Meraki Dashboard vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.4, while VMware is ranked #38 with an average rating of 8.7. Cisco holds a 1.2% mindshare in NMS, compared to VMware’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Meraki Dashboard

Read 56 Meraki Dashboard reviews

2,262 Views
1,044 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,284 Views
517 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Meraki Dashboard

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and Meraki Dashboard compete in the network management category. Based on available data, vRealize Network Insight holds an advantage in network flow analysis and detailed strategic insight, while Meraki Dashboard excels in ease of use and deployment flexibility.

Features: vRealize Network Insight enables comprehensive network visualization, providing capabilities for detailed network flow analysis and advanced microsegmentation. It also supports application mapping and data flow tracking across virtual environments. Meraki Dashboard offers an integrated platform for network visibility with Layer 7 filtering, a single-pane view for management, and includes features like presence analytics and SD-WAN configuration, emphasizing user-friendly setup and management.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight needs better integration with third-party services and a more intuitive user interface. Its pricing complexity and documentation depth could be improved. Meraki Dashboard would benefit from refined pricing models and more granular control over network settings. Enhanced integration with non-Cisco platforms and more detailed user guides are needed for assisting non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vRealize Network Insight is mainly deployed on-premises, with technical support noted for its quick responses and specialized assistance. Meraki Dashboard supports various deployment options, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, known for a straightforward cloud-based setup. Its customer support is considered reliable, despite some reports of high support costs.

Pricing and ROI: vRealize Network Insight is regarded as expensive, offering efficiency gains, reduced deployment errors, and strategic network management insights, contributing to a positive ROI. It helps decrease troubleshooting time and supports cloud transitions. Meraki Dashboard’s high pricing is due to its premium subscription model, delivering value in ease of network management and flexibility. Discussion on its cost-benefit is ongoing, depending on simplicity and visibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

June 2025

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Helped 860,592 peers since 2012

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

19th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

38th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (41st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.2%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.6%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Bilal-Ahmed

IT Manager at Fawaz

Seamless connectivity and comprehensive control over network devices

All of the features we are looking for are already in control. I think those features, which we are not currently utilizing, are already there. For example, the control for the cameras and everything else. The cameras are not connected through Meraki, but all other devices are on Meraki networks.

Read full review

NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature I find most valuable is the single pane of glass where you can configure a monitor view, all from one dashboard. For example, on the wireless side, you can configure it under the configuration panel, and then view statistics like location analytics, user analytics, etc."

"The most valuable feature is its simplicity in navigating through the dashboard. It's well set out, and the layout is nice and user friendly. A lot of clients enjoy seeing layer 7 visibility. They get a good indication and insight into what is happening in their network and what applications are being used the most. They can then customize and give preference to business-critical applications."

"The most valuable feature is ease of use."

"The ability of the product to perform with simplicity of deployment make it a valuable solution."

"It's a scalable solution."

"The dashboard itself is very simplified and easy to navigate."

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

"We greatly utilize the network because we can plug it into the DNS, VPN, or equipment. It's very good. Meraki Dashboard enhances wireless network management. We appreciate its flexibility, as it allows for easy suite configuration. We can handle everything on there when there's a policy or any other requirement."

More Meraki Dashboard pros

"The most valuable feature is being able to easily see the path that the VM traffic is taking, what ports are in use."

"It has really tightened down the security. That was something that we were lacking. It has also given us deep visibility into our network. We can really get down and see all of the traffic within the data center, between the VMs, between the applications, database servers, other application servers, web servers. We can identify everything that is communicating, and we can see it all on one product."

"Also, the ability to troubleshoot all the way across the NSX part of it to the physical and actually watch the packets go through and then see where the bottleneck is or where the interruption is. We run queries on the network flows within the application to find where they are in it and it graphically tells us how the packets are actually going through the system."

"It allows you to see traffic that you couldn't otherwise see, which is traffic within your Layer 3-bounded network, meaning east-west traffic. It's hard to get that any other way."

"It's a very powerful, very manageable product."

