I am the architecture lead.
Business Development Manager at Westcon-Comstor
Interface is really well driven and very mature; it delivers and is secure
Pros and Cons
- "The Meraki interface is really well driven and very mature."
- "There is still some work to do when it comes to AI."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I believe this solution does a perfect job. It delivers what it's supposed to do and it's secure. The Meraki interface is really well driven and very mature. I like that it's a dashboard on the cloud so profile settings can be done from anywhere.
What needs improvement?
I think Meracki still has some work to do in terms of catching up with other companies when it comes to AI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for a year.
Buyer's Guide
Meraki SD-WAN
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about Meraki SD-WAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
851,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
When it comes to scalability, there's no compromise with Cisco, there is always scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Our technical support is local, from Saudi Arabia, and I believe the Smart Tech function is really awesome.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward, everything is built-in, and it's plug-and-play.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
You need to pay for quality. We don't have a problem with the price but I know there is competition. We have an enterprise contract with Cisco.
What other advice do I have?
I take this solution 10 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:

Field service manager at reduno.com
User-friendly with affordable pricing and good stability
Pros and Cons
- "We have found the scalability to be good."
- "We have a lot of problems with distribution. The late deliveries likely have to do with the time it takes for the fabrication of components. It is a principal problem at this moment."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used principally to have high availability services, high-quality services, and communication with two or more service providers in the same place.
What is most valuable?
The administration in the cloud that Merakioffers is great.
The solution is user-friendly.
Its integrations are good.
We haven't had any issues with customization.
Overall, it's a good product.
The product is easy to deploy.
We have found the scalability to be good.
The solution is stable.
Pricing is very affordable.
What needs improvement?
I do need to explore the solution a bit more before really finding fault in anything.
The distribution could be improved. We have a lot of problems with distribution. The late deliveries likely have to do with the time it takes for the fabrication of components. It is a principal problem at this moment.
It would be helpful if there was reporting. I'd like to be able to hand reports related to performance right over to clients.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for maybe a year or a year and a half at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Overall, the solution has been stable. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. It's pretty reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our company has many projects that employ Meraki's SD-WAN.
The scalability of the product is quite nice.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't dealt with technical support. However, MEWraki is pretty simple to use, and therefore, we haven't really needed support from Cisco.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is fairly straightforward. It's not overly complex.
Deployment would take a week or two at a maximum. It depends on the customer's requirements.
What about the implementation team?
As a service provider, we install SD-WAN services in the sites of our customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is pretty reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a Cisco distributor in Mexico. We are a service provider. We install SD-WAN services in the sites of customers.
We have multiple deployments, both on cloud and on-premises.
I'd recommend the solution. the management is easy and the solution is pretty reasonably priced.
I would rate the solution at a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
Meraki SD-WAN
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about Meraki SD-WAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
851,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cybersecurity Engineer at Networks Unlimited Africa
Performs well, has good monitoring and is easy to maintain
Pros and Cons
- "I'm not directly involved in SD-WAN monitoring and maintenance, but based on what I've heard from our infrastructure team, it's working well."
- "I'm not too familiar with the Meraki environment, but I suppose more automation is always a good thing."
What is our primary use case?
Meraki SD-WAN serves as our SD-WAN. As I previously stated, we have over a thousand retail stores across the country, and we have Cisco Meraki at each one.
What needs improvement?
I'm not particularly close to it. Because our infrastructure team is in charge of that. I'm more on the information security side. But, from what I understand, the product works well and there isn't much that can be done to improve it.
More automation is always a good thing, but I'm not particularly close to the Meraki. That is more of an infrastructure team's responsibility. I'm not too familiar with the Meraki environment, but I suppose more automation is always a good thing.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have over a thousand retail locations across the country, and we use Cisco Meraki for our SD-WAN solutions in all of them.
While I am new to the company and have only been with them for five months, I have been using this solution for a few years.
We are working with the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I'm not directly involved in SD-WAN monitoring and maintenance, but based on what I've heard from our infrastructure team, it's working well.
Meraki SD-WAN is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Meraki SD-WAN is scalable.
