Icinga vs Meraki Dashboard comparison

Icinga and Cisco are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Icinga is ranked #37, while Cisco is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.4. Icinga holds a 1.2% mindshare in NMS, compared to Cisco’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Icinga users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

6,705 Views
5,096 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Meraki Dashboard

Read 63 Meraki Dashboard reviews

4,241 Views
3,647 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Icinga

Meraki Dashboard

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Icinga and Meraki Dashboard are competing products in the network management space. Meraki Dashboard seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, despite higher costs.

Features: Icinga offers a highly customizable open-source platform with extensive monitoring capabilities and flexibility, making it ideal for complex IT infrastructures. It also allows for user-defined scripts, tailored alerts, and a broad range of plugins. Meraki Dashboard provides a cloud-managed network solution with a wide array of features such as advanced security protocols, seamless integration with existing systems, and an intuitive user interface.

Room for Improvement: Icinga could improve its user interface and simplify the setup process, and enhance its support resources to assist users better. Additionally, offering more out-of-the-box functionalities without relying heavily on plugins would benefit users. Meraki Dashboard's areas for improvement include reducing dependency on high subscription fees, offering more flexibility in feature customization, and optimizing its pricing structure to accommodate different business sizes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Meraki Dashboard offers a simplified deployment process owing to its cloud-based architecture, supported by robust customer service that facilitates swift implementation and resolution of issues. In contrast, Icinga requires more intricate initial setup and configuration, resulting in a steeper learning curve, and support may not be as comprehensive as Meraki's, particularly for less experienced users.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga provides a cost-effective solution with low setup costs and potential for significant ROI due to its open-source nature and absence of licensing fees. This positions it as a budget-friendly option for long-term savings. Meraki Dashboard, however, involves higher upfront and ongoing subscription fees. Despite this, its feature-rich environment and resulting operational efficiencies justify the investment for users seeking enhanced network management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Icinga vs. Meraki Dashboard Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. Meraki Dashboard

June 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

Icinga

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

37th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (16th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (48th), Cloud Monitoring Software (34th)

Meraki Dashboard

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

18th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Icinga is 1.2%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 0.7%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Meraki Dashboard	0.7%
Icinga	1.2%
Other	98.1%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

reviewer2292201

Innovation Service Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have but average multi-tenancy aspect

It's supported by the community. We use Icinga, which is not part of the Open-Source platform but is wrapped into a commercial solution from another provider, a local provider in Italy. Icinga is an open-source platform, so it is supported by the community. It's quite easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have. So it's not expensive, and it's quite a general purpose. We can easily monitor any kind of infrastructure we encounter. The ability to customize scripts and build your own queries to request information from the infrastructure elements you want to monitor. This level of personalization and customization is highly appreciated. The alerting is the same as any other monitoring platform. It's not a "wow" feature that has changed our lives, but it's perfectly adequate.

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MURALI NIDAMANURI

Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Dashboard provides comprehensive network security and management capabilities

I don't have specific handy names. Meraki Dashboard uses multiple functions where we can configure SSIDs, firewall policies, DHCP, multiple VLANs and DHCP configurations, VLAN configurations, access control policies, MAC binding, client access based on MAC authentication and certificate-based authentication. We have configured SSO for Windows Active Directory by configuring the RADIUS services. We have implemented many customer requirements in Meraki Dashboard. With the detailed visibility feature of Meraki Dashboard, I get connected clients information, including how much data each client downloaded and what applications they accessed. I can obtain detailed data including ISP links level monitoring and speed. I can perform speed tests, generate analytics reports, convert to Excel based on each user for each department, create dashboards, monitor and limit bandwidths, and restrict specific URLs. The advanced security configuration in Meraki Dashboard is useful for network security. Substantial security can be achieved within Meraki Dashboard itself, eliminating the need for additional firewalls to protect your network. You can configure WAN monitoring, users' ACLs, URL filtering, web filtering, and department-wise access configuration for specific client applications. It's completely cloud-managed, and in a simplified way, you don't need to visit any physical infrastructure to monitor activities. Apart from access points, everything is in the cloud. We have monitored IoT solutions, CCTV monitoring, and can detect and control intrusions. When people connect IoT devices to your network, Meraki Dashboard can detect what device it is and control those access controls, even with different operating systems.

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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

"I would recommend Icinga; it's an open-source solution, it's quite easy and simple to use, and checks can be run with Python code and Shell Script code."

"An affordable solution for small organizations to do basic network monitoring."

