Meraki SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN comparison

The compared Cisco and Palo Alto Networks solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #1 in SDN , with an average rating of 8.8, and holds a 23.9% mindshare in the category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #5 in SDW , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

Meraki SD-WAN

Read 77 Meraki SD-WAN reviews

1,592 Views
1,029 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Prisma SD-WAN

Read 21 Prisma SD-WAN reviews

2,541 Views
1,267 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Meraki SD-WAN

Prisma SD-WAN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Meraki SD-WAN and Prisma SD-WAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, TP-Link and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN).

To learn more, read our detailed Software Defined Networking (SDN) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 849,190 peers since 2012

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 SD-WAN

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Networking (SDN) (1st)

Prisma SD-WAN

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (5th), WAN Edge (5th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Meraki SD-WAN is designed for Software Defined Networking (SDN) and holds a mindshare of 23.9%, down 24.5% compared to last year.
Prisma SD-WAN, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions, holds 6.0% mindshare, up 3.7% since last year.

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Featured Reviews

Martyn Walker

Business development manager at Virgin Media

Enables productivity in terms of users and has ease of management

Scalability could be improved. Yes, you can add more than 300 or 400 sites onto it, but because it's not a true SD-WAN and, effectively, it's just a Multi-VRF, it's all hub and spoke at that point. That's the nature of the design, but that's what keeps it simple to administer. So, it's a trade off.

Read full review

Engineerinfosec67

Senior Information Security Engineer at Westcon-Comstor

Centralized management streamlines global network traffic control

Prisma SD-WAN requires a more seamless integration with other Palo Alto solutions, like Prisma Access. Although there has been improvement, further steps can be taken. Additionally, it would be beneficial if the solution integrated the SD-WAN features of Prisma SD-WAN with the security features of Palo Alto's next-generation firewalls, as they currently do not align.

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 best feature we're using is the packet shaping."

"Meraki makes you believe that anything is possible."

"The solution is stable."

"The solution has many features available."

"The solution is easy to use."

"I'm not directly involved in SD-WAN monitoring and maintenance, but based on what I've heard from our infrastructure team, it's working well."

"Meraki SD-WAN saves costs for our customers and provides better connectivity."

"The most valuable features of this solution are load balancing and the security possibilities you have."

More Meraki SD-WAN pros

"The solution allows our network to be self-healing in the event of a loss of connectivity between different locations."

"The most valuable feature is the single pane of glass, especially since we have Palo Alto firewalls."

"The gateway is available on the cloud which allows you access from anywhere and still connects to your home gateway."

"If the MPLS goes down, there is a really smooth transition for a branch site to take traffic over the Internet. It will advertise the routes of that site in a jiffy."

"The dynamic routing in Prisma SD-WAN is high-speed and valuable because it quickly adjusts, so users do not realize the link is down."

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

"Prisma supports all of the applications we're currently using."

"From the main controller, we can administer the customer's devices, QoS, network, and traffic. We can monitor it and we can change and create policies as well as upgrade the software. We can totally control a customer's network from one site, the Prisma SD-WAN portal."

More Prisma SD-WAN pros

Cons

"There are literally things you cannot do at this point in a graphical user interface that can be done from a command line."

"This solution can only support up to two WAN ports."

"This vendor has issues with the supply chain that need to be improved."

"The only problem occurs when users are not paying attention and turn on the wrong switches, like power switches, in places they should not."

"There are currently issues with NAT-Unfriendly situations on G4 networks that should be resolved."

"Sometimes we face issues with VPN connections when someone connects from a different time zone, like from Georgia to the Middle East."

"They stopped doing WAN optimization as a feature set, which is lacking. They need to relook at that and consider WAN optimization as an option."

"You need to have internet access to configure the solution. You cannot do it locally, there should be a local option."

More Meraki SD-WAN cons

"Sometimes, during the product's initial setup phase, bypass pair or couple ports don't come up normally, and it requires an hour and a half to troubleshoot to reset the box from Prisma SD-WAN to factory default."

