What users are saying about
Cisco Meraki MX
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Top Rated
145 Ratings
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Based on 145 reviews and ratings
125 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8 out of 100
Based on 125 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
Firewall

8.4
Cisco Meraki MX
84%

Zabbix
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A
Cisco Meraki MX ranks higher in 11/11 features
Cisco Meraki MX ranks higher in 11/11 features
Identification Technologies

8.4
84%
47 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Visualization Tools

8.6
86%
46 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Content Inspection

8.5
85%
46 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Policy-based Controls

8.1
81%
46 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP

8.1
81%
39 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Firewall Management Console

8.2
82%
48 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Reporting and Logging

7.8
78%
49 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
VPN

8.7
87%
47 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
High Availability

8.8
88%
44 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Stateful Inspection

8.6
86%
42 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Proxy Server

8.4
84%
26 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Cisco Meraki MX is rated higher in 3 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Support Rating, Implementation Rating
- Zabbix is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Renew
Likelihood to Recommend

9.0
Cisco Meraki MX
90%
73 Ratings

8.6
Zabbix
86%
21 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew

9.0
Cisco Meraki MX
90%
3 Ratings

10.0
Zabbix
100%
2 Ratings
Usability

8.4
Cisco Meraki MX
84%
4 Ratings

Zabbix
N/A
0 Ratings
Availability

9.1
Cisco Meraki MX
91%
2 Ratings

Zabbix
N/A
0 Ratings
Performance

9.1
Cisco Meraki MX
91%
2 Ratings

Zabbix
N/A
0 Ratings
Support Rating

8.4
Cisco Meraki MX
84%
21 Ratings

5.7
Zabbix
57%
8 Ratings
Implementation Rating

7.0
Cisco Meraki MX
70%
3 Ratings

6.0
Zabbix
60%
2 Ratings
Product Scalability

8.8
Cisco Meraki MX
88%
39 Ratings

Zabbix
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco Meraki MX
We run 30+ sites, we can easily identify when a site loses connectivity, and check the event log to see what the issue is. We have fail-over connections at all our sites and can proactively manage each of them under the portal. We had a connectivity issue in a rural area recently and were able to diagnose the fault instantly, disable the suspect device from connectivity and reboot the firewall and OT was back up and running within 5 mins.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Renewables & Environment Company, 51-200 employeesZabbix
Zabbix is very well suited for infrastructure monitoring i.e. the underlying host servers, basically, compute nodes. However, it has limited FM & PM capabilities for the workloads, i.e., the virtual machines (VMs). Zabbix has an easy-to-use GUI which can be explored easily & provides good filtering of the data.
Technical CARE Specialist
NokiaTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees
Pros
Cisco Meraki MX
- The appliances are very, very easy to use. You could set one up for basic use with minimal documentation.
- Intuitive menus in the Meraki Dashboard make traversing your options and finding what you need very easy.
- Good support options and a healthy knowledge base with well-written guides.
Infrastructure, Network Administrator II
Dynamic AviationAviation & Aerospace, 501-1000 employees
Zabbix
- Collecting hardware data - CPU, Memory, Network, and Disk Metrics are collected and reported on.
- Flexible design - It is very easy to build out even very large environments via the templating system. You can also start where you are - network monitoring, server monitoring, etc. and then build it out from there as time and resources permit.
- Provides a "plugin architecture" (via XML templates) to allow end users to extend it to monitor all kinds of equipment, software, or other metrics that are not already added into the software already.
- Very complete documentation. Almost every aspect of Zabbix has been documented and reported on.
- Cost - Zabbix is FOSS software and always free. Support is reasonably priced and readily available.
Infrastructure Engineer
Matthews InternationalInternet, 1001-5000 employees
Cons
Cisco Meraki MX
- As soon as network equipment is seen by the MX, it labels it, making it confusing as to if a device is rogue
- The reporting in the Client window is not real-time, [it's] not really accurate until some time has passed
- Individual client bandwidth usage seems to be inaccurate in the clients window

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Retail Company, 51-200 employeesZabbix
- In a busy Zabbix environment, it can easily overwhelm the underlying database. Plan on having SSDs and a significant server infrastructure to keep up with more than a hundred hosts.
- Building out Zabbix metrics that suit your environment can be very time consuming. When choosing a monitoring platform like Zabbix, expect a steep learning curve and to invest significant resources to make the tool valuable.
- This is less important than it has been in the past, but current versions of Zabbix still do not handle IPMI checks of hardware very well. We needed to write our own wrapper for IPMI checks rather than using the built in IPMI poller.