"If you have a small infrastructure or a small number of devices that you want to monitor, then I think it's a good solution."

"Icinga has multiple automation and integration features. There is an API for everything and a web UI for configurations. The APIs enable you to automate tasks in Icinga. We can also use plugins to talk to the API. The Icinga Director talks to a database in the background, and you can import settings from the CMDB to all systems in Icinga."

"Macros and the ability to connect it to Google Maps are valuable features."

"We monitor all, starting from UPS to international mail chains."

"The apply rules feature saves a lot of time."

"I use it for monitoring infrastructure and it was very good for that issue."

More Icinga pros

"I find it pretty straightforward and easy to use, especially compared to old, traditional methods."

"I would say the ease of use is the most valuable feature. It's very easy to set up and get up and running."

"The most valuable features are the ease of use and a single-pane-of-glass that allows us to identify issues across the entire network from one dashboard."

"The most valuable feature for me is the cloud dashboard."

"Meraki Dashboard does not require a lot of maintenance. Cisco tells communicates through the Meraki Dashboard web client, it will automatically send updates to the equipment. They will send you an email on what day the updates will take place. If you want to proceed, you can click on accept, or you can decline them and schedule the updates at another time."

"The stability has been amazing. I don't have to manage it a 10th as much as I have to manage my Cisco stuff."

"There are some whitelist blacklist capabilities in the MX dashboard, which is very helpful."

"The ability to view the entire project stack, including the camera, features, and routers, which I believe are the most important or relevant components."

More Meraki Dashboard pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in multi-tenancy. It's not perfect, not even really good. It's average, but it should be improved."

"One of the areas that are frustrating is remote monitoring for more than one machine."

"Scalability is problematic. If you have a stable environment it's good, but if the environment is growing, I had some problems with Icinga."

"It needs Trap SNMP. I saw the documentation for Zabbix, that it has its own built-in product which handles SNMP traps, and there's nothing similar in Icinga or Nagios. I think this feature is most important for me."

"The connection between Icinga and Icinga Web."

"We have found some problems with Nagios, and support isn't very responsive."

"It is not really adequate for our current needs. It causes additional issues which we have to work around and takes us time that a better solution would not."

"Icinga is a complex solution that's hard to learn. It's a powerful product for monitoring, but new users will have a hard time figuring out what to do."

More Icinga cons

"The cost of the solution is high and can be improved."

"They can improve the landing page in Meraki Dashboard. When I go into an organization, they can include a lot more infographics."

"There is a bit of a problem when you try to log in and you don't have a fixed IP address. If you're granting access, you need to log in by using the IP address. If your administrator's IP address is not a fixed IP address and it has changed, you might need to update the changed IP address in the interface. For this, you need to log in to the interface to update the IP address. This issue might not have so much to do with Meraki interface."

"It's a very complex system. Customers have told me that sometimes there are lots of advanced features that are available and that you can change in the dashboard, but sometimes it's very hard to know what they are."

"The process of getting licensing can be a little bit painful, especially if you're doing it each year."

"I think Meraki Dashboard can be improved by trying easier menus because the menus get a little cluttered."

"The solution has a limited routing table and needs improvement by increasing the numbers as well as providing a summarization for the table."

"One area that could use improvement in the Meraki Dashboard is user-friendliness when navigating to port configurations."

More Meraki Dashboard cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free to use."

"The solution is cheap."

"The product is inexpensive compared to other DBM products."

"It is cost-effective, and the return on investment can be very interesting because the price is low."

"It's an open-source solution."

"This is an open-source solution with paid support."

"Even though Icinga's financial cost is low, it is an expensive product regarding the resources required to maintain and operate it."

"We're using the free version of Icinga."

"Meraki Dashboard is a utility and portal that's part of the Meraki solution."

"From a pricing perspective, they are still expensive."

"It is said to be expensive."

"I’m not sure of the exact cost, however, it’s my understanding the Meraki WiFi is around $800. That’s for a three-year license. It’s about $150 a year."

"Licensing for Meraki Dashboard is paid every year, and it's on a per-device model that costs roughly $300 to $400 per device, but that comes with full support and troubleshooting, etc. Compared to similar products, Meraki Dashboard is quite high-end, but the costs you pay are all-in."

"My view is that it's expensive, but it's the best."

"Meraki Dashboard's pricing is reasonable. It is sold yearly, typically for one, three, or five years. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."

"The price of Meraki Dashboard is not expensive because knowing that it is a cloud-based solution has its benefits."

