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Meraki Dashboard vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Juniper Mist Premium Analytics
Sponsored
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
58th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Meraki Dashboard
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
155
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Juniper Mist Premium Analytics is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.8%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 5.2%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

ALEXANDRE VIANNA - PeerSpot reviewer
May 3, 2024
Has a single dashboard, but is expensive
We use this solution to manage our mission environment The single dashboard is a valuable feature.  The technical support needs improvement. The initial setup is straightforward. The solution is expensive. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.  Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of…
Pete Grimshaw - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2023
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.
MohitKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 30, 2022
High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface
Our company uses the solution to monitor NPM for 100 large accounts that typically have 40,000 interfaces.  Basic monitoring includes CPU memory, errors, and interfaces. Advanced monitoring includes F5 load balancers, in-depth tunnels, and AP alarms.  We also monitor CM for backup parts and…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The single dashboard is a valuable feature."
"We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points."
"Scalability is one of Meraki Dashboard's strongest features. We have thousands of users if we're counting the end-users on our clients' network, but we have hundreds of clients."
"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."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is the single pane of glass that gives you multisite visibility."
"Meraki dashboard deserves an Oscar."
"The initial setup was easy."
"It has improved my organization in the way that we've got a much better wireless coverage than we had before, and secondly, we have the visibility of all the users."
"SolarWinds is reasonably priced."
"The SolarWinds NPM framework, upon which most of their flagship products are built, empowers a wide variety of admins and users to quickly find value in their installed products."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We deployed the solution from new and completed the upgrades."
"One of the best features is the reports feature."
"SolarWinds' network and server application monitoring features are strong."
"We can proactively fix historical issues, so we won't face those problems in future."
"From web interfaces to custom monitors and alarms, this product has a high level of flexibility that can be molded to suit your business needs, regardless of the size of your organization."
"I love the GUI. Almost everything is accessible through the web interface. It is very user-friendly. It is easy to drag and drop resources wherever you want them."
 

Cons

"The technical support needs improvement."
"The Wi-Fi side needs improvement."
"I think this product could be improved with a CLI for more directives."
"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."
"There needs to be more improvement on the device-connected interface."
"Meraki lacks their own software for connecting to the VPN which creates some issues."
"I would like to receive decent notification alerts regarding the license's expiry. Or any help on correcting or optimizing licenses, because in certain circumstances you can add a license but it's the wrong licensing. However, the Dashboard adds the license in some way, and you do not utilize it. You can simply extend the license's expiration date."
"The initial setup is complex and can be made more straightforward."
"I’d like the product to allow for other solutions to be integrated with the dashboard as well."
"Some features could be added."
"I would like to see some enhancement on the reporting side, such as making it a little bit easier to create reports or having a larger assortment of canned reports."
"Real-time analytics is the major weakness of the SolarWinds NPM platform today. They've done a fantastic job enabling the collection of data. Users are now demanding the ability to generate their own graphs, views, and so on; all of this must be done by an admin today."
"The solution's database performance could be improved."
"The price could be better."
"The market is changing, and people are expecting automation. I think that's a disadvantage."
"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the short retention period. Currently, it's just for seven days of data, which is very low, making it hard for my organization to keep that data. SolarWinds recommended a seven-day retention period, but my organization needs a fourteen-day data retention period. Hence, I'd like an increase in the retention period or the database limit in SolarWinds NPM because you can't go back to the data for any investigation if seven days have passed. Another area for improvement in SolarWinds NPM is the database, which needs to be a bit more mature. I want a modified database in the next release of SolarWinds NPM. I'd also like more options added to groups because, currently, it's very limited."
"The solution's customer service is not very good because the support takes too long."
"There needs to be more integration of widgets, especially for reporting purposes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"It is said to be expensive."
"Licensing is around under 1000 pounds. The licensing is either one year, three years, five years or ten years and during the licensing, we can choose to renew it per year or per every three years. We've got a license for three years. It's about 160 or about 200 pounds each."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"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."
"The solution is currently the most expensive on the market."
"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."
"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."
"I find that the pricing is acceptable."
"We pay for SolarWinds NPM yearly. We buy it and then we renew it, but it's not subscription-based. I don't remember the value exactly, because it's my manager who manages pricing, but we pay $60,000 per year for all the solutions. Pricing will also depend on the number of devices. We have a lot of devices."
"We have a perpetual license for this solution, and my impression is that this solution is cheap."
"The pricing needs to be improved. It is too high. One full engine costs around $10 000, which is why we don't have high availability right now."
"The solution can become very expensive and commercially not viable in countries, such as India."
"Our customer reports that the solution is somewhat costly and licensing is a bit complicated."
"When I compare the cost of CA Spectrum to that of SolarWinds NPM, the cost of CA Spectrum is way too high, and the cost of SolarWinds NPM is pretty low."
"SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
25%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
56%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Government
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Juniper Mist Premium Analytics?
We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points.
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 Dashboa...
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 pric...
What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?
They could improve the product by providing enhanced utilization reports and more detailed independent access reports.
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools ar...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalabil...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about Meraki Dashboard vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.