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Cisco DNA Center vs Fortinet FortiManager vs OpenText Network Node Manager 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 24.0%, down from 29.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiManager is 5.4%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Network Node Manager is 2.6%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed  Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience unified visibility and monitoring for enterprise campus and significant time savings and enhanced troubleshooting with reliable support
We have been working with Cisco DNA Center for ten years. Our clients use Cisco DNA Center for unified visibility/monitoring across Enterprise Campus both LAN & WLAN along with Access and fast technical issues troubleshooting The solution provides fast troubleshooting capabilities and fast…
Damitha Anuradha - PeerSpot reviewer
Manage multiple devices with ease but experience complexity in deployment and limited AI features
I use Fortinet FortiManager to manage multiple devices in a single location. Although it does not provide a security posture itself, it depends on the firewall policies and settings in their respective firewalls. Fortinet FortiManager is primarily meant for the management of devices Fortinet…
Qusai Abuomar - PeerSpot reviewer
Network performance optimization achieved with comprehensive visibility and effective event handling
The root cause analysis is valuable. The availability and event handling are also very good, as our team understands the events well. Overall, the tool helps maintain the health of the network. It provides visibility for the network device status, link status, and hardware status of devices such as switches and routers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Automation helps configure devices without manual intervention, enabling zero-touch provisioning."
"It enables monitoring of various components such as access points, switch cards, and other elements within the company's solutions."
"It is simple to manage and it is all done from a single dashboard."
"The monitoring features are very useful for network engineers."
"The solution helps in user microsegmentation."
"Cisco DNA Center is a user-friendly solution."
"The monitoring is very valuable to me."
"DNA Center is scalable."
"The main benefit of Fortinet FortiManager is the ability to control all the devices from a central location, view their statuses, and manage their configurations and updates from a single management console."
"I pushed templates from FortiManager to our site, and they were deployed successfully."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The features are good."
"The reports feature is excellent."
"The user interface is very easy to navigate."
"Technical support is great. When we have sent urgent tickets and they do reply back within fifteen minutes."
"Central management system for Fortinet devices that's simple, scalable, and stable, with a straightforward setup."
"You can utilize the main file from various vendors for integration."
"It gives us a good overview of what's happening in our networks and the devices in the networks."
"It is stable for fault and availability."
"Our monitoring and network teams of less than 100 people use this solution. The availability and fault monitoring are good."
"The platform has good stability."
"We do not have any issues stability-wise."
"A good enterprise-level solution."
"The best feature is the solution's entire credibility with all vendors."
 

Cons

"There are some software problems from version to version. It takes a long time for DNA Center to recognize the video and control access devices."
"They should include UTM features in the product."
"When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging."
"There should be an option for automation of template deployment by using the stored data. It is not easy to save configuration information for lots of devices without using other tools. There should be a tighter, better repository of information that can be merged with the templates."
"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."
"The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."
"It seems to be a little bit more centered toward wireless than wired. You've got more options you can do wirelessly than you can with the wired switches, but it works for what we need it to do. We would like to see a little bit more about the traffic, and we're looking at what's out there to see about that. We are looking at something that might give us a bit more insight into the actual traffic. If they had the full functionality on the wired side, as they do on the wireless side in terms of being able to view traffic and everything, it would be good."
"The solution needs to improve the dashboard."
"Issues arise when customers experience unstable electricity or poor grounding conditions."
"The reporting details have room for improvement."
"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."
"FortiManager could improve by making it easier to port larger policy packages to the FortiGate firewalls. Sometimes, there's an issue when we install a big package of policies. If you have a couple thousand policies for FortiGate firewalls, it can take a few minutes to receive a response from the remote devices. It's only an issue when you're dealing with thousands of policies and installing them on a large number of devices."
"Fortinet FortiManager could improve them by adding more portfolio components."
"The scalability has room for improvement."
"When we have a specific configuration pushed it does take some time to be deployed on the actual firewall."
"We have experienced a series of minor bugs that necessitated contacted technical support on several occasions."
"The resources utilized could be a bit higher, and that is one of the challenges that isn't optimized"
"Reporting. Even though this is available in separate software (iSPI) there is potential in making the reporting more SLA-aware and more intuitive."
"Micro Focus Network Node Manager is not the best when it comes to drilling down for more visibility, especially regarding traffic."
"As the technologies evolve, also these solutions or the monitoring tools should evolve to cover the progress in technology, including capabilities related to monitoring of virtualized devices today, as the DNS is on the table in this way."
"The dashboards are not customizable and it's not user-friendly."
"They should add AI options in the product's next release."
"We have not had a good experience with technical support from OpenText. Many cases take a month to be resolved."
"Micro Focus Network Node Manager is not powered to drill down for traffic visibility."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is very costly."
"We get a yearly license at the time we buy the product."
"Our licensing agreement is for three years."
"Cisco DNA Center is expensive."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The licensing cost for Cisco DNA Center is not more than that of other solutions."
"The tool is medium-priced."
"The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool."
"Fortinet is a high-end product and the cost is high. They should consider reducing the price, especially for existing customers."
"Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product."
"The price point is very good."
"For us, it is a little bit expensive."
"The pricing model is affordable."
"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."
"This is an affordable solution, and its licensing model is based on the number of devices."
"Fortinet FortiManager can be expensive."
"It's an expensive solution."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"The solution is priced mid-range compared to the competition."
"I wasn't involved in the pricing, but I think it's quite expensive."
"It is more inexpensive than other products in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco DNA Center?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it gives some kind of ease in operations, especial...
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
The system is working fine for me currently.
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?
Regarding the price of Fortinet FortiManager, I need to get that information from my management, as they handle purch...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?
There is room for improvement in Fortinet FortiManager because there is no option for roaming profiles, and the cloud...
What needs improvement with Micro Focus Network Node Manager?
The interface is outdated and needs to be more dynamic and faster. It would be better if the product was a single mod...
What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Network Node Manager?
We use OpenText Network Node Manager i ( /products/opentext-network-node-manager-i-reviews ) primarily for network mo...
 

Also Known As

DNA Center
No data available
Micro Focus Network Node Manager, Network Node Manager, HPE Network Node Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
IPC, Exelon, VivaCom, 
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: June 2025.
860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.