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Cisco Meraki MX vs SonicWall NSv comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Fortinet FortiGate offers cost-effective, robust security, reducing expenses, enhancing efficiency, easy implementation, quick ROI, and improved network management.
Sentiment score
6.0
Cisco Meraki MX boosts ROI with simplified management, reduced costs, and improved long-term performance, especially in cloud environments.
Sentiment score
4.9
SonicWall NSv efficiently saves time and costs, enhancing productivity and revenue opportunities with streamlined features and ease of deployment.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
BDM Fortinet & BDM Teamlead at Exclusive Networks
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Staff Infrastructure & Security Engineer at Mozn Systems
I have seen a return on investment with Cisco Meraki MX because of the time saved through cloud management.
Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc
Investment was challenging but strategic, given its advantages like 30% depreciation in the Indian ecosystem by the third year.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
I have seen a return on investment that includes money saved, time saved, and fewer employees needed.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
Based on SonicWall NSv, it helped us to easily navigate through everything and get done what we needed in a very quick manner.
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiGate's customer service is generally praised for responsiveness, though some users experience delays in critical situations.
Sentiment score
8.2
Customers highly praise Cisco Meraki MX's responsive support and expert availability, though some note occasional delays or escalations.
Sentiment score
8.5
SonicWall NSv is highly praised for its prompt, effective, and friendly customer support, often rated highly for reliability.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
When we raise a ticket with Meraki MX, they instantly become available to support us for configurations or troubleshooting.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Cisco's TAC support for Cisco Meraki MX is excellent because no other OEM provides support at this level.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
Cisco is one of the best vendors in the market.
Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc
Customer support for SonicWall NSv is top-notch.
IT systems and network engineer at Nelo Global Technologies Africa Limited
Whenever I create a case regarding any issue, their support is prompt and effective, adhering to the SLA, which leaves our customers very satisfied.
Project Manager in IT at IT Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
I would rate the customer support a 10 out of 10.
HPC engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable and popular for SMEs but requires careful design and may incur scaling costs and licensing constraints.
Sentiment score
7.0
Cisco Meraki MX offers scalable solutions for various organizations, excelling in integration and expansion, with some enterprise limitations.
Sentiment score
7.5
SonicWall NSv excels in scalable, seamless cloud transitions with efficient expansion, despite setup challenges and VM performance adjustments.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
IT Manager at Daltons Limited
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
Cewa Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
General Surgery Specialist at Helwan University Cairo
When you have hundreds of thousands of people it is very difficult to scale in Meraki.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The scalability of Cisco Meraki MX is rated 10 out of 10; you can scale up and scale down with no effort.
Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc
We have Juniper solutions, and I would say the Juniper solutions can scale better, however, this solution is still very scalable.
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It has met our organization's needs by allowing us to scale our security posture consistently with our cloud compute growth, increased traffic and user areas, new cloud regions, and policy complexity growth.
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Nonetheless, the product is robust, eliminating major scalability concerns.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate its scalability as eight to nine.
Owner at IT CARE
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiGate is praised for its stability, with effective long-term performance and improvements in newer firmware versions.
Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco Meraki MX is praised for high stability, reliable performance, and user satisfaction, with occasional configuration issues noted.
Sentiment score
8.4
SonicWall NSv offers reliable, secure performance for over 100 users, with quick support, minor issues, and strong stability.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
Manager, Information Technology at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
CISO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
There have been no outages, no stability issues, and we have not found any vulnerabilities during security audits.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
Understanding and handling these devices onsite was limited, requiring external support.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
It rates around eight to nine in terms of stability, and it is quite good.
Owner at IT CARE
Regarding security, we have not had any issues since we have been using SonicWall NSv, and everything is usually up to date.
DevOps Support Engineer at Bluegrass
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate needs enhanced UI, simplified licensing, improved performance, reporting, third-party integration, and expanded automation features.
Cisco Meraki MX users seek improved load balancing, security, VPN, monitoring, interface management, cost, reporting, and hardware capabilities.
SonicWall NSv users desire better pricing, support, cloud integration, user interfaces, and improvements in reporting, authentication, and setup processes.
These sessions should be around five to ten minutes long, allowing users and partners to quickly grasp the information without disrupting their daily tasks.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection.
Senior Systems Engineer at Caribbean Development Company
It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It should automatically remediate and find out the issue and then resolve it on its own without interrupting the work of the employees.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Data is the only path, so optimization is essential.
Chief Commercial Officer at InnovAge Home Care
An improvement would be to use Cisco Meraki MX as a software solution as well, which might reduce the cost.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
I believe that application-based QoS policy is very important given the current environment. This feature should be available for application QoS as well in this firewall.
