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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 installation is easy."
"It helps us manage and monitor analytics and fix issues."
"I have found the solution to be scalable."
"The VLAN mapping function has been most impactful in simplifying our network management tasks."
"Cisco Prime is a good tool for inventory monitoring and wireless management."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat maps."
"Cisco Prime can help customers fix their Wi-Fi issues with scientific and digital data."
"Cisco Prime is user-friendly, so we are comfortable using it."
"The product is easy to use and manage."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"You can configure it at your ease."
"Fortinet FortiManager allows you to manage multiple FortiGate devices from a single console, and this is a valuable product feature."
"FortiManager's most valuable features are web-based or web-rule-based policies, SD-WAN, and the ease of upgrading to new firmware."
"The solution brings device management into one single pane of glass and is a pretty good product."
"It can scale well."
"Provides good and detailed log management."
 

Cons

"Cisco Prime could improve the notifications in the system. Having more details about what is happening would be useful, such as traffic numbers or who is connected. We can see them through the firewall controller, but it would be better if you can see them from one place."
"I would love for Cisco Prime to show bandwidth usage and consumption, but I can't monitor bandwidth usage at a given time."
"The product needs to improve its stability."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"Cisco Prime's initial setup is complex."
"Lacking in integration with a SIEM tool."
"It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions."
"Cisco needs to improve Prime's monitoring tab. If any device goes down, there is a 15-second lapse before we know. It would be much better if we were alerted two or three minutes before a device is about to fail, so we can dispatch a field engineer and avoid network downtime. I would like to see a feature that allows you to access the devices directly from Prime's monitoring tab. That would make work easier for us."
"FortiManager would be improved by putting everything into a single console, including Microsoft O365 integration."
"Configuring Fortinet without internet access is challenging."
"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."
"For the IPSEC tunnels, Fortimanager doesn't have all of the features that are available on Fortigate."
"The FortiManager is more complex and they can make it easier to use the VPN manager. All other features are okay. However, the VPN manager is more difficult and can cause some issues in the environment, if you do not have the experience to use it."
"Having FortiManager work with all of the Fortinet products would be a good improvement."
"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."
"In the next release, FortiManager should include more protection features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"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."
"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"FortiManager is reasonably priced - I pay around US$40,0000 per year, which covers fifty locations."
"In comparison with other products, the price of FortiManager is reasonable."
"Pricing could improve a little bit so I rate it a seven out of ten."
"The pricing is based on a licensing model by feature."
"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"The license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."
"The solution requires you to have a license for every device, as well as for any advanced features being used, which makes it costly for high-volume users. However, for a large-scale environment with a lot of customers we have found it to be a worthwhile investment."
"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%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
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.
883,896 professionals have used our research since 2012.