Cisco IOS Security vs Meraki MX comparison

Cisco IOS Security and Meraki MX are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 91% of Cisco IOS Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Meraki MX users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

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.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco IOS Security vs. Meraki MX Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS Security vs. Meraki MX

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28

Senior Manager at Cognizant

Effective threat prevention with responsive customer support

We are using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall Fortinet FortiGate has been invaluable. It has helped save costs due to its various features, reliable performance, very good UI, low latency, and stability. The Threat Intel engine in Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for its effectiveness in…

Read full review

Karthik Venkataraman

Senior Consultant at Velocis Systems

User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues

Cisco IOS Security is a mature product with extensive capabilities, serving as the base for the defense layer. It offers good network visibility, which helps in rapid response through the Rapid Threat Containment feature. Its deployment and configuration are straightforward. From a networking perspective, for instance, Cisco IOS incorporates time-tested security features. The zone-based firewall feature has significantly influenced our network security management. For instance, when managing multiple geolocations, it's essential to apply geographically appropriate policies. If a customer operates within the UK zone, I need to implement UK-specific policies. This approach is also applicable to customers in the Asia Pacific and UK regions. It enables me to tailor security policies based on the geographical location of my customers, such as adjusting policies for customers in China or Japan. This flexibility helps in creating a comprehensive zone list. Additionally, this feature allows for seamless service agreements between all zones from headquarters, providing access to all zones within the firewall we create. Essentially, it facilitates the creation of zones within the firewall.

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Mike Cote

Managing Partner/Founder at Netverta, LLC

Easy to manage and dashboard allows us to see and manage customers

The solution's most valuable feature is the Meraki dashboard, which is a single pane of glass. The dashboard allows us to see and manage all our Meraki customers. Since it's cloud-based management, we can remotely support Meraki, which makes it easy for us. We like to sell and deploy Meraki MX because of the ease of management.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution."

"The solution is stable."

"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."

"FortiGate has a strong security topic which allows all of the Fortinet devices to communicate and share information which makes their security more powerful."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is Quota."

"The ability to set up remote systems is the most valuable feature."

"The feature I like most is the SD-WAN. It allows you to manage more than one ISP at the same time. And there is a high-availability mode, so if one of your ISPs is down, you still have a backup."

"The most important feature, normally for small business customers, is link load balancing."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Cisco products are very secure and integrate easily with other devices."

"The solution effectively integrates with Umbrella."

"There is a positive impact on security, particularly the intrusion feature, which helps keep the solution concealed and secure."

"The stability of this solution is excellent."

"We use Cisco IOS Security mostly for routers to route off the firewall. It's a next-generation device."

"One of the valuable features of the solution is its flexibility and it performs great."

"The security is very good."

"The capabilities for scalability with this product are huge"

More Cisco IOS Security pros

"Easy to administer and saves time when you have many smaller locations that you have to manage."

"To me, the analytics feature is one of the most valuable in Meraki MX. I also find that it has good usability as it's cloud-based. Another valuable feature of Meraki MX is that it's simple to use and it's user-friendly."

"It's flexible, easy to configure, and easy to manage."

"The technical support people from Meraki are brilliant."

"The initial setup for me was straightforward."

"Ease of management is the best thing about the solution."

"In terms of WAN optimization, it's completely cloud-controlled. Anyone can manage their network environment from a mobile phone."

"It has the most advanced security features, for example, layer 3 and layer 7 firewall capabilities and the end team and IPS protection. It also has IPS, and it has very good functioning of cloning services. You don't actually have to touch the device. If you have multiple companies in different countries, you don't really require this device to be touched. You can get it delivered directly to any office of a country, and then you can simply put your configuration over the cloud. It's very simplified and easy to manage. It gives a very good granular visibility about your network. Earlier, a lot of things were lacking in the network. We were unable to identify where the problem was, but after implementing Meraki MX, we are able to dig down and identify where is the problem. We can easily and quickly identify the sources and the root causes of the issues."

