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Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Meraki SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

Cradlepoint NetCloud
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
6th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (15th), WAN Edge (16th)
Meraki SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the mindshare of Cradlepoint NetCloud is 6.0%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki SD-WAN is 23.9%, down from 24.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
 

Featured Reviews

Robert-Gardner - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy to setup solution, but it is missing useful configuration options
I use this solution to manage Cradlepoint wireless routers It lets us know whether it is online or not, and lets us do a speed test to see how quick the speed is. These are valuable features. They should change some of the configuration settings to enable it to act more as an SD-WAN box to view…
Martyn Walker - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables productivity in terms of users and has ease of management
Scalability could be improved. Yes, you can add more than 300 or 400 sites onto it, but because it's not a true SD-WAN and, effectively, it's just a Multi-VRF, it's all hub and spoke at that point. That's the nature of the design, but that's what keeps it simple to administer. So, it's a trade off.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is easy to set up and requires a single administrator to maintain it."
"I rate the overall solution as ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the automatic failover."
"Cradlepoint provides real value in its focus on wireless WAN connectivity."
"Cradlepoint NetCloud is very stable."
"The solution operates via zero-touch configuration."
"This product has a simple configuration that can be accessed through a web interface or the API."
"The solution is a whole vertical solution, so it doesn't need any other components in order to provide basic features."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature is the single management plane dashboard. Our organization has a global site, we have separated the area, and we have more than five hundred small sites around the world."
"The Meraki SD-WAN solution is simple to deploy."
"The most valuable feature of Meraki SD-WAN is the Auto VPN."
"The dashboard is the solution's most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"It is missing important settings options."
"Cradlepoint's portfolio is lacking budget-friendly options."
"There are areas for improvement, particularly at the lower end of the medium enterprise market."
"The performance of group-based clouds should be enhanced."
"In our situation, the initial setup was complex."
"The area I think this solution should improve is the pricing."
"The solution could be improved if it added more features, especially monitoring and reporting features."
"An area for improvement would be to add 4G bonding and allow Meraki devices to support dual 4G SIM cards."
"Warm spare is a good failover solution but Meraki could do something more to handle failovers better."
"This solution can only support up to two WAN ports."
"Some systems use some applications with the wrong data application. It bypasses the network, and you need to block that application on Meraki. We first try to put in passwords to do it and the network is not really safe. It's not 100%, the network can be bypassed."
"There should be a few more options for security parameters. It is currently not very customizable. It should be a little bit more customizable."
"If Meraki obtains the technology to provide network assistance, then it can implement it manually in Meraki SD-WAN."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Yearly licenses are available."
"The annual cost is less than $200,000 yet more than $150,000.00."
"Cradlepoint's prices are on par with similar solutions."
"The licensing fees are approximately $1,000 USD annually."
"The product is not expensive."
"From the perspective of the customer, the price is not terribly cost-effective."
"The solution offers yearly licenses and product lines or prices are readily available on their website."
"The licensing model is a fair one, although having the hardware means nothing without the license. You need to continue to pay licensing fees."
"The tool is costly. I rate the tool's price as a ten out of ten since it is very expensive."
"One of the most valuable aspects of Meraki SD-WAN is the price. It is highly cost-effective."
"The solution's pricing is in line with what we expected."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cradlepoint NetCloud?
It is easy to set up and requires a single administrator to maintain it.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cradlepoint NetCloud?
Cradlepoint's pricing is viewed as market competitive, offering good value for the money invested. While some customers are price sensitive, others recognize the efficiency and smooth operation as ...
What needs improvement with Cradlepoint NetCloud?
There are areas for improvement, particularly at the lower end of the medium enterprise market. Cradlepoint's portfolio is lacking budget-friendly options. The company realizes that there's a need ...
What do you like most about Meraki SD-WAN?
The auto VPN feature is important because it automates many tasks, making things simpler and faster. It helps with setting up devices and changing configurations without manual effort.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki SD-WAN?
The price is a little bit higher than local vendors, for example, Huawei ZTE or H3C. However, some customers require the best quality and performance, thus needing solutions and products from Cisco.
What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?
They have to ask us many questions about configurations. It could be improved with some automation to trigger, for example, telemetry data, so we can determine the state of the deployment as of day...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of San Antonio, Statue Cruises, Tour Dubai, St. David's Foundation, JBT, DSC Dredge
École Jeannine Manuel
Find out what your peers are saying about Cradlepoint NetCloud vs. Meraki SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.