Meraki Dashboard vs Nmap comparison

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Meraki Dashboard

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nmap and Meraki Dashboard operate in the network management and security domain. While Nmap offers attractive pricing and basic support, Meraki Dashboard's extensive features provide more value despite its higher cost.

Features: Nmap features network exploration, security auditing, and diagnostics tailored for system administrators focused on network discovery. Meraki Dashboard offers real-time monitoring, network insights, and advanced security controls, appealing to businesses needing comprehensive network management.

Room for Improvement: Nmap could enhance its user interface, improve automation capabilities, and expand its customer support options. Meraki Dashboard could benefit from reducing setup complexity, enhancing customization features, and offering more competitive pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nmap requires manual deployment needing technical expertise. Meraki Dashboard provides a cloud-based solution, simplifying installation and updates, with extensive customer service aiding efficient problem-solving.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap offers free installation leading to lower initial costs, attractive to budget-conscious buyers but may require investment in expertise. Meraki Dashboard, although with a higher setup cost, delivers high ROI through improved network management and reduced operational issues.

To learn more, read our detailed Meraki Dashboard vs. Nmap Report (Updated: December 2024).

Meraki Dashboard vs. Nmap

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Categories and Ranking

Meraki Dashboard

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Nmap

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

16th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.8%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nmap is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Pete Grimshaw

Senior Infrastructure Developer at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's intuitive and allows you to manage your devices from a single pane of glass

We're refreshing our networks and looking at the new Meraki MX250 firewall, one of the higher-end security devices. We're happy with what the devices can do, but they lack a few features found on older firewalls or competing products. 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.

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Aqeel Junaid

Junior Executive - Information Security at sunshine holdings

Offers easy-to-use features and helps scan ports

The product's port scan capabilities have positively impacted my company's network management tasks. The OS detection feature has benefited our company's network analysis since it shows me the open ports that are vulnerable. The product helps me get details about the vulnerability in open ports. I have not integrated the product with other tools except for the fact that I have used Nmap in Metasploit. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it for network security and management. The tool provides full scanning of ports. Though there are other products in the market, many of the solutions are not as good as Nmap, which offers a lot of features that are easy to use. I rate the solution a nine 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 dashboard itself is very simplified and easy to navigate."

"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."

"It is very easy to manage. It has good security, and it is working well with our firewall."

"We like how Meraki Dashboard lets you manage all the devices in a single pane of glass. The dashboard is intuitive and easy to use. They are constantly updating the functionality. Switches from other vendors have the same features for the life of the device, but Meraki is always improving."

"An excellent dashboard that is currently unique in covering both SD-WAN and SD-LAN with built-in security."

"There are some whitelist blacklist capabilities in the MX dashboard, which is very helpful."

"Meraki Dashboard centralizes control of all our equipment into one cloud-based console, so we can manage it from anywhere. We can resolve problems remotely outside of business hours because it is on the cloud. You can use the dashboard to change security settings or configure routers and switches."

"There is no need to swap the hardware at all the locations, and importing the APs into the Dashboard was a simple and quick process."

More Meraki Dashboard pros

"The most important function, according to me, is the capability to use some arguments in the scanning. The solution's capability to go figure and do a deep dive, discovering information on specific aspects."

"The initial setup was simple."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its scripts. These scripts prove beneficial when security features may obscure or block connections. Nmap helps identify vulnerabilities across different systems, including web servers and various server types."

"The most valuable feature of the solution for security audits stems from the fact that it serves as a powerful tool with the ability to scan a large number of ports."

"Nmap has a powerful command line tool and a set of diagnostic features."

"Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to scan our network and identify devices that aren't connected properly. This helps us detect any issues related to the operating systems of these devices."

"From a functionality standpoint, it's robust and straightforward to comprehend."

"Nmap is easy to use. It's a command-line interface, and the output is quite good."

More Nmap pros

Cons

"Meraki Dashboard could improve integration with non-Cisco platforms."

"There are some issues with the NAT configuration, it is now impossible to some operations with the solution."

"If I am a user and I have a seat on the fourth floor, if I move across the building, the system should be able to track me and should be able to figure out my whereabouts or my position within the building if I'm connected to the wireless. That would make the administrator's life easier in terms of reachability."

"You can't really clone or replicate a device, that sort of feature would be useful. You can clone the site but you cannot clone the device."

"Meraki Dashboard could improve the user interface by making it more user-friendly. The configuring can at times be difficult."

"There is a bit of a problem when you try to log in and you don't have a fixed IP address. If you're granting access, you need to log in by using the IP address. If your administrator's IP address is not a fixed IP address and it has changed, you might need to update the changed IP address in the interface. For this, you need to log in to the interface to update the IP address. This issue might not have so much to do with Meraki interface."

"There needs to be more improvement on the device-connected interface."

"It's a very complex system. Customers have told me that sometimes there are lots of advanced features that are available and that you can change in the dashboard, but sometimes it's very hard to know what they are."

More Meraki Dashboard cons

"There is room for improvement in the design, the GUI. It looks a bit odd. Maybe Nmap should improve it or add more widgets to make it more attractive, but the basic functionality is good and provides what we need."

"The challenge often lies in finding suitable courses and professional resources."

"Customization is not very user-friendly in Nmap."

"They should deliver Playtech's username and password."

"Nmap needs to improve its scanning speed."

"The solution should increase the number of features under a free license."

"The tool's license limits the number of scans it can perform. Improving the license model could benefit customers by allowing more scans for compliance and other purposes."

"One of the drawbacks of the standard Nmap utility is that it does not come with a graphical user interface, unlike a number of other open-source alternatives such as Zenmap."

More Nmap cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is said to be expensive."

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

"My view is that it's expensive, but it's the best."

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

"The Meraki Dashboard has more competitive pricing."

"I’m not sure of the exact cost, however, it’s my understanding the Meraki WiFi is around $800. That’s for a three-year license. It’s about $150 a year."

"The pricing for a small setup is only a few hundred dollars a year. The fee is subscription-based."

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

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

"The product's pricing is fine. The licensing options for Nmap include perpetual licenses and volume-based licenses. For perpetual licenses, once you purchase it, there's no need to invest in renewals. And for volume-based licenses, enterprise companies can use it multiple times based on the number of users or devices they need to scan. It's a pay-as-you-go model, similar to how you pay for what you use."

"I am using the free version of Nmap."

"It's an open-source solution. Commerically, only the support service is available."

"The solution is free of cost, but there are specific services that we have to buy."

"I am using the standard free version of Nmap."

"The solution is open source so it is free."

"Nmap is an open-source product. You don't need a license to install it."

"The solution is free of cost."

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

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824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

University

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...

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

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.

What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?

They could improve the product by providing enhanced utilization reports and more detailed independent access reports.

What do you like most about Nmap?

Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to sca...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nmap?

I am using the free version of Nmap.

What is your primary use case for Nmap?

Nmap is used for network scanning to map the network, identify devices, and assess their status. It helps determine open ports and services running on a particular endpoint or server within an ente...

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Compared 28% of the time

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Compared 20% of the time

Nagios Core vs Nmap

Compared 15% of the time

Zabbix vs Nmap

Compared 14% of the time

Nagios XI vs Nmap

Compared 12% of the time

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Product Reports

Meraki Dashboard

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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.

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and official binary packages are available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. In addition to the classic command-line Nmap executable, the Nmap suite includes an advanced GUI and results viewer (Zenmap), a flexible data transfer, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat), a utility for comparing scan results (Ndiff), and a packet generation and response analysis tool (Nping).

Sample Customers

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

Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication

Meraki Dashboard vs. Nmap