you need the full Security Fabric they are the right call. But it is common to license the whole platform and use a fraction — half used, fully paid for. Enforza is scoped on purpose to the cloud firewall job: egress, east-west, identity-aware L7 without decrypting TLS, secure NAT and compliance — at a flat per-firewall price, with no per-vCPU size tax and no exposed management plane.
Where Fortinet is the right call
We are not here to slag Fortinet off — it is a powerful, broad, well-validated platform, and strong on price/performance for what it is. If the following describe you, Fortinet is the right buy, and we do not claim to match its breadth.
Buy the full Fortinet platform when
- You need the full Security Fabric — NGFW plus SD-WAN, ZTNA, SASE, switching, wireless and endpoint, all under one FortiOS, stitched across branch, data centre and cloud.
- You run a hardware estate as well as cloud, and you want one operating system and one policy model spanning physical appliances and virtual instances alike.
- You want analyst-validated, lab-tested efficacy and curated FortiGuard threat intelligence maintained for you as a managed, first-party feed.
- You are buying a consolidation platform for a large, mixed enterprise — and the breadth, performance pedigree and channel/MSSP ecosystem are exactly what you are paying for.
Reach for Enforza when
You want to replace your cloud firewall without going full-blown enterprise security vendor — more than the cloud-native firewall, far less than (and far cheaper than) a six-figure platform you will half-fill. The control you actually need, scoped to the cloud job.
- Your firewall sits in front of cloud workloads — service-to-service and human-to-service traffic, not end-user devices.
- You want egress, east-west, identity-aware L7 and compliance — the ~98% a cloud team uses — without paying for a platform you part-fill.
- You want a flat, transparent price and a firewall with no inbound management plane to expose.
A full platform, or the firewall your cloud actually needs
This is a genuine question, posed fairly — not a swipe at a strong product. Most of the cost and complexity of a mega-vendor NGFW comes from breadth a cloud workload firewall rarely exercises. Four things worth weighing before you buy the whole platform.
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Half used, fully paid for
The Security Fabric is vast — hundreds of features across FortiOS. That breadth is real value if you use it. The honest question is whether your cloud workloads actually exercise it, or whether you are licensing a platform and switching on a fraction. Fortinet's hourly software charge scales with the instance size you run, stacked on FortiCare and FortiGuard subscriptions — so you pay for the whole platform whether or not a given capability ever runs in your VPC.
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Deep inspection means decrypting your own TLS
Most deep-packet-inspection and advanced threat features only work once you terminate and decrypt TLS — which means standing up SSL/TLS inspection: holding private keys, man-in-the-middling your own traffic, managing certificate trust on every workload, and fielding the apps that break under inspection. That is real, ongoing management overhead. Enforza does identity-aware L7 control by SNI and FQDN without decrypting TLS and without holding your keys — the egress control most cloud teams want, none of the MITM.
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Cloud traffic is service-to-service, not end-user devices
A network firewall in your VPC sees overwhelmingly service-to-service and human-to-service traffic — APIs talking to APIs, workloads reaching the internet for updates and SaaS. It is not the place to secure an end user's laptop or phone. That job belongs on the device itself, at the endpoint. A large share of an NGFW platform's feature surface is built for end-user-device security — valuable on a campus edge, largely beside the point for a cloud workload firewall.
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Breadth you may never switch on
Consolidation is a strength when you consolidate. But many Fortinet switches and modules — built for a sprawling on-prem, branch and end-user estate — rarely get enabled for a cloud workload firewall, and rarely need to be. Carrying that surface still costs you: in licence, in instance size, in the operational weight of a platform you only part-fill. Enforza is scoped on purpose to the cloud firewall job, and proud of it.
Enforza vs Fortinet — including where Fortinet wins
Here is the honest, row-by-row breakdown — including where Fortinet wins. We group it three ways: 5 rows where the two are the same on the core cloud-firewall job, 9 where Enforza leads on cost, focus and security posture, and 5 where Fortinet is genuinely the stronger choice — its breadth, fabric and pedigree. A comparison that hides the trade-offs is not worth trusting.
