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Cisco Prime [EOL] vs Fortinet FortiManager comparison

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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
6.8
Number of Reviews
74
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 hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product."
"The dashboard is a valuable feature. It's very clear, and the metrics make it easy to see the current network situation."
"Cisco Prime allows us to manage all the wireless controllers and access points."
"The most valuable is the assistance for network support."
"Cisco Prime allows us to do a lot of functions with the users and it is flexible."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"The solution provides data that allows us to time travel through logs and perform remote operations or troubleshooting."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Prime include its comprehensive functionality as a one-stop solution for basic SNMP port management."
"I pushed templates from FortiManager to our site, and they were deployed successfully."
"The most valuable features are the centralized management of the firewalls."
"The most valuable feature is the centralized management console."
"FortiManager's most valuable features are web-based or web-rule-based policies, SD-WAN, and the ease of upgrading to new firmware."
"My advice to anybody who is researching this product is that it is quite easy to use and the learning curve is not steep."
"It is easy to deploy to licenses."
"FortiManager offers a full zero-touch provisioning feature that allows us to create a template of our devices and onboard them remotely without visiting the site."
"For the ROI, for a five-year project, Fortinet FortiManager would be the best option to use."
 

Cons

"The overall management capabilities of Prime need to be improved."
"The product needs to improve its stability."
"The solution is considered legacy and DNAC has overcome it because of centralized controls that allow a complete LAN network to be moved to centralized management."
"The solution has issues with real time monitoring of devices and NetFlow such as inadequate visualization for reports, sources, and destinations."
"Cisco Prime's initial setup is complex."
"I want the tool to improve data visibility."
"The solution can be slow at times."
"This is not a scalable solution."
"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."
"The GUI is not ideal. It needs to be improved. It should be more user-friendly."
"The deployment of Fortinet FortiManager is quite complex and should be easier. It requires improvement in vulnerability management and should integrate automated AI features to enhance its reliability."
"I would like to be able to manage other products such as Endpoint and FortiAnalyzer through FortiManager. That is, the integration with other solutions needs to be improved."
"Setting up FortiManager can be complex because it involves changes from other devices and a lot of configuration."
"Regional support in African countries needs to be improved."
"In the next release, FortiManager should include more protection features."
"The CLI could be enhanced."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"The price of Cisco Prime was reasonable because we purchased it as part of a Cisco One package. The package was a bundle of Cisco solutions together, such as Cisco ISE and CMX. The price is reasonable com compared to other solutions."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"We update the license every five years."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"FortiManager is a bit expensive - I would rate its pricing three out of ten."
"For the licensing fee, we paid around 10,000 to 15,000 euros."
"In comparison with other products, the price of FortiManager is reasonable."
"FortiManager is reasonably priced - I pay around US$40,0000 per year, which covers fifty locations."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"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 license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 think Fortinet FortiManager can be improved as the web page loading is slightly slow.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiManager?
My main use case for Fortinet FortiManager is to manage multiple FortiGate devices. I can confirm that I use Fortinet FortiManager perfectly in my main use case.
 

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, Skyline Communications and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: October 2026.
919,003 professionals have used our research since 2012.