Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000) vs. Cisco Meraki MX

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000) provides a scalable, flexible foundation so you can quickly integrate leading IT initiatives like SD-WAN and edge compute, while meeting the explosive network performance need driven by cloud-based application adoption.N/A
Cisco Meraki MX
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Meraki MX Firewalls is a combined UTM and Software-Defined WAN solution. Meraki is managed via the cloud, and provides core firewall services, including site-to-site VPN, plus network monitoring.
$595
per appliance
Pricing
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)Cisco Meraki MX
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
MX64
$595
per appliance
MX67
$695
per appliance
MX68
$995
per appliance
MX84
$1,995
per appliance
MX100
$4,995
per appliance
MX250
$9,995
per appliance
MX450
$19,995
per appliance
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)Cisco Meraki MX
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)Cisco Meraki MX
Considered Both Products
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)

No answer on this topic

Cisco Meraki MX
Chose Cisco Meraki MX
They are equipment or solutions that provide similar characteristics at the level of routing, administration of internet links and security features for the customer's network. However, we opted for Cisco Meraki for clients who require much more agile deployments, who have …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)Cisco Meraki MX
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)
-
Ratings
Cisco Meraki MX
7.7
85 Ratings
10% below category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.081 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.482 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings7.381 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings7.379 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings7.071 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings7.783 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings7.185 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings8.181 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings8.481 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings8.076 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings7.044 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)Cisco Meraki MX
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)Cisco Meraki MX
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(70 ratings)
8.2
(114 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(4 ratings)
8.2
(5 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(5 ratings)
9.2
(7 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(15 ratings)
8.0
(15 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(81 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.5
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)Cisco Meraki MX
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Actually if we place it into the internet gateway, we do nothing in front of the firewall. Yes, it's working well also, if we put into the routing, it works well. But we should not use it instead of switch. Because some people tend to use the router instead of layer three suite. So yes, I try to use it.
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Cisco
Small office, small business, medium business even larger enterprise can work on Cisco Meraki MX if they can sacrifice some of the functionality that Cisco Meraki MX can not provide. To enhance security, I would advise combining with cloud delivered firewall.
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Pros
Cisco
  • The ISR 4000 is an excellent router for our voice services. We purchased CUBE licensing in order to do this.
  • The ISR 4000 is an excellent router for security purposes as well. We purchased the security license with the router and that allowed us to run a Zone-Based Firewall.
  • The ISR 4000 is very simple and straight forward to configure.
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Cisco
  • The management is the best. I'm an old-fashioned networking guy, so I'm used to going to the site itself and connecting. For example, a console cable and start and start configuring. Now since the management is so easy on Meraki I can configure everything from the headquarters from where I sit in Israel and then just go to the site and connect and basically, it's plug and play. After I configure everything from my office in Israel, I can just go to the site for a few hours, and connect everything. Just the magic happens.
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Cons
Cisco
  • A greater number of onboard WAN ports would be an improvement over the model we purchased, which only had two. [This] means we'll have to buy more expensive network cards to get more convenience.
  • The small router was a plus in some branches, but it was a hindrance in others. Its width is about half the size of the rack, so we had to keep it on top of another device.
  • When compared to its competitors, the rack mounting kit is unreliable and expensive to purchase.
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Cisco
  • Map and floor plan area is clunky.
  • The way you need to segment devices by network causes you to need to go to different dropdowns to see everything at a single site. They have improved this and now allow you to add firewall, switches and wireless to create a single site, but still a bit clunky.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
We renew Cisco end of life devices with current models.
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Cisco
As we have it in place now, we will continue to keep it at our remote sites. Future expansion is something we are reviewing, and may well start with some of the larger switches as they seem to offer good performance and management at a reasonable price. Wireless is also something we're investing in and their devices are great for that.
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Usability
Cisco
Cisco Integrated Services 4000 series routers are very easy to use and manage. With the use of integrated management controllers, you can deploy new sites within minutes
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Cisco
The Cisco Meraki MX series is very easy to use. Setting up user VPN access, site to site VPN to tie multiple locations together and managing all your devices. You can even download the latest firmware and install without ever leaving the dashboard. Meraki is the very definition of easy to use
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Support Rating
Cisco
There is always room for improvement with support, but Cisco support has been good to me over the years. Being able to call or submit online TAC cases makes it so I can get my issues or questions answered faster. They have even added the TAC bot for TAC cases to get to support even faster!
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Cisco
I haven't ever had a bad experience with Meraki support. On the few occasions where I wasn't understanding the UI or needed some clarification about what a setting actually would do, I contacted them and they were very quickly able to provide help. Returns are simple and fast, too. We had to return a defective device one time and they shipped the replacement before we had even un-racked the one that was faulty. Unlike many other vendors, they didn't ask use to a do long list of scripted diagnostics, they just took my word for it that the device was broken and sent out a replacement immediately
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
If you planning on upgrading your network to software defined networks, Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers are the best. To successfully implement the project you need to plan and communicate with all your stake holders
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Cisco
Good product and simple to use.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We did not compare the Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers to other competitors as we used Cisco for a long period of time already. We selected this product as we used a lot of CISCO products in the past and with good support. Other products don't have the protocols that CISCO products have.
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Cisco
Overall, for a new network admin or a non-IT person, the Cisco Meraki MX is much easier to configure for a single site than the Cisco ASA Firewalls. ASA can be quicker for those with a background in Cisco command line OS.
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Scalability
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
The Cisco Meraki MX is basically a good product, but not perfect. If you compare the Cisco Meraki MX with a Fortigate or Cisco Firepower, you quickly realize that this system can do less than the reference product. The Cisco Meraki MX can be used in small environments, but in large environments you have to check carefully whether it really makes sense to use it.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Can be used for ISE, Meraki access point, FTD firewall, works well, no worry about integration with any third party product. As this device can be multipurpose, ROI is faster and usable for longer period of time, as no EOL any time soon
  • This is an integrated modular device so even if my small offices are closed over a period of time, this can be re-purposed for other requirements within organization
  • This device supports WAN optimization within software. This reduces the requirement of that specific optimization device, which reduces my overall cost for a branch network
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Cisco
  • VPN tunnel between locations has been up 99% of the time in the 7 years that I have used the Cisco Meraki MXs in my current position. That does not include ISP issues because, in my mind, that shouldn't dictate the performance of the Cisco Meraki MXs.
  • Sometimes we get phishing emails with malicious links in them. We are able to block the URLs on our network using the Cisco Meraki MXs, and the appliance configuration sets in less than a minute. Blocking that link for anyone over VPN or on the LAN.
  • The interface is really simple and configuration is a breeze, which makes deploying a new Cisco Meraki MX really fast and easy. Replacing an Cisco Meraki MX is even easier, Just remove the old and add the new and all the configuration stays for the new appliance to use. Saves so much time and money.
  • The biggest thing is we have not had really any issues with any of our Cisco Meraki MXs going down in the past 7 years. The reliability with these devices are amazing.
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ScreenShots