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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
6.8
Number of Reviews
74
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 solution is very easy to use, and I absolutely advise using it, as long as your budget has no limits."
"Cisco Prime allows us to manage all the wireless controllers and access points."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"Our clients are happy with Prime, the stability is good and it's easy to manage."
"Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring, which allows us to be proactive in our environment."
"The VLAN mapping function has been most impactful in simplifying our network management tasks."
"The customer service and support for this solution is good."
"Cisco Prime can help customers fix their Wi-Fi issues with scientific and digital data."
"For the whole security fabric from Fortinet, with a simple click you can see if some workstations or services are affected by an attack, you can really easily quarantine it, check the solution, and fix it, and it's very good from a security perspective."
"The solution is very stable."
"The centralized policy management helps with the creation of policies because it is easy to monitor and facilitates installation."
"We look at the traffic to segment the network and it improves and increases the performance. When we have a mobile connection and local laptops are on the same network. We have seen a big performance upgrade."
"The functionality is good; it has good features and it works well for us, with multiple features in one box, which helps to avoid needing a lot of equipment and makes it unique."
"FortiManager offers a full zero-touch provisioning feature that allows us to create a template of our devices and onboard them remotely without visiting the site."
"Technical support was excellent."
"For the ROI, for a five-year project, Fortinet FortiManager would be the best option to use."
 

Cons

"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."
"The solution is not easy to configure. It's not user-friendly for admins."
"I want the tool to improve data visibility."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"The solution can be slow at times."
"They can also improve the management of more enterprise devices."
"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."
"Maybe it could be a little cheaper."
"The solution could improve by having better integration with other solutions other than Fortinet."
"Within the management of some features on FortiManager, specifically the management of user objects used for VPN service, FortiManager is quite weak."
"In future updates, I would like to see more customization and AI integration."
"Issues arise when customers experience unstable electricity or poor grounding conditions."
"The user interface itself has areas that need improvement."
"We have some visibility issues with the reporting."
"The GUI and the whole process of configuration should be improved."
"There may be a communication issue. However, other items may be the culprit, such as network connectivity. It depends on the customer's network."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"Our organization pays a monthly license fee for the solution."
"The pricing model is affordable."
"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 us, it is a little bit expensive."
"FortiManager is a bit expensive - I would rate its pricing three out of ten."
"FortiManager is reasonably priced - I pay around US$40,0000 per year, which covers fifty locations."
"The license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 think Fortinet FortiManager can be improved as the web page loading is slightly slow.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiManager?
My main use case for Fortinet FortiManager is to manage multiple FortiGate devices. I can confirm that I use Fortinet FortiManager perfectly in my main use case.
 

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, Skyline Communications and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: July 2026.
907,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.