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Meraki Dashboard vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
157
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.5%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 4.6%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Bilal-Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MohitKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface
The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market. The solution supports many vendors by default and just included Meraki SDN with the new release, but continued expansion is important. We created a custom method to pair with unsupported vendors but that can produce a lag in performance so future releases should expand SDN support. The solution does a good job of automating features but could expand that even more.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There are some whitelist blacklist capabilities in the MX dashboard, which is very helpful."
"We have found the client dashboard to be very simple to use, especially in our Meraki environment."
"We like the visibility this solution gives us of the infrastructure."
"Meraki Dashboard does not require a lot of maintenance. Cisco tells communicates through the Meraki Dashboard web client, it will automatically send updates to the equipment. They will send you an email on what day the updates will take place. If you want to proceed, you can click on accept, or you can decline them and schedule the updates at another time."
"The initial setup was easy."
"The overall product rating is ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is the single pane of glass that gives you multisite visibility."
"I find it pretty straightforward and easy to use, especially compared to old, traditional methods."
"The alerting and usage tracking notifications on disk space capacity, network and processor utilization."
"Being able to easily, and quickly obtain disc space statistics from servers and determine how much was free or used on various volumes."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We deployed the solution from new and completed the upgrades."
"SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks."
"This solution offers a very good view of our network and allows us to effectively monitor performance."
"The stability is fantastic."
"Can easily be interconnected with other management systems."
"We can proactively fix historical issues, so we won't face those problems in future."
 

Cons

"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."
"The solution has a limited routing table and needs improvement by increasing the numbers as well as providing a summarization for the table."
"When users are trying to roam from one location to another location, geographical tracking would be helpful."
"Meraki Dashboard could improve the user interface by making it more user-friendly. The configuring can at times be difficult."
"I would like to see an alert event feature to monitor what users are downloading and how to block some applications."
"The product is missing a VPN and it is a major issue when it comes to deployment."
"There are some issues with the NAT configuration, it is now impossible to some operations with the solution."
"The pricing for this solution needs to be improved."
"In terms of scalability, there is room for improvement. When you start monitoring, if you have so many interfaces and you're trying to monitor them at a faster interval, or a shorter interval, you get to a point where you need to request another node."
"SolarWinds NPM can be very slow at times. The database optimization can be done to improve the product performance."
"Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM."
"Being able to detect devices that are trying to connect wirelessly would make using this solution much easier."
"The only thing that can be improved is to continually add to the existing capabilities of the product."
"Scalability is a bit tricky because it requires more gateways in order to get the performance you may need. It also requires a lot of licensing."
"SolarWinds could offer more support and insights for a broader range of devices. Currently, it focuses on routers, switches, and some load balancers. However, it lacks an out-of-the-box dashboard for monitoring firewalls and some other modern network security devices. We have to customize it a lot."
"The integration with the APIs and the web servers deployed can definitely be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing fees are $180 USD, per AP, for three years."
"The price of Meraki Dashboard is not expensive because knowing that it is a cloud-based solution has its benefits."
"From a pricing perspective, they are still expensive."
"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."
"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."
"Meraki Dashboard is a utility and portal that's part of the Meraki solution."
"The Meraki Dashboard has more competitive pricing."
"It is said to be expensive."
"There's standard licensing, and then it depends on the size of the customer."
"You have to license it per year, for the support. You don't really need to have support once you've already set it up. Once you install SolarWinds, you can skip on the licensing. It will still work."
"We have a perpetual license for this solution, and my impression is that this solution is cheap."
"The price is more expensive than some other products, such as ManageEngine."
"Though I don't remember the price for SolarWinds NPM, its price is somewhat okay when you compare it with other tools in the market. The price isn't too high and isn't too low, so it's okay."
"The standard licensing fees are what we're paying. It's about $20,000 a year for all our licensing."
"It is expensive."
"Some solutions are open source and free."
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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
23%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
58%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

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?
The cost of the Meraki solution is high, which may not be affordable for smaller companies, especially in developing countries.
What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?
There is a need for price reductions in developing countries, as the cost of Meraki is quite high. Additionally, it would be beneficial if Meraki Dashboard could integrate more Cisco devices such a...
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 are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
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 scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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: January 2025.
832,460 professionals have used our research since 2012.