Cisco Meraki MX vs. PRTG Network Monitor

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Meraki MX
Score 9.1 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
PRTG
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
PRTG Network Monitor is the flagship offering from German software company Paessler, for monitoring local and wide area networks (LANs & WANs), servers, websites, apps, and more.
$2,149
per year
Pricing
Cisco Meraki MXPRTG Network Monitor
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
PRTG 500
$2,149
per year
Hosted 500
$2,149
per year
PRTG 1,000
$3,899
per year
Hosted 1000
$3,899
per year
PRTG 2,500
$8,099
per year
Hosted 2500
$8,099
per year
PRTG 5,000
$14,199
per year
Hosted 5000
$14,199
per year
PRTG 10000
$17,899
per year
PRTG Enterprise
Custom Pricing
subscription license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Meraki MXPRTG
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Meraki MXPRTG Network Monitor
Considered Both Products
Cisco Meraki MX
Chose Cisco Meraki MX
I would prefer both Untangle and Fortinet over Meraki. The only downside of those two products is you need more technical network knowledge to manage the product. Untangle and Fortinet both offer more features and cost less than Meraki MX devices. Untangle has better …
Chose Cisco Meraki MX
The choice to switch from traditional Cisco 800,1800, 1900,2900,3800 and ISR firewalls was driven out of the need to reduce the cost of professional services and advance a large network team to manage and train. There was a lot of resistance on the network team’s part on moving …
PRTG
Chose PRTG Network Monitor
PRTG offers more versatility in monitoring when compared to the other solutions we tested. The other solutions were also limited as far as customization options, which made them less adaptable to our networks.

When compared to Auvik, for instance, we prefer PRTG as it offers …
Features
Cisco Meraki MXPRTG Network Monitor
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Meraki MX
7.8
131 Ratings
10% below category average
PRTG Network Monitor
-
Ratings
Identification Technologies8.0126 Ratings00 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.4123 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Inspection8.1121 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls7.9121 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP7.5105 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console7.4123 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.4128 Ratings00 Ratings
VPN8.8122 Ratings00 Ratings
High Availability8.7124 Ratings00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection7.6117 Ratings00 Ratings
Proxy Server6.670 Ratings00 Ratings
Network Performance Monitoring
Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Meraki MX
-
Ratings
PRTG Network Monitor
7.7
65 Ratings
5% below category average
Automated network device discovery00 Ratings8.158 Ratings
Network monitoring00 Ratings9.464 Ratings
Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings7.655 Ratings
Alerts00 Ratings8.765 Ratings
Network capacity planning00 Ratings6.746 Ratings
Packet capture analysis00 Ratings6.833 Ratings
Network mapping00 Ratings6.946 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings7.055 Ratings
Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings7.447 Ratings
Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings8.962 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco Meraki MXPRTG Network Monitor
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
PingPlotter
PingPlotter
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.4 out of 10
PingPlotter
PingPlotter
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Meraki MXPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(174 ratings)
8.8
(66 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(14 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(10 ratings)
8.7
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.3
(19 ratings)
8.0
(18 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(141 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Meraki MXPRTG Network Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
It's very well suited for retail locations where you have a small footprint and it's a collapsed core design and it's connecting to a larger hub. We don't necessarily use them in our data centers just because they don't have the full capability we have. We use FTDs in our data centers, so we use a different Cisco product for that. So I would say they're really good at setting up sites quickly, getting them connected, protecting the traffic, and then they're a little weak in a data center right now.
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Paessler
integrates seamlessly with Windows servers via WMI and PowerShell, providing deep insights into resource usage, performance metrics, and system health. It's excellent at tracking CPU, memory, disk space, and event logs, enabling rapid troubleshooting and proactive maintenance. PRTG Network Monitor also effectively monitors Fortigate devices, providing detailed data on firewall health, traffic patterns, bandwidth utilization, VPN status, and security alerts. This visibility helps detect and resolve network security issues promptly.
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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.
Read full review
Paessler
  • Switch monitoring and finding out if there are communication issues or throughput alerts are reached
  • Big picture view of the whole infrastructure and what is functioning and what is not
  • Uptime tracking is great and lets us know for how long a device is down or overall uptime
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • Inbuilt wireless does not support tunnel SSID mode. This has meant not all SSID in our organisation can be deployed at a MX site.
  • Whilst Inbuilt switch ports support dot1x, they do not report as well on our NAC server as on a MS switch or catalyst switch.
Read full review
Paessler
  • Licensing on a per entity basis can be cumbersome for devices which have a ton of monitoring points like network switches\routers. Each sensor may count against a license, which could be a lot of you were monitoring every TX\RX of an SFP for example
  • A better method to easily template\copy monitors across devices
  • The navigation in the web GUI could be a little more straightforward in terms of the hierarchy
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
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Paessler
I would renew it because the platform has brought us many technical and economic benefits that make the cost-benefit ratio very good. Additionally, to do so does not require large investments in training, licensing or infrastructure, and at the administration level, extensive knowledge is not required to be able to bear it.
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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.
Read full review
Paessler
The tool is very intuitive to use and it is Windows-based (everybody knows how to use Windows) so it's easy to get into. Every time is setup in a hierarchy so if you have a good initial hierarchy design, it will really reduce administrative effort down the road.
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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.
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Paessler
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.
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Paessler
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
Read full review
Paessler
PRTG does everything we need it to do and more. Ease of use, ease of management and maintenance and clarity of monitoring of hundreds of different types of device and service gives this a large advantage over other products on the market that I have tried. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a network monitoring product in their environment and even to people who don't know they need a solution yet!
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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
Read full review
Paessler
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
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Paessler
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.
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Paessler
It's very important that de project's teams have different member of the TI. We have learned too late the importa of Security Analyst at the design architecture moment. We have to rebuild part of the implementation for made this big mistake.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
The Meraki Dashboard has been a lot more intuitive than CradlePoint NetCloud. We switched from CradlePoint to Cisco Meraki MX because we were already familiar with the interface which allowed us to be familiar with a single dashboard.
Read full review
Paessler
PRTG offers more versatility in monitoring when compared to the other solutions we tested. The other solutions were also limited as far as customization options, which made them less adaptable to our networks. When compared to Auvik, for instance, we prefer PRTG as it offers immediate notifications through the desktop client - not limited to email notifications as with Auvik. We also appreciate the fact that PRTG can be self/on-prem hosted vs Auvik's cloud model. This makes for an easier deployment and less firewall adjustments to allow traffic to cloud-hosted solutions.
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Scalability
Cisco
When I first started with my company we had various infrastructure and a mix of tech. Since going to Cisco Meraki MX we have noticed better network performance and our new sites are much easier to bring online. Users have noticed an improvement in VPN connection and getting into all our systems.
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Paessler
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.
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Paessler
  • The ability to analyze multiple pieces of information in one place, especially with historical data, has saved our IT department time and headaches. It would be so much more difficult to trace an issue without PRTG, just relying on event logs and an open task manager window.
  • The cost is not cheap, so it's an expense that hits the bottom line like everything else. Figure in hardware costs as well, ideally a server outside of your main environment.
  • I keep saying this, but the historical data piece is worth so much. There's really no good way to collect all of that information in one place without something like PRTG. And that definitely saves time and money in the long run.
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ScreenShots