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Meraki Dashboard vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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

Meraki Dashboard
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Network Device M...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
39th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 0.8%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Meraki Dashboard0.8%
SolarWinds Network Device Monitor0.8%
Other98.4%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

NF
IT Network Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud-based management has simplified global Wi-Fi operations and improved daily troubleshooting
What I would like to improve in Meraki Dashboard is the template part, which is really helping me to manage at large scale. Integration with AI or native AI functionality would be interesting depending on the price, how far it goes, and how far it shares the information I have. For the rest, it is quite straightforward. The next tool maybe to be integrated, which I do not know if it exists today within Meraki, is IPAM management for IP address management. I do not know if it is part of the roadmap, but it is something I have to use on a dedicated platform, so integrating this would be interesting as well. Finally, I would rate Meraki Dashboard overall as a 9 out of 10. There are still some missing features, but there are also some considerations. I am familiar with the Chinese situation where there is a dedicated portal for China, so if I need to deploy access points in China, I have to connect to a dedicated portal due to the regulations in that country. However, this is not due to Cisco or company policy.
SG
IT Infrastructure Senior Network Technician at Autoliv
Offers some features but needs better customization and analysis tools
There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for improvement. The features are not as customizable as we would prefer, but they are workable. If configured properly, you can perform a drill-down analysis. However, I have not used this feature much for our infrastructure on the network side.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You don't have to be a network engineer to use it."
"Meraki Dashboard is meant to be a one-stop-shop, allowing me to access my devices from anywhere around the world through a browser interface so that one person can do the job of a normal five to six-person IT team."
"I use Meraki Dashboard for monitoring purposes, the detailed visibility feature of Meraki Dashboard is useful for troubleshooting purposes, and it helps a lot."
"Meraki dashboard deserves an Oscar."
"The ease-of-use and the analytics are really effective tools."
"I would say the ease of use is the most valuable feature. It's very easy to set up and get up and running."
"We have found the client dashboard to be very simple to use, especially in our Meraki environment."
"Easy to configure with great troubleshooting feature."
"In terms of general network monitoring features, I find SolarWinds Network Device Monitor very flexible and comfortable to use. The software itself is extremely useful when it comes to monitoring how our data moves between different networks and environments."
"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is a straightforward product with valuable functionality."
"This product proactively tells us about issues before the users notice."
"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is the best solution for closely monitoring how the link is performing when compared to ManageEngine OpManager."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is it can alert you when a device is not working."
"I like the mapping that you could do and the dashboards were very pretty."
"The alerts we are getting when we start losing connection access have been helpful."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is monitoring."
 

Cons

"The cost of the solution is high and can be improved."
"What needs improvement in Meraki Dashboard is its configuration."
"Meraki Dashboard could improve integration with non-Cisco platforms."
"Regarding Meraki Dashboard, I would suggest improvements to Cisco ISE integration."
"If I am a user and I have a seat on the fourth floor, if I move across the building, the system should be able to track me and should be able to figure out my whereabouts or my position within the building if I'm connected to the wireless. That would make the administrator's life easier in terms of reachability."
"For instance, you should be able to see if something has been blocked by a firewall rule by looking at a live log of traffic moving through the device. It helps you troubleshoot issues and understand if your rules are working. You need to ensure the firewall is blocking the right things. That's unavailable in the Meraki Dashboard. You have to send the logs to a log server. We use SolarWinds locally, but it's not natively built into Meraki. We're also using Cisco ISA and another tool called Smoothwall."
"I think this product could be improved with a CLI for more directives."
"It is a little bit expensive."
"The reporting feature needs improvement because we are unable to configure reports that were included during initial implementation."
"The way they are presenting the map of our devices needs to be improved."
"It should provide user-friendly page"
"When an organization's network grows, the complexity of the dashboard becomes an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Technical support needs to respond to its customers faster. We are not 100% satisfied with the level of support we get."
"The security could always be improved."
"The security needs improvement, which is why we are moving away from Solar Winds. We have security concerns."
"The solution should have AI-powered issue-resolving capabilities"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Typically, the license model is for one, three, and five years. They can just be a bit more flexible around it and look into providing an option for 24 months."
"Licensing is around under 1000 pounds. The licensing is either one year, three years, five years or ten years and during the licensing, we can choose to renew it per year or per every three years. We've got a license for three years. It's about 160 or about 200 pounds each."
"The solution is currently the most expensive on the market."
"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."
"It is said to be expensive."
"The licensing fees are $180 USD, per AP, for three years."
"The pricing for a small setup is only a few hundred dollars a year. The fee is subscription-based."
"The pricing of the tool is relatively high compared to other solutions. It comes with a premium that exceeds that of its competitors by approximately 25 percent."
"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is not an expensive solution."
"The product is expensive."
"I rate the product's price as three to three and a half or on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means high price."
"I find the cost of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reasonable for our company. Though, I'm not aware of the exact licensing cost."
"When compared with other solutions SolarWinds is more expensive."
"Well, we had a perpetual license and the renewal was $20 to $25,000."
"The enterprise license is good for the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor. However, it is expensive, they should reduce their price."
"The price of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki Dashboard?
Regarding their pricing, the company I work for, Akkodis, was acquired by Adecco in 2022, so I am using the same technologies and I am somehow on the contract regarding Meraki purchase and so on. P...
What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?
The main aspect I would like to see improved in Meraki Dashboard is the dependency on cloud connectivity for centralized management. If the primary Internet or ISP connection goes down, access to t...
What is your primary use case for Meraki Dashboard?
We have deployed the Meraki Dashboard for centralized management and monitoring of all devices, appliances, and sensors across two shopping malls. The shopping malls are connected across different ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
I am not a positive person regarding SolarWinds Network Device Monitor.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for impro...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?
I have experience regarding the AD part, but my focus for the last 15 years has been oriented to the network side. My experience with identity tools comes more from a network perspective. We used N...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Network Device Monitor
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe
Air Rarotonga
Find out what your peers are saying about Meraki Dashboard vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,262 professionals have used our research since 2012.