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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 the heat map."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring. This allows us to be proactive in our environment."
"It gives you the ability to upgrade switches remotely, schedule the upgrade time, perform backups, and monitor the health of all networks."
"The hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product."
"The solution provides data that allows us to time travel through logs and perform remote operations or troubleshooting."
"Cisco Prime allows us to manage all the wireless controllers and access points."
"The dashboard is a valuable feature. It's very clear, and the metrics make it easy to see the current network situation."
"Centralized configuration is the most helpful feature. I like the ability to create templates and push them to all the devices at the same time. I also like that I can see the the logs with one device to provide zero touch on all other products."
"The firmware version upgrades are the most valuable feature."
"The user interface is very easy to navigate."
"Central management system for Fortinet devices that's simple, scalable, and stable, with a straightforward setup."
"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."
"The integration is quite good."
"Fortinet FortiManager is effective and helpful for VPN management, such as deployment VPN management."
 

Cons

"I want the tool to improve data visibility."
"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."
"Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface."
"This solution could be improved if it could monitor configuration changes."
"The product's pricing can be cheaper."
"The solution is not easy to configure."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"The reporting details have room for improvement."
"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."
"For the IPSEC tunnels, Fortimanager doesn't have all of the features that are available on Fortigate."
"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."
"I prefer configuring rules and the VPN on the standalone device, not on the manager."
"The user interface can feel clunky, especially for more complex tasks such as managing large-scale policy packages or custom scripts."
"The SD-WAN solution is difficult to manage on FortiManager because you need to share some configurations on the firewall side. Sometimes you lose all connectivity with the firewall, so it is challenging to apply the default configuration to the SD-WAN solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We update the license every five years."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The cost is quite high."
"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."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"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 license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."
"Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product."
"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."
"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
11%
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.
884,328 professionals have used our research since 2012.