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Cisco Prime [EOL] vs Fortinet FortiManager comparison

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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 map overview of our campus environment shows the distribution of RF frequency channels and the distribution of a client, providing us with a great idea of where the busier areas are within our environment to allow us to tweak and tune."
"Has a good wireless heatmap and search management features."
"Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring, which allows us to be proactive in our environment."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments because it saves time, prevents manual errors during deployment, and is easier to troubleshoot."
"When you have a central management plan, it saves a lot of costs."
"The dashboard is a valuable feature. It's very clear, and the metrics make it easy to see the current network situation."
"The solution's configuration management tool is amazing because it centralizes and pushes configurations which saves a lot of volume and effort."
"The interfaces are a valuable feature."
"The technical support for us is great."
"Fortinet FortiManager's best features allow me to operate multiple devices in one template, which helps me in my daily work as it reduces time and has positively impacted my organization by making it easy to centrally access and manage around 15 FortiGate devices from one portal instead of accessing every device standalone."
"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."
"It is easy to manage a huge number of devices with FortiManager."
"The most valuable feature is the central configuration for firewall policies."
"It is easy to set up the solution."
"The solution brings device management into one single pane of glass and is a pretty good product."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the consolidation and the single point of administration solution."
 

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."
"That is unacceptable and it's the biggest downfall of the solution."
"Cisco Prime's initial setup is complex."
"Prime is used for managing all the infrastructure and if it can be integrated with the SIEM tool it could be well managed."
"Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface."
"The solution is a bit pricey."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"They could consider offering more flexible pricing options for their customers."
"I think Fortinet FortiManager can be improved as the web page loading is slightly slow."
"Within the management of some features on FortiManager, specifically the management of user objects used for VPN service, FortiManager is quite weak."
"There is room for improvement in Fortinet FortiManager because there is no option for roaming profiles, and the cloud console is not available, which is different compared to Cisco Meraki, and the cloud connectivity is not sufficiently good."
"You cannot integrate with other solutions, so they should allow integration with Cisco and Juniper."
"Areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiManager are scalability and stability."
"The GUI and the whole process of configuration should be improved."
"The CLI could be enhanced."
"For the IPSEC tunnels, Fortimanager doesn't have all of the features that are available on Fortigate."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The cost is quite high."
"We update the license every five years."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"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."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"Fortinet FortiManager is not expensive at all if you compare it with other vendors like Check Point and Cisco. Fortinet products are the least expensive on the market in the category of firewalls."
"For us, it is a little bit expensive."
"Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product."
"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."
"The pricing model is affordable."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"The license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
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: August 2026.
912,006 professionals have used our research since 2012.