- Parity Genuine parity on the cloud job
- Enforza advantage Enforza is the stronger choice
- Fortinet advantage Fortinet is the stronger choice
| Capability | Enforza | Fortinet | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stateful L3–L7 filtering | Stateful inspection across L3/L4 and L7, egress, ingress and east-west | Full FortiOS NGFW stateful inspection across the data path | Same |
| Domain / FQDN egress control | SNI and FQDN allow- and deny-lists for outbound control | FQDN and web-filtering controls within FortiOS | Same |
| Secure NAT | Secure source NAT and destination NAT on the appliance | Full NAT support within the NGFW | Same |
| Runs as a virtual appliance on any cloud | One NVA on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and on-prem VMs | FortiGate-VM deploys across the major clouds and hypervisors | Same |
| Policy-as-code / automation | Policy-as-code in your own GitHub repo, reviewed in a PR | Terraform provider and Security-as-Code via FortiManager | Same |
| Cost model | Flat, per-firewall licence — £179/mo (£149 from your sixth) | Hourly software charge scales with vCPU/instance size, stacked on FortiCare + FortiGuard subscriptions | Enforza |
| Pricing transparency | Public, dated price and a self-serve savings calculator | Real price behind partner quotes / FortiFlex points — no public self-estimate | Enforza |
| Identity-aware L7 without TLS decryption | SNI and FQDN filtering with no TLS decryption, no key custody, no MITM | Deep inspection of encrypted traffic requires SSL/TLS inspection (decrypt + key custody) | Enforza |
| Management-plane attack surface | Control plane is outbound-only to the Enforza cloud — no inbound management port, no admin UI to expose | FortiGate-VM is administered via a reachable management interface you must protect | Enforza |
| Scope / fit for a cloud workload firewall | The ~98% a cloud team actually uses — no feature-bloat, no part-filled platform | Broad platform built for branch, campus and end-user estates as well as cloud | Enforza |
| Classification speed (our measured numbers) | Single-pass packet classification and verdict engine — p99 ~49.5 µs first packet, 98.5% in-kernel fast path | Throughput specs published per VM model; flow-classification latency not published | Enforza |
| Compliance frameworks | 25 framework packs / 210 controls — advise or enforce on every publish | Pre-configured compliance reports — report-centric, after the fact | Enforza |
| Self-serve adoption | Genuine free tier and a 14-day full-feature trial — deploy in minutes, no card | Demo- and partner-gated enterprise motion; self-serve only via marketplace | Enforza |
| Lock-in | One NVA on a VM you already run; logs to your own SIEM; no fabric to unwind | Value compounds inside the Security Fabric (FortiManager / FortiAnalyzer / FortiGuard) | Enforza |
| Platform breadth | Scoped to the cloud firewall job — egress, east-west, L7, NAT, compliance | Vast Security Fabric — NGFW, SD-WAN, ZTNA, SASE, switching, wireless, endpoint | Fortinet |
| Hardware + cloud consolidation | Cloud and on-prem VMs — software appliance only | One FortiOS across physical appliances and virtual instances, branch to data centre | Fortinet |
| Curated first-party threat intelligence | Threat-hardening and egress control; no first-party threat feed | FortiGuard AI-powered services with lab-validated efficacy | Fortinet |
| Analyst validation & pedigree | A focused newcomer — our proof is measured engine numbers and compliance coverage | Gartner Magic Quadrant placement, long incumbent track record, MSSP ecosystem | Fortinet |
| Raw throughput pedigree | Measured 4.35 Gbps single-stream on a small VM; scales with the VM you run | Published per-model throughput up to tens of Gbps, hardware-accelerated lineage | Fortinet |
Where each one fits
Where Enforza wins
- The 98% you actually use, none of the bloat. Enforza is scoped to the cloud firewall job — egress, ingress and east-west control, identity-aware L7, secure NAT, compliance. No part-filled platform, no licensing breadth you never switch on.
- Flat per-firewall, no per-vCPU size tax. Your bill does not climb with the instance you run or the traffic you push — a flat per-firewall licence, plus the VM you already operate, versus an hourly software charge stacked on FortiCare and FortiGuard.
- Identity-aware L7 without breaking TLS. SNI and FQDN egress filtering with no TLS decryption, no key custody and no man-in-the-middle — the outbound control most cloud teams want, without the SSL-inspection overhead.
- No exposed management plane. Enforza's control plane is outbound-only to the Enforza cloud — there is no inbound management port and no admin UI to expose on the firewall itself. The box manages up, never in.
- Microsecond-class classification. A single-pass packet classification and verdict engine decides each flow once — measured p99 ~49.5 µs on the first packet, with 98.5% of traffic enforced in-kernel on the fast path.
- Transparent, self-serve adoption. A public, dated price and a savings calculator you can run in 30 seconds, a genuine free tier and a 14-day full-feature trial — no demo gate, no partner quote.
When Fortinet is the right call
- You need the full Security Fabric — NGFW plus SD-WAN, ZTNA, SASE, switching, wireless and endpoint, all under one FortiOS, stitched across branch, data centre and cloud.
- You run a hardware estate as well as cloud, and you want one operating system and one policy model spanning physical appliances and virtual instances alike.
- You want analyst-validated, lab-tested efficacy and curated FortiGuard threat intelligence maintained for you as a managed, first-party feed.
- You are buying a consolidation platform for a large, mixed enterprise — and the breadth, performance pedigree and channel/MSSP ecosystem are exactly what you are paying for.
