Elastic Observability vs FortiMonitor comparison

Elastic and Fortinet are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Elastic is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.7, while Fortinet is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.8. Elastic holds a 2.0% mindshare in IM, compared to Fortinet’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Elastic Observability

Read 29 Elastic Observability reviews

8,436 Views
3,374 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

FortiMonitor

Read 15 FortiMonitor reviews

1,869 Views
991 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Elastic Observability

FortiMonitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Elastic Observability and FortiMonitor are competing solutions in IT monitoring. Elastic Observability may have the upper hand due to its flexible analytics capabilities, while FortiMonitor is notable for its security-oriented monitoring features.

Features: Elastic Observability offers robust log analytics, application performance monitoring, and insightful visualizations. FortiMonitor delivers strong infrastructure monitoring, security-centric alerting, and incident response functionalities.

Room for Improvement: Elastic Observability could enhance its security features, simplify its initial setup process, and improve integration capabilities. FortiMonitor might benefit from expanding its analytics functionalities, diversifying its visualizations, and offering more flexible integration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Elastic Observability provides a cloud-based and on-premise model that requires flexibility in configurations, potentially taking more initial setup time. FortiMonitor features a streamlined deployment process with comprehensive support channels, ensuring quicker implementation.

Pricing and ROI: Elastic Observability presents a scalable pricing model, aligning with varied budgets, offering substantial ROI for businesses needing comprehensive analytics tools. FortiMonitor's pricing reflects its advanced features, proving cost-effective for security-focused organizations and infrastructure monitoring, with pricing specific details available upon request.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Observability vs. FortiMonitor Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. FortiMonitor

January 2026

Download the complete report

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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

Elastic Observability

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (6th), Log Management (14th), Container Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (7th)

FortiMonitor

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

23rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (22nd), IT Alerting and Incident Management (10th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Elastic Observability is 2.0%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiMonitor is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Elastic Observability	2.0%
FortiMonitor	0.8%
Other	97.2%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Mohammed-Abdelalim

Assistant Vice President at QualityKiosk Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Has provided powerful customization for unique monitoring needs but needs more out-of-the-box capabilities

In my opinion, the best features of Elastic Observability are their flexibility to integrate with other existing systems and the ability to build a unified monitoring tool that can integrate with existing ones and end-to-end user journeys which require a lot of customizations. The greatest feature in Elastic is the ability to customize. This is similar to my comments about customizable dashboards in Elastic because it's visible to the analyst. However, it's very great. Customizing these dashboards can meet the customer's specific use cases and specific stories that they have in their environment, their special environment that doesn't look like other environments. The dashboarding in Elastic is highly customizable to the level of logos. If the customer wants his company logo in the dashboard, it can be done.

Read full review

reviewer2677554

Network Engineer III at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Managing diverse networks with detailed alerts enhances device oversight

FortiManager is very helpful in managing our networks. We use it to manage 20 farms and various networks with hundreds of devices. The version we are using provides more detail than the older dashboard. We appreciate the alerting capabilities, which are integrated with SolarWinds to notify our team via SMS.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Elastic User Interface framework lets us do custom development when needed. You need to have some Javascript knowledge. We need that knowledge to develop new custom tests."

"I found Elk to be excellent for log analytics, security analytics, application code-level analytics, collaboration with DevOps teams, CI/CD, microservices, and Kubernetes, specifically cloud-native or cloud-specific tasks."

"Elastic APM has plenty of features, such as the Elastic server for Kibana and many additional plugins. It's a comprehensive tool when used as a logging platform."

"The price is very less expensive compared to the other solutions."

"Machine learning is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"The customizable dashboards in Elastic Observability allow us to group relevant data to specific aspects of our solution, giving us around 20 interlinked dashboards which provide an overview, and if one aspect shows weird behavior, we can focus on that specific aspect of our software with a dedicated dashboard."

"We can view and connect different sources to the dashboard using it."

"The most valued feature of Elastic is its log analytics capabilities."

More Elastic Observability pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is what the devices are used for. We have big backups for our Cradlepoint solutions, but FortiMonitor is a great routing device and we love working with them."

"FortiMonitor has a very intuitive dashboard, which makes it particularly helpful for analyzing traffic, alerts, and other information."

"FortiMonitor is really easy to use for monitoring the logs on FortiGate...It is a stable product."

"Fortinet's customer support is very good."

"The product's initial setup phase is easy."

"The most valuable feature of FortiMonitor is user monitoring. We are able to see if the user is following the policy or not from their system. Additionally, the solution integrates well with Fortinet FortiGate and has centralized management."

"FortiMonitor's dashboard is very informative and user-friendly."

"The most valuable feature of FortiMonitor is the overall ability to monitor the health of the environment."

More FortiMonitor pros

Cons

"The cost must be made more transparent."

"I would have preferred built-in tools to manage the indexes on deployment for better visual representation, as the initial feedback regarding system performance and data storage was fairly primitive and lacking."

"When opening tickets, we cannot use our team mailbox."

"The tool's scalability involves a more complex implementation process. It requires careful calculations to determine the number of nodes needed, the specifications of each node, and the configuration of hot, warm, and cold zones for data storage. Additionally, managing log retention policies adds further complexity. The solution's pricing also needs to be cheaper."

"There is room for improvement regarding its APM capabilities."

"Elastic Observability needs to have better standardization, logging, and schema."

"The solution would be better if it was capable of more automation, especially in a monitoring capacity or for the response to abnormalities."

"There could be more low-code features included in the product."

More Elastic Observability cons

"Sometimes, during high CPU usage, we cannot access FortiMonitor and must refresh it."

"FortiMonitor could be improved by making it more convenient for smaller workloads, such as when configuring a few branches."