More Meraki MX pros

Cons

"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."

"WAN load-balancing could be a lot better at detecting when a link is poor or inconsistent, and not just flat out dead."

"It needs more available central management."

"FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment."

"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."

"There were quite a few problems with the stability of the system."

"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."

"It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"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."

"If they could increase the performance a little better because the device sometimes gets slow."

"I think setup could be one area for improvement, because sometimes we don't have people inside so we have to move to the place."

"Signatures and other critical definitions need to be updated more frequently."

"Sometimes I find it difficult to manage. Some configurations are difficult for new engineers, for example."

"Most of their features are meant for Cisco. You cannot integrate them with any other vendor."

"While Cisco IOS Security is stable and scalable, I would like to see it improved to be even better."

"I would love it if it has a link-by-link feature, integration with Unified Threat Management (UTM), and load balancers. They haven't got any link-by-link feature right now, which can be a very attractive option. This link-by-link feature can also be made available for Cisco's UTM firewalls. The link-by-link feature is available in some of the other firewalls. Currently, integration with UTM is missing. Cisco IOS Security also doesn't have the load balancers and a few things that need to be done to get a good UTM firewall. Normally, other firewalls have UTM. As a next-generation firewall, it's good, but as a UTM, it has to do some work."

More Cisco IOS Security cons

"Direct logging is something that can be introduced. In the absence of cloud management, the possibility of local configurations and on-premise logins becomes restricted. This limitation stands as a primary concern. When it comes to resolving issues, the inability to access login options hampers troubleshooting efforts. The stability is noteworthy; but when compared to alternative products, its stability is comparatively lower. Additionally, certain limitations are observed in terms of remote control. Price-wise, the solution stands out for its competitive and cost-effective nature compared to other alternatives. Operationally, it is user-friendly and requires minimal effort from administrators, making configuration hassle-free."

"Pricing is an area where the solution lacks since it is an expensive tool."

"The configuration options for firewall and IPS have limitations."

"With Meraki MX's integration capabilities, users may face challenges since it does not integrate well with other systems."

"We could have more reporting options and the ability to send alarms to the administrator."

"It would be nice if the different services, including the SIEM SOC and endpoint detection and response (EDR) were integrated into one, so that I don't have to go to different vendors for different services."

"The problem is that the two licenses do not currently integrate. We have to create separate companies and do an interconnection."

"Sometimes you want a little bit more control, and you don't have that control with Meraki MX."

More Meraki MX cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is better than Cisco, Check Point, and Palo Alto. In terms of pricing, it's probably a better-priced firewall solution overall."

"I had to pay for the license for the firewall, but it is guaranteed to have updates. I expect a good service for it. It was about €1000 for a year, and there was no additional cost."

"Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive."

"This is not a cheap solution but it isn't expensive, either. It's a good solution for the right price."

"The pricing for the product is alright."

"We find the most valuable aspect of this solution is the price. It is affordable, and cheaper than other firewalls."

"You need to pay a license for this solution. Our licensing is now done in our subsidiary."

"We are on an annual license to use Fortinet FortiGate."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The product is expensive."

"The licensing is on a subscription basis, and it is fairly costly. I would prefer a one-time payment."

"Cisco IOS Security is not very expensive, and pricing depends on where you live. It's affordable for both individuals and institutions. On a scale from one to five, I would give Cisco's pricing a four."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The pricing is expensive."

"The solution's pricing is very good."

"The price of the solution should be cheaper, and the license is purchase annually."

"The pricing is average and includes all features with support."

More Cisco IOS Security pricing and cost advice

"We just have to pay for the product and the license. We have a license for three years, and it is renewed every three years. It costs $1,200 for three years for one endpoint. Meraki had a good promotion for remote workers or remote workforce. The discount is very good. This promotion continues till the next fiscal year of Cisco."

"The price could be lower, but compared to the TCO of other products, it's not really that expensive."

"I think the price is comparable with other solutions of the same kind. Depending on the use case it could be cheaper or more expensive, I think it offers good value."

"capabilities" What is our primary use case? The solution is mainly based on the cloud which is highly adaptable to the needs of its users due to its large user base. By employing over fifty VPS, we strategically position these units where clients require them the most. Remarkably, the cost of this setup is notably more affordable compared to competing alternatives. The management dashboard allows users to oversee each branch within their network. This comprehensive view is unified within the dashboard, offering insights into the entire branch network. The system works mostly for financial institutions, particularly banking clients. What is most valuable? The cloud management system is really valuable. What needs improvement? Direct logging is something that can be introduced. In the absence of cloud management, the possibility of local configurations and on-premise logins becomes restricted. This limitation stands as a primary concern. When it comes to resolving issues, the inability to access login options hampers troubleshooting efforts. The stability is noteworthy; but when compared to alternative products, its stability is comparatively lower. Additionally, certain limitations are observed in terms of remote control. Price-wise, the solution stands out for its competitive and cost-effective nature compared to other alternatives. Operationally, it is user-friendly and requires minimal effort from administrators, making configuration hassle-free. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Meraki MX for the last three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is stable however there are issues and we need to reboot sometimes. I would rate it five out of ten. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Considering the needs of medium-class clients, scalability proves to be highly advantageous. I would rate it nine out of ten. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is easy via the cloud portal, primarily because managed support is needed for internet access. Without this, the direct configuration of the box becomes unattainable.The duration required is significantly shorter compared to alternatives. Occasionally, when dealing with a larger number of branches, like fifty or more, we managed to complete the implementation within 14 days. In cases involving complex processes and discussions, additional time might be necessary. However, once the system is set up and connected to the cloud, other configurations can be done within an eight-hour timeframe. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The solution has three licenses; enterprise, security, and SD WAN. This subscription-based method aligns with customer requirements. When procuring hardware, the minimum requirement is the enterprise license, granting access to cloud management and the portal. Customers can opt to acquire the security or SD-WAN licenses if needed. This adaptable pricing model offers great flexibility. All licenses are linked to the device count, proving advantageous for customers. If there's a future demand for additional devices, licenses can be expanded accordingly without any concerns. The flexibility of the licensing system is indeed valuable."

"It is a good global solution in terms of the price and features, but because we sell this solution in dollars, sometimes we don't get to sell this solution in Brazil because the dollar is very expensive. The price of every project is different. It varies depending upon the project, scenario, and client."

"The price of Meraki MX is between $8 and $1,200. Additionally, we typically purchase a three-year enterprise license, and we pay approximately $899 and mark it up a bit."

"Meraki MX is an expensive solution."

"Meraki is the best option — based on the price and the features available."

More Meraki MX pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

31%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

27%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What do you like most about Cisco IOS Security?

Cisco IOS Security is a mature product with extensive capabilities, serving as the base for the defense layer. It off...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco IOS Security?

The challenge often comes down to pricing for SMB customers or those below enterprise level. It's tough for them to i...

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What needs improvement with Cisco IOS Security?

In the security portfolio from Cisco, the issue is marketing. Cisco is still seen primarily as an enterprise network ...

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Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...

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What do you like most about Meraki MX?

I am happy with the technical support for the solution. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

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Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 22% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Cisco IOS Security

Compared 30% of the time

OPNsense vs Cisco IOS Security

Compared 17% of the time

Fortinet FortiOS vs Cisco IOS Security

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Cisco IOS Security

Compared 11% of the time

Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform vs Cisco IOS Security

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco IOS Security Competitors

Sophos XG vs Meraki MX

Compared 10% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Meraki MX

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Meraki MX

Compared 7% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Meraki MX

Compared 6% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Meraki MX

Compared 5% of the time

More Meraki MX Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

December 2024

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS Security

December 2024

Download Cisco IOS Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Meraki MX

December 2024

Download Meraki MX product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

IOS Security

MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600

Learn More

Fortinet

Cisco

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Cisco

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Cisco IOS Software delivers a sophisticated set of security capabilities for a comprehensive, layered security approach throughout your network infrastructure. Cisco IOS security technologies help to defend critical business processes against attack and disruption, protect privacy, and support policy and regulatory compliance controls.

