Cisco Prime [EOL] vs Fortinet FortiManager comparison

Cisco and Fortinet are both solutions in the Network Management Applications category. Additionally, 91% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Cisco Prime [EOL]

Read 35 Cisco Prime [EOL] reviews

91% willing to recommend

Fortinet FortiManager

Read 73 Fortinet FortiManager reviews

6,044 Views
1,451 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Cisco Prime [EOL]

Fortinet FortiManager

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Prime [EOL] and Fortinet FortiManager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Network Management Applications.

To learn more, read our detailed Network Management Applications Report (Updated: May 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Network Management Applications

May 2026

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Helped 893,164 peers since 2012

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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Fortinet FortiManager

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Management Applications (3rd)

Featured Reviews

ZeeshanAli1

Senior Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Robust, cost-effective, and provides good visibility, but the scalability could improve

We are extremely satisfied with the reliability and robustness of Cisco Prime Infrastructure, which we have been using for many years. Compared to newer products such as DNS centers or others, it has proven to be much more stable, which is important for large-scale operations. Stability is a primary concern for us, and we are glad that Cisco Prime Infrastructure meets our expectations in that regard. Furthermore, in regards to Legacy Plus new hardware, Cisco Prime has proven to be a reliable and adaptable solution thus far. Not only can it support older hardware, but it also has the capability to handle new features with the latest updates. If we consider new solutions such as DNS Center, we may have to sacrifice some legacy features that we still rely on. We may need to continue using these legacy features for a few more years due to various reasons such as budget constraints or the site not being a high priority. However, if we switch to a new product at this stage, we may lose a lot of the monitoring and other capabilities that we have with Cisco Prime. We have a close relationship with Cisco and understand that they are not prioritizing investments in Cisco Prime as they are encouraging customers to adopt the Cisco DNA Center. This means that we don't anticipate many new features to be added to the product in the future. While we know that we will eventually have to transition to a new solution, in the meantime, we plan to do a quick refresh of our legacy products.

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SudeepMaydeo

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.

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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 the heat maps."

"It helps us manage and monitor analytics and fix issues."

"The product's most valuable features are monitoring and configuration."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is its excellent audio and video conferencing with clear quality and no interruptions."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."

"Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring, which allows us to be proactive in our environment."

"Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring. This allows us to be proactive in our environment."

"The endpoint information Cisco Prime generates helps us troubleshoot, and it's also useful for compliance reporting and endpoint identification."

More Cisco Prime [EOL] pros

"Overall, I find that this is a good solution and it gives me everything that I want."

"My advice to anybody who is researching this product is that it is quite easy to use and the learning curve is not steep."

"If we use the Fortinet FortiManager to replicate the configuration and want to install ten FortiGate on ten sites, you don't have to set configuration on all ten because you can configure one FortiGate and the Fortinet FortiManager will replicate the configuration on all FortiGate devices."

"Central management system for Fortinet devices that's simple, scalable, and stable, with a straightforward setup."

"The best feature of Fortinet FortiManager is its ease of use. It is easy to manage the firewall from Fortinet FortiManager. Additionally, the interface is very good."

"The most valuable features are the centralized management of the firewalls."

"The most valuable feature is having one object on all networks, which allows for implementation only once."

"It's a scalable product."

More Fortinet FortiManager pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the Access layer."

"The solution is not easy to configure. It's not user-friendly for admins."

"Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface."

"Cisco can only be used for Cisco environments and is not compatible with other vendors."

"The user interface of Cisco Prime could be more user-friendly and increase its performance."

"The solution can be slow at times."

"Cisco Prime needs to have lower prices and more customization options."

"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."

More Cisco Prime [EOL] cons

"Setting up FortiManager can be complex because it involves changes from other devices and a lot of configuration."

"Fortinet is releasing quite a lot of new versions and I would say that most of the versions are not well tested before they're pushed out."

"The dashboard could use some improvement."

"There are a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, for example, the ZTP."

"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 areas that need improvement are implemenation and support. In terms of implementation, it mainly needs clear documentation."

"Not just in FortiManager, but in any Fortinet project in general, the troubleshooting is very hard."

"FortiManager could be more user-friendly."

More Fortinet FortiManager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The cost is quite high."

"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."

"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."

"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."

"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven 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."

"We update the license every five years."

More Cisco Prime [EOL] pricing and cost advice

"For the licensing fee, we paid around 10,000 to 15,000 euros."

"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."

"Compared to Check Point or Cisco, Fortinet FortiManager is more affordable but it is still on the higher end."

"Pricing could improve a little bit so I rate it a seven out of ten."

"The license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."

"In comparison with other products, the price of FortiManager is reasonable."

"Fortinet is a high-end product and the cost is high. They should consider reducing the price, especially for existing customers."

"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."

More Fortinet FortiManager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

12%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	19

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiManager?

The most valuable feature is the centralized management console.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?

I would like to see functionality that simplifies my life. I understand that adding new devices should be simplified.

See all answers

Comparisons

DX Spectrum vs Cisco Prime [EOL]

Compared 14% of the time

ExtremeCloud IQ vs Cisco Prime [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs Cisco Prime [EOL]

Compared 10% of the time

NetMaster Network Intelligence vs Cisco Prime [EOL]

Compared 10% of the time

HPE Intelligent Management Center vs Cisco Prime [EOL]

Compared 9% of the time

More Cisco Prime [EOL] Competitors

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 38% of the time

Cisco DNA Center vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 8% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 5% of the time

AlgoSec vs Fortinet FortiManager

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiManager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Prime [EOL]

May 2026

Download Cisco Prime [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiManager

May 2026

Download Fortinet FortiManager product report

Also Known As

Cisco Prime Infrastructure

No data available

Overview

Cisco Prime products deliver next-generation management by supporting an intuitive workflow-oriented user experience and integrated lifecycle operations across Cisco architectures, technologies, and networks.

Cisco

Fortinet FortiManager offers centralized management for FortiGate devices, ensuring easy synchronization with cloud accounts, automation, and policy deployment, enhancing network security and performance.

Fortinet FortiManager provides comprehensive oversight and streamlined operations for FortiGate environments. It centralizes the administration of firewalls and other Fortinet devices, simplifying their configuration and deployment. Users benefit from its efficient automation and policy management capabilities, which reduce implementation times and enhance security protocols. FortiManager features seamless integration and robust monitoring within a single interface, offering visibility across network operations. While it requires improvements in documentation, platform integration, and licensing clarity, it remains an essential tool for large-scale network management.

What are the standout features?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administration of multiple devices from one console.
Automation: Speeds up policy deployment and reduces manual tasks.
Zero-Touch Provisioning: Facilitates easy device setup and deployment.
SD-WAN Management: Provides tools for managing wide area networks effectively.
Intuitive GUI: Offers a user-friendly management interface.

Why should users consider Fortinet FortiManager?

Ease of Use: Users appreciate the straightforward management processes.
Scalability: Adaptability to large-scale network demands.
Comprehensive Visibility: Detailed insights into network performance and security.
Reduced Implementation Time: Faster setup and configuration processes.

In the finance and healthcare industries, Fortinet FortiManager enhances security and compliance by streamlining policy management and deployment across multiple sites. Retail sectors benefit from its scalable network management, ensuring continuous and reliable connectivity across branches. Education institutions use it to manage complex security infrastructures, effectively handling multiple devices and networks to safeguard sensitive data.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data

Buyer's Guide

Network Management Applications

May 2026

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