Meraki Dashboard vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE comparison

Cisco and NETSCOUT are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.4, while NETSCOUT is ranked #31 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 1.2% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.

Meraki Dashboard

Read 56 Meraki Dashboard reviews

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2,262 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Read 50 NETSCOUT nGeniusONE reviews

3,433 Views
2,369 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Meraki Dashboard

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE and Meraki Dashboard compete in the network management category. Meraki Dashboard appears to have the upper hand due to its cloud-oriented simplicity and user-friendly deployment.

Features:NETSCOUT nGeniusONE provides detailed traffic analysis and packet inspection, application-specific monitoring, and troubleshooting, offering deep insights for identifying network issues. It also supports real-time communication monitoring and dependency mapping. Meraki Dashboard offers cloud management with easy multi-site visibility, integration capabilities, and a user-friendly interface, simplifying business deployment and management efforts.

Room for Improvement:NETSCOUT nGeniusONE could become more user-friendly and reduce tool complexity, with users calling for a more intuitive interface and less reliance on hardware. Meraki Dashboard could improve VPN client features, enable broader integration with non-Cisco products, and simplify user settings.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:NETSCOUT nGeniusONE requires on-premises deployment or hybrid cloud solutions and often needs dedicated support due to complexity. Although technical support is responsive, it may require on-site engineers, impacting immediacy. Meraki Dashboard allows cloud-oriented deployment options that simplify setup, with customer service known for being accessible and effective, rated highly for practicality and remote management.

Pricing and ROI:NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is noted for higher pricing, reflecting advanced features and extensive support, offering ROI by reducing troubleshooting time and increasing visibility. Meraki Dashboard, though perceived as expensive due to its subscription model, offers a clear pricing structure with support, delivering ROI through reduced admin time and effective network management.

To learn more, read our detailed Meraki Dashboard vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

July 2025

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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

Meraki Dashboard

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

19th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

31st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.2%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is 1.5%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Bilal-Ahmed

IT Manager at Fawaz

Seamless connectivity and comprehensive control over network devices

All of the features we are looking for are already in control. I think those features, which we are not currently utilizing, are already there. For example, the control for the cameras and everything else. The cameras are not connected through Meraki, but all other devices are on Meraki networks.

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Ruslan Melnyk

Business Unit Manager at BAKOTECH

Useful for network performance monitoring

My manager can explain the use cases attached to the product. I am a unit leader in my company, and I don't sell the product directly to our partners or customers. In my company, I manage certain processes and a team while building, developing, and providing them with a direction for the market. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is a good solution for network performance monitoring since it is not cloud-based. My company sells NETSCOUT nGeniusONE in eight to ten countries. I think the solution is not good for capacity planning, but it is better to help find problems in applications because not every infrastructure is good at managing working applications. I think it is a solution meant for applications. The tool is useful for solving problems attached to applications. The tool's real-time network monitoring capability was used when the product was more reactive. In our company, if we use real-time monitoring, then we need to deal with raw traffic. In our company, if we don't see any problem in the real-time systems, we have the possibility to rely on the tool since it acts like a time machine for us, which can allow us to get back to the areas of problem and solve them. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. For many users, it can be a good monitoring system that can be scaled up in the future. I think it is a good product to start with when working systems in an environment. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is another tool used to manage raw traffic, and I find it to integrate well into our customers' network. I am not using it actively on the system. I use the tool for network packet brokers. I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

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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 solution scales well."

"For us, it serves as a single pane of glass."

"It's really user-friendly."

"The most valuable features are the ease of use and a single-pane-of-glass that allows us to identify issues across the entire network from one dashboard."

"The most valuable feature is knowing the wireless and switch are healthy."

"Meraki Dashboard offers an exceptional centralized management solution that allows easy updates and monitoring of various network features, including bandwidth usage and content filtering."

"We have found the client dashboard to be very simple to use, especially in our Meraki environment."

"Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place."

More Meraki Dashboard pros

"For me, the most valuable features are the dashboards which we use to highlight the overall impact to the customers, and being able to drill down into the nitty-gritty of the customer experience."

