Cisco Catalyst Center vs. Cisco Meraki Dashboard

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst Center
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Catalyst Center provides an intent-based platform for managing enterprise networks across campus, branch, and edge environments. It combines automation, analytics, and assurance to streamline IT operations, improve security posture, and reduce manual tasks. With integratedAI/ML-driven insights, policy-based controls, and end-to-end visibility across wired and wireless infrastructures, Catalyst Center empowers IT teams toproactively detect issues, enforce compliance, and accelerate…N/A
Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
As a cloud-managed network management solution, the Cisco Meraki Dashboard enables users to provision, configure, and troubleshoot global networking and IoT deployments.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst CenterCisco Meraki Dashboard
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst CenterCisco Meraki Dashboard
Free Trial
NoYes
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 Catalyst CenterCisco Meraki Dashboard
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst Center
Chose Cisco Catalyst Center
As my enterprise is completely on Cisco 9000 series catalyst series switches I preferred Cisco DNA for Unified Network Management so that it Offers end-to-end visibility and control across campus, branch, and WAN networks with a single pane of glass. Also this provides me with …
Chose Cisco Catalyst Center
We are still deploying to Meraki. The dashboard does have many similar features but not a 1:1
Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Chose Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Closest thing would be Cisco Catalyst Center and we use that for our switch infrastructure. It's mainly configuration backup and firmware updater at this point, like keeping everything provisioned and up to date. We haven't really started pushing configs through there yet, but …
Chose Cisco Meraki Dashboard
The Cisco Meraki Dashboard is of course the most user friendly and the NDFC is being modified to look similar to the Cisco Meraki Dashboard as of today.
Chose Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Meraki Dashboard is a better product but has limits due to being cloud managed. Missing full CLI and config backups
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst CenterCisco Meraki Dashboard
Small Businesses
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.1 out of 10
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Intermapper
Intermapper
Score 8.4 out of 10
Intermapper
Intermapper
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Score 9.1 out of 10
Catchpoint
Catchpoint
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst CenterCisco Meraki Dashboard
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(244 ratings)
9.2
(48 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.6
(7 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(17 ratings)
9.3
(48 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(32 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst CenterCisco Meraki Dashboard
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Security with identity-based access control and segmentation via integration with Cisco ISE, supporting zero-trust architectures. Centralized Management for a large campus environment with centralized management of wired and wireless equipment. Automation of tasks like: provisioning, configuration, and software upgrade, reducing manual effort of those tasks. It could be improved to Multi-Vendor Support.
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Cisco
Cisco Meraki Dashboard is a great solution for managing a large number of networks across a single organization or multiple. For new projects we are able to set up the entire network in the dashboard with all of the needed settings, plug all of the devices in at our office and have them download their settings, so on the date of deployment, the equipment comes online and is ready to go immediately.
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Pros
Cisco
  • I enjoy having a more modern tool for viewing PSIRTs and CVEs on our catalyst devices.
  • I enjoy all the different views I have for my inventory.
  • I think templates work well for zero day configuration.
  • I love the newer features for showing what configuration is going to be changed and deployed before you deploy it.
  • I like that I can see in-band and out-of-band configuration history.
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Cisco
  • The ability to monitor any port and get accurate information on its activity.
  • The ability to port cycle and reboot remotely. This is best for off-hour reboots.
  • Being able to search for devices through the client page with an IP address or MAC address saves time on device searches.
  • It is an easy process to add and remove devices to different organizations.
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Cons
Cisco
  • Granularity. And so for us, and our use case might not be the same as a majority of customers, but we have a environment which frequently changes. So we're not a traditional corporate environment which stays relatively static or still reprovision. We want to reconfigure our environment to meet whatever the needs of our customers are. And at the moment it's like for some of the ways that we have to configure it, we just want to give something a little tap, but we have to hit it with a sledgehammer, which then often has knock on impacts other services.
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Cisco
  • Cloud communication could be improved
  • Rebooting network switch like an MS120 remotely takes more time vs MX64 for some reason
  • Quicker response time for status updates. Cisco Meraki Dashboard take too long to update sometimes
  • Uptime for all devices not just the switches but firewalls and APs would be great to have
  • Timeline improvements/more detail timeline
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
I think new products are often "half-baked" or over hyped when they release, as was the case with DNAC. We were well ahead of the curve in acquiring it. But as it has matured it is now a fantastic addition to our infrastructure. I think we are easing into a stage where it is hard to envision a large organization NOT having Catalyst Center in place. If for nothing outside of the mapping and troubleshooting aspects; using it as a "source of truth".
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
Cisco DNA Center is going to help us in security, simplicity and ease of administration. Cisco DNA Center is complete management and control platform that simplifies and streamlines network operations. Cisco DNA Center offers a single dashboard for every core function in your network. With this platform, IT can become more nimble and respond to changes and challenges faster and more intelligently.
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Cisco
The dashboard is easy to navigate and offers many pages that are loaded with information. Cisco Meraki adds new features to the dashboard based on customer feedback and I have seen so many updates and changes that have improved upon the previous version. Most recently they have added Cisco's AI and are looking at an Automation option that will only further improve usability.
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Support Rating
Cisco
El soporte de CISCO DNA Center es muy bueno, responden a mis dudas pero no he tenido oportunidad de reportar un incidente o determinar un tiempo de respuesta critico. The support of CISCO DNA Center is very good, they answer my questions, but I have not had the opportunity to report an incident or determine a critical response time.
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Cisco
Support seems very knowledgeable and provides detail summary about the call. They even follow up later to check on your case.
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Online Training
Cisco
It was informative, but the labs were not available long enough for us to get intimately familiar with CCNA before it was closed. The course instructor was well informed and got us as close to ready as she could.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We started out with using Cisco Prime infrastructure and we migrated to DNA center or Catalyst Center from Prime Infrastructure. We found that it wasn't apples to Apples migration. It wasn't exactly, it wasn't a direct upgrade. There were a lot of key differences, but yeah, I think that that was probably the most similar thing
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Cisco
The Cisco Meraki Dashboard is of course the most user friendly and the NDFC is being modified to look similar to the Cisco Meraki Dashboard as of today.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Yeah, I mean that last one for sure. The software independent of the hardware, I mean, it's just easy. They made it so easy to just, and fast and efficient to upgrade your entire organization within days, weeks, months. And you're not spending, your maintenance windows get a lot shorter. You can schedule more maintenance windows just because you know there's going to be some type of consistency with it and there's just, I'm sure there will be a hiccup one day, but there just hasn't really been too many issues with us using that product, especially for maintenance, window upgrades, things like that.
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Cisco
  • It's definitely allowed us to operate with a smaller team and allowed us to troubleshoot issues quicker. The Meraki dashboard with Meraki APs has helped us identify issues on our wireless network, monitor the health, and really help our remote locations out with troubleshooting and getting devices online quicker.
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ScreenShots

Cisco Catalyst Center Screenshots

Screenshot of AIOpsScreenshot of BaselinesScreenshot of PoliciesScreenshot of HealthScreenshot of Network HierarchyScreenshot of PoE

Cisco Meraki Dashboard Screenshots

Screenshot of Connect MS225 24portScreenshot of ConnectMS225 24portScreenshot of SECURITY MX64WScreenshot of SECURITY MX64WScreenshot of Connect MS225 24port