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One of the most common questions we get at P J Networks is: “Which FortiGate model do I need?” And the honest answer is: it depends — on your throughput requirements, user count, security features, and growth plans. Get the sizing wrong and you either overpay for capacity you don’t need, or worse, undersize and watch your network grind to a halt under real-world traffic.
We’ve deployed thousands of FortiGates across Indian enterprises — from a single FG-30G at a retail pharmacy in Pune to clustered FG-700Gs at a Mumbai data centre. Here’s our practical sizing guide, from branch office to data centre.
The single biggest mistake in FortiGate firewall sizing is picking a model based on budget and then hoping it handles the traffic. Firewall throughput is not a suggestion — it’s the difference between a functional network and a bottleneck that frustrates users, drops packets, and creates security gaps when you have to disable inspection features to keep up.
When sizing, consider these throughput metrics from Fortinet’s spec sheets. The numbers on the box are maximums — your real-world mileage will vary:
Always size on the threat protection throughput — that’s the real-world performance when all security features are enabled. I’ve seen Indian enterprises buy a FortiGate based on a 10 Gbps firewall figure, only to discover that with IPS, AV, and application control, they’re getting barely 2 Gbps.
For: Small offices, retail branches, home offices, 5-25 users
Ideal for small retail outlets, diagnostic centres, or remote offices where the internet link is 50-100 Mbps and user count is low. Don’t expect full SSL inspection at line rate — but for the price, they deliver exceptional value.
For: Medium businesses, larger branches, 25-100 users
The FG-80F, in particular, is our most deployed model — balancing cost with real-world threat protection throughput and full SD-WAN capabilities for multi-site connectivity.
For: Large enterprises, campus deployments, 100-500 users
At this tier, you get full SSL inspection for hundreds of users, multiple security subscriptions simultaneously, and HA clustering for zero-downtime failover. For 200-300 users with compliance requirements, the FG-200F or FG-200G is the recommended starting point.
For: Data centres, ISPs, large enterprises, 500+ users
These are serious machines for serious traffic. If you’re running a data centre, aggregating multiple branch links, or handling north-south traffic for a large campus, this is your tier.
A mid-sized Indian logistics company with 150 head office users, 30 branch offices, and a central data centre. The head office has a 500 Mbps internet link.
Wrong approach: “We have 150 users and a 500 Mbps link, so we need a FortiGate that can do 500 Mbps firewall throughput.” This logic fails because you’re not accounting for IPS, SSL inspection, and application control, which will drop real throughput to 30-40% of the raw firewall number.
Right approach: “We have 150 users on a 500 Mbps link with all security features enabled. We need the threat protection throughput to be at least 500 Mbps. That means looking at the FG-200F class or higher.”
List prices are often 40-50% above what a Fortinet partner can offer. Here’s what you should budget:
Choosing the wrong model costs more than the upgrade — it costs performance, security, and team trust. We help Indian enterprises select, deploy, and manage FortiGate deployments of all sizes.
Contact P J Networks for a free sizing assessment tailored to your environment. We’ll analyse your traffic patterns, user count, and growth projections, and recommend the exact FortiGate model that fits — nothing more, nothing less.
P J Networks is a Fortinet MSSP partner with over a decade of FortiGate deployment experience across India. We sell and manage every FortiGate model, from FG-30G to FG-700G.