"The valuable features include packet analysis, packet capture, and [that] it's easy to use."

"It gives me the MOS, latency, and jitter."

"From the standpoint of VoLTE and related things, it's providing visibility into the network and how it operates."

"The most valuable feature of NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is it helps customer to understand what risks are in their network. For example, if a customer has some wrong configurations. It could cost them some critical services to slow down."

"It is the ability to collect data and analyze it, especially key performance indicators. This is before a customer would call to the service center to complain that they have had bad coverage or a dropped call."

"The solution helps us get to root cause quickly by using the Media Monitor to help identify QoS mismatches for voice calls on the network."

"The biggest advantage of NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is that when gathering logs, which require substantial bandwidth of more than 50 TB or 100 TB of data, NETSCOUT nGeniusONE can gather as much as possible."

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE pros

Cons

"Third-party switches do not necessarily integrate easily with the system and this could be improved to allow for better adaptation."

"Price could be reduced."

"I think this product could be improved with a CLI for more directives."

"The tool needs to incorporate more integration platforms. Integrating technical support features directly into the dashboard would be highly beneficial. This would allow technicians to troubleshoot issues more efficiently."

"For instance, you should be able to see if something has been blocked by a firewall rule by looking at a live log of traffic moving through the device. It helps you troubleshoot issues and understand if your rules are working. You need to ensure the firewall is blocking the right things. That's unavailable in the Meraki Dashboard. You have to send the logs to a log server. We use SolarWinds locally, but it's not natively built into Meraki. We're also using Cisco ISA and another tool called Smoothwall."

"They can improve the landing page in Meraki Dashboard. When I go into an organization, they can include a lot more infographics. They can also simplify it a bit and consolidate it. For example, if I've got five branches and I go into customer A's profile or organization, I'd like to see an infographic on the landing page providing a snippet of the entire network layout, that is, all branches in one snapshot. From there, I would like to go into the network that I want to work on or view."

"More integration would be an improvement."

"An area for improvement in Meraki Dashboard is licensing management because it's a little complex. Product licensing can be made a little bit easier through license concurrency and a more straightforward approach to applying the license to products and services."

More Meraki Dashboard cons

"There is currently less visibility or GUI to analyse the packet for troubleshooting purposes."

"The dependency mapping is good, but I am hopeful that they will build some type of partnership and relationship with ServiceNow. I want to see NETSCOUT partner with ServiceNow so they can leverage Service Now Discovery and Service Mapping to automate the build of the service dependency mappings inside of nGeniusONE."

"We see it overload once in a while. It doesn't have built-in protection. Therefore, once it gets too much data, it tends to crash. Then, we have to recover it."

"I would recommend enhancing the APM capabilities."

"NG1 has been stable for a while in our environment - at least we have what we needed. But with nBA, there's a lot of room for improvement."

"This is a typical thing, but every time they do a major code upgrade, we get hit with some nasty bugs. Some of them literally stop the whole platform from collecting traffic data. They should really do more Q&A on the software stability before release."

"NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is a complex product since it deals in areas like network packet brokers and packet analysis, making the tool complicated for end users."

"The scalability needs some work. From a probe perspective, we are limited to a certain amount of throughput on the devices themselves. Without having actual hooks into the bare metal hardware for the solutions, it's a bit of a "thumb in the air" as to when we hit our capacity or when our high watermark is."

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Typically, the license model is for one, three, and five years. They can just be a bit more flexible around it and look into providing an option for 24 months."

"From a pricing perspective, they are still expensive."

"The solution is currently the most expensive on the market."

"The licensing fees are $180 USD, per AP, for three years."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"Meraki Dashboard's pricing is reasonable. It is sold yearly, typically for one, three, or five years. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."

"It is said to be expensive."

"Licensing for Meraki Dashboard is paid every year, and it's on a per-device model that costs roughly $300 to $400 per device, but that comes with full support and troubleshooting, etc. Compared to similar products, Meraki Dashboard is quite high-end, but the costs you pay are all-in."

