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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 can help customers fix their Wi-Fi issues with scientific and digital data."
"We use the solution to control the physical service station that is part of the SCADA network. We connect and control them remotely."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"The interfaces are a valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat maps."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"What I found most beneficial from Cisco Prime is that it gives you an insight into what your network does, even when you're not actively monitoring what's going on with your network."
"It helps us manage and monitor analytics and fix issues."
"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 is effective and helpful for VPN management, such as deployment VPN management."
"The integration is quite good."
"FortiManager's most valuable feature is central management."
"Being able to push consistent firewall rules and configuration changes across multiple FortiGates saves a ton of time and reduces errors compared to managing each device individually."
"I pushed templates from FortiManager to our site, and they were deployed successfully."
"The user interface is very easy to navigate."
"The capability of centralized management is valuable. We can configure all firewall boxes with the same configuration."
 

Cons

"The solution needs to include centralized management that aligns with the Greenfield network and its focus on real-time, scenario-based applications."
"Maybe it could be a little cheaper."
"The solution is not easy to configure."
"The solution has issues with real time monitoring of devices and NetFlow such as inadequate visualization for reports, sources, and destinations."
"It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions."
"This solution could be improved if it could monitor configuration changes."
"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."
"I would love for Cisco Prime to show bandwidth usage and consumption, but I can't monitor bandwidth usage at a given time."
"There are a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, for example, the ZTP."
"Regional support in African countries needs to be improved."
"In future updates, I would like to see more customization and AI integration."
"The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly."
"Its licensing model should be improved."
"Configuring Fortinet without internet access is challenging."
"FortiManager could be more user-friendly."
"The product is not very stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"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."
"The cost is quite high."
"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"FortiManager is reasonably priced - I pay around US$40,0000 per year, which covers fifty locations."
"The price point is very good."
"In comparison with other products, the price of FortiManager is reasonable."
"Our organization pays a monthly license fee for the solution."
"The pricing is based on a licensing model by feature."
"FortiManager is a bit expensive - I would rate its pricing three out of ten."
"Fortinet FortiManager is costly."
"Compared to Check Point or Cisco, Fortinet FortiManager is more affordable but it is still on the higher end."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
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, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: February 2026.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.