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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

"We use the solution to control the physical service station that is part of the SCADA network. We connect and control them remotely."
"The interfaces are a valuable feature."
"Cisco Prime can help customers fix their Wi-Fi issues with scientific and digital data."
"Has a good wireless heatmap and search management features."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"It helps us manage and monitor analytics and fix issues."
"Cisco Prime has been around for a long time, and it keeps getting better and better."
"I have found the solution to be scalable."
"I find Fortinet's technical support for FortiManager effective and I would rate it eight out of ten."
"FortiManager helps automate configuration deployment, allowing us to plan and schedule configurations."
"The most valuable feature is the central configuration for firewall policies."
"It is easy to set up the solution."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiManager is the ease of manageability and policy-pushing functionality."
"The user interface is very easy to navigate."
"Fortinet FortiManager can centrally manage all FortiGates and is effective for the deployment of updates and patches."
 

Cons

"We would like to see the inclusion of detailed alerts."
"The overall management capabilities of Prime need to be improved."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"Cisco needs to improve Prime's monitoring tab. If any device goes down, there is a 15-second lapse before we know. It would be much better if we were alerted two or three minutes before a device is about to fail, so we can dispatch a field engineer and avoid network downtime. I would like to see a feature that allows you to access the devices directly from Prime's monitoring tab. That would make work easier for us."
"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."
"Cisco Prime's initial setup is complex."
"They could consider offering more flexible pricing options for their customers."
"Setting up FortiManager can be complex because it involves changes from other devices and a lot of configuration."
"The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly."
"FortiManager could be more user-friendly."
"Fortinet FortiManager could improve them by adding more portfolio components."
"The interface could be improved. It is split up into different areas, which makes it more difficult to navigate and get the right section of the correct file. The solution is quite expensive, so it would not be suitable for small to medium sized organizations."
"The presence of Fortinet in our region (Nigeria) needs to be stronger."
"The graphics interface between Fortinet FortiManager and any Forti products should be standardized."
"It would be nice to have a virtual appliance as well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"We update the license every five years."
"The cost is quite high."
"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"For us, it is a little bit expensive."
"Our organization pays a monthly license fee for the solution."
"Pricing could improve a little bit so I rate it a seven out of ten."
"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 licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"Fortinet FortiManager can be expensive."
"Fortinet is a high-end product and the cost is high. They should consider reducing the price, especially for existing customers."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

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, NetScaler and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: January 2026.
881,565 professionals have used our research since 2012.