Project Manager in IT at IT Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
When the software was downloaded, optimal hardware utilization was lacking, making hardware upgrades inevitable.
CEO at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details.
Owner at IT CARE
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Fortinet FortiGate costly initially, but cheaper overall, despite some high renewal and setup costs.
Cisco Meraki MX may be costly, but its cloud management, ease, support, and functionality make it a worthwhile investment.
SonicWall NSv pricing is moderate to high with costs starting at $25,000, appreciated for its technology and ease of use.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
Network & System Admin at Invoke Studios
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
IT Infrastructure Architect at Apotek 1
It is about 20% cheaper.
Network Security Engineer at TD SYNNEX
I get it for $25,000, a device that can connect up to 75-100 users, whereas in Meraki MX, it goes to 75,000-80,000 per access point.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The price could be reduced by around 30% to make it more comfortable.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
If Cisco can make the pricing less, customers can purchase more licenses.
Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc
The Global VPN will be chargeable in our product, unlike Fortinet or Sophos, where it is free—this is a major difference.
Owner at IT CARE
SonicWall NSv was a bit expensive for the subscription.
Network Architect at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that it is low cost.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate provides robust, flexible security solutions with key features like web filtering, SSL VPN, SD-WAN, and centralized management.
Cisco Meraki MX offers cloud management, auto VPN, dual WAN, advanced security, SD-WAN, and centralized network management tools.
SonicWall NSv offers user-friendly, powerful security features with advanced threat protection, automation, and cost-effective solutions for businesses.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring.
General Manager Group IT at DART GLOBAL LOGISTICS PTE. LTD.
We got a firewall and gave an SSL VPN to my client to connect to their servers, after which, such kind of activities involving ransomware attacks stopped.
Owner at Mindware Computer Solutions
Meraki MX is among those top solutions in their exceptional approach towards VPN-less, Zero Trust client access to office private networks.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Advanced security is the second tier of Cisco Meraki MX. It brings you the main next-generation firewalling features such as URL filtering, advanced malware protection, and threat protection.
Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc
We understand that Cisco solutions are very reliable, and we really like the simple management.
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The cloud delivery threat intelligence spots suspicious behavior in just a few seconds, stopping it before execution, automatically blocking and quarantining files.
IT systems and network engineer at Nelo Global Technologies Africa Limited
SonicWall NSv positively impacts my organization by providing firewall capabilities as a virtual firewall while offering the capabilities of a physical firewall with great performance and reliability.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
SonicWall NSv has positively impacted my organization by helping us access our whitelisted web apps since we manage web apps while ensuring proper standards to prevent any information leaks.
DevOps Support Engineer at Bluegrass
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
580
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
19th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (6th)
SonicWall NSv
Ranking in Firewalls
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 18.8%, down from 20.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Meraki MX is 3.4%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSv is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate18.8%
SonicWall NSv0.3%
Cisco Meraki MX3.4%
Other77.5%
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.
SG
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Secures east-west cloud traffic and improves threat visibility through deep inspection
SonicWall NSv offers great features. I cannot pinpoint a single best feature, but the best feature is the ability to deliver the full, high-efficiency inspection power of a physical SonicWall, including zero-day defense using Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection to the cloud, efficiently removing the performance versus cloud trade-off typically associated with virtual firewalls. Regarding deep memory inspection and real-time zero-day defense in SonicWall NSv, deep memory inspection is distinct from traditional sandboxing methods because it is focused on what is happening in the memory during file execution time, rather than just observing file system behavior. The deep memory inspection process addresses all challenges by employing a proprietary technique within the secure analysis environment, focusing on CPU-level analysis and real-time verdict. Those are the key points. SonicWall NSv's user interface is quite clear and easy to navigate. If someone has not worked with SonicWall and this is their first experience with the platform, I would highly recommend it. It is very easy to navigate and very user-friendly. SonicWall NSv has positively impacted our organization because we gained clear visibility into our network, and it helps to identify potential security issues that we had. We were able to remediate those issues, and so far, we have had a great experience with SonicWall NSv. We were able to manage approximately 99% of network-based attacks through this platform.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Security Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise133
Large Enterprise188
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

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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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Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...
What do you like most about Meraki MX?
I am happy with the technical support for the solution. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.
What do you like most about SonicWall NSV?
The product helps improve our security.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSV?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it's okay.
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSV?
While I have not encountered significant challenges, during the configuration part, I noticed that some features, suc...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600
SonicWall Network Security Virtual
 

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
Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki MX vs. SonicWall NSv and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.