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Cisco Prime [EOL] vs Fortinet FortiManager 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:
 

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
6.9
Number of Reviews
72
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.
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

"The solution provides data that allows us to time travel through logs and perform remote operations or troubleshooting."
"Cisco Prime allows us to manage all the wireless controllers and access points."
"Our clients are happy with Prime, the stability is good and it's easy to manage."
"Cisco Prime can help customers fix their Wi-Fi issues with scientific and digital data."
"Cisco Prime is user-friendly, so we are comfortable using it."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"The customer service and support for this solution is good."
"Central management system for Fortinet devices that's simple, scalable, and stable, with a straightforward setup."
"Everybody is quite happy with the way that the graphical user interface works."
"The product is easy to use and manage."
"The centralized policy management helps with the creation of policies because it is easy to monitor and facilitates installation."
"I pushed templates from FortiManager to our site, and they were deployed successfully."
"The solution is very stable."
"I recommend FortiManager if you have more than FortiGate firewalls or more Fortinet products."
"Fortinet FortiManager allows a full view of all the devices on the network from one location."
 

Cons

"The product needs to improve its stability."
"I would love for Cisco Prime to show bandwidth usage and consumption, but I can't monitor bandwidth usage at a given time."
"Cisco Prime needs to have lower prices and more customization options."
"The product needs to improve its interface and reporting."
"The solution has issues with real time monitoring of devices and NetFlow such as inadequate visualization for reports, sources, and destinations."
"Cisco can only be used for Cisco environments and is not compatible with other vendors."
"If you think about a centralized monitoring system, Cisco Prime is not good because it does not support third-party vendors like Palo Alto or FortiGate."
"The overall management capabilities of Prime need to be improved."
"The areas that need improvement are implemenation and support. In terms of implementation, it mainly needs clear documentation."
"The user interface can feel clunky, especially for more complex tasks such as managing large-scale policy packages or custom scripts."
"The graphics interface between Fortinet FortiManager and any Forti products should be standardized."
"The compatibility with legacy products should be better. It would also be nice if the software could manage other devices from Fortinet and third parties."
"Setting up FortiManager can be complex because it involves changes from other devices and a lot of configuration."
"The graphical user interface could use improvement as it appears complex and not user-friendly."
"The solution should be more open to other products."
"The GUI is not ideal."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We update the license every five years."
"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 cost is quite high."
"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."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"This is an affordable solution, and its licensing model is based on the number of devices."
"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 is costly."
"FortiManager is a bit expensive - I would rate its pricing three out of ten."
"I hope that the prices will become more competitive in subsequent releases, as the current pricing is perceived as somewhat elevated."
"For us, it is a little bit expensive."
"The price of Fortinet FortiManager is inexpensive."
"The pricing model is affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Prime?
The most valuable features of Cisco Prime include its comprehensive functionality as a one-stop solution for basic SNMP port management.
What needs improvement with Cisco Prime?
The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Prime?
We use Cisco Prime for centralized configuration management backups and monitoring.
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?
I am satisfied with the licensing cost, and I would rate it an 8.5.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiManager?
I do not use Fortinet FortiManager daily, but I can speak with my security team and ask them what areas need future improvement for Fortinet FortiManager. When I installed it, I found it somewhat d...
 

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, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: February 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.