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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/ACisco Catalyst SD-WAN is a software-defined wide area network solution designed to simplify and optimize enterprise network connectivity in complex digital landscapes. It enables organizations to connect any user to any application, whether on-premises, in data centers, or across multiple clouds, with integrated capabilities for multicloud support, security, predictive automation, and enhanced network visibility—all built on a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)-enabled…N/A

    Cisco Meraki MX

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco 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 Catalyst SD-WANCisco 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 Catalyst SD-WANCisco Meraki MX
    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 SD-WANCisco Meraki MX
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
    MX is designed to be a simple approach to SD-WAN/Firewall. It doesnt really compare when comparing features except that it is way simpler and easy to configure. When it comes to the feature set, Catalyst SD-WAN wins
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
    Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is more flexible
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
    Fácil implementación e integración a la red actual // Easy implementation and integration with modern networks
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
    Cisco brand name. Ease of setup and rollout.
    Incentivized
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Meraki MX
    Cisco Meraki MX is easy if you don't need multi-tenancy solutions and if the routing in the network is not so complex. But Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution is more powerful and has more features compared to Meraki.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Meraki MX
    Cisco Meraki MX is easier to configure snd manage
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Meraki MX
    To Fortinet very similar, I always sell the easy patching and secure development.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Meraki MX
    It’s very similar to Cisco ASA but there are differences in use, first and most important for me is the way you control and manage your network through Meraki Dashboard and online. You can do it in your home without a VPN. The second is that clients like banks and financial …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    133 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    171 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    116 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    160 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    135 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    167 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93 Answers
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    145 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    109 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    164 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Meraki MX
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and Cisco Meraki MX
    Feature
    Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
    -
    Ratings
    Cisco Meraki MX
    7.8
    173 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Identification Technologies00 Ratings7.8167 Ratings
    Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.4162 Ratings
    Content Inspection00 Ratings7.7158 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls00 Ratings7.7160 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings7.8132 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console00 Ratings7.7158 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging00 Ratings7.1166 Ratings
    VPN00 Ratings8.6157 Ratings
    High Availability00 Ratings8.5158 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection00 Ratings7.5149 Ratings
    Proxy Server00 Ratings7.188 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Meraki MX
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    VMware SD-WAN
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Meraki MX
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (150 ratings)
    9.0
    (218 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (16 ratings)
    Usability
    8.7
    (67 ratings)
    9.2
    (13 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.3
    (15 ratings)
    8.9
    (19 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.7
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.2
    (4 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.9
    (184 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.6
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Meraki MX
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    It's great for connectivity. I think if you're looking at. There's a lot of players out there that do SD- WAN, you can do hosted solutions, you can do your own. If you're looking to do it yourself, I think this product works out well. I do know it's hosted elsewhere by some other companies, but for us, we want the control and we don't have a huge amount of sites, so being able to control that's important and the data that we can get out of the product, we can see just seeing the application experience through Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, really gives us good information.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    The Meraki MX lineup is well suited for organizations that need centralized management of multiple locations, as it allows for both quick deployment and simple/easy remote administration all from a single pane of glass. It also works very well for providing VPN access for remote workers and helps monitor end-device uptime. It does, however, fall a bit short in its firewall's customization, compared to traditional appliances (like our WatchGuard Firebox), so perhaps less suited for organizations that need more customization, as the Meraki MX lineup is primarily designed for simplicity and straightforward cloud-based management.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • We are able to use a multiple different circuits to go into the cloud, so we are not relying on just one particular private wireless. We're relying on wine circuits, ethernet, ethernet out. So it provides us that flexibility where we didn't have that before. Provides security that is very robust and flexible and scalable and it provides us with, the biggest thing is redundancy, where we have backup. For example, we have a Starlink for nuclear power plants. If our main circuits go down, we have that. And without Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN it would be very hard to actually achieve, to accomplish true redundancy. So we're happy with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN in that regard.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • The Cisco Meraki MX series is phenomenal at allowing us to remotely manage networks. So the devices usually act as the brain behind our client's networks, which makes it really, really easy for our team to take a look at what's going on in those client network environments, resolve any issues, and make sure that our client's networks are staying secure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • I will say the way we use it now, and I think what happened was the way it was deployed, it was fine, but unfortunately over the course of the years we've gotten a little out of hand with our device templates and feature templates. I think if there's any form of feedback that I would give to Cisco is how do we find ways to improve the environment as it stands so we get to a certain point with the environment and then we don't know how to undo it or fix it or optimize the environment. Because right now we're in a position where we're playing a lot of catch up and clean up and if there was a way or some tool or feature that we can take advantage of that would allow us to optimize that environment where we will kind of corner ourselves into a lot of problems in the future. There's some feature or something that we could take advantage of that will allow us to optimize that environment and not let it get out of control pretty easily. That would be my suggestion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • Layer seven firewall rules. Just making them more granular. We've been in meetings with Cisco SES where I've said feature requests many times and that's one of the big ones where it's just a little cumbersome to implement layer seven rules right now.
