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Fortinet FortiGate vs GitHub Desktop

Fortinet FortiGate logo

Fortinet FortiGate

Cybersecurity

Next-generation firewall with AI-powered threat protection

From
$500/year
Free plan
No
Visit Fortinet FortiGateFull review
GitHub Desktop logo

GitHub Desktop

Developer Tools

A free, open source Git client from GitHub for Windows and macOS that covers common workflows rather than all of Git.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit GitHub DesktopFull review

The short version

  • GitHub Desktop is free; Fortinet FortiGate starts at $500/yr.
  • Only Fortinet FortiGate lists next-generation firewall; only GitHub Desktop lists line-level staging.
  • Where Fortinet FortiGate falls short: security services are sold as separate FortiGuard subscription bundles, so ATP, UTP and ENT determine which protections are actually active.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Fortinet FortiGate and GitHub Desktop actually diverge.

Attributes where Fortinet FortiGate and GitHub Desktop differ
AttributeFortinet FortiGateGitHub Desktop
Starting price$500/yearFree
Pricing modelSubscriptionFree
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsHardware, Virtual, WebWindows, macOS
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Founded20002008

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Fortinet FortiGate

  • Next-generation firewall
  • Intrusion prevention
  • SSL/TLS inspection
  • Application control
  • Web filtering
  • SD-WAN
  • Zero-trust network access
  • AI-powered threat detection

Only in GitHub Desktop

  • Line-level staging
  • Branch and merge UI
  • Pull request integration
  • Enterprise authentication
  • Squash and reorder
  • Drag cherry-pick
  • Co-author attribution
  • Editor and shell handoff

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Fortinet FortiGate

  • Next-generation firewalling at data centre, campus and branch scalenot GitHub Desktop
  • Secure SD-WAN across distributed sitesnot GitHub Desktop
  • Zero trust network access to internal applicationsnot GitHub Desktop
  • Virtual firewalls in AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oraclenot GitHub Desktop
  • Ruggedised deployments in industrial environmentsnot GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop

  • Onboarding designers or technical writers who need to commit to a docs or assets repository without learning the command linenot Fortinet FortiGate
  • A new engineer's first weeks, where seeing the diff and the branch state visually prevents the common early mistakesnot Fortinet FortiGate
  • Reviewing a colleague's pull request branch locally with a readable diff before approving itnot Fortinet FortiGate
  • Small teams standardised entirely on GitHub who want SSO-backed authentication to work without managing personal access tokens by handnot Fortinet FortiGate

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Fortinet FortiGate

  • Security services are sold as separate FortiGuard subscription bundles, so ATP, UTP and ENT determine which protections are actually active
  • Throughput is tied to the appliance model, from 500 Mbps on the FortiGate 30G to 520 Gbps on the 7121F, so capacity planning is a hardware purchase
  • Pricing is not published and goes through partners

GitHub Desktop

  • There is no official Linux build; the application ships for Windows and macOS only, and the community fork at shiftkey/desktop that packages it for Linux is maintained separately and lags official releases, so a mixed-OS team cannot standardise on one client
  • Submodules are effectively unsupported: the app shows a submodule change as an opaque single line and gives you no way to initialise, update or navigate into it, so any repository using them needs the terminal anyway
  • History rewriting is limited to squashing and reordering local commits by drag and drop; interactive rebase, fixup chains, editing an old commit's contents and bisect are all absent, which is exactly the set of operations a beginner needs help with most
  • Pull request features only exist for GitHub remotes, so a team on GitLab or Bitbucket gets a plain Git client with an empty pull request pane and no review or checks view at all
  • Commit signing with a key that requires a passphrase generally fails, because the app cannot surface the pinentry prompt, and the resulting error message does not say that is the cause
  • GitHub staffs it lightly compared with its web and CI products, so long-standing feature requests and bugs sit open for years; if you file an issue you should plan around it rather than expect a fix

Pricing, plan by plan

Fortinet FortiGate

$500/year
  • FortiGate Entry$500/yr
    • Basic firewall
    • VPN support
    • Threat protection
  • FortiGate Enterprise$2,500/yr
    • Advanced threat protection
    • SSL inspection
    • Application control
  • FortiGate Ultimate$10,000/yr
    • All Enterprise features
    • Zero-trust access
    • AI-powered analytics

GitHub Desktop

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Git repository management
    • GitHub integration
    • Visual diff tools

Which should you pick?

