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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    DigitalOcean Droplets

    Score9.7 out of 10
    N/ADigitalOcean's Droplets is designed to help the user spin up a virtual machine in just 55 seconds. Standard, General Purpose, CPU-Optimized, or Memory-Optimized configurations provide flexibility to build, test, and grow an app from startup to scale.

    $4

    per month

    Pricing
    Cisco Meraki MXDigitalOcean Droplets
    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
    Basic
    $4
    per month
    CPU-Optimized
    $42
    per month
    General Purpose
    $63
    per month
    Memory-Optimized
    $84
    per month
    Storage-Optimized
    $131
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Meraki MXDigitalOcean Droplets
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Pricing for DigitalOcean Droplets varies depending on the size of the virtual environment and the associated data needs.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Meraki MXDigitalOcean Droplets
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    DigitalOcean
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    171 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    160 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    167 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    145 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    164 Answers
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Meraki MXDigitalOcean Droplets
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Meraki MX and DigitalOcean Droplets
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki MX
    7.8
    173 Ratings
    10% below category average
    DigitalOcean Droplets
    -
    Ratings
    Identification Technologies7.8167 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visualization Tools8.4162 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Inspection7.7158 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls7.7160 Ratings00 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP7.8132 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console7.7158 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging7.1166 Ratings00 Ratings
    VPN8.6157 Ratings00 Ratings
    High Availability8.5158 Ratings00 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection7.5149 Ratings00 Ratings
    Proxy Server7.188 Ratings00 Ratings
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Cisco Meraki MX and DigitalOcean Droplets
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki MX
    -
    Ratings
    DigitalOcean Droplets
    8.8
    1 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Monitoring tools00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Operating system support00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Security controls00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Automation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Meraki MXDigitalOcean Droplets
    Small Businesses
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.3 out of 10
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.6 out of 10
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Meraki MXDigitalOcean Droplets
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (218 ratings)
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (16 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.2
    (13 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (19 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    5.7
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.2
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.9
    (184 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.6
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Meraki MXDigitalOcean Droplets
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    DigitalOcean
    DigitalOcean Droplets are the best choice for developers teams that need reliable Linux servers to deploy their projects, the ability to create a droplet for testing purposes then destroy it, and only get charged for the few hours used makes the chances of messing up very slim. DigitalOcean Droplets is a great solution because the servers are scalable and the process of adding more resources like CPU or RAM to an existing droplet takes only a few minutes and once a server is scaled up it can also be scaled down if necessary which is perfect for supporting a temporary peak in traffic for example.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
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    DigitalOcean
    • Simplicity to scale services--the interface is very quick and effective to use
    • Reliability--this is key for us, as any downtime effects our reputation
    • Keeps the costs down--hosting our own equivalent infrastructure would cost a lot more
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    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
    DigitalOcean
    • In terms of an availability zone, they have limitations not available in most of the geographical locations.
    • No live support is available which can cause problem if you have outage.
    • Number of service is quite limited.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    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
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    DigitalOcean
    Other platforms dashboard console is more difficult to use. DigitalOcean's dashboard is clean, simple, and straightforward
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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
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    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    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
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    DigitalOcean
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    In-Person Training
    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
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    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    it was okay as it was moderated but still better than nothing and done via semi self paced webex meeting
    Incentivized
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    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    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
    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    DigitalOcean
    DigitalOcean Droplets is continuously evolving to be more and more powerful. It has great features and has low cost options, which is really great for developers. Its CDN, Loadbalancer, etc. make it a good place to host a high-traffic application. Moroever, DigitalOcean Droplets has a nonprofit program that helps nonprofit sites to run their infrastructure, which is tremendous and no competitor of DigitalOcean Droplets does that.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    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
    Read full review
    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    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
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    DigitalOcean
    • Digital Ocean has been great helping us move web apps to the cloud
    • Digital Ocean has been really helpful when hiring contractors
    • The interface could use some work, but overall its not terrible
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots