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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

"Cisco Prime is a good tool for inventory monitoring and wireless management."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is its excellent audio and video conferencing with clear quality and no interruptions."
"The hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product."
"The product's most valuable features are monitoring and configuration."
"Cisco Prime allows us to do a lot of functions with the users and it is flexible."
"The solution helps with the management and support of the enterprise network."
"I have found the solution to be scalable."
"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."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"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."
"The most valuable features are the centralized management of the firewalls."
"Fortinet FortiManager can centrally manage all FortiGates and is effective for the deployment of updates and patches."
"For the whole security fabric from Fortinet, with a simple click you can see if some workstations or services are affected by an attack. You can really easily quarantine it, check the solution, and fix it."
"The product is easy to use and manage."
"Fortinet has the option of synchronization in the cloud, so you can manage everything if you have a cloud account."
 

Cons

"If you think about a centralized monitoring system, Cisco Prime is not good because it does not support third-party vendors like Palo Alto or FortiGate."
"The product's pricing can be cheaper."
"The onboarding process could be improved and developed to enhance compatibility for non-Cisco devices."
"The overall management capabilities of Prime need to be improved."
"The solution is not easy to configure."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions."
"The product needs to improve its stability."
"The fabric for integrations or connections could be improved."
"FortiManager should improve the integration with third-party platforms."
"The compatibility with legacy products should be better. It would also be nice if the software could manage other devices from Fortinet and third parties."
"The scalability has room for improvement."
"Within the management of some features on FortiManager, specifically the management of user objects used for VPN service, FortiManager is quite weak."
"There may be a communication issue. However, other items may be the culprit, such as network connectivity. It depends on the customer's network."
"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."
"Can be difficult to configure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The cost is quite high."
"We update the license every five years."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"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."
"The license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."
"Fortinet FortiManager is not expensive at all if you compare it with other vendors like Check Point and Cisco. Fortinet products are the least expensive on the market in the category of firewalls."
"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
14%
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.
882,961 professionals have used our research since 2012.