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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 most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is its excellent audio and video conferencing with clear quality and no interruptions."
"The technical support team is very good."
"The solution's configuration management tool is amazing because it centralizes and pushes configurations which saves a lot of volume and effort."
"The most valuable is the assistance for network support."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat maps."
"The hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product."
"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."
"There is something called zero-touch provisioning, where you can add a new device without any configuration. You just add it to FortiManager and then forget about it."
"Provides good and detailed log management."
"The product is a combination of management and monitoring from the same interface."
"The user interface, along with user-friendly planning features, makes it straightforward to configure desired settings."
"You can configure it at your ease."
"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiManager was easy."
"Everybody is quite happy with the way that the graphical user interface works."
"The features are good."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the Access layer."
"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's pricing can be cheaper."
"The user interface of Cisco Prime could be more user-friendly and increase its performance."
"Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface."
"Lacking in integration with a SIEM tool."
"Cisco Prime needs to have lower prices and more customization options."
"The reporting could be simplified and the information made clearer to the user."
"Areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiManager are scalability and stability."
"In future updates, I would like to see more customization and AI integration."
"The documentation could be better."
"The areas that need improvement are implemenation and support. In terms of implementation, it mainly needs clear documentation."
"Pricing-wise, it could always be less, even though it is less expensive than Palo Alto."
"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."
"The GUI is not ideal."
"Regional support in African countries needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight 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."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"The cost is quite high."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"For us, it is a little bit expensive."
"On a scale from one to ten with one being the highest price and ten being the lowest price, I would rate FortiManager's price at three."
"Fortinet FortiManager can be expensive."
"Fortinet FortiManager operates on a licensing system that is dependent on the number of devices being managed. Yearly subscription renewal is necessary to continue using the service. Although there is a cost associated with Fortinet FortiManager, its price is undoubtedly justified by the value it provides in terms of the purpose it serves."
"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."
"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."
"For the licensing fee, we paid around 10,000 to 15,000 euros."
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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.
884,732 professionals have used our research since 2012.