Verified User
Director in Information Technology
Internet Company, 201-500 employeesPricing Details
Cisco Meraki MX
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
$595 per appliance
Cisco Meraki MX Editions & Modules
Edition
MX64 | $5951 |
---|---|
MX67 | $6951 |
MX68 | $9951 |
MX84 | $1,9951 |
MX100 | $4,9951 |
MX250 | $9,9951 |
MX450 | $19,9951 |
- per appliance
Additional Pricing Details
—Zabbix
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Zabbix Editions & Modules
—
Additional Pricing Details
—Likelihood to Renew
Cisco Meraki MX
Cisco Meraki MX 9.0
Based on 3 answers
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.
IT Manager
John Robertson ArchitectsArchitecture & Planning, 51-200 employees
Zabbix
Zabbix 10.0
Based on 2 answers
It is free. It didn't cost anything to implement (other than my time and the cost incurred for it) and it is filling a badly needed gap in our IT infrastructure. Support is available if we have issues and can be done annually or paid for on a per incident basis as needed. Expansion, updates, and all other future lifecycle activities are likewise free of cost, so as long as someone is able to implement/maintain the software (and the OSS project is maintained) then I imagine the company will never leave it.
Infrastructure Engineer
Matthews InternationalInternet, 1001-5000 employees
Usability
Cisco Meraki MX
Cisco Meraki MX 8.4
Based on 4 answers
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
Director of Information Technology
Callaway CountyGovernment Administration, 51-200 employees
Zabbix
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco Meraki MX
Cisco Meraki MX 8.4
Based on 21 answers
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
Senior Systems Administrator
DRT Holdings, Inc.Aviation & Aerospace, 501-1000 employees
Zabbix
Zabbix 5.7
Based on 8 answers
The setup is the most time-consuming portion of using zabbix. It takes a lot of effort to shape it into a usable format and even then it can get very messy. It's not exactly intuitive and as mentioned the UI seems a bit antiquated. If I was to roll out a monitoring solution from scratch, I'd probably look for alternatives which are easier to use and maintain.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Telecommunications Company, 501-1000 employeesImplementation Rating
Cisco Meraki MX
Cisco Meraki MX 7.0
Based on 3 answers
Good product and simple to use.
IT Manager
John Robertson ArchitectsArchitecture & Planning, 51-200 employees
Zabbix
Zabbix 6.0
Based on 2 answers
We are a mainly Windows environment, so it would be useful if we could have used Active Directory to deploy agents. As of version 4.2, Zabbix has announced a new agent MSI file to allow exactly that. Unfortunately, we didn't have that option.Also, for Linux and MAC deployments, there is no simple way to deploy that. Using remote scripts you may be able to create something, but most places will opt for either SNMP (agentless) or manual installation of agents to add to Zabbix. A way of deploying agents via discovery would go a long way to helping in the adoption of the tool.
Infrastructure Engineer
Matthews InternationalInternet, 1001-5000 employees
Alternatives Considered
Cisco Meraki MX
We continued using Cisco Meraki MX after taking over the client since they are familiar with it and enjoy the reporting it provides. We use pfSense for most new deployments as the controls it gives us are slightly better than the Cisco Meraki MX controls. That isn't to say Cisco Meraki MX is bad; it just isn't suitable for many of our clients that are multi-tenant, which is one of the weaker offerings from Meraki. For our clients that were already using Cisco Meraki MX when we adopted them, there was no reason to change, it does the job, and it does it well.
Owner and Lead Developer
Binary CocoaComputer & Network Security, 1-10 employees
Zabbix
We're using the Solarwinds suite as our global monitoring standard, but it is very complex and its licensing model makes it difficult to monitor a wide range of technologies. So, we're using Zabbix as a complement on our monitoring process.Zabbix is a way more flexible and has free integrations to a wide range of technologies. It is also more 'user friendly' and easy to manage.

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Oil & Energy Company, 10,001+ employeesScalability
Cisco Meraki MX
Cisco Meraki MX 8.8
Based on 39 answers
I've used MX devices in one location organizations, multi-building campuses, and multi-national organizations. All implementations can be easily managed with Meraki equipment thanks to the dashboard and cloud-based management features. Being able to seamlessly connect any site with any other via SD-WAN makes a large-scale deployment a straightforward project. [...] With the use of [...] virtual products, secure connectivity with cloud providers is like adding any other site.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employeesZabbix
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cisco Meraki MX
- Previously I managed Cisco ASA equipment and enjoyed these firewalls. The need to train other admins and deployment at MSP clients were at the top of my list for switching to Meraki MX. The learning curve is much less steep for new security admins and the central dashboard allows coolabritive efforts when admins are in different locations. Built-in change management makes it easy to see who made specific changes as changes are logged on the dashboard.
- Other content filtering solutions that I have used had more bells and whistles, but given the cost, complexity, and management overhead, I am very pleased with Meraki’s solution.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Utilities Company, 51-200 employeesZabbix
- Zabbix simply makes it easier to identify, and subsequently resolve problems quickly
- Zabbix gives one web page to look at to see a list of all on-going issue in a single place
- Zabbix can automate response to alerts. For example, Zabbix allows you the customization to take a monitored server out of production rotation if it is identified as unhealthy
Linux Engineer
Thomas Jefferson University HospitalsEntertainment, 10,001+ employees