Meraki Dashboard vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5, while VMware is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.9. Cisco holds a 1.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to VMware’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Meraki Dashboard

Read 55 Meraki Dashboard reviews

2,652 Views
1,957 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,506 Views
883 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Meraki Dashboard

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and Meraki Dashboard compete in the network management category. Based on available data, vRealize Network Insight holds an advantage in network flow analysis and detailed strategic insight, while Meraki Dashboard excels in ease of use and deployment flexibility.

Features: vRealize Network Insight enables comprehensive network visualization, providing capabilities for detailed network flow analysis and advanced microsegmentation. It also supports application mapping and data flow tracking across virtual environments. Meraki Dashboard offers an integrated platform for network visibility with Layer 7 filtering, a single-pane view for management, and includes features like presence analytics and SD-WAN configuration, emphasizing user-friendly setup and management.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight needs better integration with third-party services and a more intuitive user interface. Its pricing complexity and documentation depth could be improved. Meraki Dashboard would benefit from refined pricing models and more granular control over network settings. Enhanced integration with non-Cisco platforms and more detailed user guides are needed for assisting non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vRealize Network Insight is mainly deployed on-premises, with technical support noted for its quick responses and specialized assistance. Meraki Dashboard supports various deployment options, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, known for a straightforward cloud-based setup. Its customer support is considered reliable, despite some reports of high support costs.

Pricing and ROI: vRealize Network Insight is regarded as expensive, offering efficiency gains, reduced deployment errors, and strategic network management insights, contributing to a positive ROI. It helps decrease troubleshooting time and supports cloud transitions. Meraki Dashboard’s high pricing is due to its premium subscription model, delivering value in ease of network management and flexibility. Discussion on its cost-benefit is ongoing, depending on simplicity and visibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

March 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

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

20th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (19th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 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 vRealize Network Insight is 0.6%, down from 0.9% 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.

Read full review

NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.

Read full review

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 their support, they get better every day."

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

"Easy to configure with great troubleshooting feature."

"It is very stable and we have been using it for five years."

"The most valuable feature for me is the cloud dashboard."

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

"The dashboard itself is very simplified and easy to navigate."

"Some of the features I have found valuable are the ease of access, simple configuration, and monitoring."

More Meraki Dashboard pros

"I like being able to see the flows coming in and out of the product. In terms of monitoring network flows, we use it to verify whether or not different servers/applications should be communicating with each other."

"The most valuable feature is being able to easily see the path that the VM traffic is taking, what ports are in use."

"It allows you to see traffic that you couldn't otherwise see, which is traffic within your Layer 3-bounded network, meaning east-west traffic. It's hard to get that any other way."

"We can see everything going on in NSX and get a good picture of our environment."

"I find it user-friendly and intuitive. With the GUI interface that we do use on a regular basis, it's easy to navigate, it's easy to see, easy to query. We get reports. It's easy to use."

"If we deploy NSX it shows us how the workflow will flow in the organization, what the roadblocks are, and what we need to do to overcome those hurdles. When we run this product, it gives us reports which describe problems with physical switches. We work with the network team to get them all resolved."

"compare-to-competition; I would recommend the product. I don't think there is any other product like this on the market right now."

"The solution is extremely intuitive and user-friendly. When you log in to the application you are presented with a dashboard that is very reasonable for an initial user, and you can then customize it to your specific needs. But for all the data that we've found, we've only had to go through two or three drill-downs to get into that information."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"This solution can be quite complicated to configure and manage, unless you have a technical person with specific knowledge working on it."

"The solution has a limited routing table and needs improvement by increasing the numbers as well as providing a summarization for the table."

"The wait time to speak with a Meraki support engineer is always long, but they get the job done."

"What needs improvement in Meraki Dashboard is its configuration. It'll also be better if the tool has more functionality, and that is what I'd like to see in its next release."

"They could offer API functionality for Meraki Dashboard. It will help us develop software immediately using available solutions."

"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."

"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."

"One area that could use improvement in the Meraki Dashboard is user-friendliness when navigating to port configurations."

More Meraki Dashboard cons

"The virtual appliance has rebooted."

"There are some random glitches in the Web UI, but they are usually pretty cosmetic in nature. I don't really seem to use any browser other than Chrome with it. I also get some weird errors from time to time on the hardware NetFlow Collectors, where it doesn't sync data."

"I would like to see application identification. That would be cool."

"The only issue we have is that the solution does not always capture the host names."

"The compatibility with each and every component of the infrastructure is the main thing that I am looking for. I would like them to make sure that it's compatible with different kinds of storage systems, etc. I have seen the compatibility list. I feel it can be more compatible than it is right now."

"When we talk about those micro-segmentation rules, there's an Export function. It is very macro-segmentation oriented instead. So if you choose an application, it will find the tiers within that application and say that it's communicating on, say, port 80 to a separate VLAN. There might be 200 machines in that other VLAN. You don't want to open port 80 at all of them. So we need a lot more granularity in those suggested firewall rules."

"While it's not exactly a feature, what normally happens when we are trying to look at the VM flow portion is - although Network Insight does have options to integrate a few physical switches into it - we can't really get an end-to-end flow of the network. We might be using a few switches that are not supported by Network Insight. That is where they can improve, in the support for more physical switches and network devices."

"I want to see more in terms of microsegmentation. As of now, I can see the rules, but they are not in a readable format that I can convert to microsegmentation and can fit into NSX Manager."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"You don't have to pay for the dashboard."

"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."

"The price of Meraki Dashboard is not expensive because knowing that it is a cloud-based solution has its benefits."

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

"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 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."

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."

"Cost always has room for improvement, you could always make it cheaper. But I think it's a good value for what you pay for it."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 24% of the time

ThousandEyes vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 13% of the time

Zabbix vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 11% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 7% of the time

Mist AI and Cloud vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 6% of the time

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ThousandEyes vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 20% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 14% of the time

DX NetOps vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

DX Spectrum vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 12% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 12% of the time

More vRealize Network Insight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard

March 2025

Download Meraki Dashboard product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

March 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

No data available

Arkin

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

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

March 2025

Free Report: Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

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