We have approximately 4,000 users in our company.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted technical support. That is something that our infrastructure team handles.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We do not use Juniper.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not aware of the licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Meraki SD-WAN a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IP Network Architect/Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
A stable product with application awareness that is straightforward to set up and use
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is application awareness."
- "This solution can only support up to two WAN ports."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers. It allows our users to have their main LAN on the internet.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is application awareness.
What needs improvement?
This solution can only support up to two WAN ports. However, many of our customers would like to have four WAN ports.
This solution comes without NAT support enabled. If you need it, then NAT has to be enabled.
If this solution were cheaper then it would be of interest to smaller companies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the Meraki SD-WAN for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have had no issues in terms of stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable product, although it is most suitable for medium-sized organizations.
How are customer service and technical support?
We can speak with technical support directly but our customers have not had any issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I am familiar with products from several different vendors. The choice of product depends on several factors, including their budget.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. Just plug and play.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We offer this solution to our customers as a more cost-effective alternative to some of the other products. Meraki is considered to be in a medium-range in terms of cost.
The licensing fees are approximately $1,000 USD annually.
What other advice do I have?
For medium-sized and larger enterprises, Meraki is a very good choice.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Production of pharmaceutical products at khaled.miles@labosalem.com
We can make traffic-shaping rule and do load balancing
Pros and Cons
- "SD-WAN is a complete enterprise solution for securing traffic."
- "The blocklist on the Cisco Meraki side isn't complete or very large. We'd like to see them update and expand this."
What is our primary use case?
Meraki SD-WAN is used to manage traffic between customers. We can make traffic-shaping rules, limit or deny sites, etc. SD-WAN can also do load balancing.
What is most valuable?
SD-WAN is a complete enterprise solution for securing traffic.
What needs improvement?
The blocklist on the Cisco Meraki side isn't complete or very large. We'd like to see them update and expand this.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Meraki SD-WAN for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Meraki SD-WAN nine out of 10 for stability.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up Meraki SD-WAN isn't difficult, but it isn't simple. It was easy for me because I have worked with other SD-WAN solutions.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cisco Meraki firewalls have a 10-year license, but there is a three-year license for other equipment.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Meraki SD-WAN nine out of 10. Cisco Meraki SD-WAN works better than other solutions. I recommend using Cisco Meraki SD-WAN with the Cisco Meraki Dashboard to centralize all your equipment, such as access points, links, switches, etc., in one console.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CTO Training & Consulting at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Intelligent load balancing that is easy to setup and implement, with good support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of this solution are load balancing and the security possibilities you have."
- "Meraki is more or less intelligent load balancing, although a lot of features are missing that our SD-WAN solutions will have."
What is our primary use case?
It allows us to steer the traffic into two parallel links.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this solution are load balancing and the security possibilities you have.
What needs improvement?
Meraki is more or less an intelligent load balancing. A lot of features are missing that other SD-WAN solutions have. For example, forward error correction and WAN optimization. These features are missing.
The best thing would be if you could have more than two uplinks in the Meraki Gateways. Also, forward error correction would be nice to have.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Meraki SD-WAN for approximately a year and a half.
We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are a small company. We have approximately 120 users.
With Meraki, you have only two WAN links. You cannot have more than that.
You can scale it very easily if you want to have thousands of locations, but in every location or with every Meraki WAN gateway, you can only have two WAN uplinks.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not contacted technical support, it's always perfect.
Cisco's technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite simple.
We are a training company that provides training on Meraki. It's a matter of minutes to implement an SD-WAN router.
We have a team that is responsible for maintaining this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If you purchase a Meraki gateway, you have to purchase a license. It's a basic license, and you will have SD-WAN included.
When you buy a Meraki gateway, you already have SD-WAN.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When comparing Meraki SD-WAN with other SD-WAN solutions, Meraki is more or less for free. It's an easy to use solution that helps you to do things that you can't do without SD-WAN.
It is not as advanced as the Cisco SD-WAN solution, or SD-WAN solutions from other vendors.
It does not have a very rich feature set.
What other advice do I have?
