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Fortinet FortiManager vs SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper 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

Fortinet FortiManager
Ranking in Network Management Applications
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Network Topology...
Ranking in Network Management Applications
21st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiManager is 5.3%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper is 1.5%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

HamedWasel - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up with good integration capabilities but we've had troubles when moving devices
We've faced an issue when we need to move devices. Templates need to be recreated instead of having the policies, et cetera, cut and pasted over. Everything should just move over when we need to move devices instead of recreating everything from scratch. For the IPSEC tunnels, Fortimanager doesn't have all of the features that are available on Fortigate.
SS
Very user-friendly and stable
I'm still learning how the solution works, figuring out how to check reports and system information. I'm a student and customer of SolarWinds The tool seems to be widely used and I find it user-friendly The Network Topology Mapper is on the expensive side - it would be helpful if it were less…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution has the best stability for application control and inspections."
"The solution is very stable."
"It has multiple features in one box, which helps to avoid needing a lot of equipment. This is something that makes them unique."
"The reports feature is excellent."
"FortiManager enables us to set unified firewall policies from one centralized dashboard, reducing human error. If you do not have a central dashboard, there's a chance you might set a policy on one firewall and forget to do it for another."
"It is easy to deploy to licenses."
"The most valuable features are the centralized management of the firewalls."
"FortiManager's ability to scale is good."
"It's user-friendly."
 

Cons

"The areas that need improvement are implemenation and support. In terms of implementation, it mainly needs clear documentation."
"In the next release, FortiManager should include more protection features."
"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."
"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."
"Areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiManager are scalability and stability."
"I didn't like the connectivity with FortiManager and FortiSwitch, which was buggy and annoying and had fewer features."
"Within the management of some features on FortiManager, specifically the management of user objects used for VPN service, FortiManager is quite weak."
"The information extraction through command lines was could improve to some extent. Although there were some command lines available, there were not enough options. For instance, I needed to obtain the management IP address of my two Fortigates, but the Fortinet FortiManager did not provide me with the IP address on the LAN interface. I attempted to find this information through the command line but was unsuccessful. I also searched for articles on the internet, but could not find a solution. This is an aspect that could be improved or potentially there is a method to access this information that I have yet to discover."
"This is a relatively expensive product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price point is very good."
"The pricing model is affordable."
"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."
"Compared to Check Point or Cisco, Fortinet FortiManager is more affordable but it is still on the higher end."
"FortiManager isn't expensive, but its cost is dependent on which services are required."
"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Educational Organization
11%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiManager?
The most valuable feature is the centralized management console.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?
The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly. Better integration of Fortinet ADC into FortiManager would be beneficial.
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Also Known As

No data available
SolarWinds NTM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetScaler and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: April 2025.
847,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.