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Meraki SD-WAN vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (1st)
Versa Unified Secure Access...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (12th), WAN Edge (12th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (20th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Meraki SD-WAN is designed for Software Defined Networking (SDN) and holds a mindshare of 23.2%, down 25.1% compared to last year.
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions, holds 4.5% mindshare, down 5.1% since last year.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

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.
PriyankDubey - PeerSpot reviewer
A flexible, stable and scalable solution
I don't have issues with the hardware, as the requisite capacity is visible in the data sheets. All the details in the data sheets are accounted for. But, I find myself confused when it comes to combining this with the software. I have not come across documentation on the Versa website which would provide information about the parameters for selecting the appropriate license. For this we are assisted by the solution's design engineer and the Versa team. I do what I can as a project manager and make the best suggestions I am capable of concerning the competition. Future releases should contain AI for the voice feature. SSL VPN is lacking in the solution. I wish to see this in the near future.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The dashboard is user-friendly. It's very simple to use."
"The most valuable feature is the firewall capability. It's also got a very good graphical user interface and is very easy to manage."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable features of this solution are load balancing and the security possibilities you have."
"The centralized console manageable from the cloud is one of the advantages."
"The most valuable feature is application performance monitoring and being able to browse packets dynamically based on priorities."
"The solution is scalable."
"The most valuable feature of Meraki SD-WAN is the Auto VPN."
"Our organization finds the application routing features extremely useful."
"Their dashboard is also a good point for us and the customer. The solution is very clean and easy."
"This integration between SASE and SD-WAN is beneficial, as we have tested it with various customers."
"The product has a dynamic VPN feature for SD-WAN."
"The most valuable features are the main steering and the firewall. The security features and SD-WAN features are also quite good."
"The granularity when it comes to configuration and security features are valuable."
"The division of Control Plane and Data Plane is most valuable. It can be deployed anywhere, and you can control it and configure it from anywhere. This is one of the good features of this solution."
"The initial setup is simple."
 

Cons

"They need to offer proper integration of the security features."
"The default classes should be expanded."
"The port density should be improved because this solution is limited to two."
"There could be more options for integration between other devices — sort of being able to more easily make everything integrated in one solution."
"There are currently issues with NAT-Unfriendly situations on G4 networks that should be resolved."
"People are struggling a little bit with the lead times right now. It’s hard to actually get the hardware."
"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."
"The product should be able to support more than three internet lines."
"The support needs to be improved."
"There are limitations when you connect from multiple locations. It does not work as expected. If you have more than 400 users, then it will choke. It will not perform as expected."
"I heard about them for the first time just before I started working on Versa. They do have blogs for information, but they could publicize more about the documentation and architecture. It doesn't seem to have that much exposure, and they should work on their customer base more."
"The VPN feature is relatively new. It came out two releases ago, and they're still fixing that up."
"The cost of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is higher than other solutions available in the market."
"We are thinking about how to make customers consolidate the loads to an SD-WAN network so that the customers can have bigger chunk from the SD-WAN side so that customers can have critical data be transferred with NPS VPN and non-critical data or some labeled traffic can be transferred by the SD-WAN network. I think it's a very important direction for digital transformation."
"The interface could be simpler."
"Future releases should contain AI for the voice feature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are no licensing costs for the product subscription."
"like everything else, it's negotiable."
"Meraki's pricing is on the higher side, which may limit who can afford to use them."
"The licenses cost a fortune."
"The solution offers yearly licenses and product lines or prices are readily available on their website."
"If you purchase a Meeraki box, you have to purchase a license, and it's already the basic license, you will have you SD-WAN included."
"From the perspective of the customer, the price is not terribly cost-effective."
"Meraki solutions come with a choice of several different subscription options including one year, three years, five years, seven years, and ten years."
"It is neither cheap nor expensive. I rate the pricing a five out of ten on a scale where one is cheap and ten is expensive."
"We provide subscriptions for our customers on a yearly, not monthly, basis."
"While I cannot provide too much commentary on the price, I feel it to be fair for the moment."
"Price wise, it's more expensive than is the competition. I would give pricing a rating of three out of five."
"The price is expensive but it makes sense for the market."
"I find Versa a little more expensive than VMware in terms of remote access and secure web gateway elements."
"It is not very expensive because of the white box support. Its hardware is much cheaper than other products. With the support for x86 and white box, it is one of the most cost-effective platforms that are currently available."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Versa FlexVNF?
Versa is a good centralized solution, where you're setting up your infrastructure in a data center type thing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Versa FlexVNF?
Both Versa and VMware are cheap in terms of the router. I find Versa a little more expensive than VMware in terms of remote access and secure web gateway elements.
What needs improvement with Versa FlexVNF?
We've had the odd occasional stability issue with software upgrades, etcetera. They don't support certain other third-party applications, which can be a bit limiting at times, whereas VMware seems ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Versa FlexVNF, FlexVNF, Versa Titan
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

École Jeannine Manuel
CenturyLink, RCN Business, Colt Technology Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, TP-Link and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: May 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.