FortiGate F-Series vs G-Series — Which Generation Should Indian Enterprises Buy in 2026?

Fortinet has been shipping the FortiGate G-series alongside the established F-series since late 2024. If you are buying a FortiGate in India right now, you face a real decision: stick with the proven F-series that your team already knows, or move to the G-series built on the new SP5 ASIC? This guide breaks down every model, every spec, and every trade-off — using only official Fortinet datasheets — so you can make the right call for your environment.

The Big Picture: What Changed from F to G

The G-series is not a minor refresh. It is built on Fortinet's SP5 (Security Processor 5) ASIC — a ground-up redesign that consolidates the CPU, network processor (NP), and content processor (CP) onto a single chip for entry and mid-range models. According to Fortinet's FortiASIC page, the SP5 delivers:

• 17× faster firewall throughput compared to CPU-only processing
• 32× faster cryptographic operations — SSL/TLS deep inspection at the edge becomes practical for the first time in this price class
• 88% lower power consumption compared to CPU-based security processing

In practical terms, this means a desktop-form-factor G-series firewall like the FortiGate 90G delivers performance that previously required a 1RU rack-mount F-series model. Your branch offices get data centre-class security without data centre-class hardware budgets.

G-Series Models Available Today

As of March 2026, Fortinet has released G-series models covering the entry-level through upper-mid-range tiers. The high-end data centre models (400G, 600G, 1000G+) have not been announced yet. Here is the complete G-series lineup with specs from Fortinet's official datasheets:

Entry / SMB (Desktop, Fanless)

Variants: Each model ships in multiple form factors — standard (RJ45), SFP (fibre uplinks), PoE (power over ethernet for FortiAP/FortiSwitch), 5G (built-in cellular WAN), DSL, and FortiWiFi (integrated WiFi 6 802.11ax). The FG-51G and FG-71G add onboard SSD storage for local logging.

Mid-Range / Campus

Upper Mid-Range / Enterprise

The FG-900G is currently the highest-performing G-series model. It slots between the F-series FG-600F and FG-1000F, filling a gap that previously had no single-box solution.

F-Series Models Still in Production

The F-series is still being manufactured and sold. Every model remains fully supported in FortiOS 7.6.x. Here are the key models for reference:

Head-to-Head: F-Series vs G-Series Performance

This is the comparison that matters. When the G-series model directly replaces an F-series model, how much performance do you actually gain? All numbers are from official Fortinet datasheets.

FG-100F vs FG-90G (The Most Common Upgrade Decision)

The FG-90G delivers more than double the threat protection throughput of the FG-100F — in a smaller, fanless desktop form factor that uses significantly less power. For most Indian mid-market deployments (100–500 users, 500 Mbps–1 Gbps internet links), the 90G is the clear upgrade.

FG-200F vs FG-200G

The FG-200G doubles NGFW and threat protection throughput compared to the 200F. For campus HQ deployments with 500–2,000 users, this means you can enable full SSL deep inspection, IPS, application control, and antivirus — simultaneously — without hitting a performance ceiling.

The SP5 ASIC: Why It Matters for Your Deployment

Every previous FortiGate generation used separate chips for network processing (NP) and content processing (CP). The SP5 integrates both functions — plus the main CPU — onto a single die. According to Fortinet's FortiASIC documentation, this has three practical consequences:

1. SSL Deep Inspection Actually Works at the Edge

In the F-series entry models (40F, 60F, 80F), SSL deep inspection consumed so much CPU that enabling it halved your effective throughput. Most Indian deployments left it disabled — which means encrypted malware, C2 traffic, and data exfiltration sailed through uninspected.

The G-series SP5 offloads SSL/TLS processing to dedicated hardware. The FG-70G delivers 1.4 Gbps of SSL inspection — more than enough for a 200–500 Mbps internet link with full inspection enabled. The FG-90G pushes this to 2.6 Gbps. This is not a lab number; it is achievable in production with real traffic patterns.

2. Power Consumption Drops Dramatically

Indian branch offices often have power constraints — especially in Tier 2/3 cities where UPS capacity is limited. The SP5's single-chip design reduces power draw significantly. A FortiGate 70G consumes less power than a FortiGate 60F while delivering meaningfully higher throughput. Over a 3–5 year lifecycle across 50–100 branches, the electricity savings alone can offset the hardware cost difference.

3. Hardware-Accelerated SD-WAN

SD-WAN overlay encryption (IPsec) is offloaded to the SP5's NP core. The FG-90G delivers 25 Gbps of IPsec VPN throughput — more than double the FG-100F's 11.5 Gbps. For multi-branch SD-WAN deployments (common in Indian BFSI networks), this eliminates the VPN throughput bottleneck that plagued F-series branch firewalls.