    • Just making them more granular. We've been in meetings with Cisco SES where I've said feature requests many times and that's one of the big ones where it's just a little cumbersome to implement layer seven rules right now.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    I would rate SD-WAN highly because it has significantly improved network performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency for my organization. Its ability to optimize traffic dynamically, enhance security, and simplify management across multiple locations has been invaluable. With SD-WAN, we’ve reduced dependency on costly MPLS, improved cloud application performance, and gained greater control over our network infrastructure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    The simplicity and ease of use for the Meraki Dashboard make it an easy choice for our organization to renew our Meraki Enterprise Agreement. We will likely continue using the Meraki MC67-C, MX450, and other MX models in their catalog until we shift away from Meraki completely
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    The niche configurations are given equal focus as the standard use cases, which can make onboarding difficult in the beginning (ie why am I not using an entire tab of the portal), but aside from that part, the dashboard is relatively easy to navigate and apply the configuration. The metrics and analytics available are also nice to have in a single pane.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Some features simply aren't there, but the ones that are there are pretty easy to use. Sometimes it is easy to get lost when trying to find the specific device you want to work on, but that's mostly due to how rarely we have to go into the interface.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    I think if we could afford, we could have HA inplace but we planned out outage and workaround to avoid any outages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Meraki MX devices support high availability (HA) configurations, which ensures minimal downtime if one device goes offline. This feature has helped us maintain a stable and reliable network, even in cases of hardware failures. ince Meraki is cloud-managed, we've noticed that the cloud infrastructure is generally highly reliable, with minimal service interruptions or downtime. This makes it easier to manage the network remotely without significant availability concerns. Meraki automatically pushes firmware updates and patches, which helps maintain system stability without requiring manual intervention. These updates are rolled out in a manner that ensures minimal disruption to service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Cisco
    It does slow down over the period but it's same with other product. you need to clear/reboot services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    The interface is pretty responsive. The lower end devices are easy to overwhelm if you have a lot of throughput. Be sure the model you get is rated for the amount of traffic you will have. Overbuild if possible, otherwise you won't be fully leveraging the connection from your ISP.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Al ser soluciones integradas del portafolio de soluciones de Cisco, el soporte es transversal a cada uno de los componentes implementados, teniendo el cliente la capacidad de resolver sus inconvenientes bajo una misma infraestructura que está totalmente homologada, satisfacciendo de esta manera, las necesidades del cliente asi como permitiendo, que este se concentre en su negocio. Since the Cisco SD-WAN tools are a part of Cisco’s broader portfolio of solutions, support cross-cuts to each of our deployed components, with our company as the customer having the ability to solve our problems through the same, approved infrastructure. Their support team easily satisfies the customer’s needs so that they continue to focus on business functions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    great when they offered it, really tested your knowledge with hands on and see what your peers from other orgs know. glad to see that we were ahead of the curve of what our peers knew
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    it was okay as it was moderated but still better than nothing and done via semi self paced webex meeting
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    I was late to participate but my team was very happy with the outcome.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Implementing Meraki MX devices in phases—starting with a pilot group or select branch offices—was invaluable. This allowed us to identify potential configuration issues, troubleshoot problems, and refine our setup before rolling it out company-wide. It also helped to get feedback from early users and adjust the deployment strategy accordingly. The SD-WAN capabilities in Meraki MX were essential for optimizing our WAN traffic and ensuring better application performance across various locations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We've used the old Cisco SD-WAN, which no longer exists. It was a lot more complex to configure what is now called Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. So they've definitely come a long way in that it is a lot less complicated to set up and template based.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Cisco CVO (MEVO) As previously mentioned we needed to manually configure each one which would take 15-20 minutes per device and needed to be done on-site. These devices can also go down more frequently after power outages and other incidents, and we've seen them not come back online. These devices are also much larger.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    I didn't take part of this decision but it always multiyear contract get best discount.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Cisco
    Really strength in scalability. Only thigs it's depends on some prototype Cisco product which you can't work with other Cisco products.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    We started only with the Main Meraki MX85 in our enterprise for our main hub, then we started adding remote sites with Meraki MX 68 and connected to our Main hub. Adding more sites and scaling the network is easy, and improving our connectivity saves time and cost to manage, or adding manpower with only 1 dashboard can manage all applications. Scaling and flexibility to change or expand our network are easy thanks to Meraki MX features
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Our branch offices can connect to our enterprise network and the internet quickly and securely, which has helped to increase productivity and reduce downtime.
    • We have been able to reduce our dependence on expensive MPLS connections, and instead utilize a combination of broadband and LTE connections, which are more cost-effective
    • The centralized location improves network visibility and troubleshooting process
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • From a positive impact? Basically it allows us to set up shop very quickly. It allowed us to add sites to our network very quickly. From a negative perspective, I think the only thing is that I can see from a negative perspective is I have a preference to working with ACLI in terms of how I engage with the youth tool At the moment, the only way to actually engage with a tool is on a gui and sometimes what I'd actually like is more detailed information in terms of actual configuration that you'll actually get out of ACLI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots