We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Meraki MX based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The network security and cloud security are most valuable."
"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."
"The simplicity of the product is great. It's very easy to use, which is a compliment we get all the time in terms of feedback."
"It's very easy to set up, it's very easy to make policies and, for an organization, that means you don't need IT expert in firewalls. You just need to have somebody who knows a little bit of IT, and that's it. With other products, you need someone with a "Masters" degree in firewalls."
"The FortiGate controls the user's activities and maximizes my bandwidth use overall."
"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."
"The solution is very, very easy to use."
"The flexibility and ease of configuration are the most valuable features."
"The security is very good."
"The technical is excellent."
"Technical support for this solution is very good."
"The Intrusion Firewall is a valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability. The nice thing with the bigger vendors is that they're very good at scale."
"One of the main features is that the hardware is extremely reliable."
"The solution is easy to use."
"The most valuable features of Cisco IOS Security are the plenty of functionality it provides, many people are IT certified the usage, and the user interface is good."
"MX is easy to manage, configure and install."
"The security level of our organization has changed by using Meraki MX Firewalls. We didn't have the UTM before, but now we have sandboxing, tray scanning, attack preventions and monitorization. Our security level has improved."
"In general, Meraki MX is easy to work with."
"The features we have found most valuable are the firewall and the monitoring tools."
"It is a robust SD-WAN solution."
"I use Meraki in my POCs and with my customers as well."
"Very easy to use and navigate."
"Its ease of configuration and management is very useful for us and for other companies that don't have an onsite IT person. It is easy to configure and easy to manage. It is easy to configure the VPN with the Auto VPN feature."
"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."
"It should have a better pricing plan. It is too expensive. It should also have a more granular view of the attack. I don't have FortiAnalyzer, and it is difficult for me to have a complete view when there is an attack on my server."
"Backup can be improved."
"The reporting in Fortinet FortiGate could improve. Customers are having to purchase additional reporting components. When I have used the Sophos solution it is a complete solution, in Fortinet FortiGate you have to use additional tools to have the features needed."
"The solution is not user friendly and it is hard to manage the GUI interface."
"We need to pay for the license and it is expensive."
"The configuration should be easier in the solution."
"The solution is complex and can be more user-friendly."
"In the security portfolio from Cisco, the issue is marketing. Cisco is still seen primarily as an enterprise network player rather than being acknowledged as a security vendor."
"Cisco is a scalable product, but it is expensive compared to other vendors."
"An area for improvement in Cisco IOS Security is the performance because it's not as stable sometimes. There's also some latency in the solution, which could be improved. Cisco IOS Security integrates with other solutions, but you'll encounter many errors after integration, so this is another area for improvement. I'd like to see enhanced performance and a simplified setup in the next version of Cisco IOS Security."
"The solution’s setup process could be better."
"Meraki MX can come across as an expensive solution."
"Management can be improved in Meraki MX."
"The product could incorporate tools like ThousandEyes into the system so we can see things directly."
"The product doesn't support route summarization and BGP dynamic routing protocol."
"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."
"The configuration options for firewall and IPS have limitations."
"As far as what needs to be improved — nothing really comes to mind. It does what we need it to do."
"The client-side VPN is weak. The product could be improved with deployment templates."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 59 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Meraki MX is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Meraki MX is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos XG, SonicWall TZ and Netgate pfSense. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Meraki MX report.
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