Meraki Dashboard vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.4, while VMware is ranked #38 with an average rating of 8.7. Cisco holds a 1.2% 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 56 Meraki Dashboard reviews

2,570 Views
2,262 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,784 Views
1,284 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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

July 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

19th

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

38th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (41st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.2%, down from 1.9% 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 initial setup process is quite simple."

"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."

"I find it pretty straightforward and easy to use, especially compared to old, traditional methods."

"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."

"What I love most about the Meraki Dashboard are its user-friendly features."

"It's a simple, functional solution."

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

"Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place."

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."

"Also, the ability to troubleshoot all the way across the NSX part of it to the physical and actually watch the packets go through and then see where the bottleneck is or where the interruption is. We run queries on the network flows within the application to find where they are in it and it graphically tells us how the packets are actually going through the system."

"The most valuable feature for us is that insight into what our network is really doing - it's a fairly complex network. Not having to go through thousands of lines of network configuration to find firewall ports that were open or closed, for various ports, was very valuable. It went out and found everything we need very quickly."

"The most valuable features are the monitoring and tracking. It's also intuitive and user-friendly. The screen looks exactly the same as the other appliances for VMware, so it's easy to navigate."

"By doing dependency mapping, it makes migrations more efficient. There are less outages that require engineers to spend additional hours troubleshooting the migration failures."

"The most valuable features are the packet trace flow and that the view of the whole environment is deep."

"The most valuable feature is the visualization. It's really handy to be able to classify network objects as with applications and see the interaction between them."

"It has really tightened down the security. That was something that we were lacking. It has also given us deep visibility into our network. We can really get down and see all of the traffic within the data center, between the VMs, between the applications, database servers, other application servers, web servers. We can identify everything that is communicating, and we can see it all on one product."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"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."

"An area for improvement in Meraki Dashboard is licensing management because it's a little complex. Product licensing can be made a little bit easier through license concurrency and a more straightforward approach to applying the license to products and services."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"In general, how I add firewall rules is not great. It is just a little bit too simple the way it is right now."

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

More Meraki Dashboard cons

"After Broadcom acquired VMware, I would rate their support at five or less in many cases. It's difficult to find necessary documentation, open tickets, and get support."

"It just needs to be more reliable and more accurate. At some point, there are some things where it does not match properly."

"I would like to see them expand the capabilities to infrastructure types other than just VMware."

"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."

"The UI, even though once you get to know it, it's easier, still it's hard to figure out by yourself. You have to go read, watch videos. It has a lot of data on it. So that is an issue."

"I want to be able to monitor a network flow that is approximately two weeks back, but I haven't found an easy way to do this."

"In a very general way, I would like to see an improvement in interoperability with third-party product, from other vendors."

"The solution is very much viewer centric and it would be nice if it would transcend just the virtual infrastructure."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"The pricing of the tool is relatively high compared to other solutions. It comes with a premium that exceeds that of its competitors by approximately 25 percent."

"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."

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

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

"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."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

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

"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."

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

"It has brought more money into our company."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"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."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare 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...

See all answers

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?

The aspect I find challenging about this solution is that it is too extensive and complex. For example, when comparing Meraki Dashboard to Juniper Mist, the latter is quite simple. Mist is a very 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

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Compared 12% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 10% of the time

VMware Aria Operations for Applications vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard

June 2025

Download Meraki Dashboard product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

June 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

July 2025

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