Choose Fortinet FortiGate if

  • You need next-generation firewall.
  • You work on Hardware, Virtual, Web.
  • You also want intrusion prevention.
Fortinet FortiGate review

Choose GitHub Desktop if

  • You need line-level staging.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, macOS.
  • You also want branch and merge ui.
GitHub Desktop review

Questions people ask

Is Fortinet FortiGate or GitHub Desktop better?
Neither clearly leads. Fortinet FortiGate starts at $500/year and GitHub Desktop at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Fortinet FortiGate or GitHub Desktop?
GitHub Desktop has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $500/year for Fortinet FortiGate and Free for GitHub Desktop.
Does Fortinet FortiGate or GitHub Desktop run on more platforms?
Fortinet FortiGate runs on Hardware, Virtual, Web. GitHub Desktop runs on Windows, macOS.
Can I use GitHub Desktop for free?
Yes. GitHub Desktop has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Fortinet FortiGate starts at $500/year.
What is Fortinet FortiGate best used for?
Fortinet FortiGate is most often used for next-generation firewalling at data centre, campus and branch scale, secure sd-wan across distributed sites, zero trust network access to internal applications, virtual firewalls in aws, azure, google cloud and oracle. Of those, next-generation firewalling at data centre, campus and branch scale and secure sd-wan across distributed sites are not what GitHub Desktop is typically brought in for.
What can Fortinet FortiGate do that GitHub Desktop cannot?
Fortinet FortiGate covers Next-generation firewall, Intrusion prevention, SSL/TLS inspection, Application control. GitHub Desktop covers Line-level staging, Branch and merge UI, Pull request integration, Enterprise authentication.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Fortinet FortiGate: What are the FortiGate security bundle options?

Fortinet offers three FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services bundles: ENT Bundle (ultimate security for networks, web, file, SaaS, data, and devices), UTP Bundle (advanced web and network protection), and ATP Bundle (protection against network intrusions and malware with IPS, antivirus, and application control).

Source
GitHub Desktop: Is there a Linux version?

Not an official one. GitHub ships Windows and macOS builds only. A community fork, shiftkey/desktop, produces Linux packages, but it is maintained by volunteers and trails the official releases.

Fortinet FortiGate: How do I get pricing for FortiGate?

Pricing is not published on the product page. To obtain a quote, you can request a free product demo or connect with a security expert through the contact options on the site.

Source
GitHub Desktop: Does it work with GitLab or Bitbucket?

For plain Git operations, yes: you can clone, commit, push and pull against any remote. The pull request, review and checks features only work against GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise.

Fortinet FortiGate: Is there a free trial for FortiGate?

The product page does not mention a free trial. However, Fortinet offers a free product demo that allows you to evaluate the solution before committing to a purchase.

Source
GitHub Desktop: What does it cost?

Nothing. It is free and the source is published under the MIT licence, and it is separate from any GitHub plan you may or may not pay for.

GitHub Desktop: Will it handle submodules?

No. Submodule changes appear as an unreadable single-line diff and there are no controls for initialising or updating them. Repositories that use submodules need the command line.

GitHub Desktop: Do I still need to learn Git?

For everyday work, no. For recovery, yes. Anything beyond the curated set of operations, including interactive rebase and reflog recovery, happens in the terminal, so a team using it should have at least one person who knows Git properly.

GitHub Desktop: Does it work with GitHub Enterprise Server?

Yes. It signs in to GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud as well as GitHub.com, and it honours organisations that enforce SAML single sign-on.

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