Cisco Meraki MX appliances are next-generation firewalls with all the advanced security services needed for today’s IT security. The appliances are ideal for organizations considering a unified threat management (UTM) solution for branch offices, data centers, distributed sites, or campuses. Since Meraki MX is 100% cloud-managed, installation and remote management are simple and zero-touch.

Meraki MX’s hardware and virtual appliances are configurable in Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform, and private cloud support is offered through Cisco NFVIS and Alibaba Cloud.

Organizations of all sizes and across all industries rely on Meraki MX to deliver secure connectivity to hub locations or multi-cloud environments, as well as application quality of experience (QoE) through advanced analytics with machine learning.

Cisco Meraki’s advanced QoE analytics offers:

End-to-end health of web applications at a glance across the LAN, WAN, and application server.

Autonomous machine-learned smart application thresholds applied to identify true anomalies that are based on past behavioral patterns.

Ability to monitor the health of all MX WAN links across an entire organization.

Ability to detail hop-by-hop VoIP performance analysis across all uplinks.

Cisco Meraki’s SD-WAN offers:

The Meraki MX’s SD-WAN is unique in that it can be easily extended to deliver optimized access to resources in public and private cloud environments with virtual MX appliances. Its SD-WAN lowers operational costs and improves the performance of remotely-accessed resources. Users can ensure the availability of the apps and services their employees use most through dynamic path selection, policy-based routing, support for application-layer profiles, and VPN.

Meraki MX offers industry-leading cloud management that has template-based settings which can scale easily from small deployments to tens of thousands of devices. It features an intuitive web-based dashboard for managing mobile devices, united firewalls, switching, and wireless LAN. Users can also benefit from role-based administration, configurable email alerts for a variety of important events, and easily auditable change logs. Meraki MX is capable of producing summary reports with device, user, and application details archived in the cloud.

Meraki MX Key Features

MX has a robust suite of network services in an all-in-one device, which saves you money by eliminating the need for multiple appliances. These services include:

SD-WAN capabilities
SNORT®-based intrusion detection and prevention
Layer 7 fingerprinting
Web caching
Application-based firewalling
Anti-malware
Geo-based firewalling
Content filtering
Site-to-site auto VPN and client VPN
Web search filtering
Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP)
4G cellular failover
Dynamic path selection
Web application health and VoIP health

Reviews from Real Users

Meraki MX stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its easy management and its ability to be accessed remotely. Below is some feedback from PeerSpot users who are currently using Meraki MX as their firewall security solution.

Craig B., a central services engineer at Liberty Technology, writes, “The web console for managing everything keeps everything on Meraki and keeps us from going somewhere else. It is why I think a lot of people like Meraki. Comparing it to SonicWall or even a different Cisco firewall, like traditional ASAs, managing Meraki is a thousand times easier because of fluidity. You don't have to rebuild a table just to change one rule. It's much more readable for a human.”

Edgardo C., an IT director, notes,”By using the VPN, we can connect remotely. We have two offices, and we could connect them through the VPN. We could establish a network between two sites, and that has improved and increased communication and productivity. Our remote site is able to access the server remotely.”

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Arup Group, Brunel University London, City of Biel, Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha, K&L Gates , New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Offshore Northern Seas, Transplace

Hyatt, ONS

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS Security vs. Meraki MX

December 2024

Free Report: Cisco IOS Security vs. Meraki MX

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco IOS Security vs. Meraki MX and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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