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Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points vs. Google Analytics

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ACisco's Meraki MR Series is a wireless LAN solution.N/A

    Google Analytics

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.

    $0

    per month

    Pricing
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsGoogle Analytics
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Google Analytics 360
    150,000
    per year
    Google Analytics
    Free
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsGoogle Analytics
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsGoogle Analytics
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    158 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    145 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    100 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    161 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    104 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    140 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    77 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    99%
    Implementation went as expected
    153 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    87 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsGoogle Analytics
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points and Google Analytics
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    -
    Ratings
    Google Analytics
    8.4
    11 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Lead Conversion Tracking00 Ratings8.210 Ratings
    Bounce Rate Measurement00 Ratings8.410 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting00 Ratings9.311 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking00 Ratings9.111 Ratings
    Event Tracking00 Ratings8.411 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time00 Ratings7.810 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking00 Ratings8.610 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards00 Ratings7.910 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsGoogle Analytics
    Small Businesses
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Lead Forensics
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsGoogle Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (176 ratings)
    8.5
    (193 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.5
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (51 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (12 ratings)
    7.4
    (19 ratings)
    Availability
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (28 ratings)
    7.0
    (42 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.9
    (112 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsGoogle Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    There is no doubt that these access points are objectively some of the best in the industry. If you need reliability, stability, range, and something to "set and forget" these are an easy choice for those things alone. However, these are most appropriate in high demand, large environments where you can take advantage of the RF tuning, wireless stability, and overall robustness of the platform. Another important note is the SUPPORT as well. There are competitors that I won't mention that simply don't have the level of support and expertise for complex troubleshooting if you ever need it, and that alone counts as significant factor when considering the product too. Merak has that covered.
    To wrap up, the cost for large deployment makes far more sense than at a small operation where you need something like 5 APs in a small/medium office for basic Wi-Fi needs. That includes potential cost of time spent troubleshooting future network issues too by IT personnel.
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Analytics is particularly well suited for tracking and analyzing customer behavior on a grocery e-commerce platform. It provides a wealth of information about customer behavior, including what products are most popular, what pages are visited the most, and where customers are coming from. This information can help the platform optimize its website for better customer engagement and conversion rates. However, Google Analytics may not be the best tool for more advanced, granular analysis of customer behavior, such as tracking individual customer journeys or understanding customer motivations. In these cases, it may be more appropriate to use additional tools or solutions that provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • It's cloud based, so as long as we have an internet connection, we can access it. Whenever we push a change, it's one stop like a single pane of glass to manage all our equipment. And so that's what I liked about it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Multiple reports to see website use and behavior
    • Allows you to customize reports with days, weeks, months, and years
    • You can build out a dashboard to easily view stats from multiple websites in one place
    • You can share analytics reports via the dashboard, automatically emailed PDFs or in other formats
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Internet connection dependency for management. Management is cloud-based, requiring a strong internet connection. Local management is not possible in the event of network problems or internet outages.
    • Limited in-depth configuration options. Some more detailed configuration settings are missing or difficult to configure, such as RF tuning and QoS. These are available in some other Cisco products.
    • License costs: an active license must always be present in the environment, otherwise the product won't work. It's easy to purchase, but if you're going to be expanding regularly, the costs will add up considerably. Ultimately, it's wise to factor this into your purchase.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Data sampling is somewhat inaccurate on the free tier - this is addressed in premium but is expensive.
    • Some of the UI is very similar in naming when presenting different data, some in-situ information might be useful.
    • Gotchas around filtering and data validation.
    • Implementation can be tricky, it can take a lot of time and expertise to get a full, accurate picture of your metrics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    It is a solution that works very well. It is almost like setup and forget, since the solution works. When issues occur, documentation is available with detailed steps on how to solve this problems you are facing, of course Technical Support is always ready to help. We have had instances where an Access Point fails and within 2 days we have the replacement
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    We will continue to use Google Analytics for several reasons. It is free, which is a huge selling point. It houses all of our ecommerce stores' data, and though it can't account for refunds or fraud orders, gives us and our clients directional, real time information on individual and group store performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    To get basic functionality doesn't take long. Set up a new Meraki Dashboard activate the licenses and get internet connection for the APs and you are more or less done. The Dashboard will find your items and you're good to go.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem. Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    We have been deploying Meraki since last 8 years and even the first one deployed seems to be working fine till now!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    We all know Google is at top when it comes to availability. We have never faced any such instances where I can suggest otherwise. All you need is a Google account, a device and internet connection to use this super powerful tool for reporting and visualising your site data, traffic, events, etc. that too in real time.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    This has been a catalyst for improving our site's traffic handling capabilities. We were able to identify exit% from our sites through it and we used recommendations to handle and implement the same in our sites. We have been increasing the usage of Google Analytics in our sites and never had any performance related issues if we used Analytics
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    We have not had any issues with the Meraki WiFi Access Point hardware but we did encounter a problem with a Meraki LAN switch that failed to power up. Upon a email into the Meraki Support, they promptly called back and we went over some quick tests to determine a power supply problem. A replacement LAN switch was sent to me the next day.
    Read full review
    Google
    The Google reps respond very quickly. However, sometimes they can overly call you to set up an apportionment. I'm very proficient and sometimes when I talk to reps, they give beginner tutorials and insights that are a waste of time. I wish Google would understand my level of expertise and assign me to a rep (long-term) that doesn't have to walk me through the basics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    love the product and training they provide for businesses of all sizes. The following list of links will help you get started with Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented by Google Analytics.
    1. How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners – Mahalo’s how-to guide for beginners.
    2. A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics – A free eBook walking you through Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented.
    3. Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard – The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
    4. Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports– This guide doesn’t cover setup, but it does a great job of helping you to better understand the data being presented.
    5. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup – A video presentation that walks you through Google Analytics setup.
    6. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats – A video presentation that introduces you to some of the most important data being presented in Google Analytics.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    There were documents that detailed how the WiFi Access Point was to be installed and mounted. The only issue was to cable the device, we use a third party for this type of work and typically has to be performed after normal business hours. Other than that, the installation was easy.
    Read full review
    Google
    I think my biggest take away from the Google Analytics implementation was that there needs to be a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it before you start. Originally the analytics were added to track visitors, but as we became more savvy with the product, we began adding more and more functionality, and defining guidelines as we went along. While not detrimental to our success, this lack of an overarching goal resulted in some minor setbacks in implementation and the collection of some messy data that is unusable.
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    The Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points fare really well against HPE Aruba AP. The cost difference is minimal on the hardware although things get more expensive on support and subscription cost (on going cost). Speed and throughput seems to be better on Cisco Meraki (user feedback and experience not technically measured). User connectivity is better with HPE Aruba primarily because of the Clearpass solution on top of its generic software management.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    I have not used Adobe Analytics as much, but I know they offer something called customer journey analytics, which we are evaluating now. I have used Semrush, and I find them much better than Google Analytics. I feel a fairly nontechnical person could learn Semrush in about a month. They also offer features like competitive analysis (on content, keywords, traffic, etc.), which is very useful. If you have to choose one among Semrush and Google Analytics, I would say go for Semrush.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    As far as I know, it's 10. I mean, because like I said, I manage stuff in the south. I have coworkers that manage it in the north. And so the scalability of it to be able to be go in and see the configurations of the ones in the north as well as they can see in the south. So across the board, it works really well for how widespread out it is.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Google Analytics is currently handling the reporting and tracking of near about 80 sites in our project. And I am not talking about the sites from different projects. They may have way more accounts than that. Never ever felt a performance issue from Google's end while generating or customising reports or tracking custom events or creating custom dimensions
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Uptime has improved significantly. The dashboard automatically keeps devices up to date by scheduling upgrades at remote times (say 2am on a Sunday)
    • Swapping to Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points has reduced the management overhead. No more long controller software hardware upgrades and obviously no more need for beefy central controllers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • It has helped us gain understanding of what is going on on our website.
    • It has helped us determine areas that need fixing (i.e. pages with extremely high bounce rates may need to be redone).
    • It has helped us understand our biggest avenues for bringing traffic to the website and business in general.
    • It has helped guide our website redesign.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points Screenshots

    Screenshot of MR57 Cisco Meraki Access Point