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

"The platform is expensive."

"The scalability becomes very expensive quickly."

"It can be expensive, but if you have a good configuration, based on what you are looking for, it's okay, it's manageable."

"The license becomes cost prohibitive very quickly."

"Like any company, we always want better pricing. The pricing is okay, but it's not a cheap solution. When you want to deploy it across an enterprise as large as ours, you go into seven figures. It's not a cheap solution to get out there."

"Make sure you get the low down on your licensing and understand the licensing requirements before making a purchase, especially when it comes to an upgrade. Make sure that it suits your needs before you commit to it. For example, we purchased ATA at version 6.2.1. At that time, the licensing covered everything we need. NETSCOUT comes out with 6.2.2, stating that in order to upgrade, you had to purchase CyberStream licensing. Now that requires some additional funding from both a capital investment and a maintenance cost. That's something that should have been said, "Well, if you want these additional features, you will need to purchase these CyberStreams." Otherwise, we should be allowed to continue on the basic operations as it is now through the newer releases without being stuck."

"Licensing is flexible, it's not tied to anything else. We can easily switch up the licensing piece... Obviously, NETSCOUT is a little bit in the higher range, but it gives you value for money. You get what you pay for."

"Their pricing is very competitive with other solutions... But what I like about NETSCOUT's licensing is that it's shared across all their platforms. They don't create a new licensing scheme for every one of their products. So for nGeniusONE, you buy a certain license level, and it works on all of their products."

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Meraki Dashboard?

We greatly utilize the network because we can plug it into the DNS, VPN, or equipment. It's very good. Meraki Dashboard enhances wireless network management. We appreciate its flexibility, as it al...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki Dashboard?

The cost of the Meraki solution is high, which may not be affordable for smaller companies, especially in developing countries.

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What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?

The aspect I find challenging about this solution is that it is too extensive and complex. For example, when comparing Meraki Dashboard to Juniper Mist, the latter is quite simple. Mist is a very a...

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Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

I would say if it’s an ISP that will build a scrubbing center, Netscout/Arbor is a good solution. In all other solutions, Imperva is a great choice.

See all answers

What do you like most about NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?

The pricing is a bit high yet not overly expensive. The cost depends on the size of the customer, as sizing controls the pricing.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco DNA Center vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 20% of the time

Zabbix vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 14% of the time

ThousandEyes vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 12% of the time

Mist AI and Cloud vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 6% of the time

More Meraki Dashboard Competitors

Dynatrace vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 11% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 10% of the time

ThousandEyes vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 8% of the time

Ixia Network Packet Brokers vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 6% of the time

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard

June 2025

Download Meraki Dashboard product report

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

June 2025

Download NETSCOUT nGeniusONE product report

Also Known As

No data available

NETSCOUT nGenius, nGeniusONE

Overview

Meraki Dashboard is a comprehensive cloud-based platform that offers centralized management and control for all Meraki networking and security products. It provides a user-friendly interface, allowing administrators to easily monitor and configure their network infrastructure from anywhere. With real-time visibility, troubleshooting becomes effortless, ensuring optimal performance and minimizing downtime.

The intuitive dashboard offers a holistic view of the network, enabling quick identification of potential issues and proactive measures. It simplifies network deployment and scaling, with zero-touch provisioning and automatic firmware updates. The robust security features include advanced threat protection, content filtering, and VPN connectivity.

Meraki Dashboard also offers powerful analytics and reporting capabilities, providing valuable insights into network usage, application performance, and user behavior. With its seamless integration and scalability,

Meraki Dashboard is the ideal solution for organizations of all sizes, ensuring efficient network management and enhanced productivity.

Cisco

The nGenius Real-Time Monitor software provides you with tools to monitor and display information about your network both historically and in real time. The nGenius Real-Time Monitor software allows you to understand your current network usage and to plan for future needs. It also allows you to proactively troubleshoot problem areas in your network.

NETSCOUT

Sample Customers

Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe

Cerner Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

July 2025

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