"It allowed us to set up NSX and to do microsegmentation, without all of the pain points of having to determine each port and each IP address that needed to have access, and which ones needed to be blocked."

"We can see everything going on in NSX and get a good picture of our environment."

"It's user-friendly. It's similar to the GUI that most VMware products are moving to, and the consistency across those makes it easy to switch from one product to another. Also, the search bar at the top is plain text and it helps you, it guides you along with your search query, so that helps. The first day you're in there you can start building actual queries."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"We would like to be able to test the health of WAN connections."

"The wait time to speak with a Meraki support engineer is always long, but they get the job done."

"More integration would be an improvement."

"There needs to be more improvement on the device-connected interface."

"Some features could be added."

"In general, how I add firewall rules is not great. It is just a little bit too simple the way it is right now."

"Meraki lacks their own software for connecting to the VPN which creates some issues."

"Meraki Dashboard could improve the user interface by making it more user-friendly. The configuring can at times be difficult."

More Meraki Dashboard cons

"After Broadcom acquired VMware, I would rate their support at five or less in many cases. It's difficult to find necessary documentation, open tickets, and get support."

"The only real improvement they can make is to add more third-party vendors into the environment, mostly switch manufacturers, because it's really limited to Cisco equipment and there are a lot of companies out there other than Cisco."

"The IT infrastructure industry is expected to evolve towards a hybrid cloud model in the next five to ten years. In this model, most of the customer's resources reside on-premise within a private cloud setup, such as VMware. Another segment operates within public cloud environments like Azure and AWS, and a portion remains in traditional data centers. There should be seamless interoperability between public and private clouds. AWS and VMware need to work together to make it possible. Whether users interact with on-premise infrastructure or configure resources in the public cloud, the user experience must be seamless."

"The only issue we have is that the solution does not always capture the host names."

"The solution is very much viewer centric and it would be nice if it would transcend just the virtual infrastructure."

"The only reason I would not give it a nine or a 10 is for cost reasons. It seems to be one of those things that really belongs as part of the product inherently and not as an add-on. That would be my only concern."

"I would like to see application identification. That would be cool."

"Since Broadcom acquired VMware, it has been experiencing challenges. Many sales processes are not well defined."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It is said to be expensive."

"You don't have to pay for the dashboard."

"The solution is currently the most expensive on the market."

"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 pricing for a small setup is only a few hundred dollars a year. The fee is subscription-based."

"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."

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

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"Cost always has room for improvement, you could always make it cheaper. But I think it's a good value for what you pay for it."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Meraki Dashboard?

We greatly utilize the network because we can plug it into the DNS, VPN, or equipment. It's very good. Meraki Dashboard enhances wireless network management. We appreciate its flexibility, as it al...

See all answers

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

The cost of the Meraki solution is high, which may not be affordable for smaller companies, especially in developing countries.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?

The aspect I find challenging about this solution is that it is too extensive and complex. For example, when comparing Meraki Dashboard to Juniper Mist, the latter is quite simple. Mist is a very a...

See all answers

What do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard

June 2025

Download Meraki Dashboard product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

June 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

No data available

Arkin

Overview

Meraki Dashboard is a comprehensive cloud-based platform that offers centralized management and control for all Meraki networking and security products. It provides a user-friendly interface, allowing administrators to easily monitor and configure their network infrastructure from anywhere. With real-time visibility, troubleshooting becomes effortless, ensuring optimal performance and minimizing downtime.

The intuitive dashboard offers a holistic view of the network, enabling quick identification of potential issues and proactive measures. It simplifies network deployment and scaling, with zero-touch provisioning and automatic firmware updates. The robust security features include advanced threat protection, content filtering, and VPN connectivity.

Meraki Dashboard also offers powerful analytics and reporting capabilities, providing valuable insights into network usage, application performance, and user behavior. With its seamless integration and scalability,

Meraki Dashboard is the ideal solution for organizations of all sizes, ensuring efficient network management and enhanced productivity.

Cisco

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

June 2025

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