Cisco Meraki MX vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

Cisco and Stormshield are both solutions in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category. Cisco is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0, while Stormshield is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 10.0% mindshare in UTMU, compared to Stormshield’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Stormshield users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

Stormshield Network Security and Cisco Meraki MX compete in the network security space. Cisco Meraki MX has the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and ease of management.

Features: Stormshield Network Security provides robust intrusion prevention, firewall capabilities, and high levels of customization. Cisco Meraki MX offers easy management, comprehensive cloud integration, real-time network monitoring, centralized control, and advanced security features like IDS/IPS.

Room for Improvement: Stormshield Network Security could improve cloud capabilities, simplify management tools, and enhance real-time monitoring. Cisco Meraki MX may benefit from reduced complexity in initial setup, expanded on-premise integration options, and more budget-friendly pricing tiers.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki MX offers streamlined deployment with a cloud-based model and an integrated support system. Stormshield Network Security, while known for strong local support, requires more detailed configuration, catering to complex network environments.

Pricing and ROI: Stormshield Network Security is cost-effective, appealing to budget-conscious businesses. Cisco Meraki MX, despite higher initial costs, justifies them with advanced features and long-term ROI through reduced IT overhead and enhanced network efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security

January 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 January 2026, in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 31.9%, down from 38.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Meraki MX is 10.0%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Stormshield Network Security is 3.9%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Unified Threat Management (UTM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	31.9%
Cisco Meraki MX	10.0%
Stormshield Network Security	3.9%
Other	54.2%

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

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.

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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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Benjamin

Network Engineer at ACS2I

The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats

The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed.

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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

"The security fabric is excellent."

"SD-WAN has had a positive impact by reducing the operational costs in terms of headcount and management."

"Some of the valuable features are the firewall, IPS, web filter, and gateway capabilities. Additionally, it is easy to use and flexible."

"The product's most valuable feature is the ease of deploying IoT security with a single click. Additionally, the frequent updates to the online database ensure that our security measures are always up to date, enhancing our protection against emerging threats."

"Fortinet FortiGate is considered the best in the European market for security reasons."

"Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”"

"It is a scalable solution."

"The main reason customers prefer Fortinet FortiGate is that it's security-centric, allowing them to implement security features such as a next-generation firewall and translate this to the WAN or SD-WAN architectures, or as a base if they want to grow in more security features or other verticals such as ZTNA and SASE."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"In a week, we can make new policy and view what all our users did."

"The product's initial setup phase is very easy."

"Both the scalability and the scalability are great with Meraki MX."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the Meraki dashboard, which is a single pane of glass."

"Easy to deploy with a simple configuration."

"The dashboard is very intuitive and easy to understand."

"Easy to administer and saves time when you have many smaller locations that you have to manage."

"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."

More Cisco Meraki MX pros

"It's an easy, straightforward management platform to use."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page."

"Ease of use is the best feature of the product."

"A very robust product."

"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed."

"The most valuable features are the IPS, the firewall function, and the price."

"This solution is quick and easy to configure."

More Stormshield Network Security pros

Cons

"If they could extend their fabric towards other vendor environments for integration, that would be great."

"It would be nice if FortiGate incorporated some built-in endpoint protection features. I would also like a built-in SOC dashboard for managing multiple Fortinet firewalls."

"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."

"The user interface needs a bit of upgrading."

"They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG could improve the price, it is expensive."

"There should be more testing before releasing software since it can be a little buggy sometimes when new features come out after updates."

"The support structure needs to be improved because every time we contact them, there is a delay in the response."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The solution's pricing should be reduced."

"The product is quite complex to set up."

"From the improvement perspective, we need more monitoring capabilities. We want to have full-based access visibility, such as, what is happening when something is trying to reach and it is denying. We cannot see some parts of it. The integration of active directory with this product is not very fruitful. It has some bugs or lacks in the functionality of active directory integration. We are unable to identify where exactly and whether it has really applied our policy."

"The configuration options for firewall and IPS have limitations."

"The IPS, the Intrusion Prevention System, can be improved."

"They need to improve the user interface because it is a little clumsy."

"I do not have the kind of feature I need for SSL decryption in Meraki MX. It would be great to see the SSL decryption feature in Meraki MX."

"More detail needed for configuration of the VPN."

More Cisco Meraki MX cons

"With Stormshield, there are difficulties joining things, and it can be complex depending on the architecture."

"This solution has a big problem with web filtering and it needs to be improved."

"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."

"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension. It's not that easy. It's not that straightforward. In the next release, I would like to see a reporting system. Stormshield doesn't have any tutorials on how to do the configuration and things like that. They just have documentation on the website. If you want to configure, for example, Cisco or Fortinet, you can find tutorials on YouTube. They show you how to configure the features, and so on. In Stormshield, there is nothing on social media or the internet on how to configure different things. The lack of documentation or the lack of material makes it difficult for others to adopt this solution."

"A more user-friendly interface would be helpful."

"It could be better if it were more user-friendly. It's too complicated for us to use it. The price could be better as well."

"The SD card could be more secure."

"This is not a next-generation firewall."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Work through partners for the best pricing."

"It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet."

"I pay €1,200 per year for the license along with Fortinet's 81E firewall appliance. I would rate this pricing as 3/5 stars, and I believe the price is reasonably similar to its competitors in the market, being somewhere in the middle."

"Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."

"Fortinet costs are 25% lower than the high-cost provider. There is an equipment cost and a recurring monthly cost for licenses and technical support."

"You need to pay a license for this solution. Our licensing is now done in our subsidiary."

"I would rate pricing to be about four or five out of ten, it is reasonable."

"The price of FortiGate is reasonable as I plan to buy new switches. The initial gadgets are already booted, and the pricing seems normal on the market. As for additional costs, I haven't subscribed to many extra features, so I'm only using what I need. 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."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The price varies depending on the hardware platform as well as the type of license and whether you're adding security or not."

"It is a good global solution in terms of the price and features, but because we sell this solution in dollars, sometimes we don't get to sell this solution in Brazil because the dollar is very expensive. The price of every project is different. It varies depending upon the project, scenario, and client."

"Meraki MX is an expensive solution."

"The tool's prices are okay compared to the traditional solutions. We find Meraki MX platform to be cheaper compared to the regular tools, like SD-Access."

"Pricing varies as per the type of license."

"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."

"It can always improve pricewise regarding throughput."

"The pricing could always be improved — especially with the shape the economy is in at the moment."

More Cisco Meraki MX pricing and cost advice

"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."

"The pricing could be better."

"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."

"I think the price is good."

"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."

"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."

"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

16%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	188

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

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 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.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?

The tool is like a firewall and works well. I don't have any issue with it. I rate it an eight out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 6% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 18% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Meraki MX Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 8% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 7% of the time

More Stormshield Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

January 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX

January 2026

Download Cisco Meraki MX product report

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security

January 2026

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600

NETASQ Firewalls

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

NETASQ's integrated intrusion prevention engine uses protocol conformity analysis, application filtering and antivirus analysis to inspect authorized traffic flows and strengthen application security. NETASQ enables you to establish and configure user-based security policies, giving you greater control over which network resources each user is authorized to access.

Stormshield

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

ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security

January 2026

Free Report: Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security

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