Cisco Meraki MX vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

Cisco and Sangfor are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Cisco is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.0, while Sangfor is ranked #22 with an average rating of 8.4. Cisco holds a 3.2% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Sangfor’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sangfor users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Meraki MX and Sangfor NGAF based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Meraki MX vs. Sangfor NGAF Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX vs. Sangfor NGAF

April 2026

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 16.0%, down from 21.6% 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 Sangfor NGAF is 1.1%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	16.0%
Cisco Meraki MX	3.2%
Sangfor NGAF	1.1%
Other	79.7%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Abhinandan Yadav

Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd

Unified security and sd-wan have improved uptime and cut wan costs for multi-site branches

Users report stability issues in certain versions, which requires regular updates. Real-world attacks have also highlighted the need for urgent patching of vulnerabilities.Fortinet FortiGate, while a powerful and feature-rich web firewall, could improve in areas like firmware stability, documentation, and ease of use. The learning curve can be steep for some users. For beginners, support quality can vary, and frequent updates with occasional vulnerabilities call for careful patch management. However, once Fortinet FortiGate is configured, it remains highly reliable and efficient. Customer support needs improvement, as I find it very slow, with reports from other users reflecting that customer support is inadequate.

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MURALI NIDAMANURI

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.

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Zaid Farooqui

CIO at Indus Motor Company

Enhanced threat detection with integrated security features and good support

We are using application firewalling, WAF, and SD-WAN. The capabilities are mostly within the box. For example, you will get web application firewall WAF as part and parcel of this. SD-WAN is also bundled. It integrates with their SIEM and SOAR solutions very nicely. Lastly, the pricing point is very cost-efficient as well.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate is very stable."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of configuration."

"In terms of cost, features, and security, everything is top-notch."

"The most valuable feature of the solution revolves around SSL VPN."

"The beauty is the price performance ratio is great with FortiGate, as it provides all the features we need and the price is comparable with other firewalls, making it quite competitive with firewalls that have similar features."

"It offers web filtering capabilities at a more affordable price compared to other solutions like PSMs or NETGEAR."

"There are several benefits that Fortinet FortiGate brings to the table, and I cannot speak of only one or two as it is too extensive."

"Fortinet FortiGate has a very simple configuration, is easy to set up, and includes SD-WAN features at no additional cost."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS): The best feature. It can detect malware, even a virus, and warn you by email about the device that has it. When the Meraki detects that something is wrong, it automatically blocks the connection or the intrusion, delivering a graphic report with all the necessary content."

"The solution is simple, fast to set up, and brilliant for its use."

"It is a very straightforward solution to manage."

"I will never go back to any other solution."

"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 products are great for swapping in and out and generally administering."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the ease of management of the dashboard."

"Very easy to use and navigate."

More Cisco Meraki MX pros

"It enables us to not only detect but also prevent various types of incoming threats, allowing us to take appropriate corrective actions and exercise control over the network."

"The product is very fast and reliable."

"It seems to be a durable, stable product."

"It is a stable solution."

"I think the tool has the feature to detect and kill ransomware in three seconds."

"The price versus value is good because the solution is less expensive than Sophos, Fortinet, or SonicWall."

"The tool's performance is good."

"The absolute best part of Sangfor NGAF is their support. It's a 24/7 support channel, and the last time I requested their assistance I got a reply within three minutes. They helped solve the problem immediately."

More Sangfor NGAF pros

Cons

"The setup is pretty complex and not easy to implement."

"They have not yet extended to the cloud."

"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."

"Palo Alto has a feature called WildFire Analysis that is unavailable in FortiGate. WildFire is better than a sandbox because it can address zero-day threats and vulnerabilities. It can immediately identify zero-day threats from the cloud."

"Fortinet could improve the windows opener or the virtual IP solutions for opening windows. The virtual IP settings need improvement as firewalls are trending in new development directions."

"There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract."

"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the protection, it did not prevent us from being attacked. Additionally, Fortinet FortiGate could provide more features for WAF devices. I should not have to purchase two solutions, it would be a benefit to combine these features into one solution."

"It is very expensive, and their support is not very good."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"More detail is needed for configuration of the VPN."

"The event logging, alerting, and reporting features could use improvement."

"It would be nice if the different services, including the SIEM SOC and endpoint detection and response (EDR) were integrated into one, so that I don't have to go to different vendors for different services."

"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."

"We could have more reporting options and the ability to send alarms to the administrator."

"It can be improved in many areas, because it has many proprietary models for many different areas."

"We have had issue with the load balancing."

"I do wish you could control some ports locally from a console, but this is not the case."

More Cisco Meraki MX cons

"The setup phase is quite complex."

"It has an issue with the Sangfor Cloud Platform rather than the firewall. When we run a virtual machine, the window tabs display Chinese characters."

"The interface and user experience are horrible."

"An area for improvement would be the number of ports defined on the box."

"There is room for improvement in dependency on certain infrastructure, like the DNS dependency on the current DNS server that the company has. It should be standalone. It should not depend on any other DNS server."

"Sangfor NGAF could improve by refining its application control policies, especially in addressing challenges with certain types of applications."

"They need to improve their research team and they need to study their data to analyze it and build the product."

"The solution has too many bugs and these slow down the implementation."

More Sangfor NGAF cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I give the pricing of the solution a six out of ten."

"Licensing is usually on a three-year period."

"Fortinet prices are around $600 for the small 40F model, and for licenses, the simplest option is about $300 for a year. They sell licenses that can last for 1, 2, 3, or 5 years."

"I think that the pricing is fair."

"It is very cost-effective. You get features similar to other firewalls, such as Palo Alto, but at a lower price."

