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Meraki MX vs OPNsense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
317
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Meraki MX
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (3rd)
OPNsense
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28 - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective threat prevention with responsive customer support
We are using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall Fortinet FortiGate has been invaluable. It has helped save costs due to its various features, reliable performance, very good UI, low latency, and stability. The Threat Intel engine in Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for its effectiveness in…
Mike Cote - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to manage and dashboard allows us to see and manage customers
The solution's most valuable feature is the Meraki dashboard, which is a single pane of glass. The dashboard allows us to see and manage all our Meraki customers. Since it's cloud-based management, we can remotely support Meraki, which makes it easy for us. We like to sell and deploy Meraki MX because of the ease of management.
Eddy Ramirez - PeerSpot reviewer
Good interface and firewall capabilities and overall easy to use
The security has improved as we can isolate the network. We can do attrition prevention via a tool that comes with the solution. We can have a VPN solution in place for those that work from home, outside the network, in a secure manner. We also like that it offers good authentication. It offers radius-based authentication, which has been useful for the company. The main platform is under the Open VPN firewall. The solution has high availability. When we have different ISPs, we can actually load balance those links or actually put some priority or even classify the traffic that might go into one ISP or another.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”"
"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are remote access, web filtering, and IPS."
"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"Meraki MX has been a stable solution so far, and I haven't faced any issues with it."
"It has the most advanced security features, for example, layer 3 and layer 7 firewall capabilities and the end team and IPS protection. It also has IPS, and it has very good functioning of cloning services. You don't actually have to touch the device. If you have multiple companies in different countries, you don't really require this device to be touched. You can get it delivered directly to any office of a country, and then you can simply put your configuration over the cloud. It's very simplified and easy to manage. It gives a very good granular visibility about your network. Earlier, a lot of things were lacking in the network. We were unable to identify where the problem was, but after implementing Meraki MX, we are able to dig down and identify where is the problem. We can easily and quickly identify the sources and the root causes of the issues."
"To me, the analytics feature is one of the most valuable in Meraki MX. I also find that it has good usability as it's cloud-based. Another valuable feature of Meraki MX is that it's simple to use and it's user-friendly."
"Both the scalability and the scalability are great with Meraki MX."
"We switched to Meraki because it lets you see what's happening in your LAN and WAN in a graphic and web environment."
"The internet traffic shaping has been very valuable."
"It is a robust SD-WAN solution."
"It prevents us from being hacked and delivers information about who and where the attack came from."
"The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly which makes the product easy-to-use."
"The initial setup is easy. It only takes 15-30 minutes to deploy."
"The DNS-level filtering is impressive for thwarting time scanners."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"It's more secure and more reliable."
"The initial implementation process is simple."
"We have been operating here in our lab for several months, and everything appears to be extremely stable."
"OPNsense is highly stable."
 

Cons

"The stability of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"They've become quite expensive."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"It can be hard to get a hold of the solution’s technical support team."
"As far as what needs to be improved — nothing really comes to mind. It does what we need it to do."
"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."
"The product doesn't support route summarization and BGP dynamic routing protocol."
"Improvements are required more on the side of troubleshooting."
"Meraki has some hidden features and information that is only privy to their engineers. If that information became available to us, then it would improve our ease of management, and we would be able to make certain adjustments instead of having to go to them."
"I need more UTM protection security features."
"They need to improve the link between Meraki and Active Directory."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
"The IPS solution could be more reliable."
"SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) is integrated into some restricted service providers for OPNSense."
"The solution could be more secure."
"An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently. DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution. pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense."
"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet has one or two license types, and the VPN numbers are only limited by the hardware chassis make."
"The pricing is flexible."
"The price of FortiGate is good."
"The price of FortiGate is comparable to that of most other firewall solutions and is more affordable than Cisco."
"The pricing is perfect."
"It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet."
"The licensing costs are very low."
"A year or two years back, its price was competitive and reasonable. That was one of the reasons that people easily switched to Fortinet. Over the last two years, the prices have increased drastically. However, the prices of others have also increased. An advantage is there from the price point but not as much as it was previously."
"It can always improve pricewise regarding throughput."
"It is an expensive solution. There is a five-year licensing requirement. We already renewed licenses for all our devices."
"The price is slightly increased, but reasonable."
"The price could be lower, but compared to the TCO of other products, it's not really that expensive."
"The price varies depending on the hardware platform as well as the type of license and whether you're adding security or not."
"Our customers pay for the solution on a monthly basis."
"The solution is expensive compared to other vendors but you can get good discounts if you know the account manager. The product is less expensive than a normal Cisco subscription. The tool's hardware warranty is a lifetime but you need to purchase support which comes in three, five, and seven years subscriptions."
"We just have to pay for the product and the license. We have a license for three years, and it is renewed every three years. It costs $1,200 for three years for one endpoint. Meraki had a good promotion for remote workers or remote workforce. The discount is very good. This promotion continues till the next fiscal year of Cisco."
"We are not paying any licensing fees. OPNsense is completely free for us."
"It is open source and free."
"There are no licensing costs for OPNsence."
"It's a free solution."
"As an appliance, it's in the medium price range."
"We are using the paid version."
"It's not expensive."
"Its pricing is unbeatable in comparison to other firewalls. You can have a small instance that could be €80 a month with the hardware underneath. Azure Firewall and FortiGate are out of the question at this price. If you are on a public cloud, you need the underlying infrastructure. Other than that, there is no additional cost. If you have it on-prem, you have to buy the server or the appliance. The hardware cost is replaced with the infrastructure cost in the cloud. You also have costs for the public IPs and underlying VMs, but that's not related to OPNsense. It would be the same for a FortiGate deployment on Azure. You need a FortiGate license, and you need the underlying infrastructure that scales up depending on your needs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...
Fortigate 60d vs. Meraki MX67 for a small company without a dedicated IT Department
We have Meraki Mx devices now, we are looking to replace them. But that is because the Meraki MX platform lacks SSL I...
Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...
What do you like most about Meraki MX?
I am happy with the technical support for the solution. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.
What is the difference between PfSense and OPNsense?
Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and cl...
What do you like most about OPNsense?
What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OPNsense?
I consider the pricing of OPNsense to be high when compared with other market products. However, as a free firewall p...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600
No data available
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Hyatt, ONS
1. Deciso B.V. 2. iXsystems, Inc.  3. EuroBSDCon  4. Netgate  5. Claranet  6. Voleatech  7. Open Systems AG  8. Securebit AG  9. Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH  10. AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH  Additional customers include: T-Systems International GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone GmbH, 1&1 IONOS SE, OVHcloud, Hetzner Online GmbH, Strato AG, PlusServer GmbH, Host Europe GmbH, United Internet AG, 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH, QSC AG, Bechtle AG, Cancom SE, Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Atos SE, Capgemini SE, Accenture plc, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Meraki MX vs. OPNsense and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.