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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
20th
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
158
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (5th), Cloud Monitoring Software (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.4%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 4.7%, down from 5.9% 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

"The most valuable feature is knowing the wireless and switch are healthy."
"The ability to view the entire project stack, including the camera, features, and routers, which I believe are the most important or relevant components."
"The most valuable feature is its simplicity in navigating through the dashboard. It's well set out, and the layout is nice and user friendly. A lot of clients enjoy seeing layer 7 visibility. They get a good indication and insight into what is happening in their network and what applications are being used the most. They can then customize and give preference to business-critical applications."
"You don't have to be a network engineer to use it."
"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."
"It's a simple, functional solution."
"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."
"Great visibility on the dashboard."
"The solution is user-friendly and has many options for customized monitoring that other tools don't have."
"It did a good job of the collection and then an investigation of the net flow of information for understanding the applications that were being used at certain locations."
"Provides a good level of tools and covers essential components."
"I believe the ease of setup and use, including everything, from the initial installation to the discovery of devices is the most valuable."
"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 ability to quickly identify downtime is the most valuable."
"Reporting tools are a great feature along with the ability to create customized reports for you"
"Technical support is very helpful with our upgrades."
 

Cons

"There is a need for price reductions in developing countries, as the cost of Meraki is quite high."
"Meraki lacks their own software for connecting to the VPN which creates some issues."
"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."
"There needs to be more improvement on the device-connected interface."
"The downside to the simplicity is that you can't get as granular as you could with the Cisco APs."
"For my purposes, I don't need to see any other features added to the Meraki Dashboard. I have no criticisms and I do like the tool. If I had a criticism for it, it would be about the pricing because it could be a little less, but again, for the service that you get, I won't complain about that too much."
"Price could be reduced."
"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."
"The improvement would be that SolarWinds NPM thoroughly checks its patches before releasing them to the market. Better testing, alpha testing, and then releasing it to the market."
"They don't have a local support team."
"It has covered everything, so no improvement is required at their end. The only thing is the price."
"It would be nice to have a test to check if you can access a particular device via API without installing it and waiting for a poll cycle. You should have the capacity to initiate a test to see if it was reachable and get the results almost immediately."
"Better offline license management. I’ve had to get in touch with customer support several times simply to remove an expired license from our NPM servers."
"The solution's network discovery and node addition processes need more work."
"Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM."
"The scalability can be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"The solution is currently the most expensive on the market."
"My view is that it's expensive, but it's the best."
"The Meraki Dashboard has more competitive pricing."
"From a pricing perspective, they are still expensive."
"The price of Meraki Dashboard is not expensive because knowing that it is a cloud-based solution has its benefits."
"It is relatively inexpensive compared to other products in the same category."
"It is not an expensive product."
"I find that the pricing is acceptable."
"Most of the licenses are perpetual, and the annual maintenance charges are not high."
"Licenses depend on the number of devices, but all license levels come with technical support."
"SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors."
"I think that the cost has risen, but the functionality and versatility is way above other products."
"I’d suggest that people be aware that licensing has tiers."
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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%
Educational Organization
6%
Educational Organization
58%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
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: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.