We performed a comparison between Meraki MX and SonicWall NSa based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Meraki MX has a slight edge in this comparison. Unlike SonicWall NSa, its users report a proven ROI.
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"The Fortinet FortiGate local partners were good. I did not have direct contact with Fortinet support."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"Anti-Spam web content filterinG."
"You can purchase switches and you don't need to do anything with them. You just put in the firewall and the switches get all the policies and rules that you already have in the firewall. With Fortinet, you just connect the FortiSwitch to the Fortinet and that's it."
"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
"The usage in general is pretty good."
"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."
"Point-to-point VPNs can dynamically follow IP changes with no need for static IPs."
"It is easy to manage, which is one of the most important things for us. It is also flexible, stable, and scalable."
"The technical support people from Meraki are brilliant."
"I use Meraki in my POCs and with my customers as well."
"When you try to create an IP or when you have an alert about when a website is banned, these features are helpful."
"Simple to manage."
"Easy to administer and saves time when you have many smaller locations that you have to manage."
"The product's initial setup phase is very easy."
"They offer good antivirus solutions."
"With the deployment of the SonicWall NSA solution, we never suffered a problem due to invasion or contamination of any kind."
"I like that SonicWall NSa is a stable product. It's also a scalable product."
"Compared to Cisco, SonicWall NSa is much easier to configure."
"It has good reporting, the reporting is marvelous."
"We use SonicWall NSa for authenticating MAC (media access control) ID from the PC."
"For me, the most valuable feature of SonicWall NSa is the UTM."
"This product is user-friendly and easy to configure."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."
"Lacks training for new features."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor."
"The renewal price and the availability could be improved."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"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."
"The support system could be improved."
"We do not have account managers in our region for the solution. Some governments don't use the product since it is attached to the internet."
"When we do API integrations with Meraki, they have always been hard as well as tedious to build. The data that we want out of the API integrations has been only recently available. Six months ago, it was hard to get someone to build something correctly or useful with Meraki APIs. Recently, they have made more data available on the API, but it is just a start. They need to do more."
"They need to improve the link between Meraki and Active Directory."
"From the improvement perspective, we need more monitoring capabilities. We want to have full-based access visibility, such as, what is happening when something is trying to reach and it is denying. We cannot see some parts of it. The integration of active directory with this product is not very fruitful. It has some bugs or lacks in the functionality of active directory integration. We are unable to identify where exactly and whether it has really applied our policy."
"The security is not as strong as it could be"
"It would be great if the Meraki devices let us see, in real time, the internet demand on a single device."
"The current lead time is longer for Meraki MX, and it needs to be improved."
"We can’t access GUI management and CLI opening features when the Internet is unavailable."
"The solution can be a bit expensive."
"The reporting and monitoring are a bit complex and should be easier in SonicWall NSa because other firewalls I have experienced have been more simple, such as Palo Alto. We are able to receive a clear view of our network. As a general user with little experience, it would be difficult for them to handle."
"I would like to have a built-in vulnerability scanner in the firewall. It would be great to have such functionality. Its price could also be better. It would also be good to have a local warehouse. It doesn't get damaged a lot, but if a customer needs a replacement, currently, it has to come from Miami or Mexico, which can take a few days. It would be better if they have a local warehouse from where we can just pick replacements and quickly solve a client's needs in terms of replacing equipment. It would be great to have it locally instead of waiting for it from Mexico or the USA."
"The filter settings are confusing and overly complicated. The user interface can be improved."
"It doesn't require much improvement. The only improvement area is that cloud reporting, assessment reporting, and other reporting features should be available with the subscription. They should provide reporting features with the subscription base, which is currently not there. We bought the reporting tool, but there are some complications. They have made some changes to the application, and now the reporting management is completely on the cloud."
"We also need to increase the throughput because the other devices are slower. The throughput will become slow. Since we're using VoIP, it tends to affect the voice quality. Even if you're using a quality service, it tends to decrease."
"Customer support is severely lacking with very slow response times."
"One area for improvement in SonicWall NSa is the GUI. It isn't easy to understand. The support for SonicWall NSa is mediocre, which is another area for improvement."
Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 57 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 20th in Firewalls with 77 reviews. Meraki MX is rated 8.2, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Meraki MX is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos XG, SonicWall TZ and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Meraki MX vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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