"Customer support is our biggest pain point. The quality of support has gone down a little since we initially deployed this product. I don't know if this is due to turnover at Palo Alto or a lack of training. It is now taking one or two days to get an initial response that says, "Hey, we've looked into this, can you pull this data for us?" In the past, we'd immediately get a response."

"We are incorporating their zone-based firewalls. Prisma SD-WAN has limited documentation on how it manipulates traffic, e.g., how it is interacting with TCP and UDP. We recently had some traffic that was black holing. We literally had to do packet captures to see that the new zone-based firewall, which runs on top of Prisma SD-WAN, was causing issues."

"Prisma SD-WAN requires a more seamless integration with other Palo Alto solutions, like Prisma Access."

"The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides."

"The tool needs to work on price and complexity."

"If Palo Alto could open the platform to manage other SD-WANs, it would be beneficial."

"Prisma could be a little cheaper."

More Prisma SD-WAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's price falls under the mid-range category, especially if we consider the new licensing model. The tool is not cheap anymore."

"Meraki's pricing is on the higher side, which may limit who can afford to use them."

"I don't have information on the exact cost of Meraki SD-WAN, but I'd rate it a three out of five just because the licensing model is very much associated with the Meraki solution."

"The pricing is fair, but if they can make it less it would be even more attractive."

"From the perspective of the customer, the price is not terribly cost-effective."

"Meraki solutions come with a choice of several different subscription options including one year, three years, five years, seven years, and ten years."

"They have a baseline software license, and then they've got an SD-WAN software license, and then they've got an advanced security software license. They're low cost, and they'll provide any amount of flexibility that you want from a modeling perspective for payment. Typically, it's either annually or multi-year, but they are a lower-cost company. They're not the most expensive by far."

"The product is not very expensive."

More Meraki SD-WAN pricing and cost advice

"Prisma SD-WAN is a pretty expensive solution."

"It is more expensive than Fortinet."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"This solution stood out because it cost considerably less than the other SD-WAN solutions out there from Cisco."

"If you're already invested in a Palo Alto product, it would be logical to use this solution. If not, there might be some other solutions that are more viable in terms of pricing."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Educational Organization

23%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Meraki SD-WAN?

The auto VPN feature is important because it automates many tasks, making things simpler and faster. It helps with setting up devices and changing configurations without manual effort.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki SD-WAN?

The price is a little bit higher than local vendors, for example, Huawei ZTE or H3C. However, some customers require the best quality and performance, thus needing solutions and products from Cisco.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?

They have to ask us many questions about configurations. It could be improved with some automation to trigger, for example, telemetry data, so we can determine the state of the deployment as of day...

See all answers

What do you like most about Prisma SD-WAN?

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma SD-WAN?

The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Prisma SD-WAN?

I think the product could be a bit cheaper, but otherwise, I am satisfied with it.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 21% of the time

Omada Cloud SDN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 20% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 16% of the time

Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 8% of the time

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 6% of the time

More Meraki SD-WAN Competitors

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 22% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 21% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 16% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 10% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 7% of the time

More Prisma SD-WAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki SD-WAN

April 2025

Download Meraki SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Prisma SD-WAN

April 2025

Download Prisma SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

CloudGenix

Overview

Software-defined WAN is a new approach to network connectivity that lowers operational costs and improves resource usage for multi-site deployments, allowing network administrators to use bandwidth more efficiently and ensure the highest possible level of performance for critical applications without sacrificing security or data privacy. For more information on deploying and configuring SD-WAN on the Meraki MX Security Appliance, see the Meraki SD-WAN Deployment Guide.

Cisco

Simplify management, enable app-defined SD-WAN policies and deliver a secure, cloud-delivered branch today with the Industry’s first next-generation SD-WAN.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

École Jeannine Manuel

Open Networking User Group, Columbia Sportswear Company, Coca Cola

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

April 2025

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, TP-Link and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.

We monitor all Software Defined Networking (SDN) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.