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Cisco Prime [EOL] vs Fortinet FortiManager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Prime [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiManager
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

AR
Network Engineer at Edmonton Catholic School Board
Has an easy implementation process, but the performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive
The project implementation was easy overall. Adapting Cisco's solutions to our specific environment required effort, as their documentation only covers some network scenarios. The deployment didn't happen all at once; it was staged and controlled to ensure a smooth transition. We started with a small test environment before gradually rolling it out to all campuses. This gradual approach helped mitigate the risk of any issues arising across multiple locations simultaneously, especially on a critical day like Monday morning. We have a team of three executives working on the process. Their job roles included network specialists and a manager. It requires maintenance, which is included in the annual cost. We receive updates and support as part of the renewal process.
SudeepMaydeo - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Head of IT Infrastructure at EPL Americas
Ensures seamless integration and centralized visibility for network security operations
The version upgrade from a single dashboard for all the firewalls in one click is the beauty of Fortinet FortiManager as the most impactful feature in managing our network security. Fortinet FortiManager's policy management enhances our security protocols by enabling us and giving integrated centralized visibility, which has proven to be very healthy. Because of this, we have identified some of the vulnerabilities in our systems, and we mitigated them through Fortinet FortiManager. The central dashboards and the visibility are what appealed to us to go with Fortinet FortiManager. Fortinet FortiManager has adapted to changes in our network scale and complexity as we have geographically 18 international locations, all equipped with firewalls and some cybersecurity initiatives and IT infrastructure initiatives.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution provides data that allows us to time travel through logs and perform remote operations or troubleshooting."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat maps."
"As a large organization, it is difficult to individually monitor every device. Instead, we use Cisco Prime to keep an eye on the network and services. We do not use it as a node tool, as we have other tools for network operation centers. When services go down, it can cause issues, we rely on Cisco Prime to monitor and notify us of any service disruptions. We mainly use Cisco Prime Infrastructure for configuration-level tasks."
"The hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product."
"The VLAN mapping function has been most impactful in simplifying our network management tasks."
"If an AP or any wireless device goes into critical mode, Cisco Prime sends an alert. That is the most helpful feature."
"The product's most valuable features are monitoring and configuration."
"Cisco Prime can help customers fix their Wi-Fi issues with scientific and digital data."
"The solution has the best stability for application control and inspections."
"Central management system for Fortinet devices that's simple, scalable, and stable, with a straightforward setup."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiManager are the overall management it provides and its ease of use."
"The user interface, along with user-friendly planning features, makes it straightforward to configure desired settings."
"The main benefit of Fortinet FortiManager is the ability to control all the devices from a central location, view their statuses, and manage their configurations and updates from a single management console."
"The user interface is very easy to navigate."
"We look at the traffic to segment the network and it improves and increases the performance. When we have a mobile connection and local laptops are on the same network. We have seen a big performance upgrade."
"It's very easy to install, and it's easy to discover and communicate with your device."
 

Cons

"Maybe it could be a little cheaper."
"The overall management capabilities of Prime need to be improved."
"I would rate the scalability of Cisco Prime a six out of ten. To scale up from a hundred to a thousand devices, the platform needs to be rebuilt logically. This process might require a downtime window and may involve changing the hardware or upgrading to a larger appliance."
"They can also improve the management of more enterprise devices."
"Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface."
"They could consider offering more flexible pricing options for their customers."
"The user interface of Cisco Prime could be more user-friendly and increase its performance."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"The interface could be improved. It is split up into different areas, which makes it more difficult to navigate and get the right section of the correct file. The solution is quite expensive, so it would not be suitable for small to medium sized organizations."
"It requires a lot of resources. This is the main challenge."
"Fortinet is releasing quite a lot of new versions and I would say that most of the versions are not well tested before they're pushed out. Even the new versions sometimes are a bit buggy before it's all correct."
"Their EDR products could be better. They need to dedicate more R&D to that area."
"There is a degradation of performance if we activate logs on FortiManager."
"The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly."
"The GUI could be updated. It's not as good as it could be and is something the solution should improve in an upcoming release."
"The reporting details have room for improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"We update the license every five years."
"If you compare Fortinet and Palo Alto, Fortinet is cheaper, but if you compare Cisco and Fortinet, sometimes Cisco is cheaper because Cisco gives us more discounts because of the size. Cisco isn't cheap, but sometimes, we get a big discount from them."
"The pricing is based on a licensing model by feature."
"I hope that the prices will become more competitive in subsequent releases, as the current pricing is perceived as somewhat elevated."
"Compared to Check Point or Cisco, Fortinet FortiManager is more affordable but it is still on the higher end."
"Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product."
"FortiManager isn't expensive, but its cost is dependent on which services are required."
"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"The pricing model is affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Prime?
The most valuable features of Cisco Prime include its comprehensive functionality as a one-stop solution for basic SNMP port management.
What needs improvement with Cisco Prime?
The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Prime?
We use Cisco Prime for centralized configuration management backups and monitoring.
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiManager?
The most valuable feature is the centralized management console.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiManager?
I am satisfied with the licensing cost, and I would rate it an 8.5.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?
I do not use Fortinet FortiManager daily, but I can speak with my security team and ask them what areas need future improvement for Fortinet FortiManager. When I installed it, I found it somewhat d...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Prime Infrastructure
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, NetScaler and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: February 2026.
883,011 professionals have used our research since 2012.