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Cisco Meraki vMX vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Meraki vMX
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
16th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (21st)
Juniper Session Smart Router
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Routers (6th)
 

Featured Reviews

Mansukh Bhesania - PeerSpot reviewer
MD and CEO at Aster Networks
Have worked confidently across large deployments and ensured long-term reliability for critical sectors
I have used Cisco Meraki vMX dashboard's orchestration feature with this product. The Meraki dashboard helps manage our network effectively because it is quite easy; we manage ourselves very well. Performance-wise, there is no problem with Cisco Meraki vMX's integrated analytics for network performance, as my 70 to 80 customers use Cisco only. We do business with semi-enterprise customers, and there is no competition against Cisco except for the wireless solutions from Aruba. We find it easy to promote Cisco Meraki vMX because the centralized dashboard is there for management, and the customers accept it without any problem. From a sales point of view, it is easy to integrate, and nowadays, the 93 is also part of the Meraki desktop.
worksoft757854 - PeerSpot reviewer
Worksoft Certify Sr.Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Session-based routing has reduced WAN costs and delivers faster failovers with app-aware paths
The best features of Juniper Session Smart Router that offer me value are the ones I use daily, including session-based routing and core features that route traffic per session instead of tunnels, giving better performance, seamless failovers, and application-aware path selection. It selects the best link, whether MPLS, broadband, or LTE. It also has built-in zero-trust security which means it controls segmentation without needing a separate VPN setup and advanced visibility and analysis, providing strong insight into traffic, session, and performance. This provides simple branch management. Juniper Session Smart Router has positively impacted my organization by achieving a 30% to 40% reduction in WAN cost, which means less reliance on MPLS. There is also a 40% faster failover with near-zero user impact during link issues, and 20% to 30% less time spent on troubleshooting. Additionally, I experience fewer outages due to dynamic path selection, which facilitates fast branch deployment.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Meraki dashboard helps manage our network effectively because it is quite easy; we manage ourselves very well."
"Cisco Meraki vMX offers sufficient features for most customers; it is very easy to handle and proves very efficient, with the main advantages being the visibility it provides and the ease of administration."
"The most valuable features in Cisco Meraki vMX are easy deployment, an easy-to-read dashboard for information, and automatic load balancing for two circuits in the MX, which are the most important key features for our small business customers."
"For telecom companies, I think zero-trust segmentation is the way to go because if you allow anything that you do not understand, then it becomes a problem."
"The best feature is the easiest way to deploy configuration and also back up them, and also to roll back quickly if there's an incident."
"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."
"As compared to the other major vendors in the SD-WAN market, such as VeloCloud, Cisco, and others, the tunnel-free and secure vector routing technology is its major USP, which gives plenty of room to discuss with the customer why IPSec from 1998 is a bit outdated."
"Customer service is very prompt."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."
"Juniper Session Smart Router has positively impacted my organization by achieving a 30% to 40% reduction in WAN cost, which means less reliance on MPLS, with a 40% faster failover with near-zero user impact during link issues, and 20% to 30% less time spent on troubleshooting, along with fewer outages due to dynamic path selection, which facilitates fast branch deployment."
"They provided us with a customized product according to our requirements."
 

Cons

"It is not the strongest security solution, so if you want to have next-generation firewall features, you always need an additional component."
"Cisco Meraki vMX needs to improve its ability to configure complex policy-based routing."
"In comparison with Aruba, I find Aruba to be far better in terms of deployment, ClearPass, and everything, which is all very easy."
"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in several areas such as the steep learning curve because the session-based model is different from traditional networking."
"Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments."
"Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."
"I found some weaknesses on their hardware. They are sometimes breaking very often."
"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks. What we are missing there are wizards. For example, I have two applications, and I want one application to be prioritized against the other. In such a case, a wizard for assigning policies to a service without configuring each step by hand would be very helpful. There should be an overhaul of the GUI of the conductor. The functionality they have got in the Mist portal should be baked into the conductor itself. It would be really great, but as we all know, that won't happen."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could improve its documentation to become more competitive. It has very little documentation, and you have to rely mainly so much on support to do something, which I feel should not be that way."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."
"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
26%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
22%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Meraki vMX?
Cisco Meraki vMX needs to improve its ability to configure complex policy-based routing. The product can only be set up via the GUI interface and cannot perform complex tasks like a Cisco router wh...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Meraki vMX?
I am an architect planning for our customers to plan their enterprise connectivity via Cisco Meraki vMX and SASE. This is for internet access for mobile users, and I am a reseller, not using the pr...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Meraki vMX?
I have no idea about additional features that I would like to see in the next release to make it better. My customers will buy it from the AWS Marketplace and Azure. In my opinion, Cisco Meraki vMX...
What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?
Juniper Session Smart Router could improve its documentation to become more competitive. It has very little documentation, and you have to rely mainly so much on support to do something, which I fe...
What is your primary use case for Juniper Session Smart Router?
I have not tested Sophos on a larger scale, as I use Sophos in a very office environment and Juniper in telecom. Because we have Juniper switches and Juniper firewalls, we have not centralized them...
What advice do you have for others considering Juniper Session Smart Router?
Juniper Session Smart Router is a controller for managing devices. We have real-time analytics through the IBA Probes. For troubleshooting, we have direct access to them. As we use other vendors, w...
 

Also Known As

No data available
128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Revation Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki vMX vs. Juniper Session Smart Router and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.