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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.
Tushar Joshi - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. System Administration (Grindmaster Machines Pvt Ltd) at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Centralized policies have simplified firewall management and support consistent role-based control
I do not use Fortinet FortiManager automation features. I can provide my feedback about it. It is good, in my opinion. What I think about the reporting part is that it is good. As far as the user is concerned, I think Fortinet FortiManager is optimal now. I do not think any requirement is there. I do not see anything additional to add to Fortinet FortiManager. I purchased the license for Fortinet FortiManager through the partner. I gave this review a rating of eight.

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."
"What I found most beneficial from Cisco Prime is that it gives you an insight into what your network does, even when you're not actively monitoring what's going on with your network."
"Cisco Prime has been around for a long time, and it keeps getting better and better."
"Cisco Prime, from a management perspective, has good reporting."
"Cisco Prime allows us to manage all the wireless controllers and access points."
"The installation is easy."
"Our primary use case for this solution is Assurance; it helps us manage and monitor analytics and fix issues such as poor voice quality, with real-time alert generation for VoIP infrastructure so that, for example, if there is latency during calls, it can be immediately alerted to take immediate action before we investigate the deeper issue."
"Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring, which allows us to be proactive in our environment."
"The capability of centralized management is valuable, and we can configure all firewall boxes with the same configuration."
"The integration is quite good."
"The templates are great, they are very helpful, you make a template and push it to the FortiGate, and it's been working fine."
"The centralized management of policies and certificates, coupled with the capability to handle multi-site deployments effectively, provides streamlined operations."
"The features are good."
"We look at the traffic to segment the network and it improves and increases the performance. When we have a mobile connection and local laptops are on the same network. We have seen a big performance upgrade."
"Central management system for Fortinet devices that's simple, scalable, and stable, with a straightforward setup."
"The central management feature is the most valuable to me."
 

Cons

"Cisco can only be used for Cisco environments and is not compatible with other vendors."
"They could consider offering more flexible pricing options for their customers."
"This solution could be improved if it could monitor configuration changes."
"The reporting feature of Cisco Prime should be improved."
"Maybe it could be a little cheaper."
"If you look at some of the wireless site-survey tools that are available in the commercial space, Cisco should include similar solutions, which would help our on-plant engineers when they're doing a site survey."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"The reporting could be simplified and the information made clearer to the user."
"It requires a lot of resources. This is the main challenge."
"Its licensing model should be improved."
"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."
"Pricing-wise, it could always be less, even though it is less expensive than Palo Alto."
"The presence of Fortinet in our region (Nigeria) needs to be stronger."
"The solution has to be enhanced to manage new switches."
"FortiManager could be more user-friendly."
"The user interface itself has areas that need improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"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."
"The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"The cost is quite high."
"Pricing could improve a little bit so I rate it a seven out of ten."
"The licensing costs depend on how many devices you want to use."
"Compared to Check Point or Cisco, Fortinet FortiManager is more affordable but it is still on the higher end."
"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."
"Fortinet FortiManager can be expensive."
"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."
"Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product."
"For the licensing fee, we paid around 10,000 to 15,000 euros."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
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: October 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.