"We use FortiToken, and it's a pain to use because you have to send things through your phone and then confirm by email. Only after this can you log in. It's dual-factor authentication. I wish that I could just log in or bring up a dashboard where I could log in from."

"I think the current features are really good for me, nothing else comes to mind right now. Maybe some small improvements could be made in the customization and configuration part of the UI to make it easier or more intuitive. Customizable UI options, like we saw in the demo, could be helpful for everyone. But in our operational environment, having clear health status and system details is crucial for us system engineers. One feature I'd really like to see is a credential management system. It would help us keep track of who's logged in and how many times, which is important due to user restrictions. Sometimes, we need to manage logins more efficiently, like logging off other users to free up credentials. So having a feature like that would be really helpful."

". Enhancements in the dashboard, such as clearer alerting, maintenance window management, software version tracking, and better visualization, would be beneficial."

"The tool's price in Vietnam is high, making it an area of concern where improvements can be made."

"FortiMonitor could improve by having compatibility with other operating systems, such as Linux."

"FortiMonitor needs to improve its alert system."

More FortiMonitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Elastic Observability's pricing could be better for small-scale users."

"Elastic Observability is cheaper than other similar solutions, such as Dynatrace. Its license calculation is based on various factors like data volume and physical infrastructure, particularly related to RAM capacity."

"The product is not that cheap."

"We have been using the open-source version."

"The price of Elastic Observability is expensive."

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

"We will buy a premium license after POC."

"One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."

More Elastic Observability pricing and cost advice

"We have a large customer base for Fortinet, and the additional buying power got us really great discounts."

"In terms of licensing, while it may not be the most expensive option on the market, it's relatively cost-effective. You can obtain licenses at a lower cost, with the calculation being straightforward. For example, if you onboard around 5,000 devices, you'll need approximately 5,000 licenses, as each device typically counts as one license."

"Compared to other solutions, FortiMonitor is a very expensive solution."

"FortiMonitor's price is very high."

"There are additional costs needed for certain functionality, such as scalability."

"The price of FortiMonitor is approximately $200 annually for 225 users. The price is competitive."

"On a scale from one to ten, I rate the pricing a nine since it is a good solution that is available at a cheap price."

"The tool's pricing model in Vietnam is a bit high. I rate the product price as an eight out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Elastic Observability?

Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Observability?

The problem is their licensing model, which is a bit confusing. Many customers struggle to understand their total cost of ownership because Elastic licensing is not dependent on easy, quantifiable ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Elastic Observability?

After careful consideration about areas for improvement in Elastic Observability, aspects such as pricing, customization, implementation, and scalability could be improved. As a user of the system,...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have a clear bias because I work for Panopta. We aren't a fit for everyone, but I can confirm that Panopta is a lot less work to stand up and maintain. It's also a lot easier to use and onboard n...

See all answers

What do you like most about FortiMonitor?

In FortiMonitor, we're linked up with our Netgear, CactusServer, and NOC. It's really valuable because everything's migrating to one dashboard for us system engineers. We can keep an eye on traffic...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiMonitor?

FortiMonitor does save time but not significantly on costs, as there are still expenses related to procurement, installation, and licensing.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sentry vs Elastic Observability

Compared 8% of the time

Dynatrace vs Elastic Observability

Compared 8% of the time

New Relic vs Elastic Observability

Compared 7% of the time

Grafana vs Elastic Observability

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs Elastic Observability

Compared 6% of the time

More Elastic Observability Competitors

ThousandEyes vs FortiMonitor

Compared 20% of the time

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Compared 10% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Compared 10% of the time

Zabbix vs FortiMonitor

Compared 9% of the time

Datadog vs FortiMonitor

Compared 8% of the time

More FortiMonitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability

January 2026

Download Elastic Observability product report

Buyer's Guide

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

December 2025

Download FortiMonitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

Panopta

Overview

Elastic Observability offers a comprehensive suite for log analytics, application performance monitoring, and machine learning. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like Teams and Slack, enhancing data visualization and scalability for real-time insights.

Elastic Observability is designed to support production environments with features like logging, data collection, and infrastructure tracking. Centralized logging and powerful search functionalities make incident response and performance tracking efficient. Elastic APM and Kibana facilitate detailed data visualization, promoting rapid troubleshooting and effective system performance analysis. Integrated services and extensive connectivity options enhance its role in business and technical decision-making by providing actionable data insights.

What are the most important features of Elastic Observability?

Centralized Logging: Streamlines the collection, analysis, and storage of log data.
Powerful Search: Provides robust search capabilities for quick access to relevant information.
Scalability: Supports growing data needs across diverse environments.
Real-time Telemetry: Ensures up-to-date insights and monitoring.
Platform Integration: Seamlessly connects with services like Teams and Slack.
Data Visualization: Enhances visibility with Elastic APM and Kibana.

What benefits and ROI should users explore in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers significant savings through efficient data management.
Rapid Incident Response: Minimizes downtime with quick troubleshooting tools.
Comprehensive Insights: Supports better business decisions with detailed data analysis.
Performance Tracking: Enables assessment of system effectiveness and improvements.

Elastic Observability is employed across industries for critical operations, such as in finance for transaction monitoring, in healthcare for secure data management, and in technology for optimizing application performance. Its data-driven approach aids efficient event tracing, supporting diverse industry requirements.

Elastic

FortiMonitor is a comprehensive, SaaS-based digital experience monitoring (DEM) platform that helps organizations modernize their performance-monitoring tools. It provides visibility into endpoint application performance and digital experience—no matter where the user resides or where the application is hosted.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank

SONY, GoDaddy, HCL, ING, ARMOR, billboard

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability vs. FortiMonitor

January 2026

Free Report: Elastic Observability vs. FortiMonitor

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