Meraki Dashboard vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.5, while VMware is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 1.3% 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 55 Meraki Dashboard reviews

2,394 Views
1,766 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,401 Views
845 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: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

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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

Meraki Dashboard

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

21st

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

23rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (23rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.3%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.6%, down from 1.0% 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

"I like that Meraki Dashboard is a user-friendly product."

"Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place."

"The initial setup process is quite simple."

"The user-friendly interface facilitated a quick and efficient setup process."

"The most valuable feature is their support, they get better every day."

"It has improved my organization in the way that we've got a much better wireless coverage than we had before, and secondly, we have the visibility of all the users."

"The most valuable features are that it's easy to use and technically very complete. I can configure, do advanced troubleshooting in the dashboard, and reboot access points remotely."

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

More Meraki Dashboard pros

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

"The automation collects all the relationships between servers, allowing us to visualize these relationships and organize the migration into waves."

"The solution has helped improve our organization by directing the network traffic using SDN."

"The initial was straightforward. You can have it up and running in one hour."

"The graphical interface of this environment is so good with all the views, the graphics, and everything in them. It's really easy for me. It doesn't need an engineer to work on it. It's easy enough that anyone can get into the environment and look for issues or look at how communication is going on across the VMs. It's pretty much straightforward."

"It especially helps with deploying NSX, that you're not having to manually chase down and figure out what you need to do to microsegment VMs. This gives a nice option where you can say, "Hey, this VM, show me what flows are there." I can export it out and then import it as an NSX rule and job done."

"The most valuable features are the monitoring and tracking. It's also intuitive and user-friendly. The screen looks exactly the same as the other appliances for VMware, so it's easy to navigate."

"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."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"There is a need for price reductions in developing countries, as the cost of Meraki is quite high."

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

"I think this product could be improved with a CLI for more directives."

"They could offer API functionality for Meraki Dashboard. It will help us develop software immediately using available solutions."

"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."

"There is a need for price reductions in developing countries, as the cost of Meraki is quite high."

"The pricing for this solution needs to be improved."

"They can improve the landing page in Meraki Dashboard. When I go into an organization, they can include a lot more infographics. They can also simplify it a bit and consolidate it. For example, if I've got five branches and I go into customer A's profile or organization, I'd like to see an infographic on the landing page providing a snippet of the entire network layout, that is, all branches in one snapshot. From there, I would like to go into the network that I want to work on or view."

More Meraki Dashboard cons

"I'd like to see better support for being able to search the hardware NetFlow data. It ingests fairly well, but you can't tell, in a lot of cases, what source the data came from. I'd like to see more support for picking specific sources. That way you could really make a compelling use case. There are also some difficulties where it can't exactly trace the path between source and destination but if you hit the reverse flow on the same search it shows the entire path."

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

"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."

"After you use it for a little while you become accustomed to it but the layout doesn't feel very intuitive. You have to dig around and find the exact place where you can find the information, where you can actually see your east-west traffic, etc. I would like them to bring that information more to the forefront, instead of having to find it."

"There's enough information there, especially in the visualizations, but I would love to see this in a kiosk mode, where I could have a dashboard for interested stakeholders to see and appreciate what's going on. Then, moving on to a more practical level for our Help Desk, our operations team could benefit by seeing, in real-time, a visual view of the network."

"It needs to be a little easier to use and to understand the information it's putting out. That would make it more helpful. If you're not a network person you need to understand things like network policies and concepts. If you gave it to a regular admin, it would be nice if it were easier for them to pick up what is going on, understand the flows and whether or not stuff should be talking to each other, as opposed to just port groups and IP addresses."

"There could be some deeper analytics into packet inspection and trace flows. It could use some kind of machine learning to look at Layer 7 traffic for potential malware or corrupt packets."

"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."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"It is said to be expensive."

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

"It has brought more money into our company."

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

"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."

"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."

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

"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."

"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."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

10%

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?

There is a need for price reductions in developing countries, as the cost of Meraki is quite high. Additionally, it would be beneficial if Meraki Dashboard could integrate more Cisco devices such 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 14% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Dashboard

May 2025

Download Meraki Dashboard product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

April 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

April 2025

Free Report: Meraki Dashboard vs. vRealize Network Insight

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