For others who are interested in using Meraki SD-WAN, I would suggest that they know the limitations of the two uplinks and that it is not a separate solution. It's included in what you have. You will not have the same dashboard as you would have with the Cisco SD-WAN, or VeloCloud, VersaStack, etc.
For a free solution, I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Cisco Learning Partner
Sales Engineer at Phoenyx Commtech Pvt. Ltd.
Saves costs for our customers and provides better connectivity
Pros and Cons
- "Meraki SD-WAN saves costs for our customers and provides better connectivity."
- "Regarding the integration part, the VPN connection for third parties needs to be elaborate."
What is most valuable?
Meraki SD-WAN saves costs for our customers and provides better connectivity. The solution has good security features. Since it is a cloud-based solution, customers can manage the entire portfolio from one portal.
What needs improvement?
Regarding the integration part, the VPN connection for third parties needs to be elaborate.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Meraki SD-WAN is a scalable solution that can be used by small-scale and large enterprises. More than 500 users are using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The solution’s technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is easy and can be done in two days. The solution was deployed by me, an on-site engineer, and a remote engineer.
What other advice do I have?
The solution needs around three to four administrators. Meraki SD-WAN enhances connectivity across various business locations, and our clients are satisfied with the tool. The solution can be used for multiple branches, connectivity, or small scale. Its implementation is also easy.
We can use Meraki SD-WAN for security purposes. We can identify traffic problems and connectivity issues from the solution's single console dashboard. A health report is also available in Meraki. We can identify and troubleshoot more issues from the Meraki dashboard. I would recommend the solution to other users.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Director at BLOCK EDGE TECHNOLOGIES
Beneficial cloud based management, reliable, and secure
Pros and Cons
- "I appreciate the cloud-based management feature the most. It's a crucial aspect for me because it allows me to manage the configuration remotely without having to visit the on-premise location. The ability to do this from my home is a major benefit. Additionally, security is good."
- "The deployment time of Meraki SD-WAN can vary. For someone new to the process, it could take a couple of hours. However, for someone with hands-on experience, such as myself, it only takes approximately two to three hours to set up the entire configuration."
What is our primary use case?
One of my clients is using Meraki SD-WAN in their office to manage their internal desktops, internal servers, and laptops. Any connectivity for the home-based workers is managed by Cisco Meraki Switches.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate the cloud-based management feature the most. It's a crucial aspect for me because it allows me to manage the configuration remotely without having to visit the on-premise location. The ability to do this from my home is a major benefit. Additionally, security is good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability of Meraki SD-WAN a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
When we upgraded from the old Cisco models, we encountered very few challenges during the migration to Meraki SD-WAN. In the future, there may be a few challenges to overcome during migration.
This solution is used mostly in enterprise-sized companies.
I rate the scalability of Meraki SD-WAN a seven out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the support from Meraki SD-WAN a nine out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment time of Meraki SD-WAN can vary. For someone new to the process, it could take a couple of hours. However, for someone with hands-on experience, such as myself, it only takes approximately two to three hours to set up the entire configuration.
I rate the initial setup of Meraki SD-WAN a nine out of ten.
What about the implementation team?
We used two people for the deployment of the solution.
What was our ROI?
I have received a return on investment using this solution. The manageability cost has been reduced.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is a significant concern for me. Amongst all the firewall brands, Cisco is one of the most expensive options. Despite its reputation and security features, many customers opt for other brands, such as SonicWall because of their lower prices. These other brands offer similar features to Cisco but at a lower cost. Cisco's pricing is something that could be improved to attract more customers. The brand has a good reputation, but when it comes to budgeting and pricing, it is not always the first choice.
The solution is very expensive.
I rate the price of Meraki SD-WAN a nine out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
In my professional network, when people ask me about which brand of switches to use, Meraki SD-WAN is always the first recommendation. However, the final decision often comes down to budget. If a customer has the budget for Meraki SD-WAN, I recommend it, but if budget is a concern, there are other brands that can be considered.
I rate Meraki SD-WAN a nine out of ten
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP

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Updated: May 2025
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