Fortinet alternative — common questions
Is Enforza trying to replace Fortinet?
Not the whole platform — and we are honest about that. Fortinet's Security Fabric is broad and powerful: NGFW, SD-WAN, ZTNA, SASE, switching, wireless and endpoint under one FortiOS, across branch, data centre and cloud. If you need that breadth, Fortinet is the right call. Enforza replaces the part most cloud teams actually use — the firewall in your network doing egress, east-west, identity-aware L7, secure NAT and compliance — at a flat per-firewall price with no per-vCPU size tax. It is the right-scoped choice for the cloud firewall job, not a like-for-like swap for a full enterprise platform.
Where is Fortinet genuinely better?
In several places, and we say so plainly. Fortinet has far greater platform breadth (the full Security Fabric); it consolidates hardware and cloud under one FortiOS; it ships curated FortiGuard threat intelligence with lab-validated efficacy; it carries analyst placement, an incumbent track record and a deep MSSP ecosystem; and its published per-model throughput pedigree is hardware-accelerated. If those are what you are buying, Fortinet may be the right platform.
What does it mean that I am 'half using' a platform like Fortinet?
It is a fair question, not a criticism of the product. The Security Fabric spans hundreds of features built for branch, campus, end-user devices, data centre and cloud. A cloud workload firewall typically exercises a fraction of that surface — yet you license, size and operate the whole platform, with the hourly software charge scaling by instance size and FortiCare/FortiGuard subscriptions stacked on top. The question to ask is whether those capabilities are what your cloud actually requires, or breadth you are paying for and rarely switching on.
Does Enforza decrypt TLS to filter by hostname?
No. Enforza filters egress by SNI and FQDN without decrypting TLS and without holding your keys. Most deep-inspection and advanced threat features on a full NGFW only work once you enable SSL/TLS inspection — terminating and decrypting your own traffic, managing certificate trust on every workload, and dealing with the apps that break under inspection. Enforza gives you identity-aware L7 egress control with no man-in-the-middle and no key custody.
Why does cloud traffic change the firewall I need?
Cloud traffic is overwhelmingly service-to-service and human-to-service — workloads and APIs talking to each other and reaching out to the internet for updates and SaaS. It is not end-user-device traffic, and securing a user's laptop or phone belongs on the device itself, at the endpoint, not on a network firewall in your VPC. A large share of a full NGFW platform's feature surface is built for end-user-device security at a campus or branch edge — valuable there, largely beside the point for a cloud workload firewall. Enforza focuses on what the cloud path actually needs.
How does Enforza's pricing compare to FortiGate-VM?
Enforza is a flat per-firewall licence — £179/month per firewall, dropping to £149 from your sixth — with no per-GB and no per-vCPU size tax, plus the Linux VM you already run. FortiGate-VM bills an hourly software charge that scales with the instance size you run (a larger VM for more throughput means a higher software rate), stacked on FortiCare support and FortiGuard subscriptions, and the real price typically sits behind partner quotes or FortiFlex points rather than a public self-estimate. Rates are directional and dated 2026-06-14 — use our savings calculator for your own numbers.
What is the security advantage of 'no exposed management plane'?
A self-administered firewall VM needs a reachable management interface to configure it — which is attack surface on the security device itself. Enforza's control plane is outbound-only to the Enforza cloud: there is no inbound management port to open and no admin UI to expose on the firewall instance. The firewall manages up to the cloud, never inward, so the device you put in front of your workloads does not itself become a thing to harden and guard.
Can Enforza match Fortinet's throughput and feature depth?
Not its full feature depth — and we do not claim to. Fortinet's breadth and hardware-accelerated throughput pedigree are real. On the cloud firewall job, Enforza's measured numbers are strong: a single-pass packet classification and verdict engine with p99 ~49.5 µs first-packet classification, 98.5% of traffic enforced in-kernel on the fast path, and 4.35 Gbps single-stream measured on a small VM, scaling with the VM you choose. The trade we offer is focus and value: the capability a cloud team actually uses, without the breadth, the platform weight or the bill of a full enterprise NGFW.
Is there a free way to try Enforza?
Yes. Enforza has a genuine free tier — one firewall with L3/L4 policy and network objects, no card required. A 14-day trial unlocks the full feature set, including L7/FQDN filtering, compliance packs, log export and live logs. The paid plan is £179/month per firewall, dropping to £149 from your sixth, plus the Linux VM you already run. Fortinet's motion is demo- and partner-gated, with self-serve only via the cloud marketplaces.
Enterprise control, without the enterprise sprawl.
The ~98% a cloud team actually uses — egress, east-west, identity-aware L7 without decrypting TLS, secure NAT and compliance — at a flat per-firewall price, no per-vCPU size tax, no exposed management plane. Start free, no card.