"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."

"It is somewhat expensive compared to other solutions such as Sophos."

"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The Meraki UTM is excellent when you buy the Advanced Security license. If you buy a different license you lost all the valuable functions."

"The pricing for Meraki MX is all right, but as the hardware needs to be licensed, the cost depends on the complexity of the device and the term. Pricing could be $100 to $10,000 yearly or even more for a more complex device."

"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 solution is expensive compared to other vendors but you can get good discounts if you know the account manager. The product is less expensive than a normal Cisco subscription. The tool's hardware warranty is a lifetime but you need to purchase support which comes in three, five, and seven years subscriptions."

"The larger MX products are on the expensive side."

"Meraki is also expensive, but it's a little bit less expensive and it's easier to configure than Cisco ASA."

"I think the price is comparable with other solutions of the same kind. Depending on the use case it could be cheaper or more expensive, I think it offers good value."

"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.""

More Cisco Meraki MX pricing and cost advice

"In my opinion, the price of the tool is good in the Pakistani market. We can easily get discounts if needed."

"I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"The solution has a TCO that is 32% to 50% less than Sophos, Fortinet, and SonicWall."

"Sangfor is cheaper than competing vendors."

"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten."

"It costs about 8 to 10 thousand dollars per year for 500 users, standard licensing fees included."

"The product is very cost-effective compared to other brands or vendors."

"For four to five physical appliances for a licensed firewall, it costs approximately $4,000."

More Sangfor NGAF pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	367
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	193

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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Fortigate 60d vs. Meraki MX67 for a small company without a dedicated IT Department

We have Meraki Mx devices now, we are looking to replace them. But that is because the Meraki MX platform lacks SSL I...

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Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki MX?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cisco Meraki MX is that for more than five years, Meraki li...

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What do you like most about Sangfor NGAF?

I think Sangfor NGAF is more valuable than Cisco products because of its simplicity and ease of management. If I comp...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor NGAF?

The licensing cost is quite high compared to other available firewalls in the market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?

The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardwa...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 18% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 22% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 4% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Meraki MX Competitors

Sophos Firewall vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 13% of the time

H3C SecPath Firewalls vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 7% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 6% of the time

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 5% of the time

More Sangfor NGAF Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

May 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX

May 2026

Download Cisco Meraki MX product report

Buyer's Guide

Sangfor NGAF

April 2026

Download Sangfor NGAF product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600

Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Cisco Meraki MX offers cloud-managed security with user-friendly setup and efficient management, enhancing VPN and firewall functionalities for businesses.

Cisco Meraki MX is known for its robust cloud-based network management, featuring AutoVPN, SD-WAN, and advanced security. Its centralized control over firewall, traffic shaping, and monitoring ensures excellent connectivity and security. The interface allows easy management by non-technical staff, offering remote access and seamless network performance through real-time alerts and troubleshooting. It supports global connectivity with minimal effort, addressing needs across small to enterprise environments. Despite its strengths, users point out areas needing improvement like load balancing, VPN features, more flexible logging, and session capabilities. Pricing, integration limits, and licensing need enhancement.

What are the key features of Cisco Meraki MX?

AutoVPN: Enables automatic VPN configuration for secure, site-to-site connections.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routes for increased performance and reliability.
Advanced Security: Offers unified threat management, intrusion prevention, and content filtering.
Centralized Management: Simplifies operations with remote monitoring and configuration.
Traffic Shaping: Prioritizes critical business applications to maximize performance.

What benefits should users consider?

Ease of Deployment: Simplified installation reduces setup time and cost.
Real-Time Alerts: Ensures proactive issue identification and resolution.
Scalability: Supports growth with seamless integration and management of multiple sites.
Global Connectivity: Maintains efficient connections across geographic locations with minimal effort.

In industries like retail, finance, and education, Cisco Meraki MX provides enhanced security and connectivity. Retail chains benefit from easy VPN setups for secure multi-site networking, while educational institutions find value in its ability to manage large campuses efficiently. Financial services leverage its robust security features to protect sensitive data, ensuring compliance and trust.

Cisco

Sangfor NGAF offers a user-friendly firewall solution with a strong virus database and competitive pricing. It supports SSL VPN connectivity, intrusion detection, and is known for easy deployment and integration capabilities.

Sangfor NGAF is a comprehensive security platform providing robust network protection through its application control and detailed threat insights. While effective in preventing threats and ensuring network security, it has areas needing improvement such as real-time reporting and system support. It delivers secure internet and VPN connections, proficiently handling malware threats. However, it faces challenges with user experience, reporting capabilities, hardware scalability, and needs better third-party integration. Licensing costs are noted to be high, and there are performance variations between versions.

What are the key features of Sangfor NGAF?

User-friendly deployment: Offers an uncomplicated setup process.
Robust virus database: Provides reliable threat detection.
SSL VPN connectivity: Ensures secure remote access.
Application control: Manages application usage for enhanced security.
Intrusion detection: Detects unauthorized access attempts.
URL filtering: Prevents access to malicious websites.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Sangfor NGAF?

Affordability: Competitive pricing compared to peers.
Integration: Good capabilities with existing systems.
Support: Noted for providing reliable customer service.
Threat prevention: Effective in securing networks against various threats.

Sangfor NGAF is widely used across industries including education, healthcare, and finance for its reliable network security. It is favored for securing internal servers, offering robust threat protection, and managing bandwidth efficiently at a budget-friendly rate.

Sangfor

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

The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX vs. Sangfor NGAF

April 2026

Free Report: Cisco Meraki MX vs. Sangfor NGAF

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki MX vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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