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Cisco Meraki MX vs Hillstone T-Series comparison

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Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
587
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Cisco Meraki MX
Ranking in Firewalls
18th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (6th)
Hillstone T-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
43rd
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 18.3%, down from 21.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Meraki MX is 3.2%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone T-Series is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate18.3%
Cisco Meraki MX3.2%
Hillstone T-Series0.3%
Other78.2%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.
MURALI NIDAMANURI - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Experience improved network management with flexible and secure connections
I recommend that Meraki MX should improve to be a better solution for the next release by being more competent so that we can offer it as a primary solution among all other brands, although I don't have any specific feedback, while the competitors are also ahead of these solutions. Enhancing user experience is always required. Enhancing the seamless connectivity is crucial and user experience enhancement is needed daily, otherwise people find it outdated. New features should look and be dynamically connected, and users should not be bothered frequently when connectivity issues occur. It should automatically remediate and find out the issue and then resolve it on its own without interrupting the work of the employees.
TahirMahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Zubair Feeds
Is stable and has a user-friendly dashboard and a good interface
We installed Hillstone T-Series after a ransomware attack. The dashboard and user interface are very good We cannot secure a specific IP class with this firewall. Another loophole with Hillstone T-Series is that when we connect through WiFi and turn our hot spot on, all who connect through the…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The GUI is good."
"It is a one box solution, which covers most of the edge device’s requirements."
"Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to replace all the firewalls in other locations, as around 90% of our company operates on Fortinet."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"Some of the key features of the solution is that it has good reporting, you can receive many details from the connection, for example, clients and website information."
"The centralized management allowed us to manage 50 devices effectively, which I found better than Cisco."
"The IPS and the application control feature are the most valuable."
"It is a stable solution compared to other vendors."
"The most powerful function of Cisco Meraki MX is the cloud-managed platform, where you can manage all Meraki products through a single dashboard, making it an all-in-one solution that provides analytics and management from one place."
"In a week, we can make new policy and view what all our users did.​"
"If you are a small scale company looking for an SD-Wan solution, plus UTM box-type combination, then Meraki is the best option — based on the price and the features available."
"Meraki makes it easy to be secure and know where the holes are to fix them. We have been fixing anything that we have ever found for 20 years. We keep up-to-date with firmware upgrades. We just try to stay on top of everything for security, like maintaining updates and getting rid of old systems. I feel like we're on top of it."
"The most valuable feature of Meraki MX is I can manage the solution from anywhere remotely, I can throttle bandwidth, and create all rules. Additionally, it is secure for our customers."
"I've been in this industry for 40 years and this is the simplest and easiest product that I've ever used."
"It's an outstanding product with outstanding people on the team."
"Their technical support has been great."
"The only firewall able to monitor traffic from a CCTV network. Can detect unauthorized devices plugged into the network, which standard firewalls can't do."
"It has been stable so far."
"We installed Hillstone T-Series after a ransomware attack. The dashboard and user interface are very good."
 

Cons

"Fortinet technical support is lacking, as OEM support is slightly better."
"It should be more stable. There should be full integration within Fortinet products themselves as well as with other third-party products. Especially when you're not dealing with SIEM and the correlation of the security box, we want Fortinet to be able to share that information with as many other products as it can."
"In FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), my concern regarding improvements is the licensing model."
"Fortinet FortiGate could be improved in terms of user friendliness at the policy level and assigning URL based and keyword based features."
"The solution’s pricing is high."
"They could improve the response time and quality of support."
"The UI/UX experience can be a little better."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"If you use the VPN to link Meraki with your onsite domain with Active Directory then it doesn't work properly."
"It lacks some switching features. For instance, when you use MX to link the firewall to a stack, you cannot use LACP."
"We had minor issues with Meraki MX. We had a couple of RMAs, so that could be an area for improvement, but in terms of how the RMAs went, the turnaround time and getting those back into redeployment were quick."
"The security is not as strong as it could be"
"The only stability issue is in Content Filtering. Sometimes we need to report these types of issues to Cisco support."
"The current lead time is longer for Meraki MX, and it needs to be improved."
"The hardware solution for Cisco Meraki MX comes with a higher price."
"Improvements are required more on the side of troubleshooting."
"Licensing is not cheap."
"Another loophole with Hillstone T-Series is that when we connect through WiFi and turn our hot spot on, all who connect through the hotspot get all the functions, and the security does not work."
"They have a very good technical support team, but I think there are some communication issues due to language differences."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a cost-effective solution that meets the user's needs."
"The product is expensive. I rate its pricing a six out of ten."
"There is no challenge in Fortinet FortiGate pricing."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a very cheap solution."
"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."
"Compared to other firewall products, it's a little cheaper in terms of pricing."
"It is a good product from a price perspective versus functionality."
"You need to pay a license for this solution. Our licensing is now done in our subsidiary."
"Like any Cisco product, the license is really expensive for small business clients. It needs to be cheaper. If you look it up, you might go, "That doesn't make any sense.""
"The price of Meraki MX is between $8 and $1,200. Additionally, we typically purchase a three-year enterprise license, and we pay approximately $899 and mark it up a bit."
"The price varies depending on the hardware platform as well as the type of license and whether you're adding security or not."
"We just have to pay for the product and the license. We have a license for three years, and it is renewed every three years. It costs $1,200 for three years for one endpoint. Meraki had a good promotion for remote workers or remote workforce. The discount is very good. This promotion continues till the next fiscal year of Cisco."
"Meraki is the best option — based on the price and the features available."
"The product's price depends on use cases."
"It can always improve pricewise regarding throughput."
"Our customers pay for the solution on a monthly basis."
"On a scale from one to ten, with one being low and ten being high price, I would rate the price of Hillstone T-Series at three. There are no additional costs other than renewal costs."
"We got a much cheaper price than that provided by Fortinet right now."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business360
Midsize Enterprise135
Large Enterprise190
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise16
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600
Hillstone T-Series Intelligent Next-Generation Firewalls, Hillstone iNGFW
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Hyatt, ONS
University of Córdoba
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki MX vs. Hillstone T-Series and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.