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

University

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	29

Questions from the Community

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

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that it is what it is. It is pricey and sometimes surprising. Of course, with Cisco, you pay for the premium because it is a premium produc...

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What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?

I think Meraki Dashboard can be improved with a couple of additional features, such as the ability to download analytics into a spreadsheet, which is not currently available, the ability to configu...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Meraki Dashboard?

The main use case for Meraki Dashboard is to manage the Meraki Dashboard ecosystem, and the main reason is the ease of use.

See all answers

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Nagios Core vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Nmap vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco DNA Center vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 5% of the time

Zabbix vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 4% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 4% of the time

More Meraki Dashboard Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

June 2026

Download Icinga product report

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard

June 2026

Download Meraki Dashboard product report

Also Known As

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

No data available

Overview

Icinga is a robust tool for monitoring IT infrastructure, known for its distributed monitoring capabilities and seamless integration with multiple platforms. It efficiently observes servers, network devices, and environments like Linux and Windows, enabling proactive issue identification and resource management.

With a focus on task delegation and clustering, Icinga offers an intuitive interface through its GUI and Icinga Director, simplifying configuration. The extensive plugin library supports diverse technologies, while the API allows automation with tools like Terraform and Ansible. Despite its strengths, users report challenges with data display in the GUI, a need for improved dashboards, and complex configuration processes. Users benefit from its SNMP alerts, email notifications, and automated incident handling, making it essential for managed service environments and enterprises.

What are the key features of Icinga?

Task Delegation: Streamlines monitoring tasks across distributed systems.
Event Handler: Enables automatic service recovery with minimal intervention.
Plugin Library: Offers extensive support for integrating diverse technologies.
API Accessibility: Facilitates automation with popular tools like Terraform.
Custom Plugins: Allows easy creation and personalization for monitoring needs.

What benefits should you consider in Icinga reviews?

Flexibility: Tailors monitoring to specific requirements with community support.
Scalability: Successfully manages growing infrastructure demands.
Proactivity: Enhances issue identification and resource allocation.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing IT operations platforms.

Icinga is widely adopted in IT environments for monitoring servers, networks, and applications across industries such as finance, healthcare, and technology. Its ability to integrate with various operating systems and automation platforms makes it a versatile choice for industries prioritizing comprehensive surveillance and proactive management of their infrastructure.

Icinga

Meraki Dashboard offers intuitive, cloud-based network management, simplifying tasks with centralized control, real-time monitoring, and comprehensive security.

Offering ease of use and a single-pane-of-glass view, Meraki Dashboard enhances network management through centralized monitoring and configuration. Its intuitive interface allows remote device management, policy configuration, and real-time alerts. Cloud-based access provides scalability and automatic updates, while detailed analytics and security measures ensure robust control over networks. Though some users mention complexity in certain configurations and third-party integration gaps, its continuous improvement and network management efficiency accommodate extensive business requirements.

What are the Key Features of Meraki Dashboard?

Ease of Use: Simplified interface that allows easy navigation and operations.
Single-Pane-of-Glass View: Centralized management of all network components from one platform.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides up-to-date insights for proactive network management.
Cloud-Based Access: Accessible from anywhere, enabling remote management and updates.
Automatic Updates: Ensures the system is always up-to-date with the latest features and security patches.
Detailed Analytics: Offers insights into network performance and security analytics.
Comprehensive Security Measures: Features built-in security protocols and tools for enhanced protection.

What Benefits and ROI Should Users Consider?

Centralized Control: Streamlines network management across multiple sites.
Scalability: Grows with business needs, supporting a wide range of devices and configurations.
Integration Capabilities: Merges easily with existing systems, though improvements are desired for third-party devices.
Improved Network Efficiency: Enhances visibility and control, reducing downtime and improving performance.
Remote Management: Facilitates convenient configuration and monitoring from any location.

Enterprises deploy Meraki Dashboard for diverse network management purposes, including monitoring, access point deployment, security configuration, and VLAN and LAN management. In education, it provides centralized Wi-Fi management and ensures secure student access. Retail businesses utilize it for seamless device integration and analytics, while healthcare facilities employ its robust security and real-time monitoring to safeguard patient data and maintain network efficiency. Its cloud-based interface enhances control and visibility across numerous sites, simplifying management and configurations.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Puppet Labs, Audi, Spacex, Debian, Snapdeal, McGill, RIPE Network Coordination Centre

Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe

Buyer's Guide

Icinga vs. Meraki Dashboard

June 2026

Free Report: Icinga vs. Meraki Dashboard

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