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Fortinet FortiManager vs IBM Tivoli NetCool comparison

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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

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
IBM Tivoli NetCool
Ranking in Network Management Applications
14th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiManager is 4.1%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Tivoli NetCool is 3.9%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiManager4.1%
IBM Tivoli NetCool3.9%
Other92.0%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Petar Ganev - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Enterprise Monitoring Engineer at Commerzbank
Reliable for enterprise monitoring but no longer actively developed
There are problems with the latest security requirements because many things have changed in recent years, and now the security audits are very strict. And we need to switch to something else. We need to patch it constantly. Moreover, it is a very old tool and a little bit difficult to support. Otherwise, they work okay.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is easy to set up the solution."
"I find Fortinet's technical support for FortiManager effective and I would rate it eight out of ten."
"FortiManager's best feature is the integration of administrator users."
"FortiManager is the best suite for SMBs."
"Provides good and detailed log management."
"The firmware version upgrades are the most valuable feature."
"In general, I have no serious concerns about this product so I have no problems recommending it."
"Stability is good within the product."
"The solution is very fast, there's no lag or delay between the IBM solution and the other solutions like Huawei and Nokia."
"NetCool has a huge database that can collect and process about one million alarms a day."
"It's very easy to use."
"The solution has very good integration capabilities."
"The feature I have found most valuable with NetCool is how it collaborates all the alarms, and then it does a predictive analysis, providing a consolidated alarm view and management."
"The tool is much easier to manage than running scripts and figuring out how many endpoints have been exceeded."
"The solution is a complete package; it has various useful elements including inventory management and incident management packaged inside it, and anything is possible with Tivoli since it is quite a robust system that offers a lot of useful integration capabilities."
"Tivoli NetCool allows us to grasp a lot of data that can be applied toward predictive analytics and auto-remediation."
 

Cons

"The GUI could be updated. It's not as good as it could be and is something the solution should improve in an upcoming release."
"FortiManager needs to handle different firewall versions more efficiently."
"The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly."
"It's a difficult process to transfer one interface from one virtual domain to another."
"My rating is not perfect due to the threat intelligence of Fortinet FortiManager, which has a lot of false positives."
"Configuring Fortinet without internet access is challenging."
"Issues arise when customers experience unstable electricity or poor grounding conditions."
"The CLI could be enhanced."
"IBM's technical support takes a long time to do root cause analysis, and we have to go through several levels of help before getting a solution."
"Tivoli NetCool's has medium scalability - there are some problems with its replications not being mature."
"From a customer perspective, it is quite an expensive solution to initially implement and then support."
"The installation could be simplified, and technical support could be faster."
"The solution is not user-friendly."
"The solution does not have any AI capabilities."
"It was a bit expensive to purchase but the benefits outweigh all the cons by far."
"The product is pretty costly. It's definitely not the least expensive option."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"FortiManager is a bit expensive - I would rate its pricing three out of ten."
"Our organization pays a monthly license fee for the solution."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"Fortinet FortiManager can be expensive."
"I hope that the prices will become more competitive in subsequent releases, as the current pricing is perceived as somewhat elevated."
"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."
"Fortinet is a high-end product and the cost is high. They should consider reducing the price, especially for existing customers."
"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."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Customers are required to pay a licensing fee."
"The price of the product is too expensive."
"It costs around 100k for every ten servers, which is lower than similar products from other vendors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all kind of software in monitoring from infra to end to end, it depends on the funct...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Tivoli NetCool
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Claranet, Consolidated Communications, Telus, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Telekom Srbija, Bendigo Community Telco, Capgemini, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB)
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiManager vs. IBM Tivoli NetCool and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.