Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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

"Cisco Prime is a good tool for inventory monitoring and wireless management."
"The VLAN mapping function has been most impactful in simplifying our network management tasks."
"The most valuable is the assistance for network support."
"Cisco Prime, from a management perspective, has good reporting."
"As a large organization, it is difficult to individually monitor every device. Instead, we use Cisco Prime to keep an eye on the network and services. We do not use it as a node tool, as we have other tools for network operation centers. When services go down, it can cause issues, we rely on Cisco Prime to monitor and notify us of any service disruptions. We mainly use Cisco Prime Infrastructure for configuration-level tasks."
"We use the solution to control the physical service station that is part of the SCADA network. We connect and control them remotely."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"The dashboard is a valuable feature. It's very clear, and the metrics make it easy to see the current network situation."
"FortiManager's best feature is the integration of administrator users."
"I pushed templates from FortiManager to our site, and they were deployed successfully."
"It has multiple features in one box, which helps to avoid needing a lot of equipment. This is something that makes them unique."
"I find Fortinet's technical support for FortiManager effective and I would rate it eight out of ten."
"The most valuable features are the centralized management of the firewalls."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The features are good."
"Everybody is quite happy with the way that the graphical user interface works."
 

Cons

"The overall management capabilities of Prime need to be improved."
"The solution needs to include centralized management that aligns with the Greenfield network and its focus on real-time, scenario-based applications."
"Maybe it could be a little cheaper."
"The product needs to improve its interface and reporting."
"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's initial setup is complex."
"The solution is not easy to configure."
"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."
"The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly."
"The price is a bit too high."
"Pricing-wise, it could always be less, even though it is less expensive than Palo Alto."
"Areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiManager are scalability and stability."
"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. Even the new versions sometimes are a bit buggy before it's all correct."
"The scalability has room for improvement."
"There are a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, for example, the ZTP."
"The response times from technical support need to be a bit quicker."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"We update the license every five years."
"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."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"Pricing could improve a little bit so I rate it a seven out of ten."
"The pricing is based on a licensing model by feature."
"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."
"The license model they use depends on the size and is not limited to the users."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"In comparison with other products, the price of FortiManager is reasonable."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.
881,360 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
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, NetScaler and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: January 2026.
881,360 professionals have used our research since 2012.