What the F-Series Still Does Better

The G-series is not a universal upgrade. There are legitimate reasons to choose F-series models:

Port Density

The FG-100F has 26 ports (12× GE RJ45, 4× GE SFP, 2× 10GE SFP+ FortiLink, plus WAN/DMZ/HA). The FG-90G has 10 ports (8× GE RJ45 + 2× shared 10GE). If you need high port density without external switches, the 100F wins. The FG-120G (18× GE RJ45, 8× GE SFP, 4× 10GE SFP+) is the G-series answer, but it costs more than the 100F.

SSL VPN

Critical for Indian enterprises: Fortinet has removed SSL VPN from the G-series entry-level models (50G, 70G, 90G) in FortiOS 7.6+. SSL VPN web mode and tunnel mode are gone from both GUI and CLI. If your remote access strategy relies on FortiClient SSL VPN, you must either stay on F-series, move to ZTNA (Fortinet's recommended replacement), or use the FG-120G or higher where SSL VPN is still available.

Scale Limits

For environments with large policy tables (common in BFSI with thousands of rules) or where dual power supply redundancy is required, the FG-100F or FG-120G is the safer choice.

Data Centre / High-End

The G-series tops out at the FG-900G (164 Gbps firewall). If you need FG-400F (79.5 Gbps), FG-600F (139 Gbps), FG-1000F (198 Gbps), or higher-class performance with dense 25GE/10GE port configurations, the F-series is your only option today. G-series equivalents for these tiers have not been announced.

FortiGuard Subscription Bundles — What to Buy With Your FortiGate

The hardware is only part of the cost. FortiGuard subscriptions — which provide IPS signatures, antivirus definitions, web filtering, sandboxing, and support — typically cost as much as the hardware over a 3-year period. Fortinet offers three bundles:

ATP (Advanced Threat Protection)

IPS, antivirus, application control, FortiSandbox Cloud (detect-only mode), FortiCare support with next-business-day hardware replacement.

Missing: No web/URL filtering, no DNS filtering, no anti-botnet, no DLP. This is the minimum viable bundle — suitable for internal segmentation firewalls where web filtering is handled elsewhere.

UTP (Unified Threat Protection) — Most Popular in India

Everything in ATP, plus: web/URL filtering, DNS filtering, video filtering, anti-botnet/C2 blocking, anti-spam, FortiSandbox Cloud with inline blocking.

This is the standard purchase for 80% of Indian enterprise deployments. UTP covers the CERT-In and RBI CSF requirements for web filtering, IPS, and malware protection. It is the sweet spot of coverage vs cost.

Enterprise Protection (ENT) — Full Stack

Everything in UTP, plus: Data Loss Prevention (DLP), AI-based inline malware prevention, IoT detection and vulnerability correlation, attack surface monitoring, inline SaaS security (CASB), OT security (industrial signatures and virtual patching), and SOC readiness features.

Recommended for: BFSI (RBI CSF requires DLP), government/PSU (CERT-In compliance), healthcare, and any organisation handling sensitive personal data under DPDPA. Enterprise Protection typically costs 10–15% more than UTP.

Which FortiGate Should You Buy? Our Recommendations

Migration Guide: Moving from F-Series to G-Series

If you are running F-series today and planning a refresh, here is the direct replacement map:

Configuration Migration

Fortinet's FortiConverter tool (included with Enterprise Protection bundle) can migrate your F-series configuration to a G-series device. Policy rules, VPN tunnels, routing, and SD-WAN templates transfer cleanly. The main manual work is adjusting interface references if the port layout changes (which it does between 100F and 90G).

Why Buy Your FortiGate Through Ogma

Every authorised Fortinet partner sells the same hardware at similar pricing. What Ogma bundles at no extra cost:

• 1,000 Vulnerability Assessment scans — self-service portal at portal.ogma.in, no Ogma involvement needed
• 256 Breach & Attack Simulations — MITRE ATT&CK-aligned, validates that your FortiGate's IPS and threat protection are actually catching what they should
• Free Threat Intelligence subscription — 390,000+ IOCs, TAXII 2.1 feeds, dark web monitoring
• NSE 7 certified deployment — policy migration, IPS tuning, SSL inspection rollout, SD-WAN configuration, HA setup. Not a box drop — a production-ready deployment.
• Expert support for the duration of your subscription — our engineers have deployed FortiGate across Comviva, J&K Bank, Shiv Nadar University, Ashoka University, Jubilant Foodworks, SembCorp, IOCL, EPFO, PowerGrid, ONGC, NTPC-SAIL, biz2credit, and 100+ other organisations.

Need a quote? Email [email protected] with your model preference and endpoint count, or WhatsApp us. We send transparent pricing within 24 hours — no three-week sales cycle.