Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points vs. SonicWall SonicWave Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Cisco's Meraki MR Series is a wireless LAN solution.N/A
SonicWave Series
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
SonicWall offers the SonicWave series of WiFi access points. The SonicWave is available in the SonicWave 200 and SonicWave 400 series.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsSonicWall SonicWave Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsSonicWave Series
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 Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsSonicWall SonicWave Series
Best Alternatives
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsSonicWall SonicWave Series
Small Businesses
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
Score 9.2 out of 10
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Score 9.8 out of 10
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Score 9.2 out of 10
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsSonicWall SonicWave Series
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(142 ratings)
6.2
(5 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.4
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.7
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(82 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.7
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsSonicWall SonicWave Series
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
It's ideal if the company frequently uses mobile devices that need to work on Wi-Fi. It's also ideal if a company has multiple locations. Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points can then be easily deployed and managed via a central Meraki Dashboard. It also offers a powerful content filtering feature within the Cisco Meraki environment. This can be particularly useful for guest networks and in locations where certain content cannot be downloaded, such as a school.It's less suitable if a company has a limited IT budget and the network needs to be continuously expanded. In those cases, the associated license costs can quickly add up. In factories or other robustly built environments, RF tuning isn't feasible. As a result, the signal quality can sometimes be somewhat reduced.
Read full review
SonicWall
Helps ensure a better user experience by designing a wireless network optimized for your environment. The wireless network's safety and satisfaction are improved for the company. Even more important is the need to protect the information that travels over it and that is where SonicWALL wireless network security, in a nutshell, provides a solution with true excellence.
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.
Read full review
SonicWall
  • The problem we are addressing with SonicWall SonicWave Series is security over our network. We handle information and have to keep everything confidential. So we use SonicWall SonicWave Series to keep our network safe from intrusion and anybody who may want to try to get into our system to do harm
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • It can expand its radio range in terms of distance reach
  • It can improve it's design as it looks like a plain flat brick
  • I would like to see more integration with security
  • Better solution in segmenting and authentication like clearpass
Read full review
SonicWall
  • Detailed setup instructions
  • Auto Setup Feature for mesh
  • Provide filters without a yearly subscription
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
Read full review
SonicWall
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
SonicWall
No answers on this topic
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!
Read full review
SonicWall
No answers on this topic
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
SonicWall
No answers on this topic
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
SonicWall
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We were more on a Cisco Wireless Controller set up, which takes a lot longer to control and that's why we've actually gone through a cloud-based product, which is very easy compared with the old traditional way that we used to have. It's more ease of software. They've got very similar features, but it's easy to set up and maintain into the future.
Read full review
SonicWall
We evaluated Aruba and then evaluated SonicWall. SonicWall had fewer features, but it was cost-effective and suitable for our budget. Aruba, on other hand, was a dedicated WiFi solution and it was way costlier than SonicWall firewall and access point together, hence we selected SonicWall Sonicwave for our branch offices and Aruba for our head office where user count is more, and even management users are present in head office.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
SonicWall
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
SonicWall
  • SonicWall has an intuitive user interface that allows you to manage all the sound waves in a piece from a single pane of glass.
  • In addition, it is easy to register and onboard access points with SonicWall.
  • As simple as scanning the QR code, the API is automatically added to the network infrastructure once you have registered your new access points and the SonicWALL Wi-Fi Planner tool.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points Screenshots

Screenshot of MR57 Cisco Meraki Access Point