Cisco Meraki MX vs. Cisco Small Business RV Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Cisco Small Business RV Series
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
The Cisco Small Business RV Series provides SMBs with connectivity, VPN for remote employees, and other features.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Meraki MXCisco Small Business RV Series
Editions & Modules
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
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Meraki MXCisco Small Business RV 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 MXCisco Small Business RV Series
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco Meraki MXCisco Small Business RV Series
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Meraki MX
7.7
85 Ratings
10% below category average
Cisco Small Business RV Series
-
Ratings
Identification Technologies8.081 Ratings00 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.482 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Inspection7.381 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls7.379 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP7.071 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console7.783 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.285 Ratings00 Ratings
VPN8.181 Ratings00 Ratings
High Availability8.481 Ratings00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.076 Ratings00 Ratings
Proxy Server7.044 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco Meraki MXCisco Small Business RV Series
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Meraki MXCisco Small Business RV Series
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(114 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(15 ratings)
7.7
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(81 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Meraki MXCisco Small Business RV Series
Likelihood to Recommend
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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Cisco
It's best suited for small offices 10-25 users. Any more and its best to move away to a more higher tier. It will be less appropriate for a mid level company with a large staff. It's best for a small business with a limited budget and less strenuous security functionality.
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Pros
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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Cisco
  • It has the typical firewall functions you'd expect in an all in one unit.
  • GUI interface is easier to use by less technical users.
  • The extra features such as VLANs are nice to have.
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Cons
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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Cisco
  • More switchports would be welcome, although this would increase cost and size
  • Faster wireless would improve performance
  • An SPF port would allow uplinking to more business-class switches
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Likelihood to Renew
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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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Usability
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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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Cisco
The features are good. The support is good. The resources to deploy, manage, and operate it are good. Customer's feedback and testimonials are good. The updates in terms of zero day vulnerabilities are good and timely. But, I still give an 8 out of 10 because I think the pricing, licensing, and GUI can be improved more.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
Good product and simple to use.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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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Cisco
Cisco's power really stems from its brand reputation and honestly not much else. No one ever got fired for deploying Cisco, and that's why it stands out. The Cisco Small Business RV Series is no exception there; the unit is built well and does the job. However, much more powerful alternatives for routers are out there—the biggest competitor being Ubiquiti. The UniFi routers are significantly more powerful in all regards, including routing speed, IPS/IDS speeds, and VPN functionality. Support for those is admittedly rather lackluster though, so if your network is critical, you are effectively self-insuring your equipment. For some that may be fine, but for others, that risk of extended downtime is just not worth it.
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Scalability
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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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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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Cisco
  • Very good ROI
  • Most products have a CLI that is easy to use and understand.
  • Very large feature set. Cisco offers numerous open standard and proprietary protocols and options in their code that other vendors lack parity with.
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