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ExtremeManagement vs Fortinet FortiManager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

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

ExtremeManagement
Ranking in Network Management Applications
18th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiManager
Ranking in Network Management Applications
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of ExtremeManagement is 2.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiManager is 4.2%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiManager4.2%
ExtremeManagement2.7%
Other93.1%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1319712 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Centralized switch management has streamlined daily operations but reporting still needs improvement
The reason clients select ExtremeManagement is because we have existing Extreme customers who are looking for a centralized management solution to manage their Extreme Switches. ExtremeManagement is not only for managing Extreme Switches; it can also manage other third-party solutions such as Cisco or Juniper or any other third party. This provides good flexibility for managing even third-party solutions. ExtremeManagement offers a lot of management options, including the ability to back up the configuration on a scheduled basis and to upgrade the switches' firmwares on a scheduled basis. There is a workflow feature similar to orchestration, which is related to automation. Regarding threat detection with ExtremeManagement, there is no specific feature, but in case of any failure detection or network issues, ExtremeManagement can send a notification to the users and to the admin. ExtremeManagement itself does not include a security or cybersecurity feature; however, there is an additional module called ExtremeControl that you can add, which is a network access control or NAC solution. ExtremeAnalytics is also a very good add-on to ExtremeManagement that can analyze all the traffic coming to the switch for incoming and outgoing traffic. It checks everything even up to Layer 7, the application layer, which I believe maybe some other switches management solutions do not have. This feature is fully compatible with Extreme Switches because the switches can show the application layer traffic. The reporting capabilities of ExtremeManagement are good, but I cannot say they are perfect. Everybody can read it, but in our region, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Arab universe, some customers are requesting Arabic results, which makes it somewhat challenging for us and the vendor. Not all vendors have that capability, and sometimes the vendor asks for adding a feature request, which may take time. I cannot say this is something negative, but in our region, some customers, especially non-English speakers, require that. In general, reporting is good, though not perfect. The integration of ExtremeManagement with other Extreme products and third-party solutions is easy. It does not require specific requirements for integration with other third-party switches. However, there are limitations for integration with other third-party products, especially with firewalls from security companies. When it comes to network devices, it is very easy to integrate with.
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

"Overall, I believe the GUI has already improved significantly, making it easier to manage than other management tools, and the most important thing is that our customers are happy with it."
"ExtremeManagement brings in the most value by reducing the technical debt to the organization in terms of having to hire personnel to maintain it or contract it."
"The report model is one of the valuable models. We are able to see all the information concentrated in reports, which is very useful. We are able to get the information about the performance of the equipment and check that everything is okay. You can get very useful information across applications, so we have very good experience with their management solutions. It has many functionalities to simplify the administration and monitor the development of the switches or AP. It is easy to deploy, easy to configure. and easy to develop. Its price is also good."
"Using this solution has made our job more efficient. We need fewer people to do implementation and support, and we don't have to go on-site to change the configuration or otherwise support the switch."
"ExtremeManagement is excellent; it is a very mature platform and robust in that it covers most of the functionality of the devices."
"The technical support services are good."
"It is a good solution; our experience has been good, it is easy to deploy, configure, and develop, and its performance is good; in general, we are satisfied with Extreme."
"The best thing about the solution is that it is all managed from just a single application window, a single pane of glass where almost all the features are managed within a single application or browser, so you don’t have to switch between different applications or windows."
"For the ROI, for a five-year project, Fortinet FortiManager would be the best option to use."
"It is easy to deploy to licenses."
"Even without the security orchestration, just the fact that the customer could request the firewall team to configure a job that would roll out a configuration on the firewalls and it could be deployed across all the firewalls through the FortiManager was a big improvement compared to deploying the new firewall rule on each firewall sequentially."
"It is a stable, reliable product."
"My advice to anybody who is researching this product is that it is quite easy to use and the learning curve is not steep."
"The firmware version upgrades are the most valuable feature."
"Overall, I find that this is a good solution and it gives me everything that I want."
"For the whole security fabric from Fortinet, with a simple click you can see if some workstations or services are affected by an attack, you can really easily quarantine it, check the solution, and fix it, and it's very good from a security perspective."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful if this solution had support for configuring and managing third-party hardware devices."
"Some features are quite difficult to configure and they are very complicated to figure out. Maybe the vendors should introduce a more driven configuration that can clarify the processes a bit more to make the processes more clearly defined."
"There could be better integration with third-party equipment and vendors."
"It would be great to not need an on-premises SiteIQ license for running a Fabric OS cloud or managing third-party devices."
"They can improve the information period. Currently, we are able to have information for only 14 or 15 days, but we would like to have information for an extended period of maybe 30 days. Their technical support can also be improved in terms of the response time to the tickets."
"The reporting capabilities of ExtremeManagement are good, but I cannot say they are perfect."
"The GUI is not ideal."
"Wizards could be improved in pushing policies."
"The presence of Fortinet in our region (Nigeria) needs to be stronger."
"It would be better if it were easier to run a routing protocol. In the next release, I would like them to enhance some features in the GUI rather than CLI or OSP. For example, whenever a customer generates an ISP directly on the firewall, it's complicated to configure the routing protocol."
"The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly."
"When I started, it was a bit difficult, however, now it's okay. It can be a bit complex for basic users."
"Not just in FortiManager, but in any Fortinet project in general, the troubleshooting is very hard."
"Regional support in African countries needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While they don't consider it affordable, they don't find it overly expensive."
"It has a good price. There is a good relationship between the cost and the performance."
"The support is billed on a yearly basis, and there are no additional costs."
"Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product."
"For us, it is a little bit expensive."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"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."
"FortiManager is a bit expensive - I would rate its pricing three out of ten."
"The price point is very good."
"Fortinet is a high-end product and the cost is high. They should consider reducing the price, especially for existing customers."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeManagement?
I would rate the pricing of ExtremeManagement as five out of ten; it is somewhat neutral, not cheap and not expensive. I might consider it a four out of ten now due to the global hardware economic ...
What needs improvement with ExtremeManagement?
The reporting part definitely requires improvement.
What is your primary use case for ExtremeManagement?
We have been reselling ExtremeManagement for 13 years.
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.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henry Ford Health System, Baltimore Ravens, Brandili, Federal University of Alagoas, CEDAE, Caxias do Sul, UNISC Concurrency, CenturyLink Field, Louisiana College, Cricket Tasmania Stadium, Moscow Internet Exchange
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about ExtremeManagement